Brennan's Blog - The TOUR Championship

We have reached the Stanley Cup finals of the PGA TOUR, The TOUR championship.  Anytime you get to play in this event it has to be considered a good year.  Everyone wants to win out here and that is why most guys play, but being in the Top 30 proves that you have had a solid showing throughout the year and you have to be satisfied with that.  There are always going to be parts of your game you would have liked to improve on and I am sure Mike feels that way.  That is one thing that makes sports so great and makes players continue to improve.  Tiger has won five times and I am sure he still won't consider this a great year because he didn't win a Major Championship.  Although, he still has to be satisfied with the way he has played.

The TOUR Championship has been at East Lake Golf Club for the past few years and it is a great spot for this event.  It is sponsored by Coke, which is based here in Atlanta, and it makes a great fit for the event.  East Lake underwent a large renovation before the event last year and the course is very challenging.

Ten inches of rain have fallen over the past week so the course is very soft but the greens are really good and quite firm.  A lot of new courses now have a vacuum system under the putting surfaces called SubAir and when the system is turned on it dries up the water from the ground.  Augusta National also has the system and it makes a big difference when there is a lot of rain like this week.  It keeps the greens from being so soft where the players can throw darts. 

With the soft fairways the course is playing very long with only two par 5's.  There are twelve par 4's that are the meat of the golf course which means a lot of long irons.  This makes it difficult to get the ball close on firm greens.  The course normally plays firm and fast and for all the rain we have had it is still in pretty good shape - earlier in the week it was looking like the event had a chance of being washed out!

With the re-setting of points going into this event there is still a chance, a very slight chance, that Mike could still win the FedEx Cup and win the 10 million dollar bonus.  If he were to win the event he would more than likely finish in the Top 5 which would make the year a great success.  With only a few events left in the year this is really the last big event of 2009.  The Presidents Cup is great but it is really a team event.  I am really looking forward to the week and hope that we can finish the year off in style and maybe get the win that we have all been wanting.

This is the first year that I am going to play any kind of fantasy sport!  I have formed a fantasy hockey league and looking forward to see how this entire fantasy thing works.  I also hope I can beat Mike who has absolutely no idea how to play.  It's been a long summer without hockey and it's always an exciting time of year when hockey is about to get going.  I look forward to watching a Stars game or two when I am home and with my boy now getting into hockey it will make it that much more exciting.  I think the NHL hockey package is one of the best things to happen to TV in a long time. 

I think it's great that the Leafs are off to a flying start in the pre-season so everyone gets their hopes up for them.  There are several caddies on tour from Toronto and all they talk about is the Leafs.  I'm not the biggest Leafs fan myself so I must say that I enjoy seeing them miss the playoffs.  I do think they have turned the corner with some leadership in Burke and know I am going to have to deal with a lot of ribbing as they get better over the next few years.

So long for now and thanks to everyone who has read my blogs over the past year! I will send a blog from the Presidents Cup and at the Fry's.  Enjoy the rest of the golf year (for those of you where the weather still permits) and let's hope I can send you a special blog next week talking about a victory at the 2009 TOUR Championship!

As always, thanks for the support
Brennan Little