The Tour Championship this week puts a wrap on the 10th season since the PGA Tour introduced its postseason playoffs.
There were skeptics at first, but the players — and others — really bought in.
“The Super Bowl, the World Series … this is our championship,” top-ranked Jason Day of Australia says in a FedExCup playoffs promotion that has aired for several weeks on the Golf Channel.
The playoffs provide the PGA Tour with a corner of the television market it never had before in the fall when going up against college football and the NFL.
An ESPN studio host actually selected Dustin Johnson as his “Star of the Night,” over all the heroes of the NFL games on the opening Sunday of the season after DJ captured the BMW Championship.
Johnson took the lead in the point standings and is one of five players who can win the FedEx Cup with a victory in the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
“Obviously, we’ve got a big tournament coming up, the Tour Championship,” said Johnson, who has won three of his past eight tournaments, including the U.S. Open and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, and is the favorite for the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year Award.
“It’s one I’ll be ready for and hopefully I can (win). I control my own destiny, if I go over there and win, I win it all. … (But) I still got to go there and win the Tour Championship, if I want to be the FedExCup champion.”
The others, in order, who are guaranteed to win the season-long chase with a victory at East Lake are Patrick Reed, Adam Scott of Australia, Day and Paul Casey of England.
Scott finished or tied for fourth in each of the first three playoff events, the only player to finish in the top 10 every week.
“I played a lot of good golf the last three weeks, and I’m happy with that,” said Scott who captured the Tour Championship in 2006, the year before it became the final event of the playoffs.
“Hopefully, I’m saving my best for last. That would be a great way to finish the year. And starting in third, that would mean I would win the FedExCup. So that’s an exciting spot for me to be in and hopefully I can take advantage of it.
“I think winning the Tour Championship is a big deal, and I’ve been lucky enough to win it once, and to win it again would kind of cap the year off. Then, obviously, the FedExCup is a huge bonus for whoever wins it.”
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and Jordan Spieth, defending FedEx champion, are lurking in the sixth and seventh spots, respectively, and also have reasonable shots to win it all by capturing the season finale.
“So, if I win (the tournament), pending something unlucky, we still have a chance to win the FedExCup,” said Spieth, the only one of the top seven who has claimed the Cup before.
“Seventh is a good position. It’s just about as good as a top five in the FedExCup.”
The last six FedExCup champions — Spieth, Billy Horschel, Henrik Stenson, Brandt Snedeker, Bill Haas and Jim Furyk — captured the Tour Championship and took home both pieces of hardware.
Surprisingly, Spieth is the only second FedEx Cup champion to make it back to East Lake the following season, joining 2012 winner Snedeker.
“I’m really not sure why that’s the case,” said Spieth, who can become the first back-to-back winner of the Cup. “I know the FedEx Cup hasn’t been around that long.
“I think that won’t be a trend that — I don’t think you’ll see guys miss the FedEx Cup years after, going forward. I think it’s, obviously, it’s great, it’s fantastic to make it (back) to East Lake.”
Haas’ victory in 2011 probably was the most dramatic, as he saved par with a brilliant pitch shot from the shallow water of a greenside lake on the second playoff hole and defeated Hunter Mahan with another par one hole later.
The last player to capture the FedExCup without winning the finale was Tiger Woods in 2009. He also became the only two-time winner of the trophy when Phil Mickelson won at East Lake but could not catch up in the standings.
When the playoffs were introduced with Woods still on top of the world, it was figured that the FedExCup simply gave Tiger something else to win.
“It just makes it harder for the rest of us,” Zach Johnson said at the time. “Why give him another thing to try to achieve? He’s a very driven man. When you add another element to that drive, what are you going to do?”
Woods also captured the first FedEx Cup in 2007, and Vijay Singh took home the trophy in 2008. The rules were tweaked after that because Singh won the first two playoff events and clinched the title before the Tour Championship, draining all the drama from the finale.
That won’t be the case this year, as the PGA Tour seems to have achieved its goal of getting some attention this time of year.
Just ask ESPN.
–Story courtesy of The Sports Xchange, TSX Golf Editor Tom LaMarre
