Can’t win it all, but plenty is left

There may be a need to bring a bottle of silver polish and a lint-free cloth to The Tour Championship this week. There is a bit of tarnish that needs to be taken off the PGA Tour’s season-ending event.

There’s no more drama about who will win the FedEx Cup: Vijay Singh can take care of that by completing four rounds, even if he finishes dead last.

But to most of the field, especially the first-timers, the tournament remains a pretty nice plum to pick at the end of the long season. There’s a $7 million purse, and the winner will walk away with $1.26 million.

“For about 85 percent of the guys out here, and for me, it’s a big deal,” said Ben Curtis, who will be playing in the event for the second time. “It’s an honor to be here. It just shows how hard it is to get there. Look at Padraig Harrington; he’s had a great year —- he won two majors —- and he’s not going to be there.”

There are eight players in the 30-man field who will be playing in The Tour Championship for the first time: Anthony Kim, Kevin Sutherland, Dudley Hart, Ken Duke, D.J. Trahan, Ryuji Imada, Andrews Romero and Bubba Watson. To them it’s a very big deal.

“I had two goals starting out the year,” said Imada, a former Georgia All-American. “One was to get my first win, and the other was to make it to The Tour Championship.”

Nine players started outside the top 30 when the playoffs began and moved into the Tour Championship: Tim Clark, Hunter Mahan, Billy Mayfair, Camilo Villegas, Mike Weir, Duke, Hart, Sutherland and Watson.

“It’s the top 30. If you get in the top 30 you get to be in all the majors the next year,” Watson said. “Any time you get a free invitation, that’s one thing off your mind.”

Hart had the hardest climb, starting at No. 68 and ending up No. 14 after finishing second at the BMW Championship.

“That was obviously a goal,” Hart said. “I’m not a mathematician, so I didn’t know exactly, but I was guessing that I needed to finish at least solo fourth [at the BMW] to make it to the Tour Championship. It was definitely in the back of my mind.”

Even with Singh snagging the $10 million bonus for first place in the FedEx Cup pool, there’s still some big money at stake. Second place in the points race earns a $3 million bonus, and third place gets an extra $2 million. That’s currently Villegas and Sergio Garcia, although anyone in the field could make a huge leap up the points list with a big finish.

Despite the big money, there remains some concern that some of the players who participated in the Ryder Cup may choose to skip The Tour Championship, as Phil Mickelson did two years ago.

“I don’t think anybody is going to skip it,” Kim said. “It’s a big event for us. To play in The Tour Championship is an honor. I don’t think that many guys would consider not going.”

TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

> When; where: Thursday-Sunday; East Lake Golf Club

> TV: Golf Channel, NBC

> 2007 winner: Tiger Woods (unable to defend)

> Tickets: www.pgatour.com/tickets