Big 4 turns into a big flop
September 15, 2009
LEMONT, Ill. (AP)—The “Big Four” in last year’s FedEx Cup delivered a bigflop for an encore.
Vijay Singh won the first two playoff events and mathematically clinched the$10 million prize before the Tour Championship. All he had to do was finish fourrounds at East Lake to win.
He didn’t make it out of the second round this year. Singh missed the cut acareer-high six times, had only three top 10s and is 60th on the money list withjust over $1.2 million. He did not reach the Tour Championship for the firsttime since 1994, when Nick Price was player of the year and Tiger Woods was afreshman at Stanford.
Singh indicated he will play some in the Fall Series as he tries to avoidgoing winless for the first time since 2001. Singh, 46, had knee surgery inJanuary and never seriously contended.
“It wasn’t the season I was looking for,” Singh told Golfweek magazine.“A lot of mishaps along the way, and it ended up being a real crappy season.… I had a pretty ordinary year, to say the least, and I’m just going to gofigure it out. There’s no other explanation.”
Camilo Villegas won the final two FedEx Cup playoff events in 2008 and wassecond to Singh in the standings. Villegas, who rose to No. 7 in the worldranking at the end of the year, hasn’t won since. The Colombian has slipped toNo. 16 in the world and didn’t come close to making it to the Tour Championship.
Sergio Garcia lost in a playoff twice during the FedEx Cup postseason andfinished third. He closed the year with two victories in Europe and fivestraight finishes in the top five to reach No. 2 in the world. Garcia had achance to go to No. 1 in the world in March.
Garcia now is No. 7 in the world ranking and barely made it to the BMWChampionship before he was eliminated.
And then there’s Anthony Kim, a two-time winner a year ago who finished No.4 in the final standings. Kim had only three top 10s this year, missed four cutsand has slipped to No. 20 in the world.
“I’ve been struggling all year, haven’t gotten putts to fall,” Kim said.“It’s disappointing, but I’ll tell you what, I’ve worked real hard for the lastmonth. I’m going to keep working hard and I’m going to be ready for nextseason.”
NEWCOMERS: Ten players will be making their Tour Championship debut nextweek at East Lake, meaning they all have a mathematical chance for the $10million first prize. For most of them, winning the FedEx Cup is unrealistic.
Some of the perks that come with a spot at East Lake are very tangible,however—namely a spot in three majors, including the Masters. It will be thefirst trip to Augusta National for Kevin Na, Steve Marino, Brian Gay, MarcLeishman and Jason Dufner.
Gay had already qualified by winning (twice) on the PGA Tour this year.
Marino missed out on the Masters last year when he was 34th on the moneylist (the top 30 get in). He failed to qualify for the U.S. Open and got intothe British Open as an alternate.
“I’m super excited,” he said. “I’ve never played in the Masters. I’veplayed in two U.S. Opens, but I didn’t qualify this year. It’s going to be ahuge relief not to have to worry about that going into next year.”
HOME ON THE RANGE: Padraig Harrington is peculiar about practice ranges.
Coming off a runner-up finish at The Barclays, the three-time major championlost some confidence on the range at the Deutsche Bank Championship—not somuch because of his swing, but the angle of the range.
“There was something about the angle of the range (at TPC Boston) that Ididn’t like, and I hit a number of poor shots on the range,” he said. “Andevery day I went to the golf course, I wasn’t feeling good about my driving.”
He had no trouble with the angle or alignment at Cog Hill. It remains to beseen how East Lake works out for him, as long as he can get past the pond thatcovers the first 100 yards.
As for his ranges he enjoys? He likes the TPC Sawgrass and MuirfieldVillage, but his favorite is at the Masters.
“Augusta, by a long way,” he said. “And they’re changing it.”
FIRST TEE: The First Tee last week began offering its education and lifeskills program to children of military personnel at 50 installations, with 50more military installations to start up in the spring.
The goal is to reach 87,000 military children within two years as part of anagreement with the Department of Defense.
The First Tee chapters located near military bases are providing curriculum,equipment and training for eligible kids from ages 5-18. The idea is create funand safe learning environments that cause kids to get curious about golf andillustrate links between golf and its values used in everyday life.
“The program goes far beyond teaching fundamental golf skills,” said JoeLouis Barrow Jr., CEO of The First Tee.
The first 50 bases were in the United States. The First Tee also plans to gooverseas to bases located in countries such as Cuba, Germany, Italy, Japan andSpain.
BABY CONFLICT: Former U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy and his wife areexpecting their third child early next year, right about the time for him todefend his title in the Accenture Match Play Championship.
The due date is Feb. 15, the Monday of the tournament outside Tucson, Ariz.
Ogilvy has considered his options, and said it’s possible he could be on theDove Mountain course when Julie goes into labor, in which case he would headhome. He lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., just under two hours away.
“Hopefully, if she’s on schedule, she’ll have the baby the week before,”he said. “I can stay at home when I don’t have the early times. There is thepotential I’ll be on the golf course. I’ll be disappointed, but it is the birthof my child.”
Ogilvy is a two-time winner of Accenture Match Play with a career record of17-2.
DIVOTS: Cog Hill became the fourth golf course were Tiger Woods has won atleast five times. The others are Bay Hill, Firestone and Torrey Pines. He haswon as many times (25) on those four courses as Johnny Miller in his PGA Tourcareer. … Padraig Harrington has made double bogey or worse in his last 13events on the PGA Tour. … Six players have qualified for the Tour Championshipall three years of the FedEx Cup—Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Phil Mickelson,Ernie Els, Hunter Mahan and Stewart Cink.
STAT OF THE WEEK: Lorena Ochoa is No. 1 in the women’s world ranking and No.11 on the LPGA Tour money list.
FINAL WORD: “How could you not? Every day you wake up to a lifestyle like Ihave, playing professional golf. As I always say, I’d play this game for free.Just don’t tell anybody.”—Padraig Harrington, on keeping a positive outlookduring his struggles this year.
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