Here we are at the final leg of the FedEx Cup.  Despite all of the complaints and drama surrounding the cup, it has made for some of the best and most interesting golf this year.

The final 30 golfers will compete for the $10 million dollar first place prize, as well as the title of FedEx Cup Champion for 2007.  Tiger Woods is atop the standings with his victory last week at the BMW Championship in Chicago and looks to add the FedEx Cup to his list of accomplishments, not only in his storied career but this years list as well.<!--more-->

The final stop is the Tour Championship in Atlanta at the East Lake Golf Club, the former home club of Bobby Jones.  The now permanent home to the Tour Championship, East Lake plays to a par of 70, and a yardage of 7154.  East Lake is not only a historic golf club, but one that has ventured down the path of philanthropy. Founding sponsors of the East Lake Golf Club have contributed over $18 million to the East Lake Community Foundation to revitalize of the nation’s worst public housing projects into a thriving, mixed-income community.

Along with the controversy amidst the FedEx Cup, there was another issue this week and that was the condition of the greens at East Lake.  Due to unseasonably warm weather in Atlanta, coupled with minimal amounts of rain, the greens at East Lake have taken a turn for the worse.  So much so that they had to cancel the pro am and limit access and approach shots on the greens prior to the event.  Most players arriving at the event were expecting the worst, but by all accounts, it was not as bad as expected.  "The greens are 10 times better than what the tour told us they were going to have," said Mark Calcavecchia, who played eight holes on Tuesday. And outspoken Rory Sabbatini said, "Obviously there was a little over exaggeration to the extent of the damage to the greens.”  They are still not great surfaces, but the tour obviously wanted to error on the side of caution.  Last year the greens were rolling somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 on the stimpmeter, and this week they will be considerably softer and slower, somewhere in the region of 9-9.5.  "We're not going to press them on the speed," said Mark Russell, the PGA Tour's tournament director. "We're just going to play it by ear day by day, but I don't think they're going to get much faster than that."  Luckily everyone has to play all the same greens, so all though they are not perfect, at least everyone will be facing the same conditions.

This week’s focus will be on the world’s number one player, Tiger Woods.  He enters the FedEx Cup leading in the point’s race, by 3,133 points over second place holder, Steve Stricker.  There are a number of players that can still mathematically win including, Phil Mickelson, K.J. Choi, and Rory Sabbatini,  but you will see the champion come from somewhere inside of this top five, because the winner this week will receive 10, 300 points versus the normal 9,000 points for the first three events.  Players outside of that number are still competing for 35 million dollars in bonus money (10 Million going to the winner), so there is still plenty of incentive to play well and move up the points standing.  Keep an eye not only on the top 5 players as they have the best chance to win the $10 million dollar prize, but also the players in the 20-30 range, which with a great tournament can move way up the list and make some nice money.

This will be a dramatic conclusion to a fantastic initial idea by the PGA Tour.  Hopefully in the coming years they can continue to tweak the system and we can bear witness to more of the great golf that has been displayed over the course of these few weeks. 

Television Coverage

Thurs   9/13     1-6            EST    Golf

Fri        9/14      1-6            EST    Golf

Sat       9/15     12:30-2     EST    Golf

Sat       9/15      2-6            EST    NBC

Sun      9/16     11-1:30     EST    Golf

Sun 9/16          1:30-6       EST    NBC

Official Website

 

http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/r060/