Past FedEx Cup champs prove you can come from way back to win $10 million

Bill Haas, Jim Furyk and Brandt Snedeker have shown us it's not all about being No. 1

By Kyle Porter

Sep 20, 2016 at 2:00 pm ET • 2 min read

With the Tour Championship coming up this week, I thought it would be fun to look back at where past champions of the FedEx Cup Playoffs have been ranked coming into the season's final event. There have been several rules changes over the years that have altered the way points are distributed in the four playoff events.

First, a points reset was instituted in 2008 that precluded golfers from wrapping up the FedEx Cup before playing the Tour Championship (Vijay Singh did this in 2008). That makes for a more enthralling final event and is a great thing. But then in 2014, the PGA Tour changed the format again to more properly reward season-long excellence. Neither of these changes necessarily affected what we're going to look at today, but I do want to make you aware of them.

So where have golfers who have gone on to win the FedEx Cup been ranked coming into the Tour Championship historically? I'm glad you asked.

2007: Tiger Woods (1st)
2008: Vijay Singh (1st)
2009: Tiger Woods (1st)
2010: Jim Furyk (11th)
2011: Bill Haas (25th)
2012: Brandt Snedeker (5th)
2013: Henrik Stenson (2nd)
2014: Billy Horschel (2nd)
2015: Jordan Spieth (2nd)

And where have those golfers finished in the Tour Championship? All but Woods in 2009 and Singh in 2008 won the event. Woods finished second in 2009. Singh finished T22, but as we mentioned earlier, this was because the points were not properly reset and Singh had won two of the other playoff events.

The ones that stand out are Furyk in 2010 and Haas in 2011. Webb Simpson was the leader in the FedEx Cup going into that Tour Championship, but he finished outside the top 20 and only garnered 245 FedEx Cup points in the finale. Johnson was second and also finished outside the top 20. Simpson lost to Haas 2,760 to 2,745, which is insane considering Haas earned 2,500 of those by winning the Tour Championship.

Everybody probably remembers how he won it.

The 2010 finale was fascinating, too. Matt Kuchar and Johnson were Nos. 1 and 2 coming in, and both finished outside the top 20 (this does not make me confident in my Dustin Johnson Tour Championship winner pick). That allowed Furyk, who was No. 11 coming in, to take the FedEx Cup by a couple hundred points over Kuchar.

Sure, the last three golfers have all been ranked No. 2, which bodes well for Patrick Reed. But anything can happen (and has happened) in this final event of the season with millions on the line. I'm looking at golfers like Kevin Na, Bubba Watson and Daniel Berger, who are all outside the top 20 and could all win the FedEx Cup.

Game on this week at East Lake.