Left field
The Reuters global sports blog
Casey with point to prove to Monty
European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie could be left with egg on his face if Paul Casey wins the U.S. Tour’s money-spinning FedExCup series on Sunday.
The 33-year-old Briton was flying high at ninth in the world rankings when Montgomerie ignored his claims for a wildcard pick last month, choosing Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald and Edoardo Molinari instead.
Europe have never enjoyed the luxury of leaving out a player ranked in the world’s top 10 and it shows the team’s strength in depth when the skipper can afford to omit a golfer as strong as Casey.
The Englishman has now climbed to seventh in the world and is one of only five players who can scoop the $10 million bonus on offer to the FedExCup winner.
Has golf found the right end-of-season format at last?
After two successive years of tweaking the points structure for the lucrative FedExCup playoff events, the PGA Tour’s blockbuster finale appears to be close to finding the ideal recipe.
When the season-long series was first launched in 2007, the points system was too rigid, leaving players with far too much ground to make up on the leaders going into the final stretch.
