Stricker Rallies To Win Deutsche Bank Championship

Sports Betting News - September 8th, 2009 - Written by Scott

Steve Stricker moved into first place of the Fed Ex Cup standings after his victory Monday at the Deutsche Bank Championship.  His victory also moved him to the number 2 slot in the world rankings.  Stricker sealed his victory with back to back birdies on the 17th and 18th holes to finish 17 under and escaping with a one shot victory over Jason Dufner and Scott Verplank. This is Stricker's first win in a tournament where Tiger Woods has competed. He quickly bounced back from last week where he missed a 10 foot putt to force a playoff on the 18th hole at The Barclays. He won $1.35 million in this victory. 

Names were moving around all over the leader throughout the back nine in the final round on Monday.  Dufner broke the three-way tie on the 18th hole with his two-putt birdie and Verplank followed him to even the score.  This is when Stricker made his run to birdie the final two holes and come out with the win.  He hit a fifteen foot birdie putt on the 17th and hit a nice chip on the 18th for an easy tap-in putt.  Oddly enough, Tiger was not in the mix during the final round, but did set a tournament record by shooting a 30 on the front nine.Verplank spoke highly of Stricker following the tournament.

"I knew that Strick would be tough to catch today," Verplank said. "He's not Tiger, but you know what? He may be the second-best player, at least on this tour. The guy is really playing good. So I knew he was going to be tough to catch. And it turns out he was."

Padraig Harrington had a one shot lead going into the back nine, but failed to due what he needed to win the tournament.  On the 10th hole, he hooked his tee shot into a hazard and another on the 12th which resulted in a lost ball.  This was the fourth time in five weeks that he blew a chance to win a tournament.

"I'm disappointed with today because it was in my control," said Harrington. "I was leading the tournament, and going into the back nine it was mine to lose. And I lost it. I'll feel this one a lot more than some of the others."

The next outing will take place on September 24-27 at The Tour Championship presented by Coca-Cola at the East lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

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