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ATLANTA – On Sunday following the final round of the BMW Championship Rory McIlroy joined a handful of players who attended the Denver Broncos game against the Indianapolis Colts and jokingly questioned why NFL players wore pads and helmets.

On Wednesday at the Tour Championship the world No. 1 had a different take.

“I was just making a comparison to rugby,” he smiled. “The hits are so big and the speed is so . . . obviously you see why they need pads and helmets.”

Tour Championship: Articles, videos and photos

McIlroy joined Rickie Fowler and Graeme McDowell on the sideline at the game and was allowed into the locker room after the Broncos’ 31-24 victory as a guest of Denver quarterback Peyton Manning.

Being that close to the action and the athletes was an eye-opening experience for the Northern Irishman.

“They’re just the most impressive athletes and sport in the world, definitely,” he said. “Some of the running backs and wide receivers, it really is. You have to have it all in that game.”

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Rory McIlroy is one of five players for whom victory at the Tour Championship would also secure the £6m FedEx Cup title.

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ATLANTA – The hot topic during this year’s playoff run has been a condensed schedule that has featured six can’t-miss events in seven weeks. On Monday that reality hit Rory McIlroy while he was in the shower preparing to catch an 8 a.m. flight from Denver to the PGA Tour finale at East Lake.

“I was thinking to myself, why am I going to Atlanta today? So I didn’t,” said McIlroy, who instead flew home to South Florida before flying to the Tour Championship on late Tuesday. “It’s amazing what a night in your own bed can do. I mean, just one night.”

Tour Championship: Articles, videos and photos

The Tour Championship will be McIlroy’s 21^st start around the globe this year and before his season is complete he will have played 28 events, including the Ryder Cup and PGA Grand Slam of Golf.

That number, he admits, may be a little too much golf going forward.

“I’ve never been a guy that likes to play too much. I’ll never get above that 25, 26 sort of number,” he said. “At the same time it would be nice to shave a couple of events off a year and try and get it down to like 21, 22.”

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ATLANTA – On Sunday following the final round of the BMW Championship Rory McIlroy joined a handful of players who attended the Denver Broncos game against the Indianapolis Colts and jokingly questioned why NFL players wore pads and helmets.

On Wednesday at the Tour Championship the world No. 1 had a different take.

“I was just making a comparison to rugby,” he smiled. “The hits are so big and the speed is so . . . obviously you see why they need pads and helmets.”

Tour Championship: Articles, videos and photos

McIlroy joined Rickie Fowler and Graeme McDowell on the sideline at the game and was allowed into the locker room after the Broncos’ 31-24 victory as a guest of Denver quarterback Peyton Manning.

Being that close to the action and the athletes was an eye-opening experience for the Northern Irishman.

“They’re just the most impressive athletes and sport in the world, definitely,” he said. “Some of the running backs and wide receivers, it really is. You have to have it all in that game.”

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Earlier this week the PGA Tour made the number-crunching at the Tour Championship a bit easier (or a little less complicated) by outlining the various FedEx Cup scenarios for the 29 players in the field. 

The top five in the FedEx Cup standings – all together now – control their own destiny, which means that Chris Kirk, Billy Horschel, Bubba Watson, Rory McIlroy and Hunter Mahan are guaranteed to capture the FedEx Cup title if they win at East Lake. Simple enough. 

In McIlroy’s case, for instance, he still has a “reasonable chance” of winning the FedEx Cup with a runner-up at East Lake, and he even has a mathematical chance if he finishes as low as T-3, depending on how the others around him fare. That part requires a calculator – and a dry-erase board.  

Here are other FedEx Cup scenarios for some of the biggest names in this week’s field: 

Jim Furyk, No. 7

Wins the FedEx Cup if … he wins the Tour Championship AND Kirk finishes in a three-way tie for second or worse and Horschel is T-2 or worse

Rickie Fowler, No. 9

Wins the FedEx Cup if … he wins the Tour Championship AND Kirk finishes in a three-way tie for third or worse, Horschel is third or worse, Watson is T-2 or worse and McIlroy is T-2 or worse

Adam Scott, No. 12

Wins the FedEx Cup if … he wins the Tour Championship AND Kirk finishes in a three-way tie for sixth or worse, Horschel is T-4 or worse, Watson is T-3 or worse, McIlroy finishes in a three-way tie for second or worse and Mahan is T-2 or worse 

Sergio Garcia, No. 13

Wins the FedEx Cup if … he wins the Tour Championship AND Kirk is T-7 or worse, Horschel is T-4 or worse, Watson is T-3 or worse, McIlroy finishes in a three-way tie for second or worse, and Mahan is T-2 or worse 

Justin Rose, No. 26

Wins the FedEx Cup if … he wins the Tour Championship AND Kirk is T-21 or worse, Horschel is T-6 or worse, Watson is T-4 or worse, McIlroy is T-3 or worse, Mahan finishes in a three-way tie for second or worse, and Jimmy Walker is T-2 or worse (note: at No. 25, Bill Haas is the highest seed ever to win the FedEx Cup, in 2011)

What does all of this mad math mean? Well, for one, your head will throb if you attempt to follow the constant fluctuations in the standings. But basically, for your favorite player to win, he not only has to play well but he also needs some help. It’s best to just sit back and watch the chips – err, the points – fall where they may. 

