"It also sends the wrong message: that the PGA Tour will kowtow to demands from its star players when they are unhappy."

Gerard Gallagher of the Sports Network pens an interesting commentary on the rumored FedEx Cup tweaks and says the Tour should not back down again to the two stars who wanted a shorter season.

The PGA Tour's top players already do what they want, when they want. To campaign for a break from the five-week schedule -- which Mickelson and others have done openly -- is to say they can't handle playing five straight weeks, even for millions of dollars in a new playoff system fans have embraced. And that's hard to swallow.

It also sends the wrong message: that the PGA Tour will kowtow to demands from its star players when they are unhappy.

Many of the players who make the 30-man field for the Tour Championship will already have a break during the Ryder Cup. And if a player like Mickelson feels he needs a week off, he always has the option of just not playing.

We've already seen him and Woods do that.

By most accounts, the first year of the FedEx Cup playoffs was a success. The PGA Tour even got what it probably wanted most in the end: the best-recognized athlete in the world answering questions about his financial windfall.

Votaw pointed out that 98 percent of the uninjured players who qualified for the playoffs participated in it. The PGA Tour was "very pleased with...the support we received from the players, the competitions themselves and the results we were able to achieve in terms of television ratings, attendance, sponsor activation around the playoffs and media coverage," Votaw wrote.

So if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

A fair point, but I'm going to guess that the week off rumored for 2008 is a one-year exception to deal with the Ryder Cup.  

Leaks On First FedEx Cup Tweaks

Golfweek's Rex Hoggard has the scoop on the changes under consideration, one of which sounds excellent, the other I'm not so wild about.

During an Oct. 16 meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz., commissioner Tim Finchem told the 16-member PAC that the FedEx Cup, which he proclaimed a “success” in its first year, needed only “minor tweaks” in 2008. Sources told Golfweek.com one of those possible adjustments would be reducing playoff fields; the other would be altering the schedule so that the FedEx playoffs and the Ryder Cup Matches (Sept. 19-21 at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.) would not be staged in five consecutive weeks.

Instead, under one proposal, top competitors would play the first two playoff events (The Barclays, Aug. 21-24, and Deutsche Bank Championship, Aug. 29-Sept. 1) as scheduled, have a week off, play the third playoff event (BMW Championship) and then the Ryder Cup. The Tour Championship, now scheduled for Sept. 11-14, would be moved to Sept. 25-28, on the heels of the Ryder Cup.

Okay, that's a winner. That off week should make it tough for guys to skip an event. Should. 

Among the changes for ’08, the Tour is considering reducing the number of players that qualify for the circuit’s four-event “playoff” series. The proposal presented to PAC members was to trim playoff field sizes to 120 players for The Barclays (144 were eligible this year); 90 for the Deutsche Bank Championship (from120); 60 for the BMW Championship (from 70); and the traditional 30 for the Tour Championship. That’s a reduction of 64 total spots from this year’s playoffs.

The trim from 144 to 120 is a no-brainer, but I don't know about you, but I'm growing bored with all of these limited field events, their typically lackluster finishes and reduced playing opportunities. Granted, Tiger's partially to blame for being so much better than everyone and blowing away those limited fields, but I'd vote for leaving the other field sizes as they were while ramping up the point system volatility.

Hoggard also details the first rumored drug policy penalties:

The Tour’s anti-doping policy is expected to have plenty of teeth. According to one PAC member who wished not to be identified, potential punishments for positive tests would be a $5,000 fine for the first offense; a one-year suspension for a second positive test; and a lifetime ban from the PGA Tour, and presumably all members of the Federation of PGA Tours, for a third strike.

The proposed anti-doping legislation announced late last month has  universal support among i the game’s  governing bodies. A positive test and resultant punishment would apply to all of the game’s major championships, as well as on all of the world’s primary tours.

Included among the Tour’s “model prohibited substances and methods list,” are anabolic agents, such as testosterone, as well as beta-blockers, which diminish the effects of adrenaline and narcotics. 

