Add ’em up and lament the vagaries of FedEx Cup math. Although it may seem like we just started, the PGA Tour schedule is, in fact, halfway home.
This week’s Wachovia Championship is No. 20 of the 37-event FedEx Cup schedule. The front nine – which featured a lot of Tiger, a little Trevor and a limited number of ticker-tape moments – is on the card. The trip back to the clubhouse, however, promises to be a tad more exhilarating.
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No. 10. Expect an end to the NFL (No Fun League). Some watched the final hours of the Masters and wondered if it was Hootie Johnson, the former Augusta National chairman who added all that extra real-estate to the Georgia gem, or Tiger Woods, who some say was the long-hitting muse for Johnson’s actions, who removed the excitement from the season’s first major.
Good news: Mike Davis and Kerry Haigh, the top golf course setup men for the U.S. Golf Association and PGA of America, respectively, seem less concerned with par than they are with infusing the proceedings with some late-inning drama.
Davis is toying with the idea of playing Torrey Pine’s third hole, normally 195 yards of white-knuckle intensity, at about 142 yards during the U.S. Open, and he convinced his USGA bosses to keep the closing hole a par-5 to make for a dramatic finish.
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No. 11. Cup history. No, not America’s first outright Ryder Cup victory this decade. We’re talking about sample cups for performance-enhancing drug testing, which will start showing up in Tour locker rooms in July (we’re guessing at the John Deere Classic).
Don’t expect to see any Barry Bonds types outed by the testing, but recreational drug use may end up being only slightly less of a headache for commissioner Tim Finchem.
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No. 12. Rash of arthroscopic surgeries. A glacial cold putter kept him from collecting the first Grand Slam door prize of ’08 and an ailing left knee has landed Tiger Woods on the mid-season DL. But make no mistake, when he punches back in, be that at the Memorial or the U.S. Open, he’ll be as prolific as ever on his way to collecting two out of the season’s three remaining majors. His return will be so impressive some of his colleagues will consider the benefits of arthroscopic surgery.
Torrey Pines by any other name is still the SoCal muni Woods has owned since winning the first of his six Buick Invitationals in 1999. Oakland Hills, despite that Phil Mickelson experiment at the 2004 Ryder Cup, is his kind of ballpark and, more importantly, played at his time of year. The world No. 1 is nothing if not a fourth-quarter guy.
The British Open is a tough call, but not even Woods can control the weather and his record at Royal Birkdale, where he sandwiched rounds of 73-77 between a 65 and 66 in 1998, is something south of the Tiger norm.
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No. 13. Bonnie Boo. Weekley’s ballstriking is a perfect fit for windswept British Open venues and his sometimes pedestrian putting is not as much of a liability on the slightly slower links greens as it may be at say Augusta National or Oakland Hills. Talk about milestones: the first man to win the Open Championship dressed in camo, the first major champion from Milton, Fla., and the first person to use the Claret Jug as a live bait well.
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No. 14. FedEx delivery. Although the year-end excitement golf’s playoffs promised never really materialized in 2007, it did identify one of the season’s best feel-good stories in Steve Stricker.
Expect another out-of-the-pack player to use the playoffs as a catapult. We like Justin Leonard – he’s remade, tough and has a history of coming up big in the fall (see 1999 Ryder Cup).
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No. 15. Daycare. Adam Scott’s dramatic playoff victory at the Byron Nelson marked the seventh twenty-something to find the winner’s circle this year on Tour.
We’ve been waiting for the “Big Five” to make a sustained move on Woods for years. It’s starting to appear as if “Gen X” will provide the challenge.
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No. 16. Fall-ing off. Moreso than wanting fields and football envy, the Fall Finish herd will likely be thinned after this year because of a sagging economy.
There’s a chance the San Antonio stop, which has been making “funny” eyes with the Tour for years, will slide into a spring date in 2009; and the Tampa, Fla., event continues to search for a title sponsor. If they come up short, either the South Florida Ginn event or Disney could come off the bench.
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No. 17. Rookie winner. Why? Because there’s always a rookie winner and this year’s class is too deep to get shut out. Dustin Johnson is strong, fearless and has been close, and the Aussie duo of Jason Day and Matthew Jones seem to be lacking only experience from their Tour resumes.
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No. 18. September fireworks. After congenial matches in England, Michigan and Ireland, expect the ’08 Ryder Cup to be a bit more heated. Thanks to candid captain Paul Azinger, the trash talking has already started and the new U.S. points structure, as well as four captain’s picks, will assure a lively, and on form, bunch.
Early four-ball pairing suggestion: Weekley and Woody Austin.
Posted: 4/30/2008
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