It's all on the line in Atlanta
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2010 PGA Tour Championship | Preview | 22 Sep 2010
The much vaunted season long FedEx Cup goes down to the wire this week when the Tour Championship is played at the East Lake Golf Club in the suburb of East Lake around three miles to the east of downtown Atlanta.
The course was originally established in 1908 when designed by Tom Bendelow but in 1913 Donald Ross redesigned the layout. In 1994, after the course had been closed for many years, Rees Jones restored the original Ross layout to what it now is.
Throughout its history, the East Lake Golf Club has played host to Ryder Cups, US Men’s and Women’s Amateurs and Southern Amateur Championships but in 1998 it played host to this event for the first occasion and since then has provided the venue in all but three of the subsequent years.
The leading thirty players who have survived the season long battle for FedEx Cup points have made it this far and don’t allow yourself any real sorrow for a player not having a good tournament this week. Just for competing this week he is guaranteed (for last place this week) a minimum of US$120,000 in prize-money in addition to US$175,000 in bonuses.
Huge FedEx Cup bonuses await the leading players on the FedEx Cup points table at week’s end. US$10 million goes to the player who heads to points table while second place earns US$3 million, third place US$2 million, 4th place US$2 million, fifth place US$1 million and so on down to the 30th place with US$175,000. That is of course in addition to a slice of the total (US$7.5 million) prize-money on offer this week
The least amount of money accumulated this season by any of the top 30 is the US$1,181,700 earned by Kevin Streelman who, despite being in 67th position on the 2010 money list, has played his way into the Tour Championship thanks in the main to a good tournament at the Barclays where he finished 3rd.
In my Tour Championship form guide earlier in the week I gave my thoughts on the chances of those who have made it into this elite event but there are so many permutations at to the likely outcome of the event and the FedEx Cup. Any of the leading five players heading into this week, Matt Kuchar, Dustin Johnson, Charley Hoffman, Steve Stricker and Paul Casey control their own destiny in as much as a win for them would also guarantee the US$10 million. If any other player was to win this week’s event, their chances of winning the FedEx Cup would be dependent on how those below them in the list fare.
Clearly any one of the 30 players could win the tournament but for them to win the overall FedEx Cup they would need a bizarre aligning of the planets and a lot of help from others.
The Australians are in line for a huge payday on Sunday. Jason Day playing his first Tour Championship currently sits in 6th position on the points table and could potentially walk away from this with a couple of very large cheques. Day ran out of steam towards the end of the recent BMW but with the batteries recharged during his week off he could bounce back before addressing his health issues once and for all.
Adam Scott is in 14th position on the points table but comes to East Lake with the knowledge he is playing well and that he has won this event at this venue previously. He has a good chance this week it would seem.
Geoff Ogilvy is in 12th position at present but he has been on a roller coaster of late. He produced a great runner up finish in Boston to protect his position in this field but he has been hard to predict in the latter half of the year and although he has produced the occasional brilliant round on this golf course he has not finished better than 16th in three times to this event.
Robert Allenby, who played well earlier in 2010, has not recorded a top ten in six times to this event and has been hampered by injuries of late. He will need a significant turnaround if he is to contend this week.
Finally, the FedEx Cup has some identity and ironically enough without the presence of Tiger Woods. With so many possibilities, this week should make for compulsive viewing.
