"We are talking about a 37-week accomplishment."

I'm sure the PGA Tour's Ric Clarson means well, but everytime he talks about the FedEx Cup, he gives you new reasons to not like it.

From Steve Elling in the Orlando Sentinel, writing about the 5-year exemption that goes with winning the FedEx Cup: 

Forget the $10 million bonus.

That's not chicken feed, but it's not all the winner of the forthcoming FedEx Cup will earn. The PGA Tour has added a potentially more valuable carrot -- a five-year playing exemption to the FedEx winner, matching the reward accorded winners of golf's vaunted major championships.

Sounds like heresy, huh? Then listen to this.

"Todd Hamilton, Ben Curtis and Shaun Micheel, they all had a significant one-week accomplishment," tour official Ric Clarson said of three recent, and mostly obscure, major winners. "That's on the resume for the rest of their life, but we are talking about a 37-week accomplishment. I'd say this trumps that.

"We are not saying the FedEx Cup is better than winning a major, but it's a totally different measurement."

Okay, you're saying, he's drinking the Kool-Aid, no news flash there. Then Elling drops this: 

As if the exemption isn't enough to stir conversation, Clarson said that based on computer models run by the tour, it is possible that a player could win the FedEx Cup race without winning any of the four so-called playoff events in August and September.

Which again is a reminder that these "playoffs" will be the most confusing in the history of sports, as viewers wait anxiously after the rounds for the points standings to be spit out of the computer. A true playoff would simply eliminate people each week in the build up to the Tour Championship.

Elling concludes:

Not to pick on the guy, but in theory, a player like David Duval could get hot for four weeks, win the FedEx bonus and then fall off the face of the earth, just like he did after winning the 2001 British Open. Yet his exemption would cement a spot for him on tour.

Oh, you can pick on him. 

Comments

[Four-putt]

Yeah, just hand those five-year exemptions to anyone. Thank God they came to their senses and ended the 10-year free passes.

Those not needing long fingernails to stay on Tour thanks mostly to somehow catching lightning in a bottle over week or two:

Mark Brooks, Steve Jones, Bob Tway, David Duval, Shaun Micheel, Craig Perks, Rich Beem, Larry Mize, Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton, Paul Lawrie.

[G. Thomas]

"Todd Hamilton, Ben Curtis and Shaun Micheel, they all had a significant one-week accomplishment," tour official Ric Clarson said of three recent, and mostly obscure, major winners. "That's on the resume for the rest of their life, but we are talking about a 37-week accomplishment. I'd say this trumps that."


Earning your name on a Claret Jug or Wanamaker Trophy is tenfold more important than a 5 yr exemption and a Fed Up Cup in the garage 10 years later. Ric Clarson, speaking from great experience, is attempting to deminish these 100 year old accomplishments by taking a page out of the razzle dazzle Tim Finchem playbook. The harder these guys try the more pathetic they appear.

[Matt]

In my humble opinion, its all dollars and no sense

I thought of a good word for their dichtomous concept of 'instant tradition' --> BRANDITION

[Eye On Golf]

Why does the PGA Tour keep trying to upstage the Majors with big money events?

[Smolmania]

Why does Ben Curtis continually get lumped in with the so-called "one hit wonders?" Yes he came from nowhere when he won the Open Championship (thank you Thomas Bjorn). But then he decided to take a year and play full-time on the European Tour as well as the PGA Tour, and the development of his game certainly suffered because of that. But, didn't I see him win this year on the PGA Tour? Wasn't he in the top 30 on the money list? Isn't his world rank up to #70? I sure wish I could be that obscure. . .

[RGT]

~~Just give the 5year exemption to the leading money winner each year, that's what this is all about, and won't that be monumental, RICK~~

[DBH]

RGT, surprisingly, they already do. Here's an excerpt from an AP article:

"The winner of the FedExCup not only gets $10 million, but a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour.

If that sounds like a nice perk, it really isn't.

In a category that gets overlooked because it has never been used, the PGA Tour has always offered a five-year exemption to the winner of the money title.

"We're just mirroring that with an exemption for the FedExCup," said Andy Pazder, vice president of competition for the PGA Tour.
Pazder could not recall any player needing to lean on his five-year exemption for winning the money title, noting that those who win a money title usually have higher status from winning a major or The Players Championship, which also come with five-year exemptions. That holds true even five years removed from the money title..."

Whether that trend will continue with the FedEx winners...?

[DBH]

The more I think about this, the more it seems the Tour is setting itself up to look really silly. The true "37-week accomplishment" is the Money Title and it's proven infallible over decades at rewarding the deserving (in the sense that none of its winners has stunk so bad over the ensuing 5 years that they needed to cash the exemption it provided them).
Why provide a direct measure of comparison (same exemption) with your half baked new concept?

[Van]

It's all about charity.