Above is a picture of Camillo Villegas, lining up a putt at the BMW Championship, demonstrating why he is known on tour as Spider Man. Camillo won the BMW Championship. And he did it in convincing style. He was in first after each of the first three rounds, and finished in 1st, you know, just to keep the streak going. It was a nice win for him. This is his third year on tour but his first win. And he had to hold off Jim Furyk and Anthony Kim, which was no mean feat.
In the process of winning the BMW Championship for himself, which included the associated FedEx Cup points, he made it mathematically impossible for any one to over take Vijay Singh in total points. Which means all Vijay has to do is play the four rounds of The Tour Championship, and he wins the FedEx Cup. And the associated $10 milion. He could play the entire round with just his 9 iron and score rounds in the 100’s , and he would still win. Vijay expressed his pleasure at winning the cup, and his gratitude towards it’s sponsors, by leaving the course and refusing to talk to the press. Which is pretty much standard Vijay. He seems like a decent kind of guy, but his people/PR skills have always been sorely lacking.
And while Camillo and Vijay may be happy with the way things turned out, in the PGA Tour offices I’m sure the general attitude was ‘well crap’. As Jigger so, uh, eloquently pointed out, the whole reason for the FedEx Cup in the first place was to keep fan interest through the last tournaments of the season. And now all the suspense is gone. Add to that the fact that the Ryder Cup will be played before The Tour Championship, and all any one in golf really cares about at this point IS the Ryder Cup, and it’s a safe bet that by the time The Tour Championship rolls around most fans will have moved onto the baseball series, or Monday Night Football ( on ESPN, which is just weird ), or their favorite college football team, or…..well, they will have moved on. Not good for business. I imagine this little scenario will result in another tweaking of the FedEx Cup points system. I’m sure Jigger will have something to say about whatever they come up with.
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