The PGA Tour season has reached the last tournament of the year with the BMW Championship finally coming to an end this afternoon. Mother Nature was the story once again on Sunday wiping out almost all of play. About half the field was able to tee off Sunday morning and only a select few were able to finish before the rain came in.
Zach Johnson was able to take the title by two shots over Nick Watney, shooting the second best round of the day with a 65. Watney had the low number of the day with a 64, and when he finished up it looked like his score of -14 might hold up, but Johnson finished out strong. Johnson was three strokes behind leader Jim Furyk, who we will get to, but was able to charge through on a very soft course and take advantage of the conditions.
The big story of the week was Jim Furyk shooting the 6th 59 in PGA Tour history. It was an amazing feat to watch unfold on a Friday afternoon in which the 59 watch started fairly early. Furyk went out with a 28 so he “only” needed 31 on the back 9, and at times it looked like he would shoot the first ever 58 on Tour. However, like most golfers do after a very low front 9, Furyk cooled off on the back and needed to birdie his last hole to get the record number. He hit the fairway (he went 14/14 on fairways) leaving himself a great opportunity to get his second shot close which he took great advantage of. He stuck his approach shot just over three feet from the cup and 59 was now staring him right in the face. Normally this would have been an easy putt to just tap in, but with so much on the line this was probably the longest three and a half foot putt of his life, but he drained it and history was made.
It was fantastic to see so many golfers stuck around to watch and congratulate him after his round knowing what they were about to witness. Although he did not end up winning the tournament, it is not a rarity. He is the third member of the 59 club not to win the tournament in which the score was shot. In the end this still puts Furyk in a very good position going into the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
We are officially down to the last 30 golfers all with a shot at the $10 million prize that will be handed out Sunday afternoon (hopefully). The top 5 that are in the win and win category are Tiger Woods, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott, Zach Johnson, and Matt Kuchar. Although many people were focusing on the top of the standings, much of the drama occurred from 28th through 34th Monday afternoon. Luke Donald had rounds of 67 and 66 on Saturday and Monday respectively to squeeze in at 29th position, while Harris English and Matt Jones were stuck on the outside looking in. Dustin Johnson was a peculiar position on Monday. He had a terrible week so he was able to finish on Sunday and had to wait around over 24 hours to see if he was done for the year or heading to Atlanta. He ended up right on the bubble in 30th place and another week of golf ahead of him.
My prediction for this year’s Fed Ex Cup winner is 5th seeded Matt Kuchar. He is in position to control his own destiny but that does not necessarily mean that he needs to win. Since we are only down to 30 golfers, it is safe to assume that they are all very good and any one of them can win. I believe Kuchar hangs around towards the top of the leaderboard and does what he needs to take home the prize.
Josh Sisco
Josh was born and raised in Westerly, Rhode Island. He graduated from Western New England university with a degree in accounting. He's a huge fan of almost every sport (including golf and NASCAR), and a personal fan of Red Sox, Cowboys, and Mavericks.
