No one cares for the PGA Finale?
Many people think that the final of the PGA Tour, the Tour Championship, won’t be worth watching. The Tour Championship is the final play-off event of the FedEx cup series taking place at East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta from September 23rd till
26th. The second round finished yesterday, with Jim Furyk and Luke Donald leading at the end.
The FedEx Cup series started with125 players from all around the world, and only the top thirty have qualified for the final and will be competing for the $10 million purse. With so many plus points, why wouldn’t one enjoy watching the tournament? Here are
some reasons why.
Even though it is somewhat like a post season tournament, The Tour Championship just feels like another tournament. For some reason, the kind of importance and popularity given to a major championship isn’t there for the Tour. At the end of the day, it has
very little significance.
The not so important feeling might be because many of the top players aren’t competing. That’s a very odd rumour since many of the popular names in golf are competing for the FedEx Cup Prize. The only ‘popular’ player that is not competing is Tiger Woods.
T
he fact that Woods is not competing has nothing to do with the Tournament sponsors or the Tour itself. The only person to blame is Woods himself, who didn’t play well enough to qualify for the final round.
Another reason might be that the press conferences won’t be that interesting this time. Humorous scenes or drama can’t be expected from Bubba Watson, who right now appears to be the most alluring of all the competitors.
Corey Pavin is not expected at the conference where he can lie about how he respects Tiger Woods or Jim Gray inquiring about his misbehaviour. Neither are John Daly or Colin Montgomerie playing, so that we can expect some interesting statements in front
of the media.
One thing that might make people lose interest in the final is that the top five players aren’t exactly golf ‘stars’. Where one would expect players like Phil Mickelson on the number one position, the FedEx Cup was being led by Matt Kuchar, when he entered
the tournament. Apart from Kuchar, there is Dustin Johnson, Charley Hoffman, Paul Casey and Steve Stricker in the top five.
Out of all these players, only Dustin Johnson is the one with a super star personality. However, based on how he is performing, it doesn’t look like he has much of a chance of winning. With the leaders of the game scoring so low on the popularity scale,
it is not a surprise that the tournament doesn’t attract a lot of viewers.
In addition to missing star appeal, this tournament doesn’t really have eminent international names at the top of the leader board. Ernie Else who just got elected for the hall of fame was leading the FedEx Cup standings for twenty two weeks but was in the
eighth position as he started playing in the final.
Currently, Ernie was at 1 over par 71 in the game. Other international players like Justin Rose and Adam Scott are not doing very well either. Rose was 2 under par 68 and Adam Scott was one over par after the end of the second round.
Leaving international players aside, people really had great expectations from Bubba Watson. Having an amazing personality and being only one of the few young players on the field, it would have been good if Watson led the tournament as well.
Being at 23rd place after the second round, Watson has a very steep mountain to climb. This is something that may not appeal to viewers yet again.
Apart from Bubba, Dustin Johnson is also a player to watch out for. People really haven’t forgotten his penalties at the PGA Championship that he got after grinding his club on the bunker.
Being at number 23rd place, Johnson still can’t let his strengths work for him on the east lake golf course. Again, golf fans thought that the Tour Championship would give some good news to poor Johnson.
Basically, the Tour Championship is proving to be disappointing for many golf lovers. It isn’t getting the importance it should. Then again, those who like it are still following it and are very eager to see who wins the series and takes the cup home.
Tags: