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Tiger Woods should consider Korean golfer K.J. Choi his greatest threat to winning the $10 million prize for the FedEx Cup, NBCSports.com has reported.
Although Steve Stricker's victory in the Barclays has put him atop the FedEx Cup playoff points standings, Tiger Woods faces an even greater threat from Choi, the website said on Wednesday.
The FedEx Cup, introduced this year, is the PGA Tour championship trophy and it's awarded to the winner of four playoff events.
Players rack up points in 36 regular season events through mid-August, and the top 144 players advance to the four playoffs. Those playoffs are the Barclays (Aug. 24 to 27), the Deutsche Bank Championship (Sept. 1 to 4), the BMW Championship (Sept. 7 to 10) and the Tour Championship (Sept. 14 to 17).
At the start of the playoffs, the 144 qualifiers have their points reset on a sliding scale according to their post-season standing. The player with the most points after the four playoffs wins the FedEx Cup. A total of 50,000 points can be earned in the four playoffs (13,000 points for the Tour Championship and 9,000 points for each of the other three).
Woods was the regular season leader and earned 100,000 points at the reset at the start of the playoffs. Choi took fifth place in the regular season and got 97,500 points.
However, Woods skipped the Barclays and now ranks fourth in the FedEx Cup standings. Choi took second in the Barclays for 5,400 points, bringing his total to 102,900 and putting him at second for the Cup. The current Cup leader is Steve Stricker who has 104,950 points after winning the Barclays.
Woods will take the field at the Deutsche Bank Championship and attempt to win the FedEx Cup in the three remaining events. If Woods takes first place in all three (each worth $1.4 million) and then receives the $10 million FedEx Cup prize, it would bring his total to $14.2 million just for three weeks of work.
But Choi is currently in the ascendant. Woods triumphed at the consecutive Bridgestone Invitational and PGA Championship events, while Choi in his last seven events has two wins, a second and a tie for eighth at the British Open.
Choi ranks third for accumulated prize money and eighth in world golf. If Choi wins one of the next three events, he would make it all the harder for Woods to win the Cup. In such a scenario, Woods would need at least a win and a top-five finish in the next three events to catch Choi, NBC said.
The point gap between first place and tenth place in the four playoff events is 8,650 to 9,750. Thus, either Choi or Woods will give up $10 million if they have a bad showing at just one event.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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