You Realize...

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

Update on 2009-09-16 13:32 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.

Tiger Takes Day Off; Falls In FedEx Cup Standings *

Now, I know the team at PGATOUR.com is doing their job and doing it amazingly well to keep on top of FedEx Cup scenarios, but look at this disaster of points breakdowns, scenarios, permutations and other nonsense.

Look, I get it that you want to reward the season and playoff play. But the most recent points reset really undermines that argument. If you have to gerrymand the FedEx Cup finish, then it'll never be taken seriously. Never!

Why are all these tough-guy, free-wheeling, free-market loving gamblers associated with the PGA Tour so afraid of old-fashioned, head-to-head, no points stuff, true playoff play at East Lake? Would it be too stressful?

Update on 2009-09-15 15:56 by Geoff

* John Strege agrees that the above information reminds us that the only way to fix the FedEx Cup is to use the old ADT Championship format for the four days at East Lake. You all know I've been campaigning for that since the start.

"Finchem's minions were apparently hard at work pressuring host broadcaster NBC into not mentioning just how many Fed-Ex Cup points the Swede picked up"

John Huggan with this nugget from last week's Players:

Not only did the diminutive leader of the world's richest circuit manage to mangle the champion's name, calling him "Heinrik" more than once, Finchem's minions were apparently hard at work pressuring host broadcaster NBC into not mentioning just how many Fed-Ex Cup points the Swede picked up along with the $1.7million first place cheque. Embarrassingly, that number is nil, due to the fact that Stenson (who will no doubt have welcomed the sizeable boost to his bank balance in the wake of losing a goodly chunk of his fortune amidst the recent Stanford fiasco) thinks he can muddle by without being a PGA Tour member.

"Either make it a true playoff, or call it something else."

You know the FedEx Cup is a still a mess when Peter Kostis, who has to pretend to like it on the air for CBS, doesn't hold back on golf.com:

Two years ago we were told that the FedEx Cup Playoffs were going to ensure exciting, meaningful events at the end of the season and culminate in a riveting conclusion at the Tour Championship. And for the second time since, the PGA Tour was forced to go back to the drawing board and modify the points system after the Tour Championship was made meaningless. For 2009, the point totals for each player who makes it to the Tour Championship will be reshuffled on the eve of the event.

They just don't get it. You can't call something a "playoff" if you are trying to protect the players who had a strong season while simultaneously giving everyone in the field a chance to win. Either make it a true playoff, or call it something else.

"Coming into the Playoffs with 1,600 points or so, which the top 8-10 players likely will have, should guarantee passage to Atlanta."

Steve Dennis permutates us through the possible ways that the PGA Tour's finest can get to East Lake. Reading the latest breakdown of FedEd Cup scenarios, all I could think was, it sure is amazing what hard work it is to keep the rich guys rich! And then somehow I accidentally landed at Wikipedia's page devoted to defining Ponzi scheme. Just a coincidence.

"Parts of the bossman's answer were tougher to track than a balata ball bouncing through a blacktop parking lot."

A day after the unveiling of the latest FedEx Cup, Steve Elling has been thinking about the bizarre notion that a player can skip a playoff event and still win the thing. It's a FedEx Cup tradition, Steve. Come on!

As he unveiled the new points program Tuesday night, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem was innocently asked whether players would be required to make all four starts in order to take home the richest bonus in golf. Even for a spin-control artiste, parts of the bossman's answer were tougher to track than a balata ball bouncing through a blacktop parking lot.

"I wouldn't say it can't happen, but I think the incentives are there that it's more and more important as you go on," Finchem said of the Cup schedule. "So, yeah, you need to play. Of course, our role is to put the best product out there, and hope that players believe in it and want to take advantage of it, and I think that's what we'll see in '09."

Need is a relative term, as it turns out.