FedEx Cup Playoffs Lack Excitement

The second year of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs will begin today with the Barclay’s Classic at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J. 

Does anyone, including the players, really care? 

There are several major problems with the current FedEx Cup playoff system, many of which have been thoroughly covered in Kyle Beakley’s recent articles on Bleacher Report about revamping the FedEx Cup. 

But the main reason why the average golf fan is, once again, not overly excited about the FedEx Cup playoffs is due to the lack of a climactic ending. 

The NFL playoffs have the Super Bowl.

The MLB playoffs have the World Series.

The NBA playoffs have the NBA Championship.

The NHL playoffs have the Stanley Cup Finals.

These other playoff formats offer fans a compelling, climactic conclusion that the FedEx Cup playoffs do not.

The winner of the FedEx Cup title by no means needs to win the Tour Championship, which is the final FedEx Cup event.

This unnecessarily complicated point system restarts with the FedEx Cup playoffs.  The top players in regular season point rankings begin the playoffs with a larger base of points. 

For example, Kenny Perry, who tops the FedEx Cup point standings, begins the playoffs with 100,000 points.  Lee Janzen, the 144^th-ranked player, begins with 92,000 points.  The winner of this week’s Barclays Classic earns 11,000 points. 

This adjustment to the points system makes the playoffs slightly more exciting in that a more players actually have a legitimate chance of winning, but it still does not offer that one, thrilling event that everyone will tune in for.

A player can win the first two events and play terribly in the final two events and still win the FedEx Cup. Wow, that really brings this playoff series to a dramatic climax doesn’t it.

Going even further, a player does not even need to win an event to win the FedEx Cup.  Kenny Perry could simply finish in the top five in each tournament and very possibly still win the FedEx Cup. Please, someone tell me where the excitement is in that?

As we clearly saw with Tiger Woods last year, a player does not even need to participate in all of the FedEx Cup events to still easily walk away with the FedEx Cup title.

The PGA Tour has taken a great idea and done everything they could to make it as complicated and boring as possible.  .

Would anyone watch the NFL playoffs if the winner of the Super Bowl didn’t determine who won the Vince Lombardi trophy?

Would last year’s Super Bowl have been one of the most watched American sporting events of all time if it didn’t matter whether or not the Giants won, the Patriots would still be awarded the Lombardi Trophy?

I severely doubt it.

At the end of the day, the FedEx Cup playoffs are a product produced by the PGA Tour to attract fans, sponsors and improve television ratings after the year's final major.  

This product has so far been a complete failure, and is showing no signs of improving this year. 

To make the FedEx Cup playoffs come to a dramatic conclusion and draw attention from fans far and wide, there is a simple, obvious idea staring the PGA Tour directly in the face: the winner of the Tour Championship is the FedEx Cup champion.

The top 10-15 players in terms of points should advance to the Tour Championship where the PGA Tour then has two potential options.

They could run a standard four-day tournament to decide the winner of the FedEx Cup, or they could run a match play event where the worlds top golfers duel it out in a one-on-one format to decide the winner of the FedEx Cup and the $10 million. 

The Super Bowl is so exciting because it comes down to one single game; the winner takes all.

The NCAA Basketball Finals are so exciting because it again comes down to one winner-takes-all series of games. 

Adjusting the FedEx Cup playoffs so the winner of the final event takes home the FedEx Cup and the $10 million will immediately make this playoff format a great deal more exciting. 

Could you imagine Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods dueling it out in the final round of the Tour Championship to decide the FedEx Cup?  Or better yet, could you imagine Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods competing in an 18- or 36-hole match play event to decide the winner of the FedEx Cup? 

I am no expert on television ratings, but I have a funny feeling that an event like that would draw the attention of every golf fan on the planet, as well as many others who would have never considered themselves golf fans.

Sure, this type of format does not reward players as much for consistent play during the year or throughout the first three FedEx Cup events, but neither does the Super Bowl or NCAA Finals, which is what makes those events so exciting.  For that matter, neither do golf’s majors, arguably the most exciting four events of the year. 

Winning the three tournaments leading up to the Masters is great, but if you don’t win the Masters, those three wins will be all but forgotten very quickly.

To win a major, you need to get hot for four days.  To win the FedEx Cup under this suggested adjustment to the format, a player will have to play well enough to advance through to the Tour Championship, where they will then need go out and win the Tour Championship. 

A winner of an event that is more or less a culmination of their performance over four tournaments against the best players in the world ending with a dramatic win at the Tour Championship could be arguably more impressive than a player getting hot for four days and winning the US Open.

It is painfully obvious that the PGA Tour will need to make some dramatic changes to the current FedEx Cup system in order to avoid taking what is a great idea and turning it into an embarrassing failure.

As is the case right now, this week’s Barclay’s Classic constitutes just another tour stop and is nowhere near the breathtaking playoff event the PGA Tour was aiming for.