ATLANTA: The FedEx Cup playoffs limp to an anti-climatic finish at this week’s Tour Championship with Vijay Singh having all but secured the glittering trophy before Thursday’s opening round.
After winning the first two of the four lucrative playoff events, the smooth-swinging Fijian simply needs to complete Sunday’s final round to lift the Cup and pocket $9 million in cash with $1 million deferred.
Last place in the elite 30-man field at East Lake Golf Club would do the trick for Singh but he has set his sights on victory to end the PGA Tour’s regular season with a flourish.
“It’s a great feeling to know that all I need to do is tee it up and play and I’ve already won the FedEx Cup,” the 45-year-old told reporters in the tournament buildup.
“But I want to make the point that I’m going to go out there and try to win the tournament. I love Atlanta and I love East Lake. I’ve had great success there. “I know they’ve changed the golf course a little bit and I want to go out there and win it, make a point that I can win three out of four weeks.
“But I’d rather be in this position than going out there knowing that I have to win (the tournament) to win the Cup. This is a dream for every player out there to be in my position.” Singh will be bidding for his fourth victory of the season, having also clinched the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone early last month.
Although he effectively killed off any chance of suspense at East Lake by winning the first two playoff events — the Barclays Classic and Deutsche Bank Championship — his rivals have much to gain.
“We’re still playing to win this golf tournament and wherever you finish on the FedEx Cup, whether it’s second or 30th, at this point it doesn’t really matter,” American Anthony Kim told reporters on Tuesday. “Everyone is out here to win this golf tournament. Vijay is going to be remembered as the FedExCup champ so we’re just trying to win this and finish as high up as we can.” Chad Campbell, who played with Kim on the triumphant US Ryder Cup team at Valhalla last week, agreed.
“I think it’ll still be exciting,” he said. “There will be a lot of stories there, and a lot of money to be made there in second, third, those places. “It’s still a golf tournament and I know everybody is here ready to play.”
Twelve months ago, six players went into the Tour Championship with a chance of winning the inaugural FedExCup before Tiger Woods triumphed to become the overall champion.
This year six has become just one and PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem accepts further tweaking of the ongoing FedExCup points system is needed to improve the four-event finale.
“The reality is the No. 1 position in the FedEx Cup is sewn up before we get to Atlanta and that was not supposed to be part of the equation,” Finchem said on Tuesday.
Ishikawa takes center stage at Panasonic Open
In Osaka, Japan, teenage prodigy Ryo Ishikawa will be hoping a successful title assault on the Asia-Pacific Panasonic Open starting today will show why he has earned the tag “the Japanese Tiger Woods.” The 17-year-old from Saitama, who has also been called the “Shy Prince” for his good looks and soft voice, said he was unfazed by all the attention ahead of the inaugural $1.85-million event on home soil. “I want to thank the media for their support. It has given me a lot of fans and I appreciate it. But I don’t have any pressure to perform. The fans keep telling me, ‘fight Ryo, fight’ and I appreciate their support,” he said.
The boyish-looking Ishikawa first came to prominence on the Japan Tour last year when he won the Munsingwear Open while he was an amateur, but knows he has a lot to learn.
“Every week, I’m still learning. I’m happy being called the Japanese Tiger Woods but I’m not that good a player yet. I’ve got a lot to do to get up to that level.” Jointly sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour at Ibaraki Country Club’s West Course, former US Open champion Angel Cabrera and American major champions Fred Couples and Hall of Famer Curtis Strange are also in contention. Couples, who played in a practice round with the teenage phenomenon yesterday, hailed Ishikawa as the “real deal.”
“Curtis and I had heard about him before coming over. It’s hard to see a 17-year-old that good. I don’t know if he’s the best 17-year-old that I’ve seen playing. There was the young kid from New Zealand (Danny Lee) who won the US Amateur recently and there’s Tiger. “But physically, watching Ryo play, he’s the real deal. He has a great game, a beautiful swing and he moves the ball well. In years to come, he’ll get better and better,” said Couples, winner of the 1992 US Masters. Also featuring in this week’s event are Asian Tour stars Arjun Atwal of India, Thailand’s Prayad Marksaeng and China’s Liang Wen-chong. Ishikawa’s presence at local events attracts large galleries and this is a worry for the smooth-swinging Prayad, who will play alongside the crowd favorite and Cabrera in the opening two rounds.
Prayad, ranked 15th on the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit, is eyeing a third Japanese victory of the season as he hopes to win the money list title here, where he is presently ranked second behind Japanese star Shingo Katayama.
