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Graham Delaet soars up FedEx Cup standings, eyes Presidents Cup berth

ian denomme

With a strong performance at this weekend’s Deutsche Bank Championship, Canadian golfer Graham DeLaet can achieve one of his biggest goals for 2013. But given how he’s played this season, he’s changing his goals on a weekly basis.

The golfer from Weyburn, Sask., is having a career year on the PGA Tour. He has six Top-10 finishes, two Top 3s, and has earned more than $2 million. When he tied for second last week at The Barclays, the first event in the FedEx Cup playoffs, it vaulted him from 34th to seventh in the FedEx Cup standings and among golf’s elite players:

Now that he’s cracked the Top 10, he’s aiming even higher. From the venerable Bob Weeks:

“It would be nice to win the FedEx Cup playoffs. That’s not really a shot in the dark, but it’s a really high goal because I’m a long way behind the leaders,” DeLaet said.

“At the same time, I feel like I’m playing good enough to get a win and if I can do that, I can jump right into the hunt. Going into the playoffs, the goal was to get to [the Tour Championship], but after this week, I think I can kind of aim a little bit higher than that.”

It seems his first career Tour win is just a matter of when, not if. He finished one-stroke behind winner Adam Scott at The Barclays after shooting a final-round 65. He finished third at the Travelers Championship in June, missing out on a playoff by one stroke.

More importantly, his recent strong play has him in position to secure a spot on the International team for the Presidents Cup, something he said was a major goal for 2013. His finish last week bumped him up to No. 10 in the International standings. The Top 10 players plus two captain’s picks will make the team for the October tournament.

DeLaet is almost assured a roster spot and will become only the second Canadian to be part of the team. Mike Weir played in five tournaments from 2000 to 2009.

He has risen to No. 48 in the World Golf Rankings. If he finishes the season in the Top 50, it brings with it a number of exemptions, including playing in the Masters in 2014. It’s all pretty remarkable, especially when you consider where DeLaet was two years ago.

DeLaet had struggled with back pain ever since an injury he suffered while playing hockey in his youth. In 2011, after his rookie season on the PGA Tour, he finally had a surgery on his lower back that involved shaving part of his disk.

“Surgery took care of the pain, and DeLaet tried to return in the summer [of 2011] in the two tournaments sandwiched around the U.S. Open. His next start was supposed to be the AT&T National at Aronimink, but after playing a few holes before the Wednesday pro-am, he realized he was trying to get back too soon.

"I think I wanted to be there so bad that I felt that I was better physically than I actually was," DeLaet said. "I just knew that it's hard enough to compete out here when you're healthy, and I just knew that I wasn't in good enough shape to compete." (PGA.com)

He sat out the rest of the year then returned, fully healthy, in 2012 and had a solid season, finishing high enough on the money list to keep his tour card.

The golfer know for growing a playoff beard also had three Top 10s and made it to the third round of the FedEx Cup playoffs – an achievement he hopes to better in 2013 by reaching the final event, the Tour Championship. Expect to see him there, and at Muirfield for the Presidents Cup.