PGA Tour Championship: Who's in contention for $10 million FedEx Cup?
The PGA Tour season comes to a close this weekend in Atlanta with the . Based on a system of accumulated points throughout 2012, the top 30 golfers will tee it up, starting Thursday, for a chance to win the year's final tourney and $1.4 million. The overall points leader after the Tour Championship is completed will take home the FedEx Cup and a $10 million prize.
Rory McIlroy comes into the championship , especially based on his play over the last month. He won the PGA Championship in August and both the Deutsche Bank and BMW Championships, that make up the FedEx playoffs.
Jim Furyk, a former FedEx Tour Championship winner, says McIlroy is not only the man to watch this weekend, but the following weekend when the US hosts Europe in the biennial Ryder Cup matches outside Chicago.
"He's played phenomenal this year. ... He's right now the present day Tiger Woods, where everyone's eyes are on him," Furyk told .
Tiger Woods won this event back in 2007 and has finished as the runner-up four times. He has won in 2012, his best season since his personal life became tabloid fodder and leg injuries robbed him of time on the golf course.
Some observers of the pro golf game say Tiger is still looking for that level of confidence that helped him win 14 major championships, to this point. Former Masters and British Open champ Nick Faldo chimed in, via the Irish Golf Desk and .
鈥淗e shows flashes of it but he doesn鈥檛 finish it off. His weekends have been pretty rough in all the majors. It is going to be very interesting for the players to see how he deals with it," Faldo said.
Other PGA Tour players with a shot at the FedEx title include , who won the Barclays Championship, the first FedEx playoff tournament. Watney's in third place in the FedEx standings, going into this weekend. , who's been in contention in the last two FedEx playoff events, is currently in fourth place.
The Tour Championship will be played at in Atlanta, the first golf home of one of the greatest players of all time. 鈥� a former US and British Open champion and one of the co-founders of the Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters tournament 鈥� learned how to play the game at East Lake, which opened in 1904.
The Tour Championship on Thursday and Friday on the Golf Channel, beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern time. NBC will pick up the coverage on the weekend, starting at 2 p.m. Eastern Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
