Northern Trust: Who Is Totally Hungry And Driven?

The question going into this first stop for the FedEx Cup playoffs is pretty simple:

Who is hungry and driven?

Sure, Brooks Koepka is pretty driven and very hungry — especially when you hang a side of that major championship meat in front of him.

That’s become pretty evident with his performance in big events.

Today we present an interesting pair of youngsters who are really hungry and very driven.  And compared to the rest of these multi-millionaires on the PGA Tour, they are somewhat poor in comparison, net-worth wise.

And that makes them the perfect guys to succeed in this year’s version of the PGA Tour money-grab that it likes to call “The Playoffs.”

These aren’t playoffs — there is no handicapping in real world playoffs — the PGA Tour has turned the Tour Championship into a handicap event.

But we digress.

First things first and first up is the Northern Trust at Liberty National.  The private jets are all parked and practice rounds have been the agenda the past few days.  There are 125 players on site for this one but we think there are two very special players to watch — Collin Morikawa and Matt Wolff.

Morikawa is a lofty 49th on the points list coming into this first stop — and he got there with just seven, that’s correct — seven — appearances.  Seven events and $1,709,670 in earnings.  That’s the kind of guy you want in this sprint to the Tour Championship.  You want a guy who can make a lotta dough in a little time.  And three events qualifies as “little time.”

The cool think about Collin is that he doesn’t have the monster length that so many guys possess out there.  He’s a precision ball striker with a capital “P.”  Lost art, throw-back kinda guy.  Gotta love this kid and we think his chances to move up to the top 30 are pretty good.

Then there’s Matt Wolff.  He jumped on the big stage at the 3M when he chipped in for eagle on the 72nd hole to nip Morikawa for the championship.  Wolf is 70th on the points list and he earned $1,372,408 in just seven events.  He does have that monster length off the tee and talk about fun to watch?  Now that’s a golf swing — up, out, in and Crush-It!  Pure entertainment.

Wolff, like Morikawa, checks those Hungry and Driven boxes.

The only thing these two are lacking is playoff experience.

The past two months have proven that they are very, very fast learners.

Another guy we might add to this pair is Champion Golfer Of The Year Shane Lowry.  Shane racked up $3,444.879 in just 12 events.  If he’s over the Claret Jug celebrations that have been going on in Ireland the past 30 days, he could be a playoff factor.

So yes, everyone’s talking Koepka, Rory McIlroy, Gary Woodland, Tiger Woods and  Kooch The Caddie Mooch  Matt Kuchar.

Problem is these playoffs are so very unpredictable, especially with the new formula the PGA Tour installed to stack everything heavily in favor of the players who will win this week and next week.

In the meantime, we’ll take the two kids — Morikawa and Wolff.

A lot of talent and no fear whatsoever.

And that spells a formula for playoff success.

Northern Trust Thursday Tee Times: