2009 FedEx Cup: Close, But No Cigar

Well, for the second time in as many years, the PGA Tour’s nightmare scenario occurred.

The winner of the Tour Championship was not the winner of the FedEx Cup.  

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem was once again forced to hand the Tour Championship trophy to one player and then awkwardly hand the FedEx Cup to another.  

The format is moving in the right direction, but it’s not quite there yet. 

The 2009 FedEx Cup was slightly more exciting than previous years…well, at least in that it wasn’t over before the Tour Championship had even begun.

However, the needle on the excitement meter didn’t swing nearly far enough to the right to consider the 2009 FedEx Cup a success.

Here’s how it can be changed in 2010.

1) Never, ever, ever go back to Liberty National

If Liberty National taught us anything, it was that spectacular views are great.

But when it comes down to it, the golf course is what really matters.

Liberty National was quirky, had an identity crisis in that it didn’t know whether it wanted to be a traditional course or a links-style course, and looked about as artificial as the indoor ski slope being built right down the road at the Meadowlands.

There’s no need to start the playoffs on the wrong foot again.

The experiment failed.

Keep the Barclays at traditional tree-lined golf courses that look as if they belong in the Northeast region of the country and didn’t fall from the sky and land on a large plot of New Jersey landfill.

2) Scrap the point system and use something everyone can understand—money!

Unless you’re a professor of mathematics at Harvard University, any playoff format in sports that makes you sit in front of your television with a calculator and Excel spreadsheet is not what most people would consider to be exciting.

There are very few things in this world that transcend age, language, and cultural differences—and money is one of them.

The PGA Tour’s money list looks almost identical to the regular season FedEx Cup points standings as it is.

Scrap the points and use something everyone can understand.

When you hear a television commentator explain how Sergio Garcia currently has 4,225 points and needs to finish 12th or better to earn an additional 178 points and secure a spot in the FedEx Cup playoffs, all you can do is sit there and scratch your head.

However, if Sergio Garcia has earned $1.25 million and needs to earn at least $400,000 in the next two events to secure a spot in the playoffs—well, now that’s something even a child can understand.

3) A smaller number of players earn a spot in the playoffs

What if the NFL allowed 28 out of the league’s 32 teams to advance to the playoffs?

What would be the point of playing well all season?

If the PGA Tour wants a true season-long race, make it a lot more difficult to get into the playoffs. 

Under the current format, 125 players make it into the first FedEx Cup playoff event. Throughout the season, the FedEx Cup points standings closely resemble the PGA Tour’s money list. 

As we all know, the top-125 on the tour’s money list automatically retain their PGA Tour cards for the following season. That means that we had players in the FedEx Cup who may not even be members of the PGA Tour after the conclusion of the fall series.

Huh?

The top-80 players on the money list secure a spot in the playoffs—plain, simple, easy to understand, and forces players to focus on playing well for the entire season in order to give themselves a shot at winning the FedEx Cup and $10 million.

4) Schedule the off week to fall in between the Deutsche Bank Championship and the BMW Championship

If you have four playoff events with an off week that needs to be mixed in somewhere, wouldn’t common sense tell you to schedule it after the second event?

The 2009 FedEx Cup was just beginning to gather some steam after Tiger Woods demolished the field by eight strokes at the BMW Championship and regained the top spot in the point standings, which was held by Steve Stricker for all of 6 days.

Then the off week came.

There was no PGA Tour golf for 11 days, football season had moved into full swing, and everyone virtually forgot about the Tour Championship. 

Common sense folks—two tournaments, an off week, and then the final two FedEx Cup events.

5) The top-10 players advance to the Tour Championship, where the winner takes all

You want to compete with the NFL?

Well, you better make sure that your tournament is the most riveting golf event of the year.

What could be more exciting than 10 players battling it out for a $10 million prize?

No one is going to turn off the Cowboys game to watch Phil Mickelson win the Tour Championship while Tiger Woods ‘backs’ into the FedEx Cup title.

However, Tiger and Phil battling it out down the stretch for the FedEx Cup title and $10 million? 

Now, that may force at least some NFL fans to stray from the Cowboys game for a quarter or two in order to watch the conclusion of the Tour Championship.

For Mickelson to have won the FedEx Cup, Woods would have had to finish tied for eighth or worse, Stricker would have needed to finish in a three-way tie for third or worse, O’Hair would have needed to finish tied for sixth or worse and so on and so on.

Huh?

Run that by me one more time.

That in itself is enough to make casual golf fans scratch their heads, chuckle, and flip back to the Cowboys game.

Not only would this winner-take-all format be far more exciting for everyone involved, it would also add more prestige to the FedEx Cup title.

It would almost be more impressive than wining a major…dare I say such a thing.

How does a player win a major?

Well, as we have clearly seen this year, he gets hot for four consecutive days.

Under this new proposed format, how could a player win the FedEx Cup?

He would need to play well all season just to get into the playoffs, where he would then need to play well for three consecutive weeks to advance to the Tour Championship, where he would then need to win the tournament under the type of pressure that can only come with $10 million on the line.

The PGA Tour could revert back to a point system for the first two events, where those players who have played well all season are basically rewarded with a buy into the BMW Championship (which is more or less the case right now), provided they don’t play horribly in the first two events.

Thirty to forty players would advance to the BMW Championship, where the top-10 finishers would then move on to the Tour Championship. Once at the Tour Championship, the winner takes all, just as it is in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and virtually every other sport in the world.

Of course, players would still earn significant bonuses for finishing second, third, fourth, etc., at the Tour Championship. We couldn’t very well take that away, now could we?

However, the winner of the Tour Championship will be the only one seeing an extra $10 million on his next bank statement.

The FedEx Cup is getting close to where in needs to be. However, it’s taking baby steps to get there and the clock is ticking down on its chances of survival.

The FedEx Cup is touted as a season long race, yet it's also attempting to provide enough volatility at the end of the year to warrant the word 'Playoff' in it's title.

In essance, the FedEx Cup has an identity crisis.  Is it a true season long race, or is it golf's version of the NFL Playoffs?

At the end of the day, the fans are the ones who pay the bills; and pure excitement is the only thing that will capture the attention of the masses.

This is not rocket science here.

If you want to keep the interest of at least some casual golf fans once the football season has begun, a player backing into the FedEx Cup title just ain’t gonna cut it.

After all, would you have watched the 2007 Super Bowl knowing all the while that even if the Giants were to win, the Patriots would still be crowned Super Bowl Champions?

Me neither.