You Realize...

...this may be the best indictment yet of the FedEx Cup, courtesy of Gary Van Sickle on Twitter:

Update on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 06:31 AM by Geoff

Not exactly an endorsement from Doug Ferguson either:

This one promises to be meaningful, but at what cost?

There is no guarantee the best player will win the FedEx Cup. Tour officials made sure of that by resetting the points after three playoff events so that all 30 players at East Lake have a mathematical chance. The top five need no help from anyone; they only have to win the Tour Championship to collect the prize.

Yet if the tour had left the system alone, there was a chance of the golf’s Super Bowl having as much interest as a preseason game.

“The whole idea of the playoffs was for us to get into the top five,” Woods said. “And now, it’s basically a sprint. It’s one tournament, a sprint, assuming one of the top five guys wins the tournament.”

The FedEx Cup pays out $10 million to the winner. The value of the trophy will depend on the name inscribed on it.

Comments

[Ryan B]

If the format that you and I would like to see would be implemented - the ADT Championship format, or some kind of free for all - then that would still be true.

[GeorgeM]

If the desire is to have the FedEx Cup represent the full season AND have volatility during the playoffs, a better approach would be to escalate the points awarded, not reseed.

[Geoff]

Ryan,
But at least the ADT model can be easily understood, involves a simple posting of the lowest score and has the potential to create a must-see final event for even non-golfers. Over time, that has a chance to gain credibility. I don't think the current system ever has that chance.

[Tom Naccarato--THAT Tom Naccarato]

What is the Fed Ex Cup?

[titleist38]

It is very difficult to build excitement and intrigue into an event where the outcome is inevitable. You can stage these play offs under any points system you care to dream up and Tiger would still win. Mickelson firing on all cylinders may give him a run for his money, but sadly that didn't happen this year for reasons which eveyone understands.

[Buck]

Is anyone actually watching this shit?

[act383]

The only purpose of the FedEx Cup as far as I can see is to create a thing that FedEx can sponsor. Perhaps the whole concept has intentionally been created to be completely ridiculous so that people keep talking about it.

[Taylor Anderson]

Is it kind of like how the Patriots won every game in 2007 except for one? So the trophy goes to the Giants, even though they finished the regular season 10-6. There is certainly warts with the FedEx Cup, but the fact the outcome is not a foregone conclusion in the final tournament is not one of them.

[Smolmania]

In the interest of beating a very dead horse, please give me back my Western Open. . .

[thusgone]

who cares? i think it has been well established (at least among the commenters here) that whatever it is, the fxc is not a playoff or the culmination of any sort of season-long competition.

but it is a boondoggle that has induced the studs to play more tournaments late in the year than they otherwise would. for me, this is a good thing and enough of a benefit to justify the exercise. . . . although I could do without the endless ads, promos and points tutorials

[vwgolfer]

The biggest indication that no one really cares: Absence of Drunk NY Fans at Liberty National. But then again maybe they just don't know where NJ is.

[dsl]

The whole thing is designed to get Tiger to play and (hopefully) win. So, get out that 'mission accomplished' banner. Clearly, the actual cup, points race, etc, is all just a bunch of meaningless hype. In the end, it means that Tiger is playing and the event is as 'must watch' as can be for a golf tournament being held in football season.

Personally (not that you care), I take time off of work to watch the Majors*. I play golf and watch football during the FedEx Cup stuff.

*Statement getting less and less accurate due to DVRs and the presence of so many damn commercials during the live Major broadcasts.

[Joey]

"There is no guarantee the best player will win the FedEx Cup." That's a feature, not a problem.

[HW]

Thusgone nailed it. Forget the name and the 10 mil, and we have a few extra tournaments with pretty strong fields. It's not perfect, not a major...But is it that bad?

[dsl]

vwgolfer - That's funny on a lot of levels. Now I wish I would have watched the event.

[SGarrett]

As I see it, the FedEx Cup has multiple personality disorder. What is it? Is it is a season-long competition? Or is it a playoffs style elimination? If it is a season-long competition then GeorgeM is correct. There should be no points reset in advance of the Tour Championship. Instead, the points offered at the Tour Championship should again be raised (from 500 for regular winners, then 2500 for winners of the first three playoffs, to something like 5000-7500 to the winner of the Tour Championship). That way a possible Woods domination of the regular and first three playoffs would be far less likely to be undone by a surprise winner of the final event. Season best would likely still win the overall competition. HOWEVER, if the goal is to use the regular season PLUS the first three playoffs to create QUALIFIERS for a winner take all finale at the Tour Championship, then "points" should be handled differently. Here I would also NOT RESET points. Instead, I would simply make the Tour Championship a winner take all event. Take the $35 million FedEx bonus pool and ADD IT to the current $7.5 million prize money pool and pay out the entire $42.5 million to the 30 players who qualify to participate. I think the fans would better understand EITHER a season long competition that did not reset OR a season long qualification for a mega money finale where all players enter with an equal chance than the current hybrid event that allows a totally dominant number 1 (during the regular season and first three playoffs) the exact same "mandated advantage" as a marginally dominiant number 1 who barely scrapes in ahead of a very close #2. The current system seems like a bastardized mutant - that is much too confusing.

