Tour Championship Preview | Thebigtip

This week’s biggest sporting event isn't happening in Melbourne this week, it's being held in Atlanta, Georgia.

The leading 30 golfers will be teeing off at the legendary East Lake GC in this year Tour Championship.

What No tiger? Unfortunately Woods didn't make the final cut for the season ending event, only the top 30 FedEx points winners will be taking part.  Although Woods showed some glimpses of form over the last few weeks he narrowly missed the cut.  Some will say that the event will lose some of the prestige without Tigers presence, but the reality is that the 30 best golfers for 2010 on the USPGA tour are playing and we are sure to see some great golf.  Other notable golfers not to be playing are Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia.

The season ending event will be one of the most fiercely contested of the year, with both FedEx cup and Tour championships up for grabs.  With no cut this weekend, all golfers will be playing four rounds, and will all hope to be somewhere near the top of the leaderboard on Sunday.  It is also the last chance for the players to make some serious money before next years tour.

The Course
We won't see low scores like we saw at TPC Boston.  This course is setup to suit the longer hitter, but one will also need to be accurate.  Scoring will have to be done in the earlier part of the round with the closing holes not making it easy to gain shots on the clubhouse leader. 

The Aussie contingent
Four Australians have made the final field, one up on last year.  Geoff Ogilvy remains from last year and is joined by Adam Scott, Robert Allenby and young gun Jason Day.  Australia has the largest contingent outside the United States, and while many don't rate their chance highly in a small field anything can happen. 

Robert Allenby - Just scraped into the small field and is coming back from surgery.  A top 10 result would cap off a great year for Allenby, but on current form I can’t see him going the distance Prediction: 25-30

Jason Day - Has been in incredible form in the last few months.  Any questions over Day's mental game have also been laid to rest showing the tour that he can compete with anyone on his day.  Prediction: 15-20

Geoff Ogilvy - Was in top form at the start of the year but went missing in the middle part of the year.  Will be confident after his great result at the Deutsche Bank Championship and should be the leading Australian.  Ogilvy might also be keeping a close eye on his beloved saints.  Prediction: 5-10

Adam Scott - It’s all about the flatstick with Scott.  He has the talent to win this week and has been playing some exceptional golf.  Will have some great memories from his 2006 win here.  Expect Scott to continue his impressive ball striking Prediction: 10-15

The Americans
With only 30 contenders all golfers stand a great chance.  Saying that it is very hard to go past Matt Kuchar, Phil Mickelson, or Steve Stricker.  Kuchar and Stricker have been in blistering form of late, whilst Mickelson is the defending champion and knows how to play the East Lakes course.  Mickelson will no doubt be the fans favourite and will be very short in betting.  Kuchar is in career best form over and would have preferred not to have last weekend off.   Stricker is renowned for his consistent form this year, and has racked up an amazing ten top 10 finishes on tour in 2010.  Dustin Johnson seems to have buried his USPGA demons by winning the BMW Open championship.  Johnson hits the ball a mile, so he will be well suited to the East Lake layout.

Who can win it?
Small field, with a stack of chances.  This is a very hard weekend to tip a winner, but with a close field comes great value.  I feel inclined to back Dustin Johnson; his form has been great all year and is hard to go past.  If you are looking for a roughie in the field this week I would have a good look at Nick Watney.  He showed us what he was capable of in this years PGA Championships (Until his 81), and managed to make the final field of 30 with rounds of 70-69 at Cog Hill. 

Expect to see some exciting golf to end this years USPGA tour, it will surely wet the appetite for the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor, Wales next week.