Tiger Woods Poised to win FedEx Cup

All Tiger Woods has to do to win the FedEx Cup tomorrow is finish in the top two. I think. Oh hell, I dunno. Has anyone figured out the FedEx Cup points fiasco? Either way, we’ve come to expect Tiger to do what needs to be done to win. It also helps that people seem to forget how to play when he’s on the first page of the leaderboard on Sunday. Kenny Perry has a two shot lead going into the final round, and just won the Payne Stewart award, which he called the greatest accomplishment of his career. With a good round Sunday and a small collapse from Tiger, he could also with the FedEx cup. Steve Stricker had a good day and is also back in it, along with Padraig Harrington and Phil Mickelson. It’s nice to see Phil in contention again. The last time we saw him at the top of a leaderboard was at the US Open. I miss his aggressive play and eventual blow up. Watching Phil play is like watching restrictor plate racing in NASCAR, we watch because we know the big wreck is coming sooner or later.

For all the hooplah and manufactured hype about the FedEx cup, the PGA Tour seems to be getting what they wanted. Many of the big names are in contention and the biggest name is ready to claim the FedEx cup. With the change in the way the points system works, we were guaranteed that the winner wouldn’t be decided until this weekend in Atlanta. However, the winner of the FedEx cup may not be the winner of the Tour Championship, which I still don’t understand. Are you going to have two guys for the trophy presentation? Won’t that suck for the winner if someone else wins the FedEx Cup?  “Congratulations Mr X, here’s your little trophy and $1.35 Million, now move over. Congrats Mr. Y, here’s a way bigger trophy and way bigger check!”

The television commentators try to put up projections of where players might finish as they play, but I think this is just a weak attempt to create drama. Nobody really seems to know what’s going on, and not as many players really have a chance to win the cup as we think. At this point, O’Hair, Perry, Stricker and Harrington all have a mathematical chance to win, but it all depends on what Tiger does. Tiger needs to finish third or worst for any of the aformentioned players to even have a chance, and they would have to win.

Last year the FedEx cup was a forgone conclusion, with Vijay just having to finish the tournament to win the cup. At least this years rule changes have made it a little bit more dramatic. But the drama is really only with the players, as they are the ones competing for $11 Million. For the fans, it’s more about who wins the tour championship, especially with Tiger on the field. If you ask the fans, they would probably tell you that it would be better to reset the points to zero and make the Tour Championship a shootout, with the winner taking the whole damn thing. I think you could even take the low 16 guys after 54 holes and make a cut, then reset the scores again and have an 18 hole, 16 player shootout for the FedEx Cup. You want drama? I’ll give you drama! 16 guys, all with an equal chance to win, and everyone will be glued to that television set! Maybe they’ll change the rules again next year too.