Not: This Week's World Cup As Olympic Golf Preview

Dennis Pasa says this week's World Cup at Royal Melbourne offers a "glimpse of what to expect when golf returns to the Olympics at Rio de Janeiro in 2016." Until it doesn't. Which Pasa points out.

First, there is the Britain/Ireland mess in 2016 that the PGA Tour's common sense deals with. Take note IOC and friends.

At the Olympics, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland compete as Britain. But at the World Cup, England, Scotland and Wales will compete as separate countries. To muddy the waters a bit more at the World Cup, the tradition is for Ireland and Northern Ireland to compete as Ireland. McIlroy is not competing at Royal Melbourne this week, and is confident he still retains the selection choice for the Olympics.

As for the format...it's almost Olympic-like.

Players in the top 15 on the Official World Golf Ranking gain access to the World Cup, with the exception that there will be no more than four players for any country.

After the top 15, up to two players are allowed per country until the field of about 60 is filled.

It's still largely an individual event even though the old World Cup was more about the team. I say, we'll live. We get another week of great players at Royal Melbourne and the Olympic format is a lost cause anyway! 

You can follow the action online here at the PGA Tour's World Cup page. In the USA, coverage starts Wednesday night on Golf Channel at 9 pm ET.

Tour Championship Ratings: 1.6 Overnight, Down 27%

From SportsMediaWatch (thanks reader Irwin):

Final round coverage of The Tour Championship, the final event in the PGA Tour FedEx Cup, earned a 1.6 overnight rating on NBC Sunday afternoon — down 27% from last year (2.2), but up 14% from 2011 (1.4).

The 1.6 overnight is the third-lowest for final round coverage of the event since the FedEx Cup began in 2007.

In addition, the 1.6 is the third-lowest for any FedEx Cup telecast on broadcast this year (eight telecasts). Only Saturday’s third round (1.4) and last week’s Sunday rainout coverage of the BMW Championship (0.9) earned lower overnights.

Speaking of Saturday’s third round, the 1.4 overnight marked a 36% decline from last year (2.2) and a 27% increase from 2011 (1.1).

For some context, the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, which probably cost the sponsor 1/4th of what the Tour Championship costs Coca Cola, delivered a 1.3 on a Sunday morning in July!

At least they aren't Houston Astro numbers.

A New Low: The FedExCup Rap

The word pathetic comes to mind annually when watching the PGA Tour attempt to make FedEx feel like they are getting their $50 million or so dollars for sponsoring the lamest "playoff" in sports, but rarely are the attempts in any way awkward, brutally annoying or disturbing in the amount of man hours so clearly devoted to the cause.

Until now.

Alex Myers posted the video of the agonizing "FedExCup Rap" put together by the PGA Tour, perhaps in conjunction with NBC because I do think I remember waking from one of my Tour Championship naps to the frightening image of Charl Schwartzel attempting to be cool, then turning the channel.

If you want to feel the agony of the entire sad spectacle, Ryan Ballengee has transcribed the lyrics.

FedEx this baby down to Guantanmo. Priority Overnight!

Tour Championship Win: Henrik Stenson's Amazing Resurgence

There's a lot about to admire in Henrik Stenson's Tour Championship and ResetCup wins, but mostly it's his resurgence that Doug Ferguson highlights in his game story from Atlanta.

Including this:

Stenson, who two years ago was outside the top 200, moved to No. 4 in the world.

Bob Harig noted this about Stenson's summer and early fall.

Starting with the Scottish Open in July, Stenson's results read as follows: T-3, 2, T-2, 3, T-43, 1, T-33, 1. That's six top-three finishes, including two victories, in eight events. Stenson was runner-up at the Open Championship and WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, third at the PGA Championship, then won two of the four playoff events.

And while there is a sweet justice in Stenson replenishing bank accounts wiped out by fraudster and former PGA Tour sponsor Allen Stanford's Ponzi Scheme, John Strege puts that in perspective:

To what degree money became an issue after his losses in the Stanford Financial scandal are not known. What we do know is that he kept his pants on this week, its pockets are now flush with cash, and he again ranks with the best players in the world.

