Labour Day Observations
There’s still something fundamentally flawed about the FedEx Cup playoffs. It’s this perpetual blending of the regular season and the post season. With the possible exception of NASCAR, of which I’m totally ignorant, no other sport I can think of continues to reward regular season play into the various playoff rounds. Sure it makes sense to establish seedings based on what happens during the year but once the playoffs start, it should be perform or be eliminated. This past weekend is a perfect example. A number of players missed the cut at the Deutsche Bank Championship but are still exempt into the next round based on accumulated points. The silliness climaxes at the Tour Championship where one player can win the final event while another can win the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Commissioner Finchem says the FedEx Cup playoffs are working just fine after a few tweaks during preceeding years. That likely means the sponsor isn’t getting as many irate phone calls from golf fans who can’t figure the whole shebang. And while I’m on this mini rant, what’s with the Fall Series? It’s like the season starts up again and makes some of those players who qualified for the playoffs vulnerable to losing their card because a bunch of players who didn’t make the playoffs suddenly get hot and bump out the other guys. Confused yet?
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Had to say I was intrigued when Webb teed it up against Chez in the Deutsche Bank playoff. At the start of the day Bo, Hunter and Bubba were also in the mix.
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While there were only three tournaments to report in this week’s Bulletin, it’s the first time I can recall not having any Canadians make the cut. None of them played the Deutsche Bank Championship or the Omega European Masters but at The Nationwide event there were four Canadian players in the field and none made it to weekend play. It’s not looking too good for any of them to make it to the PGA Tour next year based on a Top 25 finish. By my count Jon Mills has missed the cut in his last eight starts and continues to slip down the money list.
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What a bounce back for Alena Sharp at the PGA Women’s Championship held at Bayview last week. After missing the cut at the CN Canadian Women’s Open the week before, Sharp put it together to dominate the field, except for 16-year-old Anna Kim of Toronto. Sharp needed an extra day and eight extra holes to eliminate the teenager in a playoff but the win may be the confidence boost she needs to see some better finishes on the LPGA Tour.
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Finally, a sad note to close. Last week, the Canadian golf industry lost a friend and contributer when Norm Woods died after a relatively short battle with cancer. Norm was 67 and had started GolfScene magazine a dozen years ago, at an age when many are contemplating retirement. Always a consummate salesman, Norm was a likeable guy with a sharp wit and a kind word. He and I first crossed paths shortly after I started Fairways Magazine and although he’d only been a publisher for a year longer, he always had helpful hints and good advice. Sometimes we competed but more often it was a friendly collaboration. Over the years we travelled together on media trips or attended the same functions where we had the chance to play golf and dine together or just relax with a drink. It was always low key but very enjoyable. For those who knew Norm, you didn’t always know when he was in the room, until one of his zingers made you abundantly aware of his presence. There was a pretty good turnout from the Canadian golf media at the Celebration of Norm’s Life last Thursday at Whistle Bear. Some funny stories and a few pops turned out to be a great way to say goodbye to a friend and colleague who will be missed.
FedEx Cup – golf’s answer to root canal
If there is anyone out there (other than Tim Finchem) who likes the FedEx Cup playoffs, then he or she has yet to be heard from. After year 4 of the abominable format, it still does not resonate with the players, is almost impossible to follow for the fans and with two more years to run looks like it may need to be tweaked again to close some loopholes such as:
In what other sport is it possible for a player or team to miss one round of the playoffs but still come back to win it all? (Jim Furyk)
What kind of system could make it possible for one player to win the championship yet not win any event all year in either the regular season or the playoffs? (Paul Casey)
When the final game is played, it’s pretty normal for the game winner to be crowned champion but this past weekend all sorts of scenarios existed where Matt Kuchar, Luke Donald or Charlie Hoffman could have won the FedEx Cup without winning the final playoff event. A really bizarre result could have occurred if Steve Stricker had bogeyed his final two holes. That would have moved Kuchar into 24th spot earning him enough points to stay ahead of Furyk and scoop the $10,000,000.
The contract with FedEx is up in two years and my hunch is that it won’t be renewed under the same format as today. In the interim, here’s a few ideas that the PGA Tour might consider:
PGA Tour players play for money. They understand it. The fans understand it. Even the TV announcers understand it. Nobody understands points.
Playoffs are all about eliminating losers and crowning winners. No format makes sense that could allow a champion who had not won the final or had not won anything to waltz off with the crown.
Golf is a splendid sport for a winner take all scenario. Whatever the format used to get to the final, all participants should have a chance at the big prize.
Apart from the initial seedings, the regular season standings should play no part in the playoffs. The playoffs are like a season unto themselves.
Come to think of it, there is a perfect syatem that takes all of the above into consideration. It accounts for regular season success; it uses money to determine the winner; and it’s a winner take all format. Best of all, it doesn’t have to be developed in Ponte Vedra because it already exists. It’s called the Tour Championship – top 30 regular season players based on money show up for one winner take all event for $10 million and the FedEx Cup.