FedEx Cup Suggestion Box

I'm on the road the next few days so posting will be light. But I thought it would be a good time to get some views on the FedEx Cup and PGA Tour "playoff" now that it's been a few weeks since the conclusion.

Granted, it's hard to judge it with the Fall Finish still ongoing. And personally, my favorite element of the playoff concept is that it gets golf off the national radar for a few months like other major sports (but for whatever reason, PGA Tour officials can't just say that). And since we have just begun that element of the new tournament structure, it may be early to tell if that is such a great idea.

Of course, if you read Steve Elling's latest piece, the prospects for the Fall Finish aren't so hot, meaning this off season could grow in the coming years and that's not necessarily a good thing.

Nonetheless, I'm curious what you all think of how the playoffs worked out and what you would do to "tweak" it

Personally, I think there's way too much emphasis on protecting the season long points leaders and not enough of a "playoff."  

But enough about me. Work that comment button! Big brother is watching in Ponte Vedra. 

TV Execs Thrilled With FedEx Cup Sales

Golfweek's John Steinbreder talks to a few network suits who say the sales numbers were up on the PGA Tour and in particular, the FedEx Cup.

More important, the FedEx Cup likely will help make the first year of the Tour’s new TV deal profitable – at least for some of its TV partners, says a network executive speaking confidentially. (CBS and NBC as a matter of policy do not comment about contract finances.)

Another network source confirmed the improved fiscal performance, saying “the rights fees we are now paying are probably 10-15 percent less than they were before, while our sales revenues are up 10 percent.” Such gains, in part, came from a “slight” advertising premium charged for FedEx Cup events, new business from pharmaceutical companies and continued support from the financial services and auto industries, according to the source.

The turnaround in golf viewership is significant, considering the networks reportedly lost millions during the final years of the previous TV deal that expired following the 2006 season.

Said NBC Sports president Ken Schanzer in an e-mail: “Golf advertising sales were very strong for both our PGA Tour and USGA packages. We were delighted with how the first year (of the new TV contract) went. Our numbers were strong, overall interest was high, and the public seemed to like it.”

Steinbreder then details the less than large ratings numbers and how that may impact perceptions of the Cup. 

"Of the 24 players in this week's top 30 in the world golf rankings who were members of the U.S. tour last year, eight have played in more events in 2007."

Steve Elling challenges the Commissioner's assertion that the FedEx Cup led to an increase in top-30 player appearances. Of course Finchem's definition of top-30 probably differs significantly from Elling's, not that we'll ever know how he defines top-30...

"We're pleased by the support the players have given the playoffs, in particular, and the FedEx Cup throughout the year," Finchem said. "During the year, total starts of our top players -- whether you look at top 30 in the world rankings, the top 30 from last year's money list, the top 50 -- the total starts players have made this year compared to last year is up and moving in the right direction. So we're pleased to see that."

He won't be pleased to see this. Because we did look, and unless the "right direction" is downward, these assertions are pure myth.

In fact, of those who finished in the top 30 on the 2006 money list he cited, only six had played in more events through the completion of the FedEx Series last week. The series, mind you, signaled the end of the season for many top players, including the guys who sell the majority of the tickets and drive TV ratings.

Let's do some verifiable math, so that there's no gray area here. Using Finchem's own yardstick, a review shows that the top 30 in earnings from '06 have combined to play in 60 fewer events this year, an average of two starts per player. Since those in the current top 30 in earnings have averaged 20.2 starts this year, that's a dropoff of nearly 10 percent across the board.

But what do I know? I attended public schools.

The only scintilla of credibility to his 90-degree verbal shank is that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have combined to play three more times than in 2006, which can be partly attributed to Woods skipping two months last year while mourning the death of his father. The big hitters? As a group, Woods, Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, Adam Scott, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen have combined to play in two fewer events this year than in 2006. Still, it's a slight drop.

Let's apply a more current measure. Of the 24 players in this week's top 30 in the world golf rankings who were members of the U.S. tour last year, eight have played in more events in 2007. A total of 13 have played fewer times and three had no change in total starts. All told, those 24 players have competed in 27 fewer events vs. their combined 2006 total.