[Ryan B]

Geoff, totally agree that the ADT format would be easy for everyone to understand, therefore easier to gain traction with everyone. But for Ferguson to complain that the format doesn't work cause the best player may not win is just nonsense. If they're Playoffs, then that possibility should exist. If they're not (which currently they aren't), then maybe Doug is right and we should just hand over the $10 mil to the money list winner at the end of the Tour Championship.

[Steven T.]

I look forward to the "Tour Champinshiop" of the FedUp Cup. Wouldn't it be interesting if the top5 flopped and #30 won? How about that scenario?

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

Buck: Only if the rain is accompanied by lightning.

[Not going to happen]

Lower shipping rates would be an improvement over the Fed Ex Cup!

[Justin]

What is the big deal with resetting the points. In basketball for instance, if the Lakers sweeps each round of the playoffs, and face off against the Celtics in the finals who had to go through three game sevens, the series still starts at 0-0. The NBA doesn't award the Lakers extra points because they dominated the Western Conference playoffs.

[blader]

The way the points work out is more suited to a good roller derby match than to golf.

If $10m is achievable by everybody in the tour championship field, then you'd like to not only win the event, but also be able to take out the competitors who most stand in your way. Alternately, if you go into the event endowed with points, you'd like a chance to form some alliances to protect you from players who will be gunning to take you down.

So face it, the fedex points scenario thing really only works for blood sport, and until golf becomes blood sport, no amount of contriving/rejigging/reaccounting is going to change that.

Still, everybody is talking fedex and everybody is watching the better players, and all the other sponsors are getting their visibility in the (almost) closing events of the season.

[LI_Golfer]

If Number 30 Wins the final leg of this Fed Ex cup. Then does Tiger win the overall if he finishes in the top five of the tourney?

[Morg]

My brilliant suggestion: just make the PGA Championship a better Major.

[dennis]

LI_Golfer - see Geoff's earlier post, which links to a page with the breakdown scenarios.

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2009/9/14/tiger-takes-day-off-falls-in-fedex-cup-standings.html

If Senden, who is #30, wins, Tiger would need to finish at least 28th to win the overall outright, depending of course on what the other 4 in that top 5 do, and what all happens with ties. As it has been noted, the top 5 control their own destiny.

[The O]

The problem isn't that Senden might win the cup (its theoretically possible in the way that it is theoretically possible that my phone is about to ring with a call from the membership committee at Augusta), its the mess in the middle. If Sean O'Hair wins, he wins it all if Tiger finishes worse that 5th I believe. That's actually liklely. Nothing against Sean O'Hair, but he hasn't been remotely close to the best player in the playoffs.

[Jordan]

You realize . . . almost nobody cares about the Fed Ex Cup.

[Fo Shiz]

I think that just as big of an issue as who eventually wins the FEC is that a guy could have finished 125th on the regular season points list and then finished second alone in ONE playoff event and would now be exempt into the Masters, US Open, British and PGA because his 1825 points would have gotten him into the Tour Championship.

That seems suspect.

[JohnV]

For something that nobody supposedly cares about, a whole lot of hot air is being blown around here and elsewhere.

[Geoff]

JohnV,
Good point. I blow the hot air because I do think it has the potential to be something really exciting and special, just not under these conditions.

[gwcanuck]

Not that I'm a Fedex Cup slappy, but...

The complaint last year was the last tournament was irrelevant because of Tiger's lead. That's been changed and now theoretically any of the 30 playing this week can win. And people still complain.

And it's brought more sponsorship money to the tour, and gotten Tiger to play more tournaments down the stretch.

[Scotty]

Your realize that if the New England Patriots had won every game al season, dominated the AFC half of the playoffs and had the quarterback in their mitts with a late lead, they could still lose the Super Bowl to the New York Giants. Hey, the tour wanted playoffs, didn't they?

[golf fan]

I agree with HW. Who cares as long as we get good fields and a decent tournament.

[Vanilla Gorilla]

Fed Ex revenues down 53% last quarter. If somehow you enjoy the Fed Ex Cup better hurry and enjoy it now because it may not survive until the end of it's contract. Let's all face it, Finchem's attempt at copying Nascar is a failure and no amount of phony "tweaking" will save it. Once the contract (or buy out) takes place that is the end of this failed experiment. No one will sponsor this dog in the future.