Fitting finale looming at Tour Championship
The Open – One of Cameron Smith’s three wins in 2022 – perhaps another this week? photo R&A via Getty
The most tumultuous season in the history of the PGA Tour comes to an end this weekend when the leading 29 FedEx Cup eligible players (Will Zalatoris has been forced out through injury) chase the riches of the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup.
With LIV Golf casting a shadow over the latter half of the season, the Tour gets the opportunity to reset following this week’s event but before it does there are some fairly significant FedEx Cup riches on offer.
Two of the 29 players are Australians, Cameron Smith at number 6 in the standings and Adam Scott just scraping into the field with a stunning up and down for par at the last hole of last week’s BMW Championship to ensure he would be in the field for the 12th occasion.
Smith will be playing the tournament for the 4th time having a best of 14th last year but it is fair to suggest as the number two player in the world he arrives at East Lake with a good chance to win the Tour Championship to go with his Tournament of Champions victory, his Players Championship and of course his Open Championship win in 2022.
The niggling hip injury that caused him to miss last week’s event would appear to be at a stage where he feels well enough to tackle such a big week and with so much at stake there is little wonder why he is doing so.
Smith begins the event at 4 under, handicapped six shots behind the FedEx Cup leader, Scottie Scheffler, so he is giving a man who has recorded four wins two seconds and a third, six shots in the format designed to reward the FedEx Cup points leader for his performances in a season. It is a big task but Smith has shown that when right he can outperform most.
Scott begins the event at even par, so he is yielding ten shots to Scheffler, a mammoth task, admittedly, but he does enjoy a good record in the event in his 12 starts including a win and five other top tens. Although that needs to be tempered with the fact that there are typically only 30 players in the field each year, it is a strong record and provides hope for him, especially given the manner in which he is playing right now.
There is plenty at stake for the now 29 players who advanced to the season-ending championship.
There is an 18 million bonus to the winner of this week’s event, the second-place finisher in the FedEx Cup earns a bonus of $6.5 million, $5 million going to third, $4 million to fourth and $3 million to fifth. The player who finishes 30th will earn $500,000, even Zalatoris withdrawing will still yield him US$500,000.
Whether this is Smith’s last event as a PGA Tour player remains to be seen, but if it is then he could potentially go out with a bang and add US$18 million to his huge earnings in 2022.
To do so however, he has to beat some very much in form players such as Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantley and Xander Schaufelle in the process, with Cantlay looking to defend his title and the FexEx Cup title also.
