What's at Stake
The tours’ year-end championships are one last big-money star war before the pro game goes dark through the holidays. But the lineups at these events also offer a snapshot of the season just passed. They consist of the eight players who have earned the highest number of ranking points, and showed up on our screens the most. Many of them, knowing that an 11-month season will come with ups and downs, surges and lulls, make qualifying for this event their primary goal at the start of the year. Getting here doesn’t mean you were perfect, but it does mean you did a lot of things right along the way.—Steve Tignor
