With Woods, PGA hopes for better finish
As the PGA Tour rolls out its third edition of the FedEx Cup, the four-week competition remains as mystifying as ever. Here’s what we do know: Tiger Woods is on board. That alone virtually guarantees the success of Commissioner Tim Finchem’s new format, whatever it is.
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As the competition opens this week with The Barclays at Liberty National Golf Club, a quirky new course with a New York City backdrop, many are trying to figure out exactly what it will take for Woods to hoist the Cup and gather the winning $10 million check in four weeks at the Tour Championship.
The finish is key to the success of this year’s format. Finchem doesn’t want a repeat of last year when Vijay Singh won the Cup after finishing 44th at the BMW and 22nd at the Tour Championship, both events won, by the way, by Camilo Villegas.
If this year’s format, with points escalating as the competition progresses, was used last year, Villegas would have been the winner.
“I would have played differently,” deadpanned Singh on Tuesday.
Actually Singh said he favors an approach where points aren’t accumulated during the competition.
“Every week should be back to zero,” said Singh. “Everybody just advances. You cut it down to whatever is necessary, and the last day, it’s a shootout.”
The PGA Tour is approaching that model this year. When it was pointed out to Finchem Wednesday that Woods could win the next three weeks, giving him eight titles this season, and not be guaranteed the Cup, the Commissioner didn’t blink.
“Right, exactly,” said Finchem. “[It’s] more of a shootout … We wanted the finale, The Tour Championship, to be something where if you had the No. 1 seed, you sort of had something akin to a home court advantage in, let’s say, NBA basketball. You can lose, but you’ve got an advantage.”
With Woods signed on, it’s always an advantage.
