Tour Championship, Yawn

The first round of the season-ending Tour Championship tees off tomorrow at East Lake in Atlanta. Tim Finchem and the boys at FedEx who paid big bucks to sponsor the culmination of the PGA Tour's playoffs must be apoplectic. Why? First, the tournament is a big yawn. Vijay Singh only has to show up and breathe on a mirror to collect the $10 million first prize. Even with the changes that Finchem made after last year's predictable finish, Singh has a mortal lock on first place. Second, after watching the Ryder Cup -- only the most exciting and compelling golf event since this year's U.S. Open playoff -- last weekend, who is going to tune in to see the rich get richer, especially when the winner in waiting is badly in need of a personality transplant and the best golfer in the world (remember him?) is still recovering from knee surgery? My guess is that college football and pro football will dominate the TV ratings and that the Tour Championship won't come close to drawing the audience that watched the Ryder Cup. Most of Mr. Fairway's golf buddies didn't even know that the event was being played this week. Time for Finchem and company to go back to the drawing board for another round of changes.

Hitting range balls while wondering whatever happened to Gibby Gilbert.