ATLANTA -- Even the vanquished had to admit that, by the time it was all said and done, the finale in the much-lampooned PGA Tour playoff series was way better than expected.
For about $4.26 million reasons.
|
|
| As it turns out, one stroke at The Barclays costs Colombia's Camilo Villegas the $10 million jackpot. (Getty Images) |
With the FedEx Cup series mega-bonus all but deposited in the account of Vijay Singh before the Tour Championship week at East Lake Golf Club began, four players among the top 17 in the world ranking put on a display of firepower Sunday that ranked among the best shootouts of the entire season.
Hey, who knew?
Red-hot Camilo Villegas, who was 0-for-85 in his well-hyped and previously underperforming career, won his second start in a row after making up a five-stroke deficit in the final 11 holes before beating Sergio Garcia in a one-hole playoff to claim the biggest playoff purse in golf history.
OK, so yes, it was something of an unanticipated accident.
Garcia and Villegas entered the week occupying the next two slots below Singh in the FedEx series tally and with the runner-up in points earning a cool $3 million, it became a pricy little subplot as the week wore on. Then the pair got caught up in a back-nine brawl with American stars Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim for the first-place check of $1.26 million, adding even more tension.
Well, angst for the fans, anyway.
The star-crossed Garcia, who lost his second FedEx event this fall in a playoff, was informed that had he would have pocketed $4.26 million had he made his 20-foot putt on the final hole of regulation. That's a lotta Euros, compadre. He had no clue, but the fans seemed to sense it.
"Really?" Garcia said, drawing laughs. "Too bad."
Not for the fans, who got far more than they had expected when the week began. The Tour Championship has long been short on goosebumps, and without Tiger Woods and a compelling race for the $10 million bonus, all but secured by Singh before the week began, there wasn't much hope for an electric ending.
Frankly, after a year in which the tour lost Woods to surgery in June, has seen TV ratings plummet and has been dealing with the wide-ranging ramifications of the ailing economy's impact on title sponsors, it was a nice way to end the so-called regular season, even for the guys who lost at the wire.
