Final Leg of the FedEx Cup

We’re two days in, the final of four tournaments leading to the award of the FedEx Cup and the $10,000,000 prize. From this point on there will much conjecture on winning scenarios, based on the standing of each player as the tournament proceeds.

They say the ideal position was to be in the top five going in, and to win this weekend. I watched the game on television yesterday and was pleased to see the PGA has a new electronic board to display the different possibilities.

I remember watching last year as the commentator did the calculations on a white board, and saw him at times struggle to do the math, in his head, on camera, live. Would have been much easier if he were dealing with round numbers, but that’s not the way the numbers add up when earned in decreasing ratios with the players placement.

http://www.pgatour.com/fedexcup/2014/09/07/winning-scenarios-tour-championship-by-coca-cola.html

What a disappointment it would be to win this final tournament, and the points earned still leave one short of the leader. Win the tournament but lose the Cup and the big prize.

There’s a whole new crop of players that I’m not familiar with, and some of the ones I have followed for the past few years have fallen back in the pack. I wouldn’t mind if Rory McIlroy won this year, I always felt he got cheated of the prize a couple of years ago. I also like Jason Day but he’s out of the Top 5, and those in the top would have to play poorly over the next two day and Jason win for him to win it all.

There’s an old saying “What goes around, comes around” or maybe it’s “reap what you shall sow” but I have to admit feeling the peg Patrick Reed has been taken down is karma for past bad behaviour. It’s good to have confidence, but to be so egotistical as to place himself in the World’s Top 5 on the basis of his 2^nd PGA win, to imply he was better than almost everyone else, was to put upon himself the burden of proof. He made the comment and then he had to defend it. Unfortunately for him he’s fallen far from the top during these final weeks of play.

One of the commentators made a statement at the time, something about it’s okay to have confidence and that kind of belief in yourself, but it was wrong for him to verbalize it and leave himself open to criticism throughout the remainder of the year. And that’s just what happened. His post win interview has been played over and over again, but maybe that’s all Patrick cared about, the notoriety.

The series of tournaments have had their funny moments that will not be forgotten, like Phil Mickelson hitting his ball, not once, but twice, off the artificial turf in the hospitality area. And yesterday there was Rory McIlroy’s ball landing in a spectator’s pocket after hitting the trees. I see a Blooper type show in the making.

When all is said and done on Sunday there’s a two week hiatus, just enough time for the excitement to build about the Ryder Cup. This tournament has a different vibe, pairings and individual games, with all points tallied for their teams representing either country (for the US players), or...continent, I guess, for the European players.

After that the golf season is basically over and done, just in time for hockey, or in my brother’s case, football and then hockey, a mixture of them both. He is his father’s son.