Could Fed Ex Cup winner Furyk win Player of the Year?

Jim Furyk enjoyed a big pay day on Sunday in Atlanta. The 40-year-old won both the Tour Championship and the Fed Ex Cup title for the year, the latter of which alone brings with it a $10 million pay cheque.

Furyk was able to hang on in the rain on Sunday, edging Luke Donald by a stroke.

The American made a good start to 2010, winning twice before May, but had a fairly ordinary summer. In fact, he missed the cut at two of the majors this year: the Masters in April and the British Open in July.

Regardless, Furyk is the Fed Ex Cup champion, and has as good a shot as anyone at winning the PGA Player of the Year. With Tiger Woods struggling throughout 2010, the door was wide open for someone to step through and have a big year on the American tour.

The problem, however, is that no one really did. Many players had good patches during the season, including Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy, Matt Kuchar, Ernie Els, Paul Casey and Steve Stricker. But nobody really grabbed it by the neck and pulled away.

Furyk, as much as anyone else, enjoyed some timely wins and may just end up walking away with the honour. He was the only player on the PGA Tour to win three times in 2010. Normally, in the Woods era, three wins would be nice, but would still be five or six short of Tiger. Not this year. In 2010, three may be enough.

There is one more big tournament this year: the Golf Championships in China in late October. Unless someone in the group above wins that title, Furyk may walk away with both the Fed Ex Cup title and the PGA Player of the Year crown.

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Read more on: british open, ernie els, fed ex cup, honour, jim furyk, justin rose, luke donald, majors, matt kuchar, paul casey, pga tour, rory mcilroy, steve stricker, tiger woods.