Woods cruises to Cup
ATLANTA — Any more ideas, PGA Tour?
Hoping to spice up the end of the season, the tour came up with a playoff system, a shiny cup and a mammoth chunk of retirement change. But all that did was give Tiger Woods another trophy for his mantle — he must have a gigantic fireplace — and millions more to spend in his golden years, as if he doesn't already have enough to run a small country.
Woods stripped away any drama from the inaugural FedEx Cup, crushing an elite field Sunday to win the Tour Championship. He started the final round with a three-stroke lead and stretched it to a record eight-shot win with a 4-under 66, his worst round of an amazing week at East Lake.
"You throw another thing at him, it just makes it even worse for the rest of us," said Masters champion Zach Johnson, who shared the runner-up spot with Mark Calcavecchia but was barely in the same ZIP code as Woods. "Why give him another thing to try to achieve? I mean, really."
Woods clearly has no problem getting motivated, no matter what challenge is put in front of him.
His primary goal, of course, is taking down Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major titles. Woods is five away. Then there's the World Golf Championships, which was created in 1999 to bring together the top players more times every year. Woods has won 14 of 25 in that format. This year marked the start of the PGA Tour Playoffs, which reset the points for the final four tournaments, with the winner getting the FedEx Cup and $10 million for a retirement account.
Same result.
Tiger rules.
"He's a very driven man," Johnson marveled. "When you add another element to that drive, what do you do?"
Woods said it's not about the money, though he certainly wasn't complaining about the $10 million or the $1.26 million in cash he got for winning the Tour Championship. And it's not about the prizes, though this was the first time he walked away from a tournament with two trophies.
