Is the Tour out of the Woods?

Wake up the kids, fire up the VCR, the TOUR Championship begins today; the tournament that pits the top 30 players on the money list...er...FedEx Cup points list against each other, in a winner take all, no-holds barred format. Oh sorry, that''s a different sport.  The TOUR Championship is the final event of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup, and pits the top 30 players in the Cup standings against each other, giving four or five players a realistic chance to win, while the rest simply play out the string and perhaps pad their wallet.  Few times does a sport's final event evoke so little drama and interest as this year's TOUR Championship, and while many of the problems can be blamed on the TOUR, there are also a few that are out of their control.

Rules of the Game

Martin Kaymer was crowned the champion of the 2010 PGA Championship this afternoon at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, beating Bubba Watson in a three hole playoff. Of course it wasn’t as easy as that, Dustin Johnson held a one stroke lead going into the 18th and final hole, but was assessed a two stroke penalty for grounding his club in a bunker, subsequently took a triple bogey seven, and missed the playoff by two strokes.


After watching the footage a couple of times, I’ve come to a couple of conclusions. First off, I can’t argue with the penalty, as Johnson clearly grounded his club before hitting his approach shot and the players had all been told there were no waste areas; all sand would be paying as regular bunkers. However, that isn’t to say I don’t have a few problems with how this all went down.