The Tour Championship by Coca-Cola:
A Showdown in Atlanta

The PGA TOUR® entered a new era in 2007 with the introduction of the FedExCup®, a season-long competition offering $35 million in bonus money and concluding with the TOUR's first-ever Playoff system. The TOUR Championship by Coca- Cola began in 1987, and since 2007 it has served as the culmination of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

As the Playoff finale, the TOUR Championship takes place September 22–25 at the historic East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, and its field is composed of the remaining top 30 players on the FedExCup points list.

Part of the reason for all the excitement is that—technically, at least—any player in the field has a chance of running the tables and taking home the $1.35 million winner's prize (out of a total purse of $8 million), in addition to the $10 million bonus for winning the FedExCup (from a $35 million pool). Of course, some players have a better chance than others. Professional golf is, after all, pretty Darwinian. For example, any of the top- 10 seeds coming into East Lake could hit for the double if he wins the TOUR Championship, but the real odds-on favorites are the top-five seeds, since a victory by any of them will guarantee winning the FedExCup.

Befitting its stature as one of the PGA TOUR's showcase events, the TOUR Championship has been played on some of the nation's finest courses, including such U.S. Open venues as Pebble Beach Golf Links, Champions Golf Club, Pinehurst No. 2, The Olympic Club and Southern Hills Country Club.

Home at East Lake

East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta
Photo courtesy of East Lake Golf Club

In 2002, it found a home at the historic East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, where it had been played in 1998 and 2000. East Lake has a singular place in golf history since it is where the legendary Bobby Jones learned the game, as did his friend, Alexa Stirling, who won the U.S. Women's Amateur in 1916, 1919 and 1920. East Lake was also where Jones, who was suffering from the early stages of the degenerative and eventually fatal nerve disease syringomyelia, played his final round of golf. It is additionally the only course in the United States to have produced two British Amateur champions: Jones in 1930 and his dear friend, Charlie Yates, in 1938.

The TOUR Championship has carried on that championship tradition, producing winners such as Hal Sutton, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Bart Bryant, Adam Scott, Tiger Woods, Camilo Villegas, Phil Mickelson and last year's winner, Jim Furyk, who made a spectacular sand save on the last hole of the event to win the TOUR Championship and capture the FedExCup title.

Well played.

Honoring Those Who Honor

Payne Stewart's Memory

Payne Stewart was one of the PGA TOUR's most popular and successful players when he died in a plane crash at age 42, just months after he won his second U.S. Open. It was his 11th PGA TOUR victory and his third win in a major championship, along with victories in the 1991 U.S. Open and the 1989 PGA Championship—and his wins were accented by his celebrated wit and joie de vivre. Following his death, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Stewart's death left a void in the game at every level, and the PGA TOUR labored to find a way to honor him. Eventually it created the Payne Stewart Award, which is presented annually to a player who reflects Stewart's love for golf's traditions, the PGA TOUR's commitment to charity, and his style and élan both on and off the course.

"Payne was a great champion, a gentleman and a devoted husband and father," said PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem in announcing the creation of the award in 2000. "He will always be remembered as a very special competitor, and one who contributed enormously to the positive image of professional golf. There's not much of a forum to remind people about Payne. This provides us a way to show people what he was all about."

Tom Lehman, 2010 Payne Stewart Award Winner