Isn’t there some expression about the old being new again?
STRIKE THREE!
STRIKE THREE! You’re outta there!
That should be it for the FedEx Cup. Tim Finchem and the PGA Tour have had three attempts to get it right and none of them have resonated with real golf fans or the players either for that matter. So let’s bid it farewell.
Yesterday’s version of a tournament within a tournament was just further proof that the PGA Tour’s convoluted process of choosing an annual champion doesn’t work. As a golf tournament it had plenty of excitement – Phil Mickelson putting on a charge to win, hapless Kenny Perry fading in a big event once again and Tiger Woods struggling to get something going. Anytime you have the two biggest names in golf monopolizing the airtime it’s got to be good for viewers, ratings and sponsors.
Oh and by the way, in case you missed it, since Tiger finished second all alone and Steve Stricker finished in sixth, Tiger accumulates 8,327.889 points to Stricker’s 5,975.002 points thereby maintaining his slim lead over Stricker in the FedEx Cup points race while Mickelson’s 9,114 ½ points for winning isn’t quite enough to catch Tiger but is enough to move from fourteenth spot past Stricker into second place. And if you find that a bit confusing let me refer you to this projected points list once again. Aaaaaagh!
So the bottom line is that Phil wins but finishes second and Tiger finishes second but wins.
I’ve racked my brain to think of a parallel situation in another sport where someone can win the season championship without winning the final game. I can’t think of one. Maybe one exists but I doubt it, because all other sports recognize the ridiculousness of that scenario.
The PGA Tour has pushed an assortment of playoff formats at us over the past three years thanks to the deep pockets of Federal Express. But even the FedEx folks must be tired of the negative feedback that their sponsored program generates. Pardon the pun, but this package is undeliverable.
Nobody will remember or care how many FedEx Cups Tiger or anybody else won after their career is over. Quick, how many Money Titles did Jack Nicklaus win? I suspect relatively few people can answer that but most every golf fan knows Jack won 18 professional majors. (Correct answer is 8).
The truth is that golf, like tennis, is measured by major championships. No amount of fiddling by Emperor Finchem is going to change that.
So assuming that my voice, like so many others, falls on deaf ears down in Ponte Vedra, and 2010 sees yet another version of the FedEx Cup, let’s see how we can make it better.
First, let’s eliminate FedEx Cup points. Players play for money, not points. And the whole points system is confusing. Currently the Tour uses the Top 125 on the Money List to determine who gets a card for the next year so why not use the same number for the playoffs.
Second, to be a true playoff, winners have to advance and losers go home. This scares the Tour because some of the biggest stars (Tiger) might not be around at the finish. Too bad. At least it passes the smell test with most fans, something that the FedEx Cup points re-setting formula never did.
Third, scale the playoffs back to three events and complete the whole thing by the week after Labour Day. If you’re so afraid of going head-to-head with the NFL, then don’t.
In my version of the playoffs, the field gets cut from 125 to 70 after the first event, down to 30 after the second and then gets cut twice more to 16 and 8 after Round 2 and Round 3 of the final. On Sunday, eight guys start even and play for ten million.
Now that’s pressure!
The FedEx Cup Playoffs are a Joke
I’m on record as being an ardent non-supporter of the whole FedEx Cup scheme. As a golf traditionalist, I believe the four Majors – and there are only four Tim – are the crowning achievement for most players in any given season or over a career. The fact that there is a big cheque attached to winning the FedEx Cup is a huge incentive for the players but I don’t believe that anybody will care who won or how many they won five, ten or fifty years from now. On the other hand, Major winners are revered forever.
One of the reasons I don’t like the FedEx Cup this year is that the outcome is already known and there is still one event to play. Unless he fails to complete four rounds of play in the Tour Championship, Vijay Singh will win the 2008 FedEx Cup based on his victories in the first two playoff events. Nobody can catch him now.
What kind of playoff system determines the winner before the final game? This is like Detroit and Pittsburgh playing the sixth game of the Stanley Cup finals after Detroit had clinched the Cup in five. Sure the PGA Tour still needs to determine the winner of the season long Money race but unless Tiger Woods rebounds from knee surgery faster than anticipated, nobody can catch Vijay there either. So all that’s left is thirty guys playing for a whack of cash with nothing else on the line. Sounds kinda like what happens on the PGA Tour every week anyway.
In the off season, the Tour will once again fiddle with the FedEx Cup format to try and a) make the season meaningful; b) provide the right amount of volatility and c) try to ensure it’s still a wide open race all the way to the Tour Championship.
Fiddle away! As far as I’m concerned it doesn’t work; it doesn’t generate any extra excitement and I don’t believe anybody cares. Time to admit that this FedEx package is undeliverable!
Peter Mumford is the Editor and Publisher of Fairways Magazine in Toronto. Fairways is intended for avid golfers and this blog site is an extension of that same philosophy - we don't dumb it down for the uninformed!