Category: FedEx Cup
The FedEx Cup is the PGA Tour's name for its new end-of-season championship. Consisting of four rounds, in which the field is reduced at each stage, the finals will be played Sept. 13 - 16 at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia. East Lake, perhaps not coincidentally, was the home club of Bobby Jones.
Phil Wins The Championship; Tiger Takes The Cup
It is somehow fitting that while Phil Mickelson won the Tour Championship, Tiger Woods still was the big winner.
Thanks to the points system devised by the Tour, if Tiger finished second, no one out of the top five could win the FedEx Cup. Phil, who began the weekend in fourteenth place did what he had to do. But Tiger sealed the deal with the second.
In some ways, it’s a microcosm of the way Phil Mickelson’s career has gone. I’m convinced that absent Tiger, Phil would have been the dominant force on the Tour over the last ten years. With Tiger ...
Posted By The Golf Blogger
FedEx Cup Final Round Possibilities Analysis
GolfBlogger favorite Kenny Perry leads the Tour Championship after Saturday’s round at East Lake, building a two shot lead on Tiger with a 64.
But it doesn’t matter in the overall FedEx Cup picture. If I’m doing the math correctly, for Perry to win, he has to hope that Woods finishes fifth or worse; that Stricker finishes fourth or worse and; that Furyk and Johnson finish third or worse (Johnson would tie Perry with a third). The fifth place going into the tournament, Heath Slocum (and all others below him) cannot challenge a Perry first place finish.
Furyk currently is tied for 15th, seven shots back. He’s not a contender. Johnson is thirteen shots back. He’s out of it also. So of the top players going into the Tour Championshipo the only ones that really count after three rounds are Perry, Woods, and Stricker.
Here’s an analysis of the chances of the top players after three rounds: Perry, Woods, Mickelson, O’Hair, Harrington and Stricker.
Only Tiger and Stricker (currently six shots back) have a chance to take the Cup outright with a win in the Tour Championship.
Tiger wins the Cup in any scenario where he finishes second, and Stricker doesn’t win.
Stricker wins if he finishes second or third, and Tiger finishes fifth or worse.
Mickelson, currently in third, can take the Cup if he wins; Tiger finishes ninth or worse and; Stricker and Furyk finish fourth or worse.
Harrington has to win the Tour Championship, with Tiger finishing third or worse.
O’Hair needs both Tiger and Stricker to finish third or worse.
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Tour Championship FedEx Cup TV Schedule
Here’s where you can watch the Tour Championship—the culminating event of the FedEx Cup
THU-FRI: 1-6p ET GOLF
SAT: 12-2p ET GOLF
SAT: 2-6p ET NBC
SUN: 11:30-1:30p GOLF
SUN: 1:30-6p ET NBC
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Cink Gets Right To The Point
Stewart Cink, ranked 26th in the FedEx Cup playoffs: “When they say you have a mathematical chance, it means you have no chance.”
He’s referring to the points system in the FedEx Cup that puts the top five in the driver’s seat. If any of those guys win the tournament, they take home the $10 million check.
But those outside the top five all have a mathematical chance. As I noted in an earlier post, last place John Senden can win if he finishes first, Tiger finishes last and Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson, Heath Slocum and Padraig Harrington finish worse than sixth.
A New York Times article also has computed a scenario—not unlikely—in which Jim Furyk can win even without finishing first this weekend:
All that would have to happen would be for someone from outside the top eight seeds to win the event — a list that includes but is not limited to Kenny Perry (No. 9), Dustin Johnson (No. 11), Phil Mickelson (No. 14), Ángel Cabrera (No. 24) — and for Furyk to finish second and for Woods to finish fourth or lower.
The permutations are endless, and pointless. Tiger will lap the field and take it all home.
Posted By The Golf Blogger
Odds For The 2009 Tour Championship
The odds for the 2009 Tour Championship this weekend show something I haven’t seen in a while: Tiger Woods is even money to win. Padraig Harrington and Jim Furyk are at 14/1; Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson, 18/1.
What’s interesting is that Padraig Harrington is the bettors’ second choice to win the Tour Championship, but that he doesn’t control his own destiny in winning the overall FedEx Cup. As the points system is set up, only the top five in points—Tiger, Stricker, Furyk, Johnson and Heath Slocum—can walk away with the trophy simply by winning.
Padraig Harrington and everyone else needs help. Harrington can only take home the Cup if he wins the Tour Championship and Tiger finishes third or worse.
The player currently in fifth in the points system, Heath Slocum, is set at 80/1. No one, it seems, expects him to win.
The complete odds for the Tour Championship, as set by Bodog Sports, is as follows:
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