FedEx Cup 2012: Tiger Woods in Prime Position to Win Golf's Playoffs

Tiger Woods is currently sitting in third place in the FedEx Cup standings. However, due to the unique rules of the playoffs, he has the ability to win the entire Tour Championship once all is said and done.

The FedEx Cup playoffs can be confusing if golf isn't a primary sport that you follow. However, they make it to where any golfer can be in a spot towards the bottom and wind up winning the championship.

The first round of the playoffs, the Barclays, gave winner Nick Watney 2,500 points to skyrocket him from 49th to the top spot in the standings. This all but guarantees him a spot in the Tour Championship.

The system is designed to have an almost NFL-style playoff feel to them. Tiger Woods is in ideal position too, as he will be almost guaranteed a spot in the Tour Championship with his third place ranking in the FedEx Cup standings.

According to Tiger Woods, the Tour Championship will act like the Super Bowl of Golf, allowing the best player to be crowd Tour Champion as long as they win the final tournament (h/t Rex Hoggard of the Golf Channel):

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“You could win all three of these events and still lose the FedEx Cup. That's kind of the nature of how it's set up,” said Woods, a two-time FedEx Cup champion.

“The argument would be, unfortunately for (New England Patriot) fans, is when you guys won, what was it, 18 and 0, and unfortunately lost one, that's kind of the argument, that's also why they set it up that way. Just because you sweep the playoffs doesn't mean it's guaranteed that you're going to win the overall title.”

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Despite the tournament resetting to zero at the beginning of the Tour Championship, Woods will be in the best position to win it this year, as it is at East Lake in Atlanta.

The course has been a favorite of Woods, as he won the 2007 Tour Championship there and won second in 2009. He has always performed well in the final tournament when it's at East Lake.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the playoffs form the field of competitors—especially considering that it should only take one tournament win in the playoffs to make it into the top 30 golfers and into the final event this year.

However, the name to catch is Tiger. It could be the cap that could turn his 2012 year into a great one. Otherwise, it will have just been a disappointment for Tiger and his fans.

Scott Carasik is a Featured Columnist and Trends and Traffic Writer for Bleacher Report. As a Featured Columnist, he covers the Atlanta Falcons, NFL and NFL Draft. He is also the Falcons analyst at Drafttek, runs the NFL Draft Website ScarDraft.com and hosts Kvetching Draftniks Radio.

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