Does the PGA Tour Care About The Fedex Cup?

Ryan Ballengee at Sports Central has a column with an interesting premise: that the PGA Tour doesn’t really care about the Fedex Cup.

The cynic in me has seen this trend and it has led me to an even scarier question — does the PGA Tour even care about the FedEx Cup? Think about it for a moment. For as much as I would like to think journalists and fans had a hand in the FedEx Cup coming to fruition, it was really the vocal complaints of Tiger Woods about season length and providing meaning to it that caused this points race to be instituted. The Tour recognized one of Tiger’s demands and they succumbed to it in order to placate him. If you can accept that as the true reason for the FedEx Cup, then the PGA Tour developed the concept as a way of keeping some players happy, not a method of revolutionizing how the Tour is perceived.

I think that the Tour does care, and that all of Ballengee’s observations (complaints?) are simply signs of a program in the midst of initial growing pains. The number of players who get into the tournament will likely be reduced in the future and the Tour will get better at promoting it. As for getting the media on board, well, that will take time. But most announcers are such unabashed cheerleaders that they’ll soon be on the bandwagon.

I think the biggest question for the future of the Fedex Cup is whether Tiger will continue to participate. Four tournaments in a row—even for a $10 million payout—just isn’t his modus operandi. I can see him winning the first—and maybe the second—and then sitting them out in the future.

Another possibility: could Tiger, or another player, by the time the tournament starts, have enough points to essentially get a bye in the first round. And could such a player have enough points to still be in the hunt—even after skipping a round?

I wonder.