Podcasts
How I actually (kind of) saved the Tour Championship at East Lake. You're welcome.
Mike Mulholland
I know what you're thinking: Not another article proposing some change to the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup. We've certainly seen plenty of those of late and have even offered up some possible solutions ourselves. But this is different. I promise.
This story starts on the Tuesday afternoon ahead of the Tour Championship and it actually takes place in Atlanta. You see, I was at East Lake for a couple days covering the pre-tournament run-up and I saw something interesting as the top two players in the Official World Golf Ranking, playing in separate groups, took on the par-5 18th hole by . . . not taking on the par-5 18th.
First Xander Schauffele hit a couple tee shots purposely left and down the par-4 10th hole. Minutes later, Scottie Scheffler and playing partner Sam Burns did the same thing with Scheffler going as far as to practice laying up on 10 as well before hitting his approach back onto 18 green. I found it unusual so I put on my Big-J Journo hat and asked them about it. See something, say something, right?
Turns out, these guys were among the players considering this alternate strategy, in part, because the restored 18th fairway was extremely hard to hit and playing from the rough with water involved on the second shot was a scary proposition. And three golfers wound up doing it in a big spot. In the Creator Classic. Why didn't anyone do this in the Tour Championship? Because hours after I asked those questions and wrote my story, the PGA Tour added an internal out-of-bounds for the hole.
Coincidence? I don't think so! Well, possibly, but it's more fun to think that I changed, no, that I SAVED the Tour Championship. Seriously, imagine guys were playing down a different hole on Sunday with $25 million on the line? That would have looked ridiculous—especially at a course that had just undergone a much-talked-about restoration—and the PGA Tour and NBC probably wouldn't have been too thrilled with that. So, again, you're welcome, everyone.
Of course, thanks to the staggered start, there was no drama on that 18th hole on Sunday. Scheffler, holding a four-shot lead, found the rough, wedged across the water and then onto the green for a very boring par to win by four. So on second thought, maybe I made things more boring . . . OK, let's not think about that. I prefer the first narrative of saving the event.
Anyway, we discuss all of it—the rules change, the staggered start, Scottie's dominance, Sahith Theegala's self-imposed penalty, a fun Creator Classic and, yes, some possible real "fixes" to the FedEx Cup (Sorry!)—and more on this week's episode of The Loop podcast. Please have a listen: