Phil Mickelson won the Deutsche Bank Championship at the TPC Boston by out-dueling Tiger Woods, Brett Wetterich, and Aaron Oberholser. The Monday finish was a unique holiday flare that highlighted the FedEx Cup, the PGA Tour’s new season ending playoff.
After two weeks, Phil Mickelson is now leading FedEx Cup points with 108,613. Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods are second and third. Next week’s BMW Championship at Cog Hill in Chicago, IL will host the top seventy players according to the FedEx Cup standings. And the week after that The Tour Championship in Atlanta, GA will produce the winner of the playoffs from a 30-man field.
The FedEx Cup is proving to be more exciting that expected. The big name players have stepped up, with the exception of Tiger Woods skipping the first event. Today’s duel between Tiger and Phil went a long way towards validating the new format – and we’re only halfway through. As golf fans become more accustomed to the FedEx Cup points system, it will gain more followers. While the Cup doesn’t have the thrill of single elimination match play, the fact that there is a $10 million annuity for the FedEx Cup points winner is bigger than any one of the $7 million purses for the individual tournaments.