Here we go again. Thirty-three weeks and 36 events later, the FedExCup playoff positions are set and the top 144—actually, 143 of the top 144—are heading to the Bushw … errrr … Ridgewood Country Club in scenic Paramus, N.J., for The Barclays. (Yes, I realize that the TV people have been telling you that Round 1 is in New York – it just sounds better to say New York instead of New Jersey. Media snobbery? You bet.)
Once again, the idea is to accrue enough points this week to move on to the next week. The top 120 this week move on to Boston for The Deutsche Bank Championship, then the top 70 move on to St. Louis and The BMW Championship. This year, there will be a two-week interruption for a week off, followed by a quick trip to Kentucky for The Ryder Cup, before the top 30 reconvene here in Atlanta for The Tour Championship.
This year, the organizers have tightened up the point spread between players hoping for more movement from week to week. Last year, only a handful of players managed to move out of their seeding to play another more week, and no one outside the original top 30 moved on to the finals at East Lake.
The top spot on the points list is, amazingly enough, Tiger Woods, even though he only played in six tournaments this year. Of course, those six starts turned into four wins, including a major and a WGC, and two runner-up finishes. As they say, that ain’t half bad.
Personally, I’m a bit disappointed that nobody in the rest of the field, especially one Phil Mickelson, managed to knock Woods out of the top spot, but it is what it is. Mathematically, Woods is still a very strong contender to have a spot in THE TOUR Championship (presented by Coca Cola) here in Atlanta in six weeks, which means he will collect another paycheck without teeing it up since winning The U.S. Open back in June.
Following Woods are Kenny Perry with 99,500 points (after the reset), Phil Mickelson (99,250), Padraig Harrington (99,000) and Anthony Kim (98,750). Former Tech star Stewart Cink starts the playoffs in sixth place with 98,625 points, and former UGA Bulldog Ryuji Imada starts in the ninth position with 98,250 points.
ROUNDING OUT THE LIST
This year’s 144th man is Lee Janzen, who will start with 92,070 points and will need a top-five finish to advance to Week 2. Not very likely to happen, but at least he has a better shot than No. 144 did in 2007.
Patrick Sheehan is the man in the 120th place (93,030) and will not only be playing with an eye on Week 3 needing two top-fives, but also will need eyes in the back of his head to keep his spot in Boston for Week 2.
What this boils down to is fairly simple. Four tournaments with progressively smaller fields on great golf courses, and the best players in the world fighting it out for a $10 million first prize in the FedExCup race, or as big a piece of the $35 million pie as they can get – and they will finish it right here in our home town.
I don’t know about you, but I’d get my tickets now.
Capps can be reached at onthegreen@scoreatl.com.
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