Coca Cola Tour Championship, FedEx cup. Snedeker Wins It All

Brandt Snedeker won the Coca Cola Tour Championship, and in doing so also won the FedEx Cup.

Winner Brandt Snedeker/Greenwood/Getty Images

Brandt had a last round of   -2 under par 68  and a -10 under par total,  to easily win the Coca Cola Tour Championship by three strokes from second placed Justin Rose, who finished at _8 under par.

Luke Donald and Ryan Moore shared third place at -6 under par.

There was no “W” for Woods, or any of the other top five going in to the tournament, Snedeker was the only player who performed well on the last day.

Tiger Woods finished tied 8th at -2 under par, World number 1 Rory McIlroy was at -1 under par, Phil Mickelson at +1 and the other initial contender Nick Watney slumped big time to +13 over par.

Coca Cola Tour Championship, FedEx Cup. 3rd Round Its Rose & Snedeker

Justin Rose and Brandt Snedeker are tied at the top of the leaderboard at the Coca Cola Tour Championship & FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Justin Rose & Brandt Snedeker/getty images

Justin Rose has maintained his presence at the top end of the leaderboard with a -4 under par third round of 66, for a tournament total of -8 under par.  He says he still would need some help to win the FedEx cup though;

” Little help from my friends”  (For example, he would  need Rory McIlroy to finish lower than 17th, that’s asking a lot. )” And Brandt, you’ve got to give him credit.I know he got off to a rough start on Thursday, and to climb back and tie for the lead being in that sort of vital top 5 is a wonderful performance. So he’s going to be the one out of the two of us thinking about it overnight.”

Justin is just concentrating on winning the Coca Cola Tour Championship;

“The whole year we’ve been grinding for the FedExCup, and it’s still possible. It’s not an easy golf course. Things can happen out there. But for me, it’s about one tournament. I wish I would be in the situation that Brandt’s in. I would trade him, but obviously, that’s the position I’m in.”

Brandt Snedeker said of his round;

” Probably one of the best rounds I’ve played this year. My first goal for this week is achieved, and that is to have a chance going into Sunday. I think something like 90 something percent of the PGA TOUR winners come from the last two groups, and that’s where I want to be in those last two groups. So I know get I get a chance to do that tomorrow, and it should be a lot of fun. I think the biggest thing tomorrow is going to be how patient you can stay because this golf course eats guys up that don’t stay patient. With all that extra stuff that goes with the FedEx Cup Championship and the TOUR Championship, there are so many reasons to get antsy. It’s just not putting more pressure on the shot than there already is, there is no make-or-break shot tomorrow. Every shot tomorrow is the exact same as it was today, and the exact same as it was on Thursday, to really embrace that.I did a great job today of staying patient. I missed four putts on the first four holes from inside 15 feet for birdie. You don’t have those kind of opportunities around here very often. I did a great job of staying patient, and when you do that, you tend to have some success.”

As far as tomorrow goes Rory McIlroy thinks 10 under is a good target score, but is aware the other guys want to win as much as he does;

” They’re not up at the top of the standings for nothing, they’re playing well. They’ve played well the last few weeks. So, yeah, I knew coming in here if I won, I’d win everything, and that’s still my attitude going into tomorrow. It’s going to be one of the most exciting Sundays of the year. There are a few guys still in it with a chance to win the FedExCup to win this tournament., so looking forward to it. Great to be in the mix, only three back, so I’m excited about the prospect of a very exciting finish tomorrow. You go play the first hole, and you see how you do there. Then you play the second, and you see how you do there. It’s all you’re really doing. That’s the way I feel like I have been playing for the last few weeks.”

Tiger Woods, Robert Garrigus, Matt Kuchar and Bo Van Pelt are only four shots back. Tiger said he is not just here for the money;

That’s not why we play. I’m playing for the W, and tomorrow I get a great shot at it. You know, all the money and awards and all of that stuff, that comes along with winning championships. That’s the way I’ve always looked at it, and right now I’m four back. If I win the golf tournament, everything’s kind of taken care of. I’ve done it before, I’ve been out here a long time, and just claw your way back into it, and usually it will take a round in the 60s. I figured the guys aren’t going to go out and run off and hide on this golf course. It’s just playing too difficult.”

Ryan Moore, Bubba Watson and Jim Furyk are still there at -5 under par, and the last of the possible winners are Luke Donald and Zach Johnson, they are at -3 under par and both of them would need an exceptional round tomorrow.

Coca Cola Tour Championship & FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Jim Furyk tops the leader board after the second round of the Coca Cola Tour Championship and FedEx Cup Playoffs at East Lake Golf Course, Atlanta, Georgia.

2nd Round Leader Jim Furyk/Stan Badz/PGA Tour

Jim Furyk’s second-round -6 under par, 64 on Friday was the second-lowest round he has ever shot in 54 career rounds of the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola and his lowest at East Lake. Jim’s previous lowest round in this event came in 2001 when he shot a third-round 62 at Champions Golf Course in Houston. One of his rare mistakes today,  failing to get up-and-down from a nearly impossible short-sided lie. Instead of  than taking on the hole Jim played it safe and found the opposite side of the green, on the par 4 sixteenth. After his safely played third shot, the 16-time PGA TOUR winner heard a member of the gallery yell.