While we're spouting trends here, let's back up another year and get a bigger dose of reality.

The star-filled group of Woods, Mickelson, Furyk, Goosen, Garcia, Scott and Singh have made 16 fewer starts this year compared to 2005, or more than two per player. (We did not include Els, because he suffered a major knee injury and made only 11 starts).

Note to the corporate spin artistes in Ponte Vedra: Sometimes when you bother to actually crunch the numbers, the numbers can crunch you.

PGA Tour Declares Playoffs A Success On Many Levels

From the For Immediate Release files...

PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup a Success on Many Levels

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL. (Sept. 21, 2007) – The PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, which culminated on Sunday with Tiger Woods being crowned the first-ever FedExCup Champion, brought an unprecedented level of late-season focus to and interest in the TOUR, as indicated by impressive increases in television and online audiences, tournament attendance and sponsor activation.

Oh yeah, sponsor activation baby. We have a new buzzword du jour. Stay tuned, if you can stomach it...

Interest in the Playoffs was driven by a run of some of the strongest fields in the history of the PGA TOUR, particularly for consecutive tournaments.  At least nine of the top 10 players on the FedExCup Points List and eight of the top 10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking played in each event.  The fourth and final event, THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola in Atlanta, boasted all 10 from both lists.  Since the PGA TOUR began keeping field strength records in 1980, never before have four consecutive events had fields as strong.

“In every aspect, the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup and the FedExCup season as a whole represent a successful run for us and the sport, and we’re very pleased with the impact,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem.  “Now that we’ve developed a strong foundation, we can focus on building on the enthusiasm that the players and fans have for this new competition.”

The judges just deducted a point for not taking advantage of an opportunity to drop an impactful or impactfullness.

Television
The four Playoff events delivered record television viewership at a time when sports fans historically have watched the start of the NCAA football season and NFL pre-season and opening games.

CBS, NBC and GOLF CHANNEL telecasts of The Barclays, Deutsche Bank Championship, BMW Championship and THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola cumulatively reached more than 65 million people, a record for the PGA TOUR in this time period.

The average television rating for the eight network telecasts during the Playoffs was 18 percent higher than telecasts for the same events last year.

Hmmm...I wonder how much that 233 percent increase at the Tour Championship helped? Oh wait...

The final round telecasts of the BMW Championship and THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola were two of the highest on record for the PGA TOUR against NFL football.  THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola’s final-round telecast received a 233-percent ratings increase over the rating of the event’s 2006 final round.  Moreover, GOLF CHANNEL’s early-round coverage of THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola delivered more than 2.5 times the households than the previous year; the second round was its highest-rated broadcast ever (1.7 rating).

See, it was a good idea to show us that on tape.

Let's get to the important numbers. Satellite radio.

PGATOUR.com and XM Satellite Radio
In addition to television, millions of fans followed the Playoffs through PGATOUR.com and PGA TOUR Radio on XM (Channel 146).  Unique users on PGATOUR.com were up 48 percent over the same four-week period last year, with a weekly average of 3.8 million uniques and 45 million page views.

The popular PGATOUR.com Live@ feature, which provides tee-to-green action for every player on a signature hole at each golf course, was streamed nearly 2 million times over the four weeks of the Playoffs, twice the number of streams of these events in 2006.

Interest in the Playoffs and on-line coverage at PGATOUR.com built significantly over the four weeks of competition, peaking at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. Traffic for the culminating event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup was up significantly versus 2006, with unique users increasing 167 percent to 4.4 million and page views increasing 189 percent to 52 million.

PGA TOUR Radio on XM saw similar increases.  Audience figures for in-car listeners are not yet available, but streams of the XM Radio tournament broadcast on PGATOUR.com showed triple-digit increases for each event.

Tournament attendance
In addition to tuning in via their TVs, radios and computers, golf fans in New York, Boston, Chicago and Atlanta contributed to the success of the Playoffs by attending the four events in record numbers.  Highlights of Playoff market sales include:

THE TOUR Championship hospitality sales up 37 percent and ticket sales up 30 percent versus 2006;

Boy that's a relief.

