Can you use an extra $10,000,000?
That’s what the FedEx Cup playoffs are about, at least for the top guys on the PGA Tour.
Yes, those “playoffs” start this week right outside The Big Apple, up there on Long Island, not far from Manhattan, where $10,000,000 can at least buy you a decent place to live.
These aren’t really playoffs, no matter what the PGA Tour tells us they are. It’s simply an end-of-the-year bonus bonanza that starts with 125 guys trying to earn some extra Christmas money.
It seems totally appropriate that this money hunt starts in Old Westbury. Old Westbury has only about 4,700 residents but they are filthy rich. Old Westbury is the second richest town in America, second only to Palm Beach proper down in Florida. Okay, get ready for this one: the AVERAGE net worth of Old Wesbury families is $19.6 million. Basically, your FedEx Cup winner would be considered the town pauper.
If the place had a phone book, you’d find descendants of the Huttons, DuPonts, Vanderbilts and Whitneys living there. Jordan Spieth could be their lawn boy.
Glen Oaks is described as “very private.” Now we understand private but evidently we see that there’s another level of private that gets up to “very private.”
Evidently “very private” still can present problems. Seems notorious convicted Ponzi-schemer Bernie Madoff’s brother Peter was a member at Glen Oaks and yes, Bernie used to come out and play. When the bottom fell out for Madoff, about 20 members at Glen Oaks resigned immediately, figuring they were too broke to keep paying “very private” dues.
You can take that “very private” label off for at least this week as the plebeians and other working minions will be allowed to soil the manicured grounds of the “very private” Glen Oaks to watch their favorite tour players dig divots into the grounds of the filthy rich.
All the gang will be on hand to start this chase for the big money. This week’s field of 125 gets cut down to 100 and those guys head to Boston next week for the Dell. After that, it’s chopped down to the top 70 for the BMW outside Chicago at Conway Farms. The goal is to make the top 30 to guarantee a nice end-of-the-season bonus. For the serious players, it’s top five or bust. That’s how you control your destiny. If you’re in the top five and win at the Tour Championship, the 10 mil is yours.
So let’s get right to our not-so-filthy rich FedEx Cup point leaders, at least they’re not filthy rich if we go by Old Westbury standards.
Here’s your top five going into Thursday at Glen Oaks:
Hideki Matsuyama: Ranked one in points. Playing more consistent than anyone. He’s on a roll, seems a cinch to be in the top five at East Lake.
Justin Thomas: Ranked second in points. Can beat anyone the way he’s playing. You would think J.T. will be in the top five at East Lake.
Jordan Spieth: He’s been and up-and-down guy this year. Needs to get off to a good start and you know he has the ability to win it all.
Dustin Johnson: He’s fourth on the points list now and the way he’s been playing, he won’t be in the top five in three weeks. Unless he starts to play like he did at the start of the season.
Rickie Fowler: Lucky number five in the points race, he’s the wild card. Will we see good Rickie or bad Rickie in the playoffs? You just don’t know.
Then you get to numbers six through 10 — Jon Rahm (6), Brooks Koepka (7), Daniel Berger (8), Kevin Kisner (9) and Brian Harman (10). Of those five, Rahm and Koepka have superior fire power and could be guys who jump into that top five.
As for defending FedEx Cup champ Rory McIlroy, he’s one giant question mark.
McIlroy has work to do just to reach the top 30.
Odds are long that he’ll collect a second $10 million.
