FedexCup last act: the Tour Championship by Coca Cola will be played from today to Sunday in Atlanta, Georgia and at the end of 72 holes the 8,250 million dollars will be awarded for the match (1,485 million for the first) and 35 million bonuses based on results throughout the year and points accumulated in the last four Playoffs matches. The best one will receive a bonus of ten million dollars.
Thus ends the American golf championship, with a challenge that sees only 30 players at the starting tees. At the forefront the new world number one and leader of Fedex, Jason Day and the world number three and second in Fedex, Jordan Spieth. Followed by Rickie Fawler, Henrik Stenson, Bubba Watson. A little behind (eleventh) and forced to climb many positions to grab the succulent bonus is Rory McIlroy, current number two in the world. All 30 participants have a theoretical chance of winning the annual competition.
However, only the first 5 have concrete opportunities to do so regardless of the results of the others and only the first two can actually sleep peacefully, if at the East Lake Golf Club they finish with a lower number of strokes than all. The consolation prizes are respectable: three million for the second; 2 million for the third etcetera. The thirtieth place finisher will also take home a check for $175 for the summer he played. In short, a great feast of money and a great golf party.
On the US front, however, there is yet another bad news regarding Tiger Woods. The champion announced on his website that he had back surgery again. A photocopy of the other surgery, a microdiscectomy to remove a fragment of the disc that was pressing on some nerves.
“It's a disappointment – writes Tiger, who had already set the calendar for his next races – but I'm a fighter. They told me I will be able to fully recover and I'm sure I will." It is to be hoped that he is right, even if the slow recovery from the first operation (17 months before recognizably playing again) and the fact that the Tiger turns 40 in December do not bode well.
Moving on to the European tour, it is worth emphasizing how beautiful and well organized the Italian Open last week was. An international sporting event attended by more than 40 spectators and an exceptional field of golfers. The federation has certainly achieved its goal of demonstrating that Italy is able to host the Ryder 2022, now we just have to wait for the decisions of the responsible bodies and hope to uncork the sparkling wine by the end of October.
In the meantime, this week we are playing in Germany, on the course of the Bad Griesbach Golf Resort, in Bad Griesbach and six Italian players are taking part in the Porsche European Open: Edoardo Molinari, Matteo Manassero, Alessandro Tadini, Renato Paratore, Marco Crespi and Andrea Pavan .
The field that includes, among others, Charl Schwartzel, Graeme McDowell, Robert Karlsson, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Bernd Wiesberger, Stephen Gallacher, Thongchai Jaidee is of quality. Fingers crossed for our Azzurri, especially Edoardo Molinari, Crespi, Pavan and Tadini who have to save their cards for next season.
