FedEx Cup delivers on promise of interesting golf
ATLANTA— PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem camped out behind the first tee as the final round of the Tour Championship got under way at East Lake. From any direction, he couldn't complain about the view.
In front of him was a procession of the game's top players — Ernie Els, Steve Stricker, Padraig Harrington, Phil Mickelson, followed by Tiger Woods in the final pairing with Kenny Perry. Looking down the first fairway, both sides were lined with spectators.
"Record crowd for us here," Finchem said, referring to an estimated crowd of 24,000. It was the most ever for a Sunday ticket at East Lake, and even more impressive considering the Atlanta Falcons game at New England was on TV.
And the day only got better.
When it was over, Finchem was flanked by golf's two biggest stars — Mickelson, who closed with a bogey-free 65 to win the Tour Championship; and Woods, who captured the FedEx Cup and eliminated any discussion about the $10 million bonus going to the right guy.
PGA Tour officials will huddle over the next month for a post-mortem on the FedEx Cup, although these meetings should be short. The postseason boondoggle delivered everything they could have wanted: Four tournaments in five weeks featuring a world-class collection of players; some of the strongest leaderboards of the year.
After a year in which the four major champions were ranked outside the top 30, the final three playoff events were won by players who are Nos. 1-2-3 in the world — Woods, Mickelson and Stricker.
Not everyone understood the points system, although it wasn't hard to figure out who was doing well.
Woods didn't realize until The Barclays that he could have won the first three playoff events and still lost the FedEx Cup. Nor did he realize until the Tour Championship that he could have stayed home and showed up at East Lake as the No. 3 seed.
And while Mickelson joked about winning the tournament and getting the smaller check, he knew better.
"I didn't play well the first three FedEx Cup events," he said. "I don't deserve to win the entire FedEx Cup just based on one tournament win. It's got to be based on all four. So the way it worked out so far this year, it seems like it's just. The best player won. The guy who played the best in all four events won."
The star of the FedEx Cup was Woods. He had the best regular season (five victories), played the best in the playoffs (one victory, two runner-up finishes, his worst performance a tie for 11th), and finished the highest among the top five seeds at the Tour Championship.
But Woods wound up sharing the spotlight with Mickelson. They finished 1-2 at East Lake — the ninth time in their careers they have done that, with Mickelson a winner in five of those events — and each went home with a big trophy.
The FedEx Cup faces one tough encore.
