The FedEx Cup Golf Championship

People have been surprised that in the past few years I’ve become an avid golf fan. Well, I became an avid golf fan because of Tiger Woods, and like many, have little interest if he’s not playing.

But Tiger or no Tiger, these last four weeks of golf are very interesting, especially if you like numbers. The race to the FedEx Cup starts with the first event of the season, and continues all year with points earned and accrued. A typical tournament winner gets 500 points, with fewer points given based on each player’s final position.

Last week was the first of four events, the tour playoffs, so to speak. The winner received 2500 points, 5X the points awarded for winning a regular tour event. Myself, I think that’s kind of unfair. A player could win four events throughout the season, and still fall behind the guys who win one playoff event. But they never asked for my opinion.

Last week it was The Barclays Championship. The top 125 players in the FedEx Cup standings played. This week it’s the Deutsche Bank Championship, and only the top 100 play.

The week after, the BMW Championship will be played with the top 70 players, then the final Tour Championship where only the top 30 compete.

I just marvel at how the winner can be so unpredictable, except maybe in those first few years when Tiger was the expected winner. Any player that makes the cut can’t afford to miss a tournament. That means four tournaments in a row, with travel in between, without a break, and coming right on top of the regular season. Talk about pressure.

Since 2007, when the FedEx Cup was first played, Tiger has been the only player to win it twice. Most years the final winner won at least one, if not two, of the playoff events. I still don’t know how Rory McIlroy, who won two playoff events in 2012, did not win the final trophy.

Oh, and did I say the winner gets 10 million dollars, sloppy seconds is not too shabby at 3 million, third place 2 and fourth 1.5 million. To round off the Top Five, fifth place gets a measly 1 million.

It’s worth the show just to watch the last tournament on Saturday and Sunday. One of the commentators is at the white board constantly with the predictions. If Joe Blow wins today then he...you get the idea. Every day, every tournament changes the numbers, and I’ve always found numbers fascinating.

Besides, I don’t really have to pay attention, I can crochet, read, flip channels whatever, but I’ll watch the end, just out of curiosity.