The Tour Championship
Written by: Brainiac
Vijay Singh +500
Sergio Garcia +800
Phil Mickelson +1000
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OK, the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs were a dud again this year.
That makes 0-for-2 in the drama department for the Tour’s postseason system that debuted in 2007. Last year, Tiger Woods had the FedEx Cup’s $10 million prize basically wrapped up by the time the Tour Championship rolled around. Most people expected a wide-open race in 2008 with Tiger sidelined by injury, but Vijay Singh put on a Tiger-esque performance by winning the first two playoff tournaments and only needs to not get disqualified this week to win the FedEx Cup.
So even though Singh technically has nothing to play for this week, you still have to count the hard-working Fijian as the favorite this week. He never takes a tournament off or for granted. No wonder Singh is the +450 WagerWeb.com favorite this week at East Lake in the smallest field (30 players) on Tour. He also has the advantage of being rested – Singh didn’t compete in last week’s draining Ryder Cup.
Singh credits his confidence with the putter for his recent surge this year.
“Just believing that stroking a putt is simpler than what I made it out to be,” he said. “I mean, for years and years I’ve been a very decent putter, a good putter for that matter. But I never really used that to my advantage. I just kind of took it for granted and when things started going bad, the negatives were very strong, a very strong thing.”
Singh leads the field in Tour Championship experience, playing in his 15th Tour Championship. He has finished no worse than fourth since the tournament moved permanently to the East Lake Golf Club in 2004. Ernie Els is next in experience, playing in his 13th tournament, with Phil Mickelson in the field for the 12th time in his career.
Of the 30 players in the field, 10 were members of the winning U.S. squad at last week’s Ryder Cup. They are Chad Campbell, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim, Justin Leonard, Mickelson, Ben Curtis, Steve Stricker, Kenny Perry, Stewart Cink and Hunter Mahan. Furyk is the top favorite among the Americans at +750, while Kim was spectacular at the Ryder Cup and is +900 this week on WagerWeb.com.
Spain’s Sergio Garcia (+800 on WagerWeb.com) is the only member of the European Ryder Cup team to play in the Tour Championship, and he is the best of the returning players having finished fourth at East Lake last year.
Can Camilo Villegas give the FedEx Cup its second straight two-tournament victor? Villegas stopped Singh’s streak at the BMW Championship and is +1100 on WagerWeb.com
There are five past champions of the Tour Championship in the field. They are Billy Mayfair (1995), Mickelson (2000), Mike Weir (2001), Singh (2002) and Campbell (2003).
Interestingly enough, East Lake Country Club was rated the seventh-easiest course on the circuit last year with the 15th hole rated as the easiest of the PGA Tour’s 55 courses.
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