- FedExCup Points: 50,000
- Purse: $1.26 million
- Winning Share: $1,260,000
- Yards: 7,154
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents
ATLANTA -- Steve Stricker knows there are some who think he's playing Cinderfella in the drama that will unfold this week at East Lake Golf Club during THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola.
| RELATED |
• Video: Stricker is a favorite to win
• Video: Woods on his BMW win
• Video: Mickelson wins in Boston
|
Less than a year after he was named the PGA TOUR's Comeback Player of the Year, you see, Stricker finds himself sharing the same stage with a pair of future World Golf Hall of Famers in Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson as they try to win the first FedExCup.
Stricker's there because he opened the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup with an emotional victory in the first event. That win at The Barclays was his first since 2001 and was followed by top-10s in his next two Playoff starts.
Mickelson and Woods dueled in the second Playoff event with Lefty taking the two-shot victory at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Woods came through in the third, leaving Aaron Baddeley and Stricker in his wake with a closing 63 at the BMW Championship.
So Woods and Stricker, who rank 1-2 in the standings, control their own destiny this week at East Lake. Each can win the $10 million bonus with a victory at THE TOUR Championship. Mickelson can do the same, as long as Woods doesn't finish second.
Two winners on Sunday could very easily become one -- and a very rich one, at that, since the winner of THE TOUR Championship also collects $1.26 million. Mickelson has one victory at East Lake, while Woods has been runner-up three times.
For Stricker to have a chance to usurp the two most popular players in the game is something that even Mickelson and Woods can embrace.
"He is one of the nicest guys, a great competitor, and -- I mean, it really is great to see him come back the last two years from where he was and to have the success he's having right now," Woods, who will play with Stricker on Thursday, said last week.
"It's terrific," Mickelson said with a smile. "When people say it couldn't happen to a nicer guy, everybody means that. I mean, we're all pulling for him to do well -- maybe not so much this week -- but all the other times."
"If Stricker wins the FedExCup, we'll have a party," Mark Calcavecchia agreed. "I'll make him drink more than two beers. I think that's his max, from what I read."
Stricker laughed when Calcavecchia's invitation was repeated. He didn't think he had ever had a beer with the 47-year-old veteran but added he'd be happy to buy if that $10 million was deposited in his account.
"I'm sure there are some guys pulling for me just because of where I've been," Stricker said. "I am the underdog in this whole deal, and that's kind of what this format has brought about, I think, is the ability for someone to come from nowhere to win this thing.
"I think that's what leads to excitement, and I think that's what leads to people getting fired up and the players being fired up to play in it. It's exciting, and I'm proud to be a part of it."
Stricker and Rory Sabbatini, who's ranked fourth in the FedExCup, are the only players to have posted top-10s in each of the first three Playoff events. Mickelson and Woods each took one week off but have a win and a top-10 to their credit in the other two.
The Barclays and Deutsche Bank Championship each featured 18 of the top 20 players in the world, while the BMW Championship had 16. THE TOUR Championship features all of the top 10 and 15 of the top 20 among the elite field of 30 survivors.
Overall, in the four Playoff events, there has been a 96-percent participation rate. Only 15 players who were eligible elected to skip an event, out of 364 potential spots.
"The reason that I think it's been successful is that we've had incredible attendance by all the players," Mickelson said. "... We've had some great final round, exciting events. Tiger shot a course record last week on Sunday to win by two. I loved the head-to-head match that he and I had at Boston, and I thought that Steve Stricker and K.J. Choi duking it out in New York was a great way to start off, as well. ...
"So I think it's been a successful start, and I think it'll get better as time goes on."
Mickelson enters THE TOUR Championship with three victories, but with a gnawing gap in the season as he battled a wrist injury for nearly three months. Woods, on the other hand, has won six times, including the PGA Championship and three of his last four starts.
Regardless of who should win on Sunday, Woods is a virtual lock to win the PGA TOUR Player of the Year Award. He says that shouldn't take anything away from the FedExCup, though.
"I think you've got to look at it as how other sports look at it," Woods said. "It can be the best team of the season and still not win the championship. That's kind of how this playoff was kind of instituted.
"You can win 30 tournaments throughout the year and be Player of the Year, but you just don't get the FedExCup, you just didn't play well at the right time. That's the nature of how most sports are. I think we tried to emulate that in our sport."
Stricker agreed.
"It's just like any other playoffs," he said. "You could be in baseball and have the best record of the year and get into the playoffs and not win the World Series, or vice versa. You could be the team with not the best record and come in and win it all.
"I think it gives the opportunity to a lot more players entering this playoff system. I mean, I started this system I think 12th or 13th in points and moved up right away in contention for this whole thing, so I think it gives a lot more players the opportunity to do something special at the end of the year, and it adds a lot of interest to the game.
"You know, for the players, too, it provides a lot of interest, too, coming down the stretch. It brings the fans back into it at a time of the year when the PGA is over, golf kind of disappears because of football, but yet we're still talking about this."
And just wait to hear what's being said come Sunday.
