THE TOUR Championship at East Lake,Atlanta

From Thursday September 24 to Sunday 27 the 30 survivors of the first 3 playoffs legs will battle at East Lake Golf Club in THE TOUR Championship for the Fedex Cup and the $10 million bonus.
For the last playoff the points are reset so the top five players in the Fedex standings will have the opportunity to claim the Fedex Cup with a win on Sunday.

This is what they will start with

#1 Tiger Woods 2,500
2 Steve Stricker 2,250
3 Jim Furyk 2,000
4 Zach Johnson 1,800
5 Heath Slocum 1,600
.....................................................
6 Padraig Harrington 1,400
7 Sean O’Hair 1,200
8 Scott Verplank 1,000....etc..to the 30th who gets 210.

The points distribution for THE TOUR Championship is as follow

1st 2,500,
2nd 1,500
3rd 1,000
4th 750
5th 550....etc

The top five control their own destiny,it’s simple:Win THE TOUR Championship and take the Fedex Cup and the $10 million!!
For the players outside the top 5 things get a little tricky as not only they must win on Sunday but they also need some help from the higher ranked players and indeed from Tiger Woods.
In 6th place Harrington has the best chance to take it all with a win as he would only need Tiger to finish 3rd or worse to finish on top of the standings.No other player can stand in his way.
7th O’Hair must win and Woods + Steve Stricker have to finish 3rd or worse.
Obviously as you start with less points you need more help from more players and it becomes almost impossible to get it considering that there is only 30 players in the field.

So,who’s favorite to win at East Lake?

Well,everybody’s money will be on Tiger,he’s won The TOUR Championship twice and finished 2nd three times.He also made a big statement 2 weeks ago at the BMW Championship,winning by 8 shots to regain the #1 spot of the Fedex standings going into the last playoff.He will be rested and ready,Why shouldn’t he win again?

Now,who is next in line ?
We have to consider that the top five of the standings will be super motivated,there is an extra10 million reasons for any of them to win and I think they will all play their best golf this week.I would throw Harrington in the mix,he’s had 5 top 10 in his last 5 starts and is really hungry for a win.The Irishman is a tough competitor and he will give Tiger a run for his money.

This should be the logical ending for the Fedex Cup,these guys have battled all season to be in the top five of the standings and one of them is going to be rewarded with the $10 million bonus.However 25 more of the best players in the world are teeing-up at East Lake and regardless of their chances to win the Fedex Cup they all want to win THE TOUR Championship.

This is going to be a fantastic week of golf,check out the odds and the pairings at BetPhoenix.com.