BMW Championship corporate sales up 27 percent and ticket sales up 6.3 percent versus 2006;

Oh that number ought to get Ed Sherman and Len Ziehm on the phone this weekend.

Deutsche Bank Championship corporate sales up 10 percent and ticket sales up 20 percent versus 2006; and The Barclays corporate sponsorship up 30 percent, reaching a sell-out for the first time ever, and ticket sales up significantly versus 2006.

Ditto that weekend research project for Sam Weinman.

Oh now it's time to activate.

Sponsor Activation
The PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup received unprecedented activation by title sponsors and Official Marketing Partners of the PGA TOUR.  Fourteen PGA TOUR Official Marketing Partners activated around the Playoffs, with sweepstakes, giveaways, Playoff-specific advertising and other Playoffs-related promotions.  Additionally, the Official Marketing Partners supplemented their activation by hosting substantial Hospitality activities at each of the Playoff events for key clients, senior management staff and employees.

FedEx activated in a myriad of ways, including: Playoff-specific tags to television advertising, print advertising, retail promotions at 1,200 FedEx Kinko’s stores, a targeted on-line contest, special truck wraps, covering a building in New York City with turf and a flag stick, hiring “golfers” to walk around New York and Atlanta with a caddy and a gallery of fans, sidewalk stickers in New York and Atlanta depicting a golf hole, special uniform enhancements for FedEx employees, and promotional signage at public transportation areas in Atlanta.

After all that, I still don't know what it means to activate. But it sure looks like a good business to be in.

Outside The Cup Thinking

A couple of interesting FedEx Cup "tweak" pieces were recently posted offering some outside the box thoughts. First, Steve Elling at CBSSports.com says the Tour should maintain it's "Top-10 and you're in" rule during the playoffs, offers other suggestions and notes this on the marketing push:

Week one, day one, we asked Finchem if he believed the initial outrage expressed by fans and media when Woods skipped the FedEx opener was partly attributable to the saccharine series of FedEx ads that have bombarded fans all year long. He insisted the advertising blitz wasn't too "cheesy or hype-y" and that he received great feedback on the incessant TV campaign while attending the British Open. Well, those people like Benny Hill reruns, too. The cheese factor was so high in these ads, fans became lactose intolerant. The 2008 campaign must be seriously reigned in for credibility's sake alone.

Probably because I get impatient with the registration wall or sheer laziness, I missed this from the Augusta Chronicle's Scott Michaux, posted almost a month ago. 

FLAW: RELATIVE WORTH. Let's say Woods doesn't win the FedEx thingy. Does the PGA Tour really think he's not the season "champion" already having won five times, including a major and two WGC events, and blitzed the rest of the tour in the points and money lists. Who's the player of the year?

SOLUTION: Market the FedEx Cup for what it really is - a gimmick to add a little intrigue to what typically is a meaningless end of the season. Don't try to sell it as the definitive answer for a year's worth of effort. What works in team sports is simply contrived here.

And...

FLAW: SHORT FIELDS. The PGA Tour borrowed from NASCAR's "Chase" for its format, but it missed the main point. In NASCAR's chase, every driver still races though only the chosen few are part of the Nextel Cup subplot. The PGA plan (which, to be fair, was foisted upon Finchem by the players) will winnow its field each week, which actually decreases the drama.

SOLUTION: Keep the fields full, bringing more variables into the tournament equation. There are already too many short field events on tour, and it limits competition. Limit the FedEx field within the field to the top 50 in the season-long points chase, reshuffle their points and let them try to play their way into the Tour Championship. To be eligible for the title, you have to play in all three events.

"Maybe now he'll start leaving decent tips."

Gary Van Sickle hands out FedEx Cup awards, including this one for Tiger:

Jed Clampett Award: The richest man in golf is Woods. He won seven times in 16 appearances and cleared $10 million for the year. At the Tour Championship, he snagged $1.26 million for the tournament victory and the famously deferred $10 million for capturing the FedEx Cup title. Maybe now he'll start leaving decent tips.

