Tour Championship, Round Three: The Scott eulogies have begun, and he hasn't even won yet!

Spare a thought for Davis Love III Sunday as he trundles his lonely path round the Tour Championship course, wooden spoon sticking firmly out of his bag. It can’t be much fun trying to make amends for that dreadful opener, even if a nice fat cheque still awaits at the end - presumably what’s still keeping him going.

The fickle hand of fate eh? He looked for all the world someone likely to be trading blows at the top come Sunday, his reputation as a golfing heavyweight restored. Instead that libertine hand has decreed that a different messiah is rising in the South.

You play pretty well all season but end up with just a catalogue of missed opportunities to show for it (Singapore? Who cares?). Then, on the penultimate day of the season, you seriously fluff an approach shot, but it ends up giving you 3ft for eagle and suddenly you are, as at least one top writer would have it, the best world golfer not named Eldrick.

My only sneaky thought is what sort of messiah status Adam Scott will have if he drains away his three shot lead Sunday and ends up losing. But I can’t see it happening unless he has a truly terrible round. Two under for the day should see him home and hosed against any surging final round from any of his adversaries.

I still don’t think that quite justifies talk of him being better than Jim Furyk or Phil Mickelson just yet. Let’s see them driver-to-driver in full-blooded competition first, not this tired finale to a tiring season.

PS: How nice to be a rich golfer eh? Really angry with your putter? Just take it behind the sheds and whack it into a mangled mess, like Vijay Singh did Friday. Boy would you feel better after that. In my case at least, you’d also feel a whole lot poorer. They don’t come cheap, good putters.