Thanks, FedEx. You’ve hung THE TOUR Championship out to dry yet again. The first two years of this “Race for the Cup” have been a complete bust – except for Tiger and Vijay, of course. All the advertising about your $10 million prize to the winner and the excitement it will bring, and how hard the players will be pushing to win The Cup, comes down to this – it’s over before the Championship round begins. Even a mental picture of $9 million in cash being wheeled out to the winner’s feet, which won’t happen, isn’t enough to make anybody look past the fact that there is no competition for “the big prize” in the final tournament.
If you’re not familiar with the format, players accrue points over the length of the season, then the top 144 are given entry into the first week of the playoffs, and the points are reset, starting with the No. 1 guy, Tiger Woods, getting 100,000 points. Yes, 100,000 points to a guy who hasn’t hit a ball since June and nobody was able to overtake his top spot. The fields were then whittled down to 120, then 70, and now 30 for THE TOUR Championship. The theory being that a number of the very best and hottest golfers in the world would be in contention for the big prize and bring their A-games to Atlanta.
Last year, players at the bottom of the 144 complained that the points were too spread out and they practically had to win to move on to the next week. This year, it was the guys at the top complaining because it was too easy to move up the ladder. Right away, THE TOUR and FedEx can’t win.
A quick word to those doing the complaining – play better and the guys below you won’t be able to move ahead of you. Padraig Harrington told the media after The BMW Championship that he didn’t deserve to be in Atlanta after missing two cuts and playing poorly in St Louis. Sorry you won’t be here, Paddy, but you’re right.
So now what? We here in Atlanta, at least 25,000 of us each day, can go out to East Lake Golf Club and see some really great golf on one of the best golf courses in the world. Brand new greens will be in perfect condition. Reconstruction of several holes will make for some very interesting play.
All the hype, however, has been taken away before it came to fruition. We already know that all Vijay Singh has to do is show up and he will have the prize. He will collect 2,000 points and will be out of reach of Camilo Villegas, who, if he wins and Singh finishes 30th, will be 101 points out of first place.
There is no “drama” going into the final week. There is still $7 million on the table for THE TOUR Championship (presented by Coca-Cola), $1.26 million going to the winner, so these guys will still be grinding it out to win, but they will be doing it without all the commercials and hype that FedEx has promised.
I’ll still be there – and I hope you will be, too. East Lake, and THE TOUR Championship, is a treat all its own, and seeing how some of the best golfers in the world play it makes it even more spectacular. So forget the hype and enjoy the experience. That’s what golf is really about anyway.
Capps can be reached at onthegreen@scoreatl.com.
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