Jordan Spieth will start the defense of his FedEx Cup championship with a small goal.
While in New York for the start of the PGA Tour playoffs, Spieth was scheduled to appear on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday night.
“Hopefully I can make a couple people laugh,” Spieth said. “I don’t normally do that but we’ll see.”
Five weeks later, it will be time for the big goal.
The PGA Tour’s four-event playoff system begins with The Barlcays this week at Bethpage Black. It culminates at The Tour Championship at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club on Sept. 22-25. Spieth won both The Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup last year to cap a historic 2015 season. He won five times, including two major championships with the Masters and the U.S. Open. Along the way to the season-ending triumphs, there were eight other top-seven finishes. Spieth also won the Byron Nelson Award with the lowest adjusted scoring average, 68.938, on the PGA Tour.
The bar was set extremely high. Spieth goes into the 2016 playoffs with two victories, although no major championships.
“I recognize that it’s just not possible every year,” Spieth said Monday during a teleconference. “You have to get so many great breaks to have the kind of year like last year. I can get better as a player and have years that are similar and maybe even better someday. But it’s just not going to happen every year.”
Spieth is currently fifth in the FedEx Cup standings with 1,965 points. He trails Jason Day (2,735), Dustin Johnson (2,701), Adam Scott (2,063) and Russell Knox (2,001). The top five players in the point standings entering The Tour Championship can clinch the FedEx Cup with a victory. The top 30 golfers in the point standings will come to Atlanta for the final event. Of the seven FedEx Cup champions in the previous eight years (Tiger Woods won in 2007 and 2009) before Spieth none has defended the title. Spieth could have a chance to make a little more history.
Last year, Spieth was the first golfer on site at East Lake. On Monday, he called the track “one of my favorite places in the world, one of my favorite golf courses in the world.” He expects to be an early arrival again this year.
There was little time to celebrate the victories – and the more than $11 million in prize money – last year. He was a member of the United States team in the Presidents Cup. He also played several other events. Spieth was allowed to reflect on his good fortune by the holidays.
“I would say it was around Christmas time, New Years’ time, when I could really reflect,” Spieth said. “I never really stopped (playing). I never went more than a couple weeks without playing a tournament in the offseason last year. It takes some time to let it sink in. Honestly, the way this year has gone, which I think has been a pretty great year, it actually puts it into perspective how special last year was. It’s not going to be the norm. No one wins two majors a year for their entire career and the FedEx Cup. It just doesn’t happen. It puts it into perspective. You don’t ever want to think that. You want to think you can keep on improving and even the results will get better but the realistic side sets in a little. Honestly, it drives me but it also helps me appreciate to the extent of how special last year was.”
The FedEx Cup enters its 10th season with this year’s playoffs – all of which have crowned champions in Atlanta. With the partnership of Coca-Cola and the Southern Company, The Tour Championship will continue to be held at East Lake until 2020 under a new deal. The PGA Tour playoff system has come a long way in the last decade.
“It really has transformed our tour in the last 10 years,” said Jim Furyk, who won the FedEx Cup title in 2010. “Honestly, I didn’t understand the vision. I can still remember sitting in a meeting of the Tour Championship in Atlanta and having commissioner (Tim) Finchem explain what he wanted to do. It was just so different. I think a lot of us sat there with a dumbfounded look on our face saying ‘I don’t know if this is going to work.’ It became very clear two or three years later that it was the best thing to happen to our tour since I’ve been on it in the last 23 years.”
Notable
* Hal Sutton, who won the first Tour Championship at East Lake in 1998, will hit one of two ceremonial first tee shots this year. He will be joined by a member of the East Lake First Tee program.
* This year’s Tour Championship will be commercial free on NBC as the leaders play the back nine in the final round on Sunday.
* CeeLo Green will perform on Monday, Sept. 19 at the Tour Championship kickoff event at the College Football Hall of Fame.
* All youth accompanied by a ticketed adult will continue to get into The Tour Championship for free.
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