NOT FORE!-GOTTEN
THE day-long rain yesterday that turned Westchester Country Club into Lake Westchester wasn’t exactly timely. And the withdrawal of Tiger Woods from The Barclays wasn’t good news, either. But even with those early speed bumps, it’s not too soon to declare the inaugural FedEx Cup a success.
It’s a success – at least for now – because it has succeeded in doing what it was intended to do: Keep golf relevant after the PGA Championship. Normally, golf is an afterthought this time of year. All four major championships have been contested; NFL training camps are in full swing; and Major League Baseball pennant races are heating up. Who cares who wins the Valero Texas Open?
Yet, there was a sense of anticipation in the saturated air at Westchester Country Club yesterday. With $10 million on line and player of the year honors, sort of, at stake, the FedEx Cup has earned our curiosity if not our respect.
Don’t feel bad if you don’t quite understand the points system and who has to do what to win. Just know The Barclays is the first of four consecutive tournaments that will determine an eventual winner at the Tour Championship Sept. 10-16.
Who knows whether this will catch on for good? But with 138 of the top 144 players in the world here, a major-like atmosphere is stirring the competitive juices of the game’s best players.
“Players who play well this week are going to put themselves in a good position for the next stretch of tournaments,” said K.J. Choi, a two-time winner this year.
“It’s definitely an important week for me.”
It’s important to the PGA Tour, too, which needed something to extend its season and keep the networks and advertisers interested. There are still a few bugs to be worked out. The $10 million will be in deferred payments, which means the winner won’t get all of his money until he’s ready for the Champions Tour. This theme of it being “The Playoffs” is hard to buy considering Woods is clearly the Super Bowl champion of golf regardless of who wins the FedEx Cup, and getting everyone, including the players, to understand just what the heck is going on will take some educating.
“It is more of a made-for-TV spectacular, but it is moving in the right direction,” said British Open champion Padraig Harrington, who won here in 2005 and was runner-up in 2004 when the tournament was played in June and conditions were hot and fast. “Who knows how it’s going to be this year? We’ll give it a few years and I think it will get there.”
Woods, the points leader, opted out because of fatigue after winning his 13th major at the 2007 PGA in Tulsa. But that doesn’t hurt the FedEx Cup as much as it hurts The Barclays.
Woods will have to play excellent golf over the next three weeks to win the Cup and that will only add more drama in the coming weeks. But that doesn’t mean we don’t care what happens this weekend. Quite the contrary, which is what the FedEx Cup was designed to do.
