Many scenarios at Tour Championship

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2009 PGA Tour Championship | Preview | 22 Sep 2009

The 2009 FedEx Cup reaches its climax this week in Atlanta when the Tour Championship is played at the East Lake Golf Club.

The course at East Lake is over 100 years old. Originally built and designed by Tom Bendelow, it was remodelled by Donald Ross in 1915 then again in 1959 by George Cobb. In 1994, after the course had lapsed into a poor state as a public facility, Rees Jones extensively rebuilt it to the level it is at now.

With so much money at stake this week in addition to the US$7.5 million tournament purse there will be significant interest to see if anyone can topple Tiger Woods from his position atop the 2009 FedEx Cup points table.

Woods did not play this event in 2009 due to his recovery from knee surgery but has won and been twice runner up at East Lake in earlier years. With four victories and two runner up finishes in his last eight starts this season there is no prize for guessing the likely winner.

The FedEx Cup has been tweaked this season to avoid the debacle of 2008 when Vijay Singh had already secured the title before this event was played. All points have been reset following the BMW Championship, thus opening up the mathematical possibilities, admittedly some remote, of anyone of the 30 players in the field, should they win this week, to win the FedEx Cup and the accompanying US$10,000,000 bonus.

If any of the first five players on the points table were to win the event they would automatically win the Cup but for any of the rest to claim the huge bonus they would need several planets to align and are reliant on other players’ performances.

For example if 6th place Padraig Harrington was to win this week’s event, Tiger Woods would need to finish third or worse. The variables and permutations are too great to go into here but to say the least computers and calculators will be working overtime late on Sunday.

Not that the bonuses stop there however. Any player making this field is guaranteed US$175,000 over and above any money from the tournament prize-money pool this week but the bonuses start to get very serious for those finishing inside the top ten on the points table at week’s end.

10th place earns US$500,000, 3rd place earns $US2 million, runner up US$3 million and the winner the top prize of US$10 million.

Woods, as mentioned, is favourite in everyone’s eyes to finish his PGA Tour season with the Tour Championship title. He has not been able to win a major in 2009 but in every other respect his return to tournament golf following injury has been a huge success. Although the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup titles may be considered a consolation, they will be welcome nonetheless.

Steve Stricker has played this event on only five occasions but that he is in the field this week and so high in point rankings indicates he could do well. He has not played this venue particularly well but he is such a good player now that might change this week.

Jim Furyk has not won at East Lake but he did finish runner up to Adam Scott in 2006 and in his last two starts in the playoffs he has done well enough to believe that he might challenge Woods this week. His runner up finish at Cog Hill followed a very good 8th place in Boston.
– Padraig Harrington seems to be putting himself in the finish of most events of late. One or two bad holes have cost him a winning chance but if he can avoid those potholes on Sunday he is almost sure to be a factor. His form in the last few weeks has been stunning.

Harrington has put together several very good rounds at East Lake including an opening round of 63 in 2007. He could be Woods’ biggest threat and golf’s two most prolific major championship winners in recent times going head to head on Sunday would be worth the entry fee.

Scott Verplank might not be considered a chance by many but he does enjoy a good record in this event. He has played well enough in recent weeks to be a consideration and represents good odds at most betting agencies.

Three Australians have made their way into this elite field. Geoff Ogilvy, Marc Leishman and John Senden have all done superbly to make it this far and by that fact alone they have a chance to improve their already good seasons even further.

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