Sips of Maginnes: On fashion, Furyk, fields and fun

text size

ATLANTA -- If you'll remember, Ryan Moore wore a tie during all four rounds of the BMW Championship, and on one of the crisper days he had the tie under a zip-up sweater with a hood on the back.

At East Lake, where Bobby Jones played his last rounds of golf, Ryan intended to salute one of the game's greats with retro fashion. But much like a woman carrying a pair of high heels in her hand comfort had to take a back seat to fashion on Thursday when the mercury rose over 90 degrees and Ryan's tie only made it a couple of holes. Ryan did pledge to sport the tie if the temperature cooperated later in the week but summer does not give up easily in Atlanta.

GEOFF OGILVY SAID that THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola can sometimes feel like a "ghost town" with only 30 players in the field. Interestingly, the only tournament that boasted a smaller field all year than the one at East Lake was the season-opening SBS Championship which had only 28 winners from the 2009 season. In case you don't remember all the way back to January Ogilvy won the SBS Championship. If he had managed to go on to victory in THE TOUR Championship he could have taken down two prestigious titles while only beating 56 players in the process.

ANDY PRODGER, K.J. CHOI'S veteran caddy, wore long pants to the driving range on Thursday. By the time K.J. took to the first tee, though, the old codger Prodger was wearing shorts. He donned the shorts for the rest of the week for the first time in recent memory. When K.J. won the 2007 AT&T National at Congressionalin the Maryland heat Andy wore slacks every day -- and from the looks of things his legs hadn't seen the sun since. But he took the ribbing from his fellow loopers and players with good-natured grunts. Incidentally, at 58 Prodger was not the elder statesmen in the caddy shack this week. As ever, that title goes to Mike (Fluff) Cowan who is 62 this year and caddied for the eventual FedExCup champ, Jim Furyk.

AS THE SUN SET on East Lake on Saturday evening there were three U.S. Open champions in the top four on the leaderboard -- Jim Furyk, Retief Goosen and Geoff Ogilvy. East Lake played like a major championship venue last week with its gnarly Bermuda rough and concrete greens so it is no surprise that several of the top contenders were former winners of the national championship. There have been no rumblings from the USGA or East Lake about holding the national championship but it certainly has shown that it is a worthy venue.

AS JIM FURYK AND RETIEF Goosen made their way to the sixth green on Sunday there were still 14 players -- or nearly half the field of 30 -- within six shots of the lead. All but a couple had a mathematical possibility of winning the golf tournament and the FedExCup. Matt Kuchar, who came into the week as the No. 1 seed, was doing his part to help the unlikely chasers, too. With a few holes to go he was in 26th alone, where Nick Watney needed him to be for Nick to win the Cup. Nick had to win THE TOUR Championship, though, and the man who soared into contention with a 63 on Saturday faltered with a pair of bogeys in his last three holes to tie for fourth. Still, Nick had walked off the 18th green at the BMW Championship with a double bogey, thinking that might have cost him a trip to Atlanta. Once he got there, it took Nick a while to get untracked but he played his final 27 holes at East Lake in 10 under.

JIM FURYK WAS 8 for 8 in sand saves for the week when his ball found the bunker to the right of the 18th green. He needed a par to win, and ... well .. you know what happened. He got up and down and gave us a show of emotion that is contradictory to his normally laid-back, almost stoic golf course demeanor. Lost in that exciting finish, though, was the fact that Jim also led the field in greens in regulation at 73.6 percent. Oh yeah, he also led the field in scoring, FedExCup points and money. Not a bad week.