Musings: Villegas' win has Vijay closer to Cup

With a modified system that theoretically brought more golfers into contention, Year Two of the FedExCup represented an improvement over the first. Now, if only the PGA Tour could do something to avoid a meaningless Tour Championship.

That’s essentially what we have this year. Vijay Singh wins the FedExCup and the $10 million simply by showing up in Atlanta in a few weeks and completing four rounds of golf. For a guy for whom hitting golf balls is like breathing, that’s not asking very much.

Remember — with a field of 30, the Tour Championship has no cut. That means that, as my colleague Bob Harig wrote on ESPN.com, “Singh can show up in Atlanta, play left-handed one day, blindfolded the next, shoot 100 during each round — but as long as he completes four rounds, he will be crowned the FedEx champion, receive a cool $9 million in cash, with $1 million deferred, and pocket some Tour Championship tip money as well.”

In other words, Vijay will soon have a vault named in his honor at his local bank.

In winning the first two events of the FedExCup playoffs, Singh essentially ended any and all suspense before players even teed it up at this weekend’s BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis. While Camilo Villegas was riding a solid final-round 68 to a two-shot win, his first on the PGA Tour, Singh was treading water, finishing tied for 44th after a final-round 69. Even if Vijay’s hit by a bus during the next couple of weeks, or he injures his shoulder trying to lift his wallet, Villegas or Sergio Garcia would have to win at East Lake to overtake him.

Unless the Tour decides to clean the slate prior to each FedExCup playoff event, Singh has demonstrated the fly in the Tour’s playoff ointment. There’s simply no way to guarantee suspense in a cumulative points system when a player takes early control.

“The only way you could do anything about that is to increase the points at each tournament as you go,” said Stewart Cink. “But I don’t think that is fair, either. I think Vijay just won the FedExCup by playing well in the first two tournaments.”

That’s the key, obviously. A player’s points position heading into the playoffs was a factor, but the setup did require players to perform once the pegs went into the ground. Just ask Padraig Harrington. The two-time major winner entered the playoffs in fourth place in FedExCup points, but after two missed cuts and a T55 at the BMW, Harrington will have to be content with sitting at home admiring his trophies when the players head to Atlanta.

“I think it’s probably right,” Harrington said of the setup. “I think the whole idea is this is a four-week event. It has a little reflection of the year, but it’s really a four-week event, and it’s the guys that do the best in those four weeks who should be there (in Atlanta for the Tour Championship).

“I think the system needs tweaking, but I don’t think it needs tweaking to keep people in there. I think you need to have people missing out. We need to have players get knocked out. That’s what happens in a playoff.”

As it turns out, Singh landed the knockout blows and ended the suspense before it really started. And he’s $10 million richer for it.

Consider Vijay’s playoff performance the first shot across the bow for 2009. When Tiger returns to the Tour next season, guess who’ll be standing at the ready, prepared to engage in another battle for supremacy.

Yep, the 45-year-old who can’t putt. 

Camilo Can Play

Finally, Camilo Villegas will be known for something besides outrageous outfits and pre-putt contortions. The Colombian curiosity proved his talent against one of golf’s best fields, holding off Dudley Hart at the BMW and becoming the Tour’s 10th first-time winner of 2008.

By Villegas’ standards, his outfit was positively understated. He let his game do the talking, following up a tie for third at last week’s Deutsche Bank with the first of what could be many wins on the PGA Tour.

Villegas pointed to last week’s performance in assessing his victory. “I learned what it takes to win, and I learned that I’m good enough to win, even though it didn't happen,” Villegas said. “We had one guy that came and just killed us that day, but that’s okay. I just kept the momentum riding from last week and kept hitting good shots and kept thinking positive and kept rolling good putts, and it all happened to fall in place.

“I handled myself, handled my emotions great toward the end, and I got my first one.”

Never Mind

After a media firestorm, the LPGA Tour has backed off its plans to suspend players who fail to learn English well enough to do interviews and chat with big-wigs at pro-ams.

“We have decided to rescind those penalty provisions,” said chastened LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens. “After hearing the concerns, we believe there are other ways to achieve our shared objective of supporting and enhancing the business opportunities for every tour player.”

Translation: We were getting hammered in the media, and we probably would have been sued. Not worth the trouble.

So, after a botched policy rollout and ensuing backlash, the tour is left with same problems, and with considerable egg on its face. Nice work, Commish.

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