Wednesday, September 24, 2008

FedEX Cup Preview

The FedEx Cup playoffs limp to a anti-climatic finish at this weeks Tour Championship with Vijay Singh all but secured the $10 million cheque before Thursday’s opening round.

After winning the first two of the four lucrative playoff events, if the big Fijian can get around through to Sunday, then he will pocket $9 million in cash, with $1 million deferred.

Consequently, the event is a bit of a damp squib. In the pre-FedEX days, the Tour Championship was an important event but not just because of the huge prize money. Limited to the top-30 money earners, it was always more or less a contest between the best 30 players.

However because of the FedEX Cup scoring system, numerous big names have missed the final cut but ten of America’s new Ryder Cup heroes will be in attendance, along with Sergio Garcia.


Vijay trying to win $9 million standig on one leg.

So with the outcome pretty much decided, it could be a case of watching Sergio proving himself after his woeful Ryder Cup, or watching players like Anthony Kim and Hunter Mahan enjoying their final tournament of the season.

Twelve months ago, six players went into the Tour Championship with a chance of winning before Tiger triumphed to become the overall champion. This year six has become one and PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem accepts further tweaking of the points system is needed to improve the four-event finale.

“The reality is the No. 1 position in the FedEx Cup is sewn up before we get to Atlanta and that was not supposed to be a part of the equation. But I don’t think this week is irrelevant now. If you just think about the fact that some $22 million is at stake among these top-30 players in the world, so that means a lot.”



9/24/2008 4:28:31 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #  Comments [0]