Meanwhile Doug Ferguson lauds the FedEx Cup's success and examines the problems with various "tweaks" to the Cup, including one that I initially thought was an essential fix. Now I'm not so sure the field sizes should change if the points volatility is improved, as expected.

Furyk offered the most comical assessment by noting that 125 players keep their cards, but 144 players start the playoffs. But the season began with 225 exempt players, so actually only 64 percent made the playoffs.

The biggest problem with this solution is that short fields make for dull tournaments and a lousy experience for the fans. Consider the 70-man field at Cog Hill, where an entire day of golf was over in six hours. There has to be consideration given to the tournament and its fan base. Plus, it's harder to win against a larger field.

The limited field events really are getting old, not because Tiger always wins them, but because you sense they might introduce more leaderboard competition as we saw at the first two playoff events. 

FedEx Cup Post Mortems

Consensus seems to be building that it was all worth it, and now it's on to the major tweaking.

Steve Campbell offers solutions. Mark Lamport Stokes takes it all in and seems to come away impressed.

Dave Fairbank offers his tweaks. And Bob Verdi raises this point:

What's more intriguing is what he is saying in private to FedEx, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, BMW and the TV networks. Very important executives with those companies made very expensive decisions to fund the playoff, ostensibly on the assumption that all the best golfers were to play all the time. How could these CEOs be surprised when it didn't materialize? When Finchem was asked whether he guaranteed corporate angels that Tiger and Phil were on board, he replied, "you never can." Bingo. One wonders whether he told sponsors that during his sales pitch.

Update on 2007-09-18 14:50 by Geoff

Tod Leonard weighs in with an analysis of various areas in need of tweaking and says the deferred compensation issue appears to be the least of the FedEx Cup concerns. Jeff Shain also reviews what needs fixing, focusing on scheduling and points volatility (or lack of).

"In the end it was just too easy at Easy Lake."

Based on the link, I believe this is Jim Moriarty's East Lake/Tour Championship game story for Golf World.

Besides evaluating the FedEx Cup as somewhat of a success, he writes:

In the end it was just too easy at Easy Lake. Poor Bobby Jones must have been weeping somewhere for the honor of his home course. Rain Thursday turned the greens from semi-dirt to soft dirt, and Tim Clark, one of the 24 non-competing markers in the field, tied the then course record on a rain-interrupted day with an eight-under-par 62, highlighted by a pitch-in for eagle on the 15th. The real rain, the remnants of Hurricane Humberto, was scheduled to hit Friday, but the worst of it took the I-285 bypass around Atlanta, and it was Woods who reigned instead.

In a six-hole stretch from the fourth through the ninth holes, Woods went seven under par for a front-nine 28 and felt pretty darn bad about it, too. He holed a bunker shot from a semiburied lie on the fifth and made a 70-footer for eagle at the ninth. "The ball was bouncing every which way. It was left of the hole, it was right of hole, left of the hole, right of the hole, and then it went in," he said. No fist pumps or finger-pointing this time, just a bowed head and a sheepish "gee-I'm-sooooo-sorry-about-that-guys" grin.

And skipping a bit...

Easy Lake, formidable only when someone drove it in the wet Bermuda rough, was so defenseless that through 36 and 54 holes only two of the 30 players were over par. It really bared its gums in the third round, however, when Johnson's 60 and Geoff Ogilvy's 62 were proof that even though the slow, soft greens were bad, they weren't unputtable.

Now I understand the situation with the greens.

But did this tournament also serve as a reminder that extreme, even outlandish measures would be necessary to keep a land-locked venue like East Lake relevant in today's game where a 6-iron is some players' 210-yard club and 3-woods carry 300? 

Now I know our friends Bacon and Grease over at Golf Digest think that it's okay for classics to become irrelevant, because you simply move to another venue that's 7,600 yards. But considering all that has been invested in East Lake and will be invested soon with the greens resodding, should there be some discussion at PGA Tour headquarters about the long term viability of this venue? And dare I say, some discussion about possibly asking the USGA when it's ball study will be wrapping up?

