There doesn’t seem to be a lot of interest among golf fans for the FedEx Cup. The format and point values keep changing, the venues are largely uninspiring, and the the whole thing feels more than a bit artificial.
So how does the tour fix it? A wholesale overhaul, isn’t in the cards, so whatever is suggested has to be incremental. I’d liek to see a four week match play tournament, but that just isn’t going to happen.
My realistic suggestion is to make it more meaningful by using FedEx Cup points, not the money list, as the determining factor in keeping a Tour Card. Then, include the Fall series in the final calculation, with each being worth the same as a concurrent event (a Tour event opposite a Major). At the end of the season, the Top 120 and ties in FedEx points keep their cards. As it is now, the money list is more important than the points. This would help to change that equation and give the whole points system a focus.
Any other suggestions?
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They should just dump it. Don’t try to spin it once they do that, just say it didn’t work and that the action is where it’s always been, the Majors and the Players.
Chairs. Titanic.
FedEx cup?
Yep. Sounds contrived.
Match play may be the best way to make it interesting. But perhaps even that won’t help much. (Football season underway, majors over, etc.)
My first change would be to have the event at the end of the season. What other sport has a second season that occurs after the season ending championship?
Second, shorten the season. With the Tour struggling to replace sponsors, now is the time to contract the season into a more reasonable period like February to October.
I really don’t know what to do about the actual format. It is tough to balance rewarding consistently good play during the season against making the playing field level enough to give everyone a shot at the title.
You’re absolutely right about shortening the season. Fewer events, with more quality would really be attractive for me. I’d like to see it end in August.
After August, they could showcase the Nationwide and a few unofficial made-for-television events.
I think everyone in the top 125 who wants to play in the Playoffs should be required to pay an entry fee. And just for fun, the fee should be a percentage of the player’s prior year income reported on his tax return (before all of the clever ‘deductions’ that would otherwise land the rest of us in an IRS auditor’s office). That way Tiger would pay more than Brett Quiqley for example. That would be fun and lead to a lot of entertaining press conferences.
And in the spirit of a true playoff, if you miss a cut, then you’re out. No more coasting on a points system. And no more being allowed to skip one or more of the events. You have to play all four unless,of course, you miss a cut. You’d have to play well for four straight weeks to win.
And to make it even more fun for the fans, autograph booths would be set up at each of the four playoff events and all players and caddies would be mandated to spend so much time a week in the booths signing autographs for the fans. Fans would be limited to one autograph per player, one per caddie, and one time through the booths per event (they would be given tickets or something to control that and only kids would be sent through Tiger’s line – just to speed things up.)
Cut the 4 tournament with a break in the middle deal, and have one tournament that starts making cuts after the first day of a 72 or 90 hole tournament. Go from 125 to 90 the first day, from 90 to 60 on Friday, from 60 to 30 on Saturday and then duke it out for 36 holes on Sunday. Winner takes home 10 million, 2nd place about 10,000. Put it on a fairly easy course and watch these guy go for broke trying to make birdies.
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