Now that the PGA Tour season is over and the first year of the revamped FedEx Cup playoff format is in the books, the time has come to look back and see if the Tour got it right when they decided to make the change.
The short answer is yes. In the end, one of the best players in the world — who had one of the best seasons in the world — ended up winning the whole thing. And that’s exactly how the Tour wanted things to end. However, there are a few things that can be tweaked for the upcoming season that could make the playoffs just as important as any major championship.
For one, something has to be done about the point system that qualifies golfers for the playoffs. Specifically, I have a gripe about the majors not counting more. For example, when a player wins a tournament during the season, he earned 500 points toward the playoffs. For winning a World Golf Championship — one of four specialty tournaments over the course of the season — a player earned 550 points. And for winning a major — The Masters, the U.S. Open, The Open Championship, the PGA Championship and The Players Championship — a player earns 600 points. That’s not right. This year, two major winners in Tiger Woods (The Masters) and Shane Lowry (The Open Championship) didn’t even make enough points to reach the final playoff event. After winning something as important as a major, you’d think the payoff would include getting you a chance to win in the playoffs. My solution: make each major winner an automatic qualifier for The Tour Championship finale.
The next thing is a bit tougher to argue against, because it didn’t actually affect the playoffs this time around. But the scoring handicaps have to be adjusted or altered somehow. For those who don’t know, the top 30 players in points qualify for The Tour Championship at the end of the season. When that tournament starts, the player with the most points opens the tournament at 10-under par. Second place starts at 8-under, third place is at 7-under and so on until the final few players open the tournament at even-par. It’s a system that the Tour says makes the possibility of a winner random, but I don’t buy it. If the guy in first place shoots a low score on the first day after already starting with the lead, the tournament becomes a one-man race to the finish, doesn’t it?
Now this year, Justin Thomas started in the first position and Rory McIlroy — the eventual winner — started five shots back in fifth place. So that hurts my argument at the moment. But just wait until we have a year with a blowout win, and everyone will be clamoring to change the rules. Get out ahead of it now and just go back to making The Tour Championship a regular tournament.
Again, the short answer is that the Tour got this one right. The FedEx Cup playoffs went off just how they were designed. But with a few tweaks, we could really have something here.