The FedExCup Golf Playoff System, a Gimmick that Works?

 

The PGA Tour had a real problem. The last of the four major tournaments of the year, the PGA Championship, took place in mid August, and the team competitions, the Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup, took place in late September or later in the fall. In between those events was a vast wasteland of tournaments that most of the world’s top players stayed away from and fans completely ignored.

To halt the waning interest in golf during this time, the PGA, starting in 2007, instituted the FedExCup playoff system. Pro golfers earned points during the “regular season” between January and mid August (starting in 2013 it will be between October and August). The top 125 players in the point standings after the season-long competition were invited to the four-tournament FedExCup playoffs that took place from mid August to mid September.

Official PGA Tour events each award 500 FedExCup points for first place, according to the FedExCup website. However, the larger tournaments like The Masters Tournament, THE PLAYERS Championship, U.S. Open Championship, British Open and the PGA Championship award 600 FedExCup points for first place. The first three World Golf Championship events award 550 FedExCup points to first place. Additional events played during the FedExCup season (those played the same week as a major or World Golf Championship) award 250 FedExCup points to first place. Smaller point totals are distributed to players depending upon the place they finish in a particular event.

During the four weeks of playoffs larger point totals are awarded. For example 2,500 points are awarded for winning an event, five times the amount for a regular tour stop.

In 2012, the 125-man field will compete in the Barclays played at the Bethpage State Park, Black Course. The field will then be trimmed to 100 for the next event at the Deutsche Bank Championship in the Boston, Mass., area. The field is winnowed further, to 70 players, for the BMW Championship in Illinois, and the surviving 30 players make it to the Tour Championship. Whoever is leading the point standings after the Tour Championship wins the FedExCup and with it the $10 million first prize.

There are good points and some bad points to this playoff system. On the plus side:

1. Great prize fund. The enormous prize fund makes the FedExCup so attractive that almost all the top players participate. The overall prize fund is $35 million, and the first five places win $10, $3, $2, $1.5 and $1 million, respectively.

2. Keeps golf in the forefront of the conversation. With college and pro football starting, and the baseball pennant races heating up, it would be easy for golf to be relegated to the back burner. But with so many of the top golfers in the playoff competition, golf can at least hold its own and remain relevant.

3. There is no coercion involved. The money and prestige of the FedExCup provide enough inducements to get everyone on board. Golf has always had a problem with trying to attract its marquee players to lesser, pedestrian tour events. In the 1970s the PGA tried to solve this dilemma by having designated tournaments. Those were events where all qualified players were required to play, unless they were clearly injured or had a doctor’s note or some other convincing excuse. In 1978, for example, the IVB Golf Classic took place at the Whitemarsh Valley Country Club in suburban Philadelphia in July, the very week after the British Open. Most of the top players of the time would not have even considered giving the IVB a second glance were it not required of them. However, because it was a designated event, the top players had to show up. That included Jack Nicklaus, who won the British Open that year, traveled across several time zones, and arrived at the IVB tournament in time to practice and go on to win the tournament. It was eventually decided that forcing players to take part was unfair and the practice was discontinued. The FedExCup gets players to the golf course without forcing them to play.

On the minus side:

1. A Gimmick. The playoff format is contrived, artificial and an obvious gimmick. The four playoff tournaments are given much more weight than they deserve, offering more points than even major tournaments.

2. Solving one problem by creating another. In 2008, Vijay Singh had clinched the FedExCup after only three playoff stops. All he had to do was show up for the last event. So that year the final event was anticlimactic. To combat this, the rules were tweaked to ensure a winner would not be determined before the final event was played. This solved one problem, but by resetting the points and placing more emphasis on the final tournament, the playoffs can seem even more rigged and superficial.

3. Further over-commercialization. The Barclays was once the Westchester Classic, and the BMW Championship replaced the Western Open, a traditional event that went back over a century. With the amount of money needed to fund the playoffs, more power has been given to the sponsors, including having complete control over naming the event. Out of respect for the past, couldn’t it at least be the Western Open by BMW?

Sources:

http://www.pgatour.com/2012/fedexcup/08/19/2012-playoffs-guidebook-contents/index.html#

http://www.pgatour.com/2008/fedexcup/11/25/2009changes.chart/index.html