Surprise, Tiger Wins Fed Ex Cup

Here’s a shocker: Tiger Woods wins the Fed Ex Cup. His impressive victory in the Tour Championship only confirmed what we already knew – that he is the best player on earth. He finished the playoffs at an astonishing 75 strokes under par. The real question is who in golf is in a position to challenge his dominance? Someone might get hot in an event here and there but over the course of a year, Tiger is going to dominate. At this point, it looks like a given that he will easily surpass Jack Nicklaus’s 18 majors as well as Sam Snead’s 82 PGA Tour victories (he currently has 61, which is one behind Arnold Palmer and three behind Ben Hogan).

The real story of the Fed Ex Cup has to be Steve Stricker, who held on and finished second despite a middle-of-the-pack finish at the Tour Championship. Has anyone ever come as far back as Stricker has in the past two years? It’s been a remarkable turnaround for the Wisconsin native. By the way, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Stricker paired with Woods at the Presidents Cup. They played the first two rounds of the last two tournaments together, appear to be comfortable with each other and they share the same agent.

Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem has some decisions to make about the Fed Ex Cup before next year. Players want to see a change in the schedule, perhaps two weeks on, a week off, and then the final two weeks. The point system may need some adjustments as well. Tiger and Phil each skipped an event and finished in the top five in the overall standings. Overall, I give the inaugural Fed Ex Cup a B-.

Hitting range balls while wondering whatever happened to Tommy Aaron.