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Rory McIlroy acknowledged Wednesday that time and injuries are catching up to Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson as they enter the “last few holes of their careers.”

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Rory McIlroy’s sensational summer of success and a galaxy of stunning victories by his 2012 European Ryder Cup winning team-mates will be chronicled in The 2015 European Tour Yearbook priced at £25.00 but which can be pre-ordered NOW for the exceptional price of £20.00 including Postage and Packing for delivery before Christmas.

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The PGA Tour’s first wrap-around season comes to a close with this week’s Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta, and you’re not wrong if you think this year has resulted in a changing of the guard.

For the first time since 1992, you won’t see Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson or Ernie Els in the season finale.

The top five players on FedEx Cup standings – those who control their own destiny when it comes to winning the Cup – include 25-year-old world No. 1 Rory McIlroy, two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson and the three players who won playoff events at the Barclays (Hunter Mahan), Deutsche Bank (Chris Kirk, shown) and BMW Championship (Billy Horschel).

Here’s a look at those five players, plus a statistical look at the rest of the Tour Championship field: 

PGA Tour statistics of the FedEx Cup leaders

How the top five players have fared in the Tour Championship

It might surprise you to learn that McIlroy has only played in one Tour Championship, in 2012, when he concluded his remarkable season with a T-10 at East Lake for a second-place finish in the Cup standings behind tournament winner Brandt Snedeker. McIlroy didn’t qualify for East Lake a year ago (finishing 50th in the FedEx Cup standings) or in 2010 (36th), his only previous years as a PGA Tour member.

Mahan, meanwhile, is playing his eighth straight Tour Championship. He is the only player to have appeared in every PGA Tour playoff event since the post-season series began in 2007.

Kirk – who was born in Atlanta, played college golf at Georgia and still makes the state his home – tops the FedEx Cup standings but the Tour Championship hasn’t been kind to the point’s leader in recent years. The only player to enter the Tour Championship ranked atop the standings and win the tournament was Tiger Woods in the inaugural Cup year of 2007. In the last four years, the player who won the Tour Championship has also won the FedEx Cup, and the points leader entering the finale has finished second in the final standings.

FedEx Cup leaders entering the Tour Championship

This year’s 29-man field (Dustin Johnson finished 30th on the point’s list, but remains on leave for personal reasons) is a strong one. Eight of the top 10 players on the Official World Golf Ranking are at East Lake, as are seven of the next 10. Only four players are ranked outside the top 50.

World ranking of the Tour Championship field

Morgan Hoffman is the highest-ranked player to qualify for the Tour Championship since Kevin Streelman (147th) in 2010. The 25-year-old New Jersey native is certainly trending in the right direction. At the, Barclays in his home state, Hoffmann finished T-9 for his first top-10 finish of 2013-14. Two weeks later at Cherry Hills, his stellar closing rounds of 62-63 (the best final 36-hole scores this season) moved him from T-53 to third in the tournament and into the Tour Championship for the first time.

Highest ranked players to qualify for the Tour Championship in the playoffs era

Only 13 players are retuning to the Tour Championship from 2013. Defending champion Henrik Stenson failed to qualify, as did co-runner-up Steve Stricker. The other runner-up, Jordan Spieth, is back. There are nine first-timers in the field this week, including Kirk and Hoffmann.

First-timers in the Tour Championship field

Hoffmann and Tringale are two of 10 players in the field who have not won on Tour in 2013-14. Hoffmann, in fact, is the only player in the Tour Championship who did not have a win or a runner-up finish this season. Here’s the list of non-winners. Some of the names might surprise you.

Players in the Tour Championship who have not won in 2013-14

One final thought: Bill Haas is the only player in the playoff era to make the Tour Championship his first win of the season. Haas won in 2011 in a playoff over Hunter Mahan. Haas hasn’t won yet in 2013-14 and needs a victory this week to extend his streak of consecutive years with a win on Tour to five.

If you haven’t already done so, please follow me on Twitter at @johnantoninigc.

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Bubba Watson, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Rickie Fowler, among others, took in the Broncos’ 31-24 win after the BMW Championship.

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Bubba Watson, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Rickie Fowler, among others, took in the Broncos’ 31-24 win after the BMW Championship.

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