Tour Championship or not?

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2008 PGA Tour Championship | Preview | 24 Sep 2008

The Tour Championship gets the PGA Tour back in the swing after a short break with the final leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs this week at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta bringing to an end the season long chase for huge bonuses for those 30 players who have made it to this stage.

I’m not so convinced that this commercialised version of the Tour Championship achieves the desired result of a Tour Championship, namely to determine the best player of the year or at least go some way towards that goal. The most noticeable absentee this week is the two time major champion in 2008 and the 5th ranked money winner, Padraig Harrington, who was knocked out of the FedEx Cup race at the BMW Championship.

It could perhaps be argued that a points system where tournaments are granted points essentially on their strength is a more equitable means of determining the best player of the year than the, at times, inequitable money list race.

When the most dominant player in major championships in 2008, does not have a chance to continue his best year in the game, something is wrong. Perhaps the point allocation is too heavily weighted in favour of those in form during the playoffs rather than taking into account year round performances.

Vijay starts the Tour Championship with the US$10 million FedEx Cup first place bonus, which would otherwise have been up for grabs this week, safely in his pocket. That has to some degree taken away much of the gloss and suspense that this new concept was designed to create this week.

Singh’s wins at the Barclays and Deutsche Bank Championships had the money in his bank almost before the BMW Championship was over. With the last place at this event worth a minimum 2000 points there is nothing the current second placed Camilo Villegas can do about catching Singh, even if he was to win again this week

The winner of the BMW Championship, Villegas is however well placed to secure the runner up position in the series and pick up the huge US$3 million available to the second placed FeEx Cup points earner at the completion of this event.

Not that the third placed player will be too upset. The bonus money breakdown is mindboggling, all this in addition to the significant prizemoney available per event.

There is little doubt that Singh and Villegas are the two most inform golfers in the field with Singh having won three of his last six starts and Villegas with the win at the BMW and a 3rd and 4th in two of his other last four starts.

Both know their way round the Tom Bendelow/Donald Ross/Rees Jones designed layout at the East Lake Golf Club, Singh winning in 2002 and finishing runner up in 1998 while Villegas recorded a final round 66 last year to finish 9th in his only start in the event.

The course has undergone considerable further renovation work this year with greenside bunkering redone in many areas and further length added to the layout.

Phil Mickelson won at this venue in 2000 and while he was comprehensively beaten on Sunday at the Ryder Cup by Justin Rose, he has played well enough in recent events to be a factor.

Anthony Kim will be on cloud nine following his impressive debut at the Ryder Cup and he is well poised to grab second place in this series. He just keeps getting better and a step up to winning this week is not unlikely.

Sergio Garcia seemed sadly out of sorts for much of last week in Kentucky but if he can find a way to recover from the thrashing he received at the hands of Anthony Kim and return to the form he displayed in strokeplay events in recent weeks then he has a chance of bouncing back and winning not only this event but finishing as runner up in this series.

Hunter Mahan made an excellent Ryder Cup debut last week and has played very well in the latter half of this season. I expect him to do very well especially considering he finished in 5th place in this event last year.

The two Australians who have made it this far must, by that fact alone, have a chance to do well although much of Robert Allenby’s good form was earlier in the season. Stuart Appleby played well enough in an arguably stronger event than this at the Bridgestone Championship when he finished second to Vijay Singh.

Both Allenby and Appleby have done well here on occasions and irrespective of how they perform this week they are guaranteed a minimum FedEx Cup bonus of US$175,000 in addition to the last placed prizemoney of US$112,000.