Tour Championship round three: East Lake's birdies are too cheap

If there’s one thing I’m pretty sure of, it’s that this wasn’t what Tim Finchem had in mind. The PGA Tour commissioner must have foreseen Tiger Woods walking away with his beloved brainchild, the FedEx Cup, without too much hassle. Indeed, despite all the hoo-ha it created, I would guess he was more than happy Tiger skipped the first “playoff” to help ensure the semblance of a four-week chase.

But there’s no way he would have wanted the grand finale, the supposedly nail-biting climax, to end in such a mad scramble to see who could out-birdie the other as the East Lake golf course laid down and died. The weather gods have been unkind to poor Tim; that Friday night deluge was the killer blow.

What an extraordinary day’s golf Saturday was: Geoff Ogilvy leaping from obscurity to equal the course record 62, only to see Zach Johnson fly by from even greater depths to get within a whisker of a 59; a day of 9 eagles and 118 birdies. One of those eagles of course was Mark Calcavecchia’s at the 15th to tie Woods for the lead. End of the day? Tiger’s back to where he started, three strokes clear.

With greens this defenceless it’s small wonder the players can’t wait to get back out for Sunday’s final round. Unfortunately, it’s created a bit of a circus atmosphere that’s fun, but not what the grand finale of the golf season should really be about.

So there it is: as long as Tiger can down a few more birdies Sunday - not a huge problem for someone whose last 10 rounds have gone 64-67-67-67-67-64-63-64-63-64 - we’re done.