Tournament Coverage

FedEx Cup Scoring System

Ok, so who here actually understands the convoluted FexEx Cup scoring system? Yeah, I thought so. Tell me this isn’t the strangest system ever. They have been billing it as a ‘playoff’, yet it’s not really a traditional playoff ala March Madness or the games leading up to the SuperBowl. Perhaps Nascar fans understand it, but personally, I’m in Boo Weekley’s camp here…FedEx Cup? Hunh?

For the first time, the PGA TOUR will join team sports with a postseason. The schedule concludes with the PGA TOUR Playoffs, a series of four tournaments to determine the first FedExCup champion, beginning in late August and concluding four weeks later. Instead of the usual four rounds (or 72 holes) with a 36-hole cut, fans can view this playoff finish as four tournaments (288 holes) with a progressive cut in field size (dropping weekly from 144 to 120 to 70 to 30 players, with 36-hole cuts the first two weeks) to determine a champion, led by the world’s top-ranked players going head-to- head in successive weeks. Players jockey for seeding during the course of 36 tournaments in the PGA TOUR Regular Season but gain only a slight advantage in a points reset for the final four events.

So, essentially Tiger Woods gets seeded #1 and starts off with 100,000 points. The guy at 144 (Jeff Gove) gets 84,700 points. So Jeff Gove has to win the Barclays, finish top 5 in the Deutsche Bank to even move onto the BMW. Where as Tiger can pretty much skip the first two events and still find himself in the top 70 to be able to play at the BMW. How is that a playoff? Reminds me more of the BCS than a real playoff.

Why not a real playoff? Top 144 in point standings get into the Barclays. Top 100 finishers make the cut to the Deutsche Bank. Top 70 finishers in that event make it to the BMW. Top 30 at the BMW play it out for the championship at the THE TOUR Championship. Winner of The Tour takes the 10 mil…now THAT would be interesting. The way it’s setup now, the Tour Championship could end up meaning very little. I want to see Tiger and Vijay in a playoff on September 16th, trying to make a putt for 10 million.

I understand playing 4 events in 4 weeks may be a grueling task for some, but, as the Top-Flite D2 commercials so eloquently state…come on lady bug, man up!

Current FedEx Cup Standings

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