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Simpson and Donald chase fitting end to fine seasons

Webb Simpson lifts the trophy © Getty Images

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After a long season, this week 30 players converge upon East Lake Golf Club near Atlanta to fight it out for the $11.3 million cheque awarded to the winner of the FedEx Cup.

That's $11.3m. A lot of money for any golfer to earn, regardless of their stature or previous earning record in the game. Yet, with just five players in a position where victory will guarantee them the jackpot, one of them began the year having earned less than €2m in total on the PGA Tour.

Webb Simpson may have come into this season without much of a pedigree, but he has certainly established one in double-quick time.

"I know I'm playing well right now and riding a lot of confidence, but every player in the game is going through ups and downs," Simpson said last week. "You know, I was talking to Ernie Els and he said, 'When you're up, just keep it going and keep the hammer down', so that's what I'm trying to do."

Simpson, after a decent 2009 season where he earned over $1m, endured a slight slump in 2010 - but things picked up at the end of that campaign, when he led going into the final round of the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas.

Simpson didn't win, ultimately blowing his chances with a water-assisted double-bogey on the 17th to drop out of a three-way playoff for his maiden PGA Tour title. Yet the experience evidently stood him in good stead.

"I hit it left, the only place you can't hit it," Simpson said at the time. "But all in all, I had a great week and learned a lot. I think I proved today to myself and everyone else that I can do it."

This season, he has set out to prove unequivocally that is the case. His first victory had to wait until the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro - but his second came just weeks later at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Prior to that he was beaten in a tense playoff against Bubba Watson at the Zurich Classic - one of ten top-ten finishes he has had in 2011.

All that has put him top of the current money list (having made a staggering $5,621,043), and put him in pole position to claim that monster cheque. You couldn't argue he wouldn't deserve it.

The question, then, is how can a player previously so average suddenly make the step up to be the most consistent, if not the best, of the year?

Lots expected of Lexi

Thompson won by five in Alabama © Getty Images

• Much excitement in the ladies' game this week, as 16-year-old Lexi Thompson became the youngest winner in LPGA Tour history. Thompson - who qualified for the women's US Open while just 12 - has already been hailed as the future of the sport, even though she may not be given eligibility for the tour next year due to her young age.
  
  Gifted in all aspects of the game, Thompson doesn't appear to have the technical prowess of Michelle Wie, another former prodigy, but has obviously got the burning desire to win that many believe eludes the current Stanford student. Thompson is utterly focused on being the best golfer she can be, while Wie wants to be the most rounded person possible after what was by all accounts a pretty pressurised upbringing. Different approaches, with one not necessarily better than the other.
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  Thompson, then, replaces Wie as the bright hope for a sport that is searching desperately for ways to attract greater audiences. But Wie shouldn't be forgotten. Perhaps it will require both - not just one - to dominate leaderboards for people to really start paying attention. Because, when it comes to sport, prodigies are good - but rivalries are better.

Simpson was 213th in the world rankings at the start of the year (a position now occupied by Hennie Otto) and sat 97th in the PGA Tour money list after his near-miss in Las Vegas (Tom Gillis, come on down). Received wisdom would suggest that Simpson sharpened up his short game - as that is, by all accounts, the deciding factor among professionals - but in actual fact the statistics suggest only a minor improvement around the greens (his approach shots from between 100-125 yards show the only significant upturn).

In reality, it's what cost Simpson victory at the Justin Timberlake - his driving - that has engineered his emergence this time around. Where Simpson was 170th in total driving last year, this year he is 17th - a sizeable improvement that has exponentially increased his earning power.

Where last year he hit the ball 285.4 yards on average (118th best on tour) and found the fairway 60.47% of the time, this year he hits it a full 12 yards longer (40th) and nearly two per cent straighter. That might not seem a noticeable improvement in accuracy, but when you are hitting it that much longer (and thus making the acceptable angle for finding the fairways that much smaller) it is actually quite impressive.

Such an improvement has enabled Simpson to become the very best par-five player on tour, and the third best on par-fours. The technical improvements in his swing have also made him better on par-threes ... and from that recipe a multi-millionaire golfer is soon born.

The birth of the 26-year-old's first child earlier in the year has also doubtless had an impact - gifting him that instinctive desire to provide for his family. $11.3m would certainly go a long way to achieving that.

However, one of the four players hoping they can deny Simpson with a victory is Luke Donald (the others include Justin Rose, Matt Kuchar and Dustin Johnson). It can hardly be said that the Englishman needs the money (although he certainly won't turn it down), but his motivation for success is not financial. Donald has the impressive chance to become the first player to ever win the money lists on both the PGA and European Tour - a real acknowledgement of his untouchable quality (like Simpson ... except across more continents) this year.

Ernie Els may have come second on the PGA list when he won the European money title in 2002 - but that was with his victory in the Open Championship counting towards both titles. Donald hasn't had a standout major result to cling onto (although he did finish in the top five at The Masters), instead prospering thanks to victory at the flagship European event - the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth - and triumph at the lucrative WGC-World Match Play.

By all accounts Donald is desperate to do all he can to complete the unique feat. Whether he does or not, however, he will have earned enough money in 2011 to shelve that as a motivating factor and concentrate solely on the holy grail - a major championship.

Something tells us that will be the enduring target for Webb Simpson, too. He's come a long way in a year - indeed, come Sunday perhaps only his bank balance will have travelled further.

Sergio finally trumps Woods

For the first time in history, Sergio Garcia leapfrogged Tiger Woods in the world rankings this week ... staying 48th in the standings as the American dropped to a new low of 49th. It's a far cry from what was expected when the Spaniard first burst onto the scene, pushing Woods all the way at the 1999 US PGA Championship at Medinah.

Garcia was expected to go on to play the Tom Watson to Woods' Jack Nicklaus, winning a number of majors and challenging for supremacy, but - other than a brief rise to No. 2 in the rankings in 2008 - that has not quite materialised. The question now, is whether either or both men can climb the rankings back towards the top ten, or win majors in future. No-one can know for sure - Garcia performed well in almost all four this year, but Woods has the track record - but one thing we can now say unequivocally; This is a rivalry that never lived up to the hype.

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