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PGA Tour still waiting for a dramatic end of year
2008-09-25
ATLANTA - If the FedEx Cup is supposed to be the Super Bowl of golf, then the PGA Tour should take heart. The first two Super Bowls were just as dull. It's hard to blame Tiger Woods (last year) and Vijay Singh (this year) for playing great golf, just like the Green Bay Packers could not be faulted for being superior to the Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders. Even so, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem continues looking for answers. The Tour Championship begins Thursday without the tour's dream of a half-dozen players or more coming down the stretch at East Lake with a chance to capture the FedEx Cup and its $10 million prize. Instead, there are only two possibilities: • Vijay Singh wins the FedEx Cup by finishing four rounds. • If the Fijian can't make it for 72 holes, Camilo Villegas can win the FedEx Cup with a victory at East Lake. You've heard of Super Bowls that were over at halftime? How about one that's over at the coin flip? "It's kind of good luck or bad luck whether you get the duel at the end," Jim Furyk said. "They've actually had some bad luck these first two years. It would be really great if you could come down the stretch and have four or five guys with an opportunity to win. Depending on how the putts fell on the last nine holes, that would be pretty cool." Does he think that will ever happen. "Yes, I do -- just out of luck," Furyk said. "It's got to." An anticlimactic finish to the FedEx Cup isn't the only thing ailing the Tour Championship. The field is not what anyone is accustomed to for what always amounted to the tour's version of an All-Star game. Because of a volatile point system designed to give more guys a chance, some great players have no chance at all. Missing from the 30-man field are Padraig Harrington, the first PGA Tour member to win two majors in one season and still not qualify for the Tour Championship; Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy, who are among the top 15 in the world ranking after winning this year in a World Golf Championship (Ogilvy) and the Byron Nelson Championship (Scott). In their place are guys like Kevin Sutherland, Ken Duke and Bubba Watson, all making their Tour Championship debuts not because of how they played this year, but how they played the first three weeks of the PGA Tour Playoffs. Plus, the biggest buzz at East Lake is not what might happen this week, but who won last week. Ten Americans among the 30-man field were last seen on the clubhouse balcony at Valhalla, spraying each other with bubbly to celebrate a Ryder Cup victory over Europe. Chad Campbell tipped over a small bucket of balls Wednesday and hit 5-irons across the pond on the practice green at East Lake, none quite as true as the one he struck five days ago at Valhalla that earned a crucial point in the Ryder Cup. Campbell, the last player to qualify for the 30-man field at the Tour Championship, will be the first to tee off Thursday. He'll understand if his game doesn't arrive until sometime later in the week. "It's going to take a few days," he said. "I think once the tournament gets going, I'll be good to go. But everybody is a little bit worn out. There are some guys here who are fresh. I just don't think you can name any of them who were at the Ryder Cup." The only two missing at East Lake from the U.S. team are J.B. Holmes and Boo Weekley. Sergio Garcia is the only Ryder Cup player from Europe who qualified for the Tour Championship. "It is different," said Hunter Mahan, who made his Ryder Cup debut going unbeaten in five matches. "It's weird going through that and then having to come to such a big event like this. We get a couple days to kind of fall back to earth and just back to the grind a little bit, so it should be good. It may take a round or two to actually get back into the flow of playing tournament golf again." But they will play a Tour Championship, award $1.26 million to the winner, and Singh will get an additional $10 million beyond what he earns this week -- provided, of course, he can manage to finish four rounds. "It's nice to know that all you need to do is finish the round," Singh said. "It's been kind of strange in a way that your friends and your family and your trainer keep saying, 'Don't over exercise. We'll have to just keep it nice and easy this week.' Gets in your head a little bit." Finchem said he expects a good week and big crowd, and it helps that Saturday's round will be played early, so as not to conflict with the NBC broadcast of Notre Dame football. Thankfully, Georgia plays Alabama at home on Saturday night. In the meantime, he said changes to the FedEx Cup appear imminent. "We've got to have a climactic finish," Finchem said. "It's going to build to a finish." Of course, the third year of the Super Bowl brought us Joe Namath's guarantee and the New York Jets' 16-7 victory over the Baltimore Colts. If the FedEx Cup follows form, look for Colt Knost to take down Woods.
No record, but Campbell grabs Masters lead with 65 (2009-04-09)Singh wins with a final birdie at Sherwood (2008-12-22)PGA Tour still waiting for a dramatic end of year (2008-09-25)Kim gets US a crucial point at Ryder Cup (2008-09-21)Americans try to hold big lead at Ryder Cup (2008-09-20)
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