After a rough start, THE TOUR Champ. strikes gold

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Two separate storylines at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola created a great atmosphere for a week in late September.

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What will you remember?

The third time proved to be charm for THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola.

After being tweaked for the third consecutive year, the season-ending event finally lived up to everything it was pegged to be when it was conceived. THE TOUR Championship provided a dramatic conclusion to the season and an exciting playoff atmosphere at the same time.

The first two editions of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup were less than satisfying, particularly the 2008 version that only required Vijay Singh to complete 72 holes in order to win the FedExCup. It didn't quite seem right that Singh was essentially off the property with his $10 million check while the tournament was still going on.

That didn't happen again. Officials and players on the PGA TOUR put their heads together and came up with a formula that worked. When revising the playoff system, they put enough value on the regular season, but added the volatility needed to make the playoffs interesting.

"I think they pretty much got it right," Luke Donald said afterwards.

The FedExCup was won by Tiger Woods, who had been the year's most dominant player, even though he failed to win a major. But Tiger had to actually show up and play hard in order to win the big prize.

The tournament was won by Phil Mickelson and was a nice way for Lefty to conclude a season filled with struggles off the course as both his wife and mother were diagnosed with breast cancer. He didn't really have a chance to win the FedExCup, but the victory certainly announced his return to prominence and precipitated his return to No. 2 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

The real winners were the fans who watched on television and those who attended the event at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. They had Tiger. They had Phil. They had glorious weather. They had drama.

This time they got it right.

Stan Awtrey, a columnist at PGATOUR.COM, is still searching for a playoff system that will reward him a $10 million bonus for filing the most stories from the press tent at East Lake.