Hawkins On FedEx Cup Debate

Golf World's John Hawkins says the Tour is going to present a model for the FedEx Cup, and I know you have all been waiting anxiously to see what they've come up with. He writes:

Although points will replace dollars as the official measure of a player’s position in the standings, the difference could prove to be quite minimal, as one might surmise by the basics of the proposal:

    • All “regular” tour events will award a total of 25,000 points. The World Golf Championships will award 26,250, with the four majors and the Players Championship worth 27,500.

    • The winner of each tournament will receive 18 percent of the total points—the same percentage as a standard purse breakdown—meaning Brett Wetterich’s triumph at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship would have earned him 4,500 points. All players who make the cut will receive points.

On the point of money list and points synergy, MacDuff's season long take (the most recent results posted below) indicate that equal points throughout the schedule would actually create some interesting differences in the money/points lists, and reward those who play more often.

The current standings based on Money (M) and FedEx Cup Points (F) as compiled by reader MacDuff.

M   F
1    1    Phil Mickelson     
2    4    Jim Furyk     
3    8    Stuart Appleby
4    6    Geoff Ogilvy     
5    21    Tiger Woods     
6    5    Chad Campbell     
7    10    Rory Sabbatini     
8    9    David Toms     
9    14    Retief Goosen     
10    35    Stephen Ames     
11    3    Vijay Singh     
12    12    Luke Donald     
13    19    Jose Maria Olazabal
14    38    Trevor Immelman     
15    17    Arron Oberholser     
16    54    Brett Wetterich       
17    30    Adam Scott     
18    2    Lucas Glover     
19    27    Rod Pampling     
20    18    Tim Clark     
21    15    Scott Verplank     
22    46    Camilo Villegas       
23    42    Zach Johnson     
24    72    Aaron Baddeley     
25    59    J.B. Holmes    

Hawkins also writes about how the playoff series will work and ends with this:

   • The size of the field for the season-ending Tour Championship has not been determined. There has been talk of reducing the playoff fields from 144 to 132, then to 120, then perhaps to 60 for the Tour Championship. The issue is likely to become a key topic of conversation at the PAC meeting.

Now that's funny! 144 to 132, then 120, then 60 for the Tour Championship. Oh what a thrilling playoff run it will be! Tune in tomorrow to find out if Hunter Mahan will hold off a charge from Frank Lickliter to see who gets into the Tournament Formerly Known As The Westchester Classic.

If the tour reduced the number of playoff qualifiers to 80, then eliminated 20 guys each week so that only 20 remained for the Tour Championship, we’d have the type of cut-throat, nerve-melting format that is needed. The proposed system is a giant compromise to the tour’s middle class, dangerously hyper and far too bloated to have the same stimulating effect as NASCAR’s year-end series, in which only 10 cars compete.

Great...oops, there's more.

Of course, no sports league rewards mediocrity better than the PGA Tour. It answers to a bulky constituency, diluting its product for the sake of short-sighted individual gain, failing to realize that the boat would move much faster with a lot fewer oars in the water.     

Sigh.