I sure don't see a U-groove ban making East Lake more relevant no matter how firm the new greens get, do you?  

Tiger's Super Bowl Win Ushers In Avalanche Of Not Particularly Flattering Football Analogies

Doug Ferguson's Tour Championship/FedEx Cup finale game story features so much, well, cynicism. There's hope for the AP yet!

The FedEx Cup didn't change anything but Tiger Woods' bank account.

The PGA Tour's "new era in golf" came to a familiar conclusion Sunday when Woods captured the Tour Championship in record-setting fashion, closing with a 4-under 66 for an eight-shot victory at East Lake and his seventh title of the season.

The only difference?

This was the first time Woods walked away from one tournament with two trophies.

Along with winning the Tour Championship and its $1.26 million prize, Woods was a runaway winner of the FedEx Cup and the $10 million that goes into his retirement account.

If this was supposed to be the "Super Bowl" of golf, Woods spent most of the final round running out the clock.

It did seem like the worst case scenario was a Tour Championship battle in the final group whle another battle for the Cup took place in the early groups. Actually, a Tiger rout was much worse.

This is beautiful:

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem first presented Woods with the crystal trophy from the Tour Championship. Before handing him the FedEx Cup trophy, Finchem alluded to the tour's promotion of the FedEx Cup by noting it had never been kissed.

And it still hasn't.

Woods simply held it aloft as the thousands around 18th green cheered.

Meanwhile, Steve Elling's football-inspired lede:

As it ultimately turned out, Tiger Woods could have taken a knee in the PGA Tour's so-called playoff finale and still won the biggest bonus in sports history.

But this is far more interesting:

None of the four players who had a mathematical chance of passing him this week earned enough points to eclipse what Woods had when he arrived at East Lake. So in addition to skipping the FedEx opener at Westchester, he could have taken a siesta this week, too.

Ric Clarson, one of the FedEx architects, seemed slightly taken aback when that fact was relayed during the final round. "That'll be a hard stat for us to look at, that he still could have won while only playing two," he said.

Gary D'Amato explores that angle a bit more in this piece and shares these astounding numbers, with-you guessed it-a football tie-in.

He breezed through 12 playoff rounds in a mind-blowing 59-under par. Throw out a "warm-up" 72 in his first playoff round and these are his scores: 64-67-67-67-67-65-63-64-63-64-66. That's not golf, it's the jersey numbers of the Green Bay Packers' offensive line.

Woods' adjusted scoring average this year is 67.79, which exactly matches his record average in 2000.

Meanwhile, Rob Matre posts final round images to go along some of his other fine work from the week, as does golf.com.

"Well, I think that overall the FedExCup was a success."

A few highlights from Tiger's post-Tour Championship final round sitdown with the slingers.

Q. Kind of along those lines, aside from winning the TOUR Championship and the bonus, the FedExCup, how would you assess winning the first FedExCup?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I think that overall the FedExCup was a success. I think that there need to be tweaks, yes, there needs to be some tweaks, but I think overall it provided a lot of drama towards the end of the season, especially post-PGA when most of the guys shut it down. You know, post-PGA it's either Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup and that's basically all anyone ever talks about, now that the Bridgestone has moved to the week before the PGA especially.

I think we now know what they'll be wallpapering Tour headquarters with. 

Q. You talked about tweaks. Do you have any comments on what tweaks you would consider to make the tournament better? And what's it like, the final tournament for you this year, to go out with such a big bang?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I think -- what I described earlier to Fergie here, a couple days ago, I think that when you have 125 exempt players on TOUR and your first event is 144 guys, I thought a playoff was play all year for a smaller field, you're supposed to narrow it up, not have more players. Especially when we have limited field events, invitationals that have smaller fields, more elite, and I just think that the playoffs should be that many players. I think the playoffs you narrow the field down, and when you have 10 percent over what you do on the exempt player list starting off the first event, I think that's too many.

Consider it done!

Q. Have you ever considered playing the latest Jack Nicklaus course in Dominican Republic designed by Jack Nicklaus, 18 holes in the Caribbean with the capacity to receive the championship?

