Tiger Woods wins FedEx Cup

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 09/20/2007

 For the first time in history, the PGA Tour had a FedEx Cup playoff with a Super Bowl-World Series-Stanley Cup-NBA Finals-like champion who stands above the rest in an individual sport. The reward was $10 million in deferred money in an annuity that you cash in at age 45. Just like the major team sports that I mentioned, the teams with the best records get byes in the first round of the playoffs.

 The four tournaments were the Barcleys, Deutsche Bank Championship, the BMW Championship, and the big finale, the Tour Championship in Atlanta at historic East Lake CC. The top 30 players in the points race competed for $35 million in deferred bonus money that would go into the players’ retirement accounts. On top of that, the four tournaments would still pay out a total of $7 million in prize money for each of the four tournaments purses.

 When the four-tournament playoff began in Boston at the Barcleys, Tiger Woods — who had accumulated the most points during the regular golf season including the four majors, had the most wins, and led the PGA money list — decided that he would take a week off to rest and get recharged.

 Steve Stricker won the first playoff, the Barcleys Tournament, and leaped to the lead in the FedEx Cup standings. Woods returned at the Deutsche Bank Championship as defending champion and finished in a tie for second with Phil Mickelson winning and taking over first place in the FedEx Cup playoffs. Stricker finished second and Woods third.

 Woods won the BMW Championship in Chicago last week and regained the FedEx Cup playoff lead going into the Tour Championship in Atlanta. Mickelson did not play in Chicago at the BMW.

Woods took all the drama out of the first-ever PGA tour playoff by winning the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup playoff by eight shots and claiming the $10 million first-place deferred bonus. Woods shot 64-63-64-66, a total of 257, which was 23 under par, the third-lowest score in PGA tour history, smashing the tournament scoring record by six shots.

 Woods was 59 under par in the playoff for 12 rounds of play. He won in Chicago last week with a 22-under-par score, also breaking the tournament scoring record.

 He is the first-ever FedEx Cup Champion, and he’s the first player to win the Tour Championship twice, winning for the seventh time this year in 16 tournaments. It has to go down as one of the top five greatest years in the history of golf. He again has gone where no player has ever gone before by winning the FedEx Cup championship and finishing first, first and second in the three playoff tournaments.

 His scoring average per round over the 2007 year was 67.79; he wins the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average. And, if you go back to July of 2006 when he won the British Open, Woods has won 13 of his last 22 tournaments. That’s almost 60 percent.

 Remember, he finished second in the Masters and United States Open this year and won the PGA Championship, where he shot a major championship record-tying 63.

 He has won 61 times on the PGA tour; he is fifth on the all-time list; and, at age 31, he has not yet reached his prime. Tiger has won four of his last five starts, two in row, $10,867,052 this year. Add the $10 million as FedEx Cup Champion, which is a deferred bonus at nine percent interest until he’s 45 and cashes it in.

 He will pocket about $42 million.