ATLANTA — So many scenarios. So many good players. So much money on the line.
Tiger Woods is keeping it so simple.
He tees it up today in the Tour Championship in a 30-man field at East Lake. His goal is to shoot the lowest score.
"You always have the same approach and same attitude that you try and win every tournament you enter," Woods said. "Whether it's a regular tour event, a playoff event, World Golf Championship, Players, whatever it may be, it's the same intensity. You bring the same attitude to play. ... You win it, and you take care of everything else."
Everything else includes a $10 million bonus - $9 million in cash - for winning the FedEx Cup, which in its third season appears to have finally delivered a compelling conclusion.
Woods is the No. 1 seed by virtue of his five PGA Tour victories that put him atop the standings and asixth victory in a playoff event two weeks ago at the BMW Championship.
The next four seeds - Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson and Heath Slocum - don't have to look at a leaderboard. If they win the Tour Championship, they win the FedEx Cup.
The points can get confusing, and there are a couple of wild possibilities:
Furyk and Padraig Harrington can win the FedEx Cup without having won a single tournament all year.
Marc Leishman can win the FedEx Cup provided Woods f inishes 10th or worse, and the next four seeds finish fifth or worse.
He's a PGA Tour rookie from Australia with a strong swing and beautiful touch with the putter. He was on the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs outside Boston three weeks ago until making an eagle on the final hole.
His only way into the Tour Championship was to finish third or better in Chicago, and he played bogey-free the final round with Woods at his side to tie for second.
Slocum could win the FedEx Cup by winning the Tour Championship. He wasn't even sure he would make the 125-man field at the start of the playoffs until his wife did the math and realized he qualified at No. 124 by two points. A week later, he won The Barclays over a world-class cast of runnersup - Woods, Harrington, Stricker and Ernie Els.
And the most bizarre scenario of all? There could be two sudden-death playoffs Sunday - one to decide the Tour Championship, another to decide the FedEx Cup. It might even be the same two players.
Imagine Furyk and Scott Verplank tied after 72 holes. They would have a playoff for the Tour Championship. If Verplank were to win, that would leave them tied in the FedEx Cup standings,and they would return to the par-3 18th for a playoff with a much bigger payoff.
"The thing I probably haven't enjoyed for the whole week is the 'what if,' " Furyk said. "I've had people ask me, 'What if ? What if ? What if?' All the way down the line. It all doesn't really matter until we tee it up and go figure it out."
The points and possibilities might be hard to digest. Still, the Tour Championship is significant for the first time in six years, andsuddenly is elevated in stature.
This time, the FedEx Cup could be up for grabs until the final putt Sunday.
Sports, Pages 19, 21 on 09/24/2009