"Life is ups and downs -- stock market, golf," he said recently. "Everything kind of goes in cycles. I think when you're not getting what you want and you have to work hard for it and then you get the reward, it's going to feel better than if you get it all the time, I guess. But it's life in general. It's going to be highs, it's going to be lows, and we move on."

The highlights:

2013 Tour Championship Final Round Open Comment Thread

The final day of the Tour Championship is mercifully upon us. The points reset has done its job, preventing season-long points leader Tiger from winning the FedExCup after a lousy few days at East...wait, what?

Breaking: Steve Sands reports a scenario in which Tiger could still win if Henrik Stenson were to break all of the clubs in his bag and have to finish with his putter, posting something in the 80s. The tension is killing me already.

Good news: sources say the algorithms are well rested, so let the code do it's job and enjoy the final official PGA Tour event of 2013...until they start again in a little over two weeks.

Tiger Runs "Out Of Gas" & Schedules Only Get Worse From Here!

It was a pretty shocking admission for physical specimen Tiger Woods to say his Tour Championship second round fell apart because he "just ran out of gas" and calling the ResetCup series of events (even with a week off) "a long grind." (Mark Lamport-Stokes reports.)

And guess what? The 2013-14 season starts in three weeks and next year's playoffs do not include a week off. But there is a week after the playoffs so you can rest for the Ryder Cup in Scotland.

In 2015 the Presidents Cup, presumably soon after the FedExCup, will be in Korea on the moundiest looking course you'll ever see.

And do we even want to talk about the mess that is 2016? Ewan Murray did in assessing (and agreeing) with Woods' complaint about fatigue.

Woods was right to point to a condensed schedule from the Open Championship to this, the climax of the FedEx play-off events. He also predicted that matters will become even more hectic in 2016, when golf returns to the Olympic Games in Rio.

It's going to be fascinating to watch the stars getting older while Commissioner Blankfein's vision for non-stop golf plays out.

A Caller Tries To Save Stenson From Penalty

Jim McCabe with the story of Tour Championship 36-hole leader Henrik Stenson possibly spared a penalty for playing a broken 4-wood.

While it he (and his "physio") knew something was amiss and dealt with it before the round, Stenson was greeted by tour officials who were on the case after--you guessed it--a viewer called in.

This time, however, PGA Tour rules officials – in this case, Mark Russell and John Mutch – were there to speak with Stenson. It seems that Golf Channel showed the practice-range scene with Stenson looking at his club and a viewer called in to raise the possibility that the tournament leader had a broken club in his bag.

Doing the prudent thing, Russell approached Stenson before the Swede, who was in the final pairing with Scott, could sign his card.

“We just wanted to see (that Stenson didn’t have the club in his bag),” Russell said. When they discovered that he did not, in fact, carry the 4-wood and had but 13 clubs in his bag, it was case closed.

Stenson posted a 66 with the 13 clubs to open up a four stroke lead over Adam Scott.

The highlights:

East Lake Lockers Sleep Easy On News Of Stenson's 64

Henrik Stenson, scourge of cherry-wood paneled lockers across the land after going ballistic at Conway Farms on the innocent storage space rented by some member probably hoping the Swede merely left behind a sleeve of balls, turned his anger to East Lake with an opening 64.

Stenson is playing with a sore wrist--what could have caused that? Jeff Rude reports on Stenson explaining last week's tantrums.

“I’ve always been a bit of a hothead,” said the Swede, who apologized and awaits a bill for damage. “It kind of builds up and eventually goes over the limit. For me, it comes down to being tired. I played so much golf (and) haven’t been able to get rest.”

On top of that mental state, Stenson came to East Lake with a bad left wrist that he figures he inflamed by hitting balls and sleeping on it wrong last week. It was so bad that on Wednesday he hit just a “couple of shots on the range” and didn’t play a practice round – even though he had never played East Lake before, save for the front nine Tuesday.

“Wednesday morning, just holding a toothbrush was painful,” said the winner of the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second of the four FedEx Cup playoff events.

The first round video highlights courtesy of Tiger's good friends at PGA Tour Entertainment: