Golf Special Edition: Sleepy days lead to major ups (Part 1)
The world of golf has been experiencing some rather sleepy days in the previous weeks but let us not worry about that since it was a necessary timeout for those who needed to decompress. In a few days, the arena of golf is staging the two biggest events
consecutively. Of course this statement is with apologies to the World Golf Championship, the Texas Swing and the Majors and events that have or will be appearing before or after them. These two events, you guessed it, are the Ryder Cup and FedEx Cup Finale.
The FedEx Cup’s finale will be held in Atlanta and has a potential dollar amount of 11.35 million for the 30 players in the field. After the finale, the crowd sees Uncle Sam’s dozen pros flying off to Wales. These golfers will be appearing at the Ryder Cup,
where the yanks are said to achieve a win over the Europeans since 1993. The quiet week that passed is leading to the stormy drama, and has had many ups and downs that need to be mentioned here.
For a steady diet of at-bats, it so happens that the major Baseball teams sometimes send in a fringe player. The periphery player, hence acts as an advantage towards the team for ensuring the previously stated reason. This relates to golf as well. As the
PGA Tour advanced in its wake, a sizeable amount of players were seen to make detours and head into the minors. Most carried this out willingly and hence many championships, like the Boise Open Nationwide, had players that had the eligibility of big tours.
The up side here is that it seemed to work for those who took this step. Card holders like John Mallinger, Ted Purdy and Troy Merritt, who is the last year’s qualifying school medallist, are a part of the list. Those who can’t make the FedEx Cup rounds face
an idle time in their hands, and those who can’t achieve the top 125 points have a 6 week long vacation without pay. The sleepy week had its affects but then there is fall, where the true desperation falls. For those who wanted to stay game-sharp before the
fall series, the Nationwide was the best option at hand. All it needed by these players was swallowing up their egos, and some did.
Mallinger is a player that faced a few slashes on the developmental tour. He hardly played the PGA Tour and ended up missing the FedEx Cup series. At the Boise Open, Mallinger finished with a T3, and if we move a week before to the Nationwide start in Utah,
he ended his game in T7. He was glad he went, and this is something many should consider.
Another up is the Tour’s Player of the year award, who has more than half a dozen candidates to decide from. Tiger Woods, the 2 times FedEx Cup winner, and Vijay Singh, the 2008 winner, didn’t seem to play well enough and are out of the FedEx Finale. This
means that a first-time champion is supposed to be crowned this time, and the winner of the overall points will be handed $ 10 million and a five year exemption.
With half a dozen candidates in the field, the title is more rumoured to go to the all-favourite Phil Mickelson. With Woods nowhere in the fields, Mickelson has a chance of becoming number one in the world rankings. Mickelson is the defending Champion at
the East Lake Golf Club, and has attained two wins of his career. The tension and anxiety level of this times Finale knows no bounds with such conditions at hand.
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