From August 27 to 30, the Plainfield Country Club in Edison, New Jersey will serve host to some of the world’s top golfers, all vying to become the winner of the 49th staging of The Barclay. Among those in contention is defending champion Hunter Mahan, who is not only setting his sights on becoming the event’s second back-to-back champion bust also on pocketing the $1.44 million top prize and the 2,500 FedEx Cup points at stake. That said, there are sleepers lurking behind the favorites, eager to pull the rug from under them. With that said, let’s take a look at some of our select sleeper picks for the 2015 The Barclays.
[sc:Other240banner ]Kuchar is yet to win a tournament this season, but it may be just days before he gets his first. Set to participate in the 2015 edition of The Barclays, Kuchar will bring with him to Edison a track record in the tournament that has been among the best in recent years. Over the last five staging of the Barclay, Kuchar has finished inside the Top 15 three times, including his championship run in 2010, when he shot 12 under par. Although Kuchar failed to defend his title in 2011, he nonetheless placed second by shooting 17 under par.
That would’ve been good enough to get a win in other editions of The Barclays, but Dustin Johnson tied a tournament with a 19 under par. Last year, Kuchar finished tied for fifth place, coming up just three shots short of eventual champion Hunter Mahan. Kuchar has been near the top of the leaderboard over the past few years and based on his form in recent competitions, it’s fair to expect another strong play from the Florida native. Kuchar has managed to get inside the Top 10 in two of his last three tournaments with a T7 in both the RBC Canadian Open (July) and in the PGA Championship (August).
Vijay Singh
Singh is not having a good season, as he’s already missed the cut in seven of his 21 tournaments to date. He’s also found himself inside the Top 10 just once thus far this year. Despite all that, it would be prudent for bettors not to completely count out the 52-year-old. After all, Singh is the winningest player in the history of The Barclays, having won it four times in his career. Singh’s most recent win in the tournament came in 2008, when he beat Sergio Garcia in a two-man playoff to take home the $1.26 million first prize.
And although Singh has missed the cut twice and placed outside of the Top 45 two times in this event since 2008, a return to Plainfield Country Club might just be all he needs to make him a five-time The Barclays champion. For one, he came closest to winning it again in 2011, when the event played at the Plainfield Country Club for the first time ever. During that year, Singh finished tied for third (behind Kuchar and Johnson), shooting 16 under par.
Senden qualifies as a sleeper in the upcoming The Barclays because it’s so easy to overlook him. For starters, there’s the fact that he has yet to take home a PGA tournament win thus far this season. In addition, fellow Australians such as Jason Day and Adam Scott have seemingly gotten all the press, leaving Senden with just croutons of media attention. In other words, Senden is always flying under the radar.
Senden has missed the cut in the last two PGA events he’s played in to raise his season total to eight, but there were times that he just came out of nowhere and played like a heavy favorite. Take for example his back-to-back Top 10 finish last May, when he ended up tied for fifth in the World Golf Championship- Cadillac Match Play and tied for eighth in The Players Championship in consecutive fashion. Senden should be a decent sleeper pick for the upcoming golf tournament in New Jersey.
