Jason Day: Not Impossible To Stop at Tour Championship
Last week at the BMW, it was all about getting into the top 30 or the top five, depending on how many FedEx points each PGA Tour player already had.
Now, headed into the Tour Championship, it’s easy to ask how anyone could possibly beat Jason Day. He has been playing so much better than anyone else in the world that he has just become No. 1 for the first time. For once in recent years, the rankings and reality are matched.
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However, other golfers have gone to the Tour Championship as No. 1 or as the top seed only to be defeated by remarkable play of someone else or to have lost their edge that week. There have also been times when the No. 1 seed has waltzed to victory.
In 2007, Tiger Woods won both the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup.
In 2008, Vijay Singh was the FedEx winner before the Tour Championship started, leading to the development of a new point system.
Tiger Woods led in points going into the Tour Championship in 2009. He won the FedEx Cup, but Phil Mickelson won the Tour Championship.
In 2010, Matt Kuchar was the No. 1 seed at the Tour Championship but finished 25th. Jim Furyk, who was 11th in points at the start of the week, made a dramatic final putt in the rain to win both the Tour Championship and the Fedex Cup.
In 2011, Webb Simpson was the top seed headed into the Tour Championship. He was upended by his own 22nd place finish and great play by two guys not even in the top ten: Hunter Mahan and Bill Haas. They tied, and Haas won the tournament in a playoff by hitting an impossible shot out of the water on the 17th. He also won the FedEx Cup.
At the end of 2012 Rory McIlroy looked like a mortal lock, as the legendary writer Dan Jenkins might have said, to win the FedEx Cup. However, McIlroy had an average week, finishing 10th. Brandt Snedeker, who was in 5th place in points coming into the Tour Championship, won the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup.
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Once again in 2013, Tiger Woods was leading in FedEx Cup points headed into the Tour Championship, but he finished 22nd and was defeated for the FedEx Cup by a charging Henrik Stenson. Stenson said his goal was to become the first person to in the FedEx Cup and the Race to Dubai, and he did.
Last season, Chris Kirk led the points going into the Tour Championship. He was followed by Billy Horschel, Bubba Watson and Rory McIlroy. Kirk finished the tournament in fourth place, but Horschel won the Tour Championship edging out Kirk in the FedEx point total. Horschel’s victory gave him the double, the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup.
In the end, it comes down to good play and the math. If no one in the top five is leading headed into the final round, it’s going to be a computational nightmare to figure out who might win the FedEx Cup. But the way Jason Day has been playing, it would be crazy to bet against him, except that this is golf, and anything can happen between Chicago and the last putt in Atlanta. History proves it.
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