"I'm not Rain Man, so I wasn't able to calculate whether it was actually $1 million"

Doug Ferguson seems to be warming to the ADT Championship, which again proved incredibly compelling. It doesn't hurt that Sunday's final 8 chasing $1 million includes Ochoa, Webb, Creamer, Kerr, Gulbis, Mi Hyun Kim, Sarah Lee and the charismatic Christina Kim.

Especially impressive is how well the LPGA seems organized when it comes time for the sudden death playoffs, starting them on the 17th hole as soon as the last group is in.

Another nice touch is the $1 million in cash sitting by the 18th green (pictured, left, courtesy of golf.com).

Kim was asked about it:

As if they needed additional pressure, the LPGA Tour placed $1 million cash -- or what looked like it, anyway -- in a glass case with a big lock and big bodyguard nearby, a reminder of what's at stake.

"I'm not Rain Man, so I wasn't able to calculate whether it was actually $1 million," Kim said. "You always see in the movies they've got the $1 million, and it's a very think briefcase. I don't know. Maybe there's just a lot of air packed in there. It's awesome."

Update on 2007-11-18 17:37 by Geoff

From Steve Elling's write-up of Saturday's wild finish:

In other words, perhaps the most unpredictable event in golf followed the LPGA headquarters' script to the letter. Well, make that the current brass' script, anyway.

You want an eyeful of awful irony? Sophie Gustafson was the poster child for the volatile cruelty of the format, blowing up with a double-bogey and bogey on the last two holes of regulation, forcing her into a four-way playoff for two spots. Her first swing in sudden death went in the water on the 17th and she was officially toast.

The funky format was the brainchild of Gustafson's husband, former LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw, who was on hand to watch the carnage. They must have had a wonderful drive up Interstate 95 to their home in Ponte Vedra Beach, huh?