Revamping the FedEx Cup: Points are Pointless

This week’s Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone is worth 26,250 FedEx Cup points.

Yeah, um… that’s great. And I’m supposed to care why?

Does the PGA Tour really expect to arouse average sports fans with the FedEx Cup race—which ranks its top competitors based on intangible “points”?

What is a point really worth? What does it signify? What does it mean?

Who decided that each event would be worth a base of 25,000 points? Why 25,000— why not 100, or a million, or ten billion?

And, what I really want to know is—what’s the exchange rate on these FedEx Cup points? Can they be traded for Pesos? Are they stronger than the American dollar? Should overseas investors start adding FedEx Cup points to their portfolios?

I’m really irked that the PGA Tour expects golf fans to become enthralled in the season-long race for the championship by using “points”, instead of more sensible ranking methods.

You might have noticed that in recent weeks, CBS and the Golf Channel have been adding little green and red numbers to the corners of each player’s score graphic.

That number represents the player’s standings in PGA Tour playoff points. 

Like anyone really cares.

I’m sure that’s why people are tuning in to golf this Sunday afternoon: for the fabulous opportunity to comprehend a bunch of exorbitant and seemingly detached numbers.

I bet you’ve got your graphing calculator and scrap paper handy by the sofa.

Seriously, PGA. Let’s get real with this playoff system.

If you want to rank golfers, the best way to do it is by money: cash, dinero, that crinkly green stuff.

Saying that this week’s tournament is worth one million dollars makes a hell of a lot more sense than saying it’s worth 25,000 “points”.

Telling us that Phil Mickelson leads Sergio Garcia by $1,325,000 makes us gasp in awe.

Telling us that Phil Mickelson holds a 2,565 “point” lead on Sergio Garcia doesn’t have quite a dramatic ring to it.

Or, if we still want to use points, a better way to allocate them would be to give points for Top 10 finishes: 10th place gets one point, ninth place gets two points, and so on up to 10 points for a win. And, we can even add some drama by doubling up the points for majors.

If the PGA wants to use points, they must at least make the method for scoring points simple to understand. A point has to represent something.

We know that in football, three points are scored by kicking a field goal. We can see it. It's easy to comprehend.

In golf, we really have no clue how 1,450 points are scored by coming in sixteenth place. We probably never see that player all week to begin with. 

Personally, I think the only way to really determine a true champion is by wins. Any player who wins a tournament gets a spot in the playoffs. Any player who hasn't won a tournament is out. But, that's my plan: which would involve changing the entire current FedEx Cup setup.

The PGA Tour thinks this new chase for the championship will make casual sports fans a bit more interested in the rather mundane world of golf.

But, does the hype to declare a single champion have any purpose when the FedEx Cup uses a playoff and ranking system that even a Dartmouth Engineering grad can’t comprehend the meaning of?

It's time to rank players by the money list, or at least a new scoring method, instead of using the current perplexing point system.

I'll continue with my other gripes about the FedEx Cup in future articles...