TOUR Insider: THE TOUR Championship

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Vijay Singh still has work to do.

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Vijay Singh won't be content to just show up at THE TOUR Championship -- he wants to win.

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Oh, sure, he's already clinched the FedExCup, and deservedly so with his victories in the first two Playoff events. And if he gets through THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola unscathed, signs for the correct score for four rounds over East Lake Golf Club, and doesn't get hurt, he'll pick up a $10 million bonus check.

But Singh isn't going to Atlanta to just sip a few Cokes and smile. He's looking for another champagne toast that goes to the tournament winner.

"It's a great feeling to know all I need to do is tee it up in Atlanta, but I want to make the point that I'm going to try to win the golf tournament," Singh said. "I'd rather be in this position instead of going out there knowing I had to win."

He doesn't but he wants to. Singh, 45, has three victories this year, all since August, after he struggled for much of the year getting used to swing changes he initiated a year ago. All his hard work paid off with victories in the first two events at The Barclays and the DeutscheBank Championship in the Playoffs for the FedExCup.

He won't apologize for the late spurt and he won't apologize for trying to add to his 34 PGA TOUR titles or his $6.4 million in prize money, which puts him atop the money list.

Singh is the obvious favorite when he arrives at East Lake for the $7 million event that ends the FedExCup season. He's had time off to recharge his batteries after a week off and the Ryder Cup, and the course is one of his favorites; he won there in 2002 and he has finished no worse than ninth since East Lake became the tournament home in 2004.

Like many tournaments this year, Rees Jones gets a say in the outcome. The famous course designer twice has done renovation work at East Lake, including last year -- making six courses on the TOUR this year played at venues at which he has done renovation work.

The greens that were so stressed last year by drought in the Atlanta area were resurfaced with bermudagrass. Jones took the opportunity to tweak a few contours -- which he likes to use as a form of a hazard to instill the course with more resistance to scoring -- and create some roll-off areas on several greens.

In addition, the green on No. 7 was reconfigured and pushed back 43 yards, making the dogleg left par-4 hole 394 yards. The fairway and green on No. 17 were repositioned left, closer to East Lake's shoreline, and new tees were added on No. 13, 15 and 16. Four holes were toughened with additional fairway bunkers.

"It was a very good golf course and we made it a little bit better, a little more challenging," Jones said. "You have to keep up with what players are capable of doing. It doesn't take much; you want to be smart about it. You want the challenges to make sense and make the guys think."

FEDEXCUP POINTERS

• More than a third of the field, 11 players, are eligible to compete this week after representing their respective squads in the Ryder Cup at Valhalla Golf Club. Only one is from Europe, Sergio Garcia, who is No. 3 in the FedExCup standings. The two members of the American team who did not qualify for East Lake are J.B. Holmes and Boo Weekley.

• Mike Weir was among the international players who enjoyed the two-week break to get ready for THE TOUR Championship -- and he needed it. With aches in his right knee, elbow and hand, he did not plan to touch a club until he got to East Lake. "I'm closing in on 40 and as hard as I've been working, I think it's just the wear and tear," Weir told The Canadian Press. "I've got to take it easy here. I think it's just stuff from practice and a little bit of age. I don't think it's anything major."

• Fifteen players in this week's field have yet to win this year. This is, obviously, their best opportunity given the size of the field. They also might be the most motivated among this focus group.

• Twelve men are returning to East Lake for the second time since the start of the Playoffs last year. They are: Singh, Garcia, Hunter Mahan, Tim Clark, K.J. Choi, Ernie Els, Camilo Villegas, Robert Allenby, Stewart Cink, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker and Phil Mickelson.

• Kevin Sutherland, Ken Duke, Briny Baird, Billy Mayfair and Bubba Watson belong to an exclusive club this week at East Lake. Masters invitations are coveted by many but received by fewer than 100 golfers each year. The top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of 2008 will receive an invitation to the 2009 Masters, as will the top 30 on the final 2008 PGA TOUR Money List, past winners of the Masters, winners of PGA TOUR tournaments awarding full FedExCup points, and others who have done well at selected events. This year, five golfers will join the list based on their play in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. Sutherland, Duke, Baird, Mayfair and Watson earned their invitations by playing well enough to qualify for THE TOUR Championship, which this year carries with it a Masters berth. Currently, none of those five ranks among the top 50 in Official World Golf Ranking or in the top 30 on the PGA TOUR Money List, and while any or all of them might finish the season there, their trip to Augusta is secure regardless.