Massive pressure on points leader Johnson
American with sights on the FedExCup and Player of the Year award
PREPARATIONS are well underway for Malaysia’s blue ribbon event, the CIMB Classic, to be staged at TPC Kuala Lumpur (formerly KL Golf & Country Club) next month. The US$7mil tournament is the biggest and best in South-East Asia and one that is savoured in this part of the world.
It is also the PGA Tour’s only stop outside North America that figures in the season-long FedExCup and the second event on the wrap-around schedule that starts in October and ends in September.
But as the temporary grandstands go up in Bukit Kiara, the US PGA Tour season comes to a close at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia this week and it promises to be a fitting finale to another absorbing season, which now embraces this region.
The Tour Championship not only offers the world’s top guns the chance of another title for their collections, but it also comes with a US$10mil bonus. Needless to say, that should be just about enough incentive for the likes of Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Adam Scott, Jason Day and Paul Casey to go out there and put on show of note.
These are the top-five in the FedExCup standings and a win for any one of them would secure the biggest pay cheque in world golf – something Jordan Spieth managed last season.
The 23-year-old American is seventh at the moment. And in order for him to retain the FedExCup he would have to win the Tour Championship and also have Johnson finish in a three-way tie for second or worse, and Reed finish tied for second or worse. There are other permutations, but these appear the most crucial to his cause as things stand.
History too has stacked up a few issues against him pulling it off. It’s not to say he cannot do it. Of course, he can. But from where he is at the moment, it looks a long shot.
Indeed, only one player has won the FedExCup twice and that was the great Tiger Woods – in 2007 and 2009.
Spieth, who lit up the sport last year with two Major championship victories – the Masters and the US Open – among the five crowns he won, has loads of support.
But even his camp concede that the player most likely to win this week will come from the top-five.
To narrow things down even further, as obvious as it might look, Johnson should take it next Sunday. A win would also almost certainly secure him the Player of the Year award.
The long-hitting American and world No. 2, has three wins this season, including his Major breakthrough win at the US Open.
His triumph at the BMW Championship last week, the third of the four FedExCup playoff events, underscored the maturing of his game on the big stage.
He also won the World Golf Championships -Bridgestone Invitational in July.
Twenty-six year-old Reed will fancy his chances too at East Lake. He won the second of the FedExCup playoff tournaments, the Barclays, and then finished fifth seven days later. Last week he was 13th and he’ll be quietly confident that if he can get things going at the Tour Championship, he should be right up there when it matters most.
If Reed wins next Sunday, he’ll win the FedExCup. He could still win it with a top-three finish or even as low a two-way tie for sixth – but other results would have to go his way if that were to happen.
At outright win for Scott would secure him the FedExCup. He also has a reasonable shot at the title with a runner-up finish. Mathematically he could still win the big pot if he finished as low as tied for fourth.
Australia’s world number one Jason Day and England’s resurgent Casey, who is making a come back after a long spell on the sidelines through injury, could also win the FedExCup if they win the Tour Championship.
While Johnson remains the man to beat this week, one can rest assured that Spieth is unlikely to surrender his crown without a good ol’ scrap at East Lake Golf Club – something that would whet the appetite rather nicely ahead of the CIMB Classic (Oct 20-23).