Winners and Losers from the 2015 Tour Championship
Jason who? All of a sudden, we're Spiething again. The golfer who was the bearer of the "best player in the world" mantel for much of the season, Jordan Spieth erased the memory of a pair of missed cuts to start the FedEx Cup playoffs with a convincing win at East Lake.
Jason Day, for his part, finished tied for 10th at two under, seven strokes behind Spieth.
Who joined Spieth as a winner? Who was a loser? What was the most despised hole at East Lake?
Read on to see.
Winner: Spiething
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The $11.4 million dollar man! Jordan Spieth put to rest the discussion of Jason Day as the best golfer in the game with a gritty showing at East Lake to take the tournament and the FedEx Cup, as well as a more than $11 million payday between his tournament check and the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus annuity.
At nine-under 271 for the week, Spieth bested his nearest competition by four strokes. He was at his best, as he so often is, when the pressure was on, calmly rolling in par putts whenever Henrik Stenson threatened Sunday.
Five times a winner on tour this season and twice a major champion, Jordan Spieth is not only the winner of the Tour Championship and the FedEx, he is also the winner of the 2014-15 PGA Tour season.
Also, he has (mercifully) ended any discussion as to who ought to be the player of the year.
Losers: Louis Oosthuizen, Jim Furyk
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Ahead of the Presidents Cup a pair of veterans are ailing. Louis Oosthuizen and Jim Furyk both missed the Tour Championship with injury.
Furyk, who withdrew from the Deutsche Bank Championship with a wrist issue, withdrew prior to the competition. Louis Oosthuizen, dealing with a hamstring problem, called it quits during the first round of the competition.
With the Presidents Cup in Korea two weeks away, the International side will be keen to see Oosthuizen playing. Likewise Jim Furyk, who has teed it up in in seven of the biennial competitions, would be a lynchpin of the U.S. side.
Both players' statuses will be keenly watched over the next week. The injuries add an early element of intrigue (and drama surrounding potential replacements) ahead of the showdown in Korea.
Winner: Thursday, Friday Henrik Stenson
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Henrik Stenson opened the Tour Championship with a seven-under 63 and followed up with a second-round 68. However, a two-over 72 Saturday didn't leave the Swede in his preferred position entering the final round.
Unfortunately, he repeated the same score, highlighted (low-lighted) by a shank on the 17th hole, which led to an untimely double bogey and a back-nine two-over 37. Stenson's two-over final round saw him fall into a tie for second, four strokes behind Jordan Spieth.
Thus, while Stenson was a winner for his first- and second-round work, he was very much a weekend loser.
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Loser: Reed/Walker
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Both Patrick Reed and Jimmy Walker have won this year, with Walker winning twice.
Unfortunately, both Patrick Reed and Jimmy Walker have faltered late in the season.
Reed has just one top-10 finish since March (last week's Deutsche Bank Championship). He hasn't won since the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in January. Walker has just one top-10 finish in his last nine starts and hasn't won since the Valero Texas Open in March.
Reed finished 27th in Atlanta at 14 over par. Walker finished tied for 18th at four over.
Winner: "Big 4" Talk
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Wrapping up the 2014-15 PGA Tour season, we've heard plenty about the "Big Three" (Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day). With Rickie Fowler's win at the Deutsche Bank Championship earlier in the playoffs, murmurings abounded about a "Big Four."
Now, all this may be a little much branding and marketing toolery for the average golf fan, but one of the major takeaways from this season and angles entering next will be the primacy of these four on tour. And with Spieth, Fowler and Day winning during the course of the playoffs, fuel has only been added to the fire.
Of course, Jordan Spieth's take on such discussion is worth noting: "There was big two, there was big one, there was big two, there was big three, there was big two, there was big four. I mean, Brooks Koepka wins this week, it's the big five. You know, it's what it is."
Loser: Cut-Throat Competition
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Danny Lee and Rickie Fowler did pretty well for themselves inside the ropes at East Lake. Lee carded a final-round 65 to finish tied for third.
Outside the ropes (and largely in the players' parking lot), Fowler and Lee went back and forth in a prank war. First, Fowler defaced Lee's parking spot, Lee retaliated and Fowler used a paint marker to write "just married" on Lee's vehicle, mocking the player's very public single status.
Most recently in the ongoing battle, Lee placed a table behind Fowler's vehicle.
Lee has a reputation as something of a jokester...like that time he (probably) joked with airport security about bringing a bomb on a plane.
Funny stuff. But still, the tomfoolery doesn't do much for the reputation of the Tour Championship as anything other than an exhibition cash grab.
While this may be a severe take, it's difficult to imagine similar antics at a major championship, which is an indication of just how far from that level/type of competition these "playoffs" are.
Winner: Kevin Kisner
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Kevin Kisner finished dead last at East Lake. Here's why that makes him a winner:
- Kisner puts the wraps on a breakout season that saw him record six top-10 finishes including three second-place finishes.
- He books passage to next year's Masters (a life-long dream) and the Players Championship.
- He pockets $135,500 for finishing dead last and a $220,000 FedEx Cup bonus.
Not bad for an 18-over showing that left him roughly 30 strokes behind the tournament winner.
Loser: The Fifth Hole
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It was a soggy affair at times at East Lake this week, and the 7,300-plus yard course played like a beast.
Jordan Spieth wasn't happy about one element of the setup in the wake of the rainfall. Spieth hit driver, three-wood into the 535-yard par-four fifth hole Saturday and failed to get within 50 yards of the green.
Spieth's comments on the fifth hole: '“I was talking to Henrik [Stenson] walking to the sixth tee. I said, ‘That was not the right setup and that was a very dumb hole today. He goes, ‘Dumber than 18 at Chambers Bay as a par 4?’ And I said, ‘Yes. I believe so.’ I mean there was no chance.”'
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