Deutsche Bank Championship

Matt Kuchar

Well my Power Rankings debut was a great success, with 6 of my top 10 picks finishing in the top 12 of the tournament.  Matt Kuchar, my #3 pick, put on a show and finally broke into the winner's circle after finishing near the top of seemingly every tournament all year long.  I look for him to continue his success at the Deutsche Bank this week, but I'm sticking with my #1 pick from last week to raise the trophy at TPC Boston on Sunday.  Here's the top 30 for this week:

Dustin Johnson

 1. Dustin Johnson   
 2. Steve Stricker
 3. Matt Kuchar
 4. Tiger Woods
 5. Jason Day
 6. Adam Scott
 7. Paul Casey
 8. Angel Cabrera
 9. Jim Furyk
10. Ryan Palmer
 
11. Ben Crane                   21. Rory McIlroy
12. Padraig Harrington      22. Stewart Cink
13. Retief Goosen             23. Bill Haas
14. Sean O'Hair                24. Bubba Watson
15. John Senden               25. Ian Poulter
16. Zach Johnson             26. Marc Leishman
17. Kevin Streelman         27. Justin Leonard
18. Nick Watney               28. Hunter Mahan
19. Charlie Wi                  29. Bryce Molder
20. Kevin Na                    30. Justin Rose

Sleepers:  Charley Hoffman, Scott Verplank (last year's runner up)















  

U.S. Open Bracket Challenge

The U.S. Open starts in a few hours, and here are my picks for the quarterfinals and in for both the men's and women's draws:

Men's Quarterfinals
Rafael Nadal (1) vs. David Nalbandian (31)
Andy Murray (4) vs. Tomas Berdych (7)
Andy Roddick (9) vs. Novak Djokovic (3)
Robin Soderling (5) vs. Roger Federer (2)

I felt pretty strongly about 5 of these picks, but considered Ernests Gulbis instead of Nalbandian, Julien Benneteau instead of Berdych, and Mardy Fish or Marcos Baghdatis instead of Djokovic.

Men's Semifinals
Nadal (1) vs. Murray (4)

Roddick (9) vs. Federer (2)

Final
I'm going with Roger Federer to defeat Andy Murray in a very close rematch of the 2008 final.  I really think this match could go either way, and I'm sure Murray will win a major in the near future, but I'm picking Federer to win his 17th Grand Slam title and 6th U.S. Open in 7 years.

Women's Quarterfinals
Maria Sharapova (14) vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova (11)
Yanina Wickmayer (15) vs. Vera Zvonareva (7)
Victoria Azarenka (10) vs. Flavia Penneta (19)
Elena Dementieva (12) vs. Kim Clijsters (2)

I haven't watched nearly as much women's tennis, so I really only felt pretty sure about 4 of these 8.  It really hurt to go against my girl Caroline Wozniacki, last year's finalist and #1 seed, but Sharapova is playing well and Wozniacki may be a little tired from all the matches she's been playing lately.  I threw Wickmayer in based on the fact that she did well here last year, but considered several others from her quarter of the bracket.  I also considered Agnieszka Radwanska over Zvonareva, and Venus Williams over Pennetta, but I don't think the crowd support Venus is sure to get will be enough to overcome her lack of recent match play.

Women's Semifinals
Sharapova (14) vs. Zvonareva (7)
Azarenka (10) vs. Clijsters (2)

Final

I picked Cjisters to repeat as U.S. Open champion with a tight victory over Sharapova in the final.  Sharapova has regained the form she had several years ago after battling several nagging injuries, but she hasn't played a whole lot recently and I'm not sure she's quite ready to win another major just yet.

Join me in the Bracket Challenge on the U.S. Open website by clicking on the link in the title and see how your picks stack up.






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Halfway Home At The Barclays (click on the link for the leaderboard)

Overall I thought my picks were pretty good, although what happened to Jim Furyk is an absolute joke and the PGA Tour should be ashamed of themselves for having rules that make things like this possible.  My top 12 was extremely solid, with the exception of Phil Mickelson.  As my friends can attest I never pick Phil very high, but feel I have to include the #2 player in the world somewhere near the top.  Apparently #8 was much too high, as he shot +4 and will be headed home for the weekend.  Jason Dufner at #15 was the biggest disappointment on my list, and he likely won't appear in the power rankings for quite a while.  My apologies to Ben Crane and Adam Scott, who I originally had inside the top 30 and ended up replacing with a few MC's.  With that said, I'm going to sleep on them again in my revamped top 10 for the final 2 rounds:

 1. Jason Day (-8)
 2. Tiger Woods (-4)
 3. Matt Kuchar (-5)
 4. Padraig Harrigton (-5)
 5. Zach Johnson (-4)
 6. Stewart Cink (-6)
 7. Paul Casey (-4)
 8. Heath Slocum (-4)
 9. Dustin Johnson (-2)
10. Steve Stricker (-2)

Sleepers:  Both of the original sleepers Webb Simpson (-5) and Michael Sim (-3) are having great showings so far, but I don't expect either to lift the trophy at the end.  Ben Crane is the only player not on my revamped top 10 that I could see winning this title, but as Heath Slocum showed last year, it isn't impossible for someone to come out of nowhere for the win.  I really look for Rory McIlroy to go low tomorrow and get back in contention, but he may have dug too big a hole to come back from.  Would love to see him pull a repeat of his performance in Charlotte earlier this year.

The Barclays: Power Rankings

After a 2 year absence, I've decided to give this blog another chance.  The 1st round of the Fed Ex Cup starts this Thursday, and I've prepared my Power Rankings for The Barclays.  Here's my top 30:

 1. Dustin Johnson     11. Ernie Els           21. Bo Van Pelt            
 2. Rory McIlroy       12. Stewart Cink      22. Justin Leonard                      
 3. Matt Kuchar        13. J. B. Holmes      23. David Toms            
 4. Steve Stricker      14. Jim Furyk          24. Brandt Snedeker      
 5. Tiger Woods       15. Jason Dufner      25. Steve Elkington       
 6. Zach Johnson       16. Bryce Molder     26. Padraig Harrington 
 7. Nick Watney       17. Heath Slocum      27. Camillo Villegas         
 8. Phil Mickelson     18. Hunter Mahan      28. Ryan Palmer          
 9. Paul Casey          19. Tim Clark            29. Fredrik Jacobsen    
10. Jason Day          20. Bubba Watson     30. Lucas Glover

Sleepers:  Webb Simpson, Michael Sim