ADAM SCOTT and Jason Day have a big shot at the US$10million FedEx Cup end of season jackpot after finishing in the top five going into the 30 golfer final event in Atlanta.
Despite withdrawing halfway through the final round of the BMW Championship with a lower back issue on the weekend Day is apparently confident of playing in the Tour Championship at East Lake in a fortnight.
“He’s all right, he’s just got some back issues and is in a little bit of pain. He’s getting treatment right now. I don’t think it’s anything that he hasn’t dealt with before,” Day’s manager Bud Martin said on Sunday.
“The trainer is maybe thinking it’s the same type of thing that he dealt with I think at the Barclays and last year where he picked something up in his bus and it kind of got out of line.
“But just better safe than sorry. Instead of forcing it, we just decided that it was more prudent to kind of come in, get it worked on, and deal with it.”
Scott had his third consecutive fourth place finish in the playoffs and moved up to third in the FedEx Cup rankings with Day slipping to fourth overall.
The FedEx ranking and scoring system can get a little complicated but basically for the fourth and final event the field is now down to 30.
Mathematically any one those 30 can win the jackpot but realistically you’ve got to be in the top five.
From there if you win the event at East Lake Golf Club you win the ten million jackpot – plus a lazy US$1.5 million for winning the individual event. If you finish outside the top five in the rankings you have to rely on other results.
The top five is Sunday’s imperious winner Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Scott, Day and England’s unlucky Paul Casey, who played well enough at Crooked Stick to win most events but just came up against a golfer in superb form.
Johnson scored 67-63-68-67 to reach 23-under and beat Casey b three strokes.
Johnson is now a near certainty to be judged the Player of the Year, unless Day can maybe overcome his back injury – and his recent scratchy form – and win the Tour Championship.
That would give him four wins for the season, and with the FedEx and the Players championships, possibly judged to ecilpse Johnson’s three wins, including the US Open.
Dustin Johnson wins BMW Championship: Highlights Video