Pays to play: Cup all about money
back surgeries, a DUI arrest stemming from his reliance on painkillers and his own fears that he would never compete again.
Memories would be a lot stronger if he were here. Instead, he becomes the seventh player to win the Tour Championship and not be eligible to return the next year in the Cup era.
Should he be at East Lake? It seems that way because of his other victory, this one in April at Augusta National, as captivating as any of his 15 majors. Woods said Sunday at Medinah when his season officially ended that he was disappointed and he wished he could be at East Lake. But he hardly was torn up over it, for one reason.
“I’m the one with the green jacket,” he said of winning the Masters.
He also has company.
British Open champ Shane Lowry didn’t make it to East Lake, either. He has a claret jug at home in Ireland to console him.
This is the fifth time in 13 years of the Cup that at least two major champs weren’t at the final event, usually due to extenuating circumstances. Five major champs who didn’t make it to East Lake weren’t PGA Tour members.
Given their stature, it would seem the majors should get more Cup points than a measly 20% bump. For example, Woods received 600 points for winning that little invitational at Augusta National. That’s only 100 points more than Kevin Tway got for winning the Safeway Open. Could it be more? Sure.
Does it need to be? Not necessarily.
Would anyone be talking about major champs not being at East Lake if not for Woods being one of them?
Because while the PGA Tour has drastically changed its season with the Cup format, what hasn’t changed is what matters — winning majors. The reward for capturing a Grand Slam event is worth far more than having a tee time at East Lake and a chance to win $15 million.
The majors are over. Names are etched on trophies and in golf lore.
The Cup is merely an end-ofthe-year competition to keep golf compelling and to give the PGA Tour season a definitive end. It hasn’t done any harm. If anything, it has kept the best players competing against each other after the majors.
And they all get rich when it’s over.
Total bonus money for the 30 players who made it to Atlanta is $46 million. That’s what they will be chasing over the next four days.
Woods and Lowry now can only look behind them.
The view is just as sweet.