 “I could hit that shot!”

Jim just smiled, two-putted for his bogey and walked back to his bag. He grabbed his golf ball and marker and wrote the fan a message before throwing him a souvenir. The message was.

 D.J. Piehowski/PGATOUR.COM

Jim said after his round that it had been fun;

” To be able to write three on your card nine times in the first 11 holes was a lot of fun. I struggled to kind of keep that momentum going the last six holes, but I feel like I played a real solid round of golf.”

Just one shot behind Jim is England’s Justin Rose, who was tied with Tiger Woods for the first round lead. Justin had a steady -2 under par round of 68, to give him second spot on his own. Justin was not too pleased with his effort;

“It wasn’t pretty golf by any means,” Rose said. “It was the kind of day that I hit a lot of decent tee shots. I felt like I’m hitting the driver quite long right now, so I’m obviously swinging at it pretty well, but just missing the fairway by one or two yards. I’m not worried about that.

” I’ve been hitting the ball really, really well all year.  I’m sure I’ll click into a nice rhythm on the weekend and be back to normal hitting on the fairways.”

Bubba Watson and Bo Van Pelt are another shot further back at -5 under par for the tournament. Surprise of the day was that Tiger Woods stumbled to a second round of  +3 over par 73 and is now at -1 under par for the tournament and a lot of work to be accomplished tomorrow to get himself back into contention.

Rory McIlroy managed a second score of -2 under par and at -3 for the Championship is three shots adrift, and still in touch with the leaders. Luke Donald and Phil Mickelson are at even par overall and will need something magical tomorrow if they intend to seriously challenge for this trophy, and the $10 million bonus of the FedEx Cup.

Rory had a shaky start to his round;

“After that, I was just very solid. I made like seven pars in a row, and then I bogeyed 14, eagled 15, and parred my way in. So it was pretty solid golf after that, but a bit of a shaky start. It was good, actually could have been a couple of shots better, but I feel like I’m in a good position for the weekend. I’ll be trying to hit a few more fairways, trying to find the greens and give myself as many opportunities as possible. If I do that, I won’t be too far off. I think first and foremost, I just have to try to think of my standing in this golf tournament, not really think about anything else. If it comes down to it on Sunday where I need to really know what I have to do for the last few holes, then of course if I have a decision to make between protecting my lead in the FedExCup or trying to win the golf tournament, I think I know what I’m going to choose. But we just have to play until we reach that point, and at the minute, I’m just concentrating on trying to play as well as I can.”

FedEx Cup, Can Jim Win Again ?

  

Jim Furyk/Reuters/Brent Smith

James Michael Furyk was the 2010 FedEx Cup champion, and also the 2010 PGA Tour Player of the Year. Jim, and just about everyone else is wondering if he can win the FedEx Cup again. It would take Albert Einstein to work out all the permutations of the outcome, but some of Jim”s friends have tried to figure out the odds.

Jim is in the elite field of 30 players who will tee off for Thursday’s opening round at East Lake Golf Club, for the Coca Cola Tour Championship, where the lucrative PGA Tour event is on the line along with a staggering $10 million bonus for securing the season-long playoff title. He landed both honors two years ago, but this week he lies in 18th spot on the FedExCup points standings, and would need a lot of help from higher-ranked players to pull off a repeat double, he philosophically said;

” Nope, I have no idea, I know I would have to win the Tour Championship, and a lot of other things would have to happen. But I’m never really worried about that. I had two or three friends try to text me, ‘do you know what you have to do?’ No. It’s hard enough winning a golf tournament. I can’t control the rest. Two years ago I was ranked 11th going into the Tour Championship and needed a little work. But this week those top 10 to 12 guys probably have a really good opportunity. Then past that, it’s going to take a lot of help because the guys that are up there at the top have been playing very well.”

The result is difficult to predict because any of the top five players in the standings would win the FedExCup honours by winning this week’s Tour Championship. The names of that quintet comprise, World number one, Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy and four Americans, Tiger Woods, Nick Watney, Phil Mickelson and Brandt Snedeker.

Jim has no illusions as to his task this week, even if he wins the Coca Cola Tour Championship, he still needs a lot of guys to play poorly;

“It’s hard to imagine Rory not being in contention this week as well as he’s been playing. All we can do is really worry about our game and try to get ourselves in position to try to win a golf tournament this week.”

Rory McIlroy has never previously competed at East Lake but he is oozing confidence after winning three times in his last four starts;

“I’m confident in my ability and confident with the shots that I’m hitting and confident on the greens. I’m making the right decisions out there, and everything is really just going to plan at the minute. It’s a nice run to be on, and I want to try and keep it going for as long as possible. The last four weeks, five weeks have been incredible, some of the best golf that I’ve ever played.”