A $10 million payout will always grab the attention, and that is the case for this week's Tour Championship, the final event of the PGA Tour season.
The Tour Championship at historic East Lake Golf Club, where Bobby Jones once honed his game, is a two-for-one. The 30-man field will play for the $1.53 million first prize. And the winner of the season-long FedExCup will take home a $10 million bonus.
One player could go home with both, as Jordan Spieth did a year ago.
Any player in the field has a mathematical chance to win the big money, if other dominos fall into play. However, the top five players on the FedExCup points list -- in order, Americans Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed, Australians Adam Scott and Jason Day, and England's Paul Casey -- control their own destiny and would win the cup if they win the tournament.
"The last thing probably on my mind is that there's $10 million at stake, because I'm playing golf tournaments to win hardware," Reed said. "There's two really good trophies I could win this week, and hopefully I can go out and have a chance late Sunday to do it."
Spieth enters the week as the No. 7 seed, but likes his chances.
"I think we have as good a chance or better than anybody else, given what we've done, and I feel that comfortable on this golf course," Spieth said. "I have no excuses this week. Go out and get the job done."
His only top-10 finish in a major this year was when he blew a big lead at the Masters and wound up second behind Danny Willett.
Johnson, aside from missing the cut at the PGA Championship, has been almost invincible all summer. He won the U.S. Open and Bridgestone Invitational, and then he captured the BMW Championship, the third playoff event, two weeks ago.
However, Johnson hasn't played well at East Lake. He tied for fifth in 2015 and was solo fifth in 2013.
"I feel like I'm playing better golf," he said. "I feel like my game's better than it has been in years past. I feel like my all-around game is better."
Day, who has been No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking since winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational and WGC Match Play Championship in the spring, has been dealing with a bad back that forced him to withdraw from the BMW Championship. Day, though, said he is OK and ready to make a run.
"I feel good," Day said. "I'm just trying to ease my way back into it, but the back issue isn't an issue right now."
And while $10 million is a lot of money, most of the players in the field aren't looking at dollar signs this week.
"More so than money, I'd much rather have my name on the trophy, and that's just me personally because how much is enough?" Day said. "We all have money, but I don't have my name on the FedEx Cup trophy, and that's what I really want."
