AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2006 > November > 05 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USAussie reigns at tournament set to change
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
So we take our leave of the old United States golf tour as we have known it since Franklin D. Roosevelt was president, and Paul Runyan was leading the money list — with $6,767. It will be taking all sorts of crooks and turns down the road, leading us to heaven knows where.
And there will be changes in midstream, and bickering, and charges and counter-charges, but at the end, one player will be standing there cuddling this new thing called the FedEx Cup.
Until then, Adam Scott shall remain the king of the hill, the 2006 winner of the Tour Championship. Scott is a native of Australia, schooled at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, with a listed residential address in Switzerland. He was making his third run at this brass ring event of the tour at grand old East Lake Golf Club, and as he said in his confessional, “trying to make up for opportunities I’ve thrown away.”
Truth to tell, he was giving himself an undeserved picture of a failure. He is only 26 years old, is in only his fourth full year on the PGA Tour, and this is the fifth time he has won. One of those bears an asterisk, for the Nissan Open which he was leading in Los Angeles last year was shortened by rain, but he was paid in full. He might even consider himself a bit unlucky by winning this edition of the Tour Championship, instead of 2007. He takes home a check for a little over $1 million for this one. Win next year, after all the new gimmicks have been woven into the championship, and he could take home a check for $10 million. That’s right, ten as in T-E-N.
Just about everything about the Tour Championship will change, including the grand prize. It will be played in mid-September, before the leaves have changed, and temperatures will be uncomfortably summery. And it will be the climax of a four-tournament playoff for a trophy known as the FedEx Cup. The $10-million will be the payoff not just for the one tournament, but for the points accumulated in the four events that compromise the FedEx Cup championship.
At least that’s how it’s projected. Stay turned for later developments, for this thing will be subject to change.
As it was, there sat Adam Scott, young, handsome, almost schoolboyish in his recital before the media, his new crystal trophy before him, surrounded by a wreath of roses. “It has been a long time since I’ve been here,” he said, referring to himself as a leader who too often failed to close the deal. “Christmas is going to be great.”
If there was one key stroke in the round he played in the company of a slumping Vijay Singh, it was a 20-foot putt on the 17th hole. It followed three previous strokes of less than championship caliber and saved his par. On the 13th hole, he blasted out of a bunker into the cup for birdie. “The hole just got in the way,” as he described it.
After many years of home-bred champions, Scott becomes the fourth non-American winner of this grand finale. Singh, Mike Weir and Retief Goosen preceded him, Fijian, Canadian and South African, though Weir schooled at Brigham Young University and Singh has lived in Ponte Vedra, Fla., for years.
Now, on to ‘07 and the “new” PGA Tour, whatever that will turn out to be. One thing for sure, since Tom Cousins resurrected this world of East Lake, and the surrounding community, and the Southern Company and Coca-Cola have joined arms, the Tour Championship at East Lake is a fixture, and under the new rules, moves up in stature as the World Series, Super Bowl and Final Four of golf. That one feature of the revised and upgraded PGA Tour will not change.
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