Huh? Oh sorry, Tiger...

TIGER WOODS: Say that again.

Q. Have you ever considered playing the latest course designed by Jack Nicklaus in Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, the only Jack Nicklaus designed 18 holes in the Caribbean with the capacity to hold a championship?

TIGER WOODS: I've heard about the golf course. I haven't been down there yet. I've always wanted to go. I haven't been down there yet.

Anyone have the slightest idea what that line of questioning was about? Television reporter/rally killer? Or are there actual rumors of the event moving to the Carribean?

"Every week you hear fewer and fewer cynical comments."

Stewart Cink writes a PGATour.com blog entry that the Ponte Vedra Blackberry brigade will surely will pass around, but I'm not sure if it's an accurate barometer for judging player reaction to the FedEx Cup.

I think what we can do is look at the tournaments that started two weeks after the PGA last year and go on those four in a row and look at the fields in those tournaments versus these four events.

We've got better television. The fields don't compare. We've got big purses. We've got big time golf, and all we did was move the tournaments that are in the FedExCup now from their current dates.

True. 

I think if you look at it like that, the FedExCup has been an overwhelming success. Now, we've got little nitpickers here and there, and I've got some issues of my own that I'd like to see changed, but overall I think it's been very successful. Every week you hear fewer and fewer cynical comments.

Who knew Stewart was so funny? Great player, policy board member and now stand up comedian.

By the way, I have officially given up posting all of the columns and stories critiquing what's wrong with the FedEx Cup. And the darn thing isn't even over yet. Just wait until no one has anything to write about in a few weeks!

Overall, I think the guys that framed this whole thing out did a very good job, and looking back, hindsight is really easy to use, but it would have been tough to make it any better on the first try.

Framed eh? Who knew the Tour had gone into that business too.

Meanwhile, Gary Van Sickle files yet another FedEx Cup critique and as always makes some sound points, including this biggy:

Now that we've been through it once, it looks like the playoff point system may be too limiting. Only six players really have a chance at the Cup in the current system — the four who win the playoff tournaments, and the top two seeded players. Nobody outside that group is likely to earn the title without winning twice. That suddenly makes the series seem a little less exciting, don't you think?

National Weather Service On Verge Of Declaring Tour Championship Unwatchable

I've watched ten minutes and I can't take it anymore. The gray day, the lousy greens, the mushy conditions, the drab architecture. Brutal.

And what's with the towering spike marks? I raised that question when the story about the greens first broke, and now watching it's hard to imagine why the guys are allowed to wear spikes on greens like that.

Well, if nothing else, this gave Steve Elling a nice note to write on Steve Stricker...

With a $10 million bonus on the line, Woods' playing partner Steve Stricker committed an act of kindness that did not pass unnoticed by Woods, who is leading the FedEx Cup points race and threatening to win the tournament title as well.

As Woods waited his turn to putt, Stricker nudged his ball into the cup on the 16th green and promptly tapped down a rooster-tail-sized spike mark behind the hole. Mind you, Stricker is running second to Woods in FedEx points and stands to lose $7 million if he finishes as the runner-up in the cumulative, lucrative points chase.

According to the rulebook, players may tap down spike marks only after finishing play on a green, so Woods did not have the option of smoothing the surface himself. We'll let Woods, who was clearly impressed with the largesse of the Wisconsin native, relate the details.

"He did one of the classier things I've ever seen someone do on the 16th today," Woods said. "There was huge spike mark on the other side of the hole, and after he finished, he tapped it down.

"He just said he didn't want me to have to worry about running it a foot by the hole and face a huge spike mark. That's classy. But I was a smartass about it, and said it wasn't going to go a foot past."

Woods was making a joke, but as it turned out, he missed the 16-footer for birdie and had a putt from exactly 14 inches beyond the hole coming back.

"He came off like a spoiled brat who took his bat and ball and went home. Ask anybody on Tour — Phil is very into Phil."

Thanks to reader NRH for noticing SI's posting of an updated FedEx Cup/Phil blasting from their anonymous PGA Tour pro. This ought to be interesting reading.