“Everybody’s on board and the sponsors are very excited"
/Bob Harig confirms the likely FedEx Cup fixes and boy is the fix in.
The highlights: The overall champion will not be determined before the Tour Championship, it will be nearly impossible for a major championship winner not to qualify for the season-ending event featuring 30 players, the overall point distribution will be greatly simplified and field sizes for playoff events will be reduced.
Ahhh yes: win a major and that means smooth sailing through the playoffs. Uh, I'm just wondering if anyone has thought about such a scenario perhaps encouraging said major winner to take a few playoff event weeks off? I know, I know, there I go again wondering about things that could never possibly occur.
But if you were looking for a one-day, or even a one-tournament shootout for the $10 million top prize? It's not going to happen.
"This year, we made the regular season mean hardly anything," said PGA Tour veteran Steve Flesch, a member of the tour's Players Advisory Council, which met this week at the Children's Miracle Network Classic. "Golf has always been about who has had the best year, not who had the best four weeks.
"We had to make a conscious decision, are we going to make the playoffs for four weeks or who has the best year? I'm happy with the changes they've made. They're letting the regular season [points] carry all the way to the Tour Championship."
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...
Meanwhile, Brian Hewitt talks to Zach Johnson and apparently the FedEx Cup Hewitt watched was different than the bore the rest of us tolerated the last two years.
The FedEx Cup debuted in 2007 and was a success due, in large part, to exciting finishes in its four-event Playoff series and the fact that Tiger Woods won the $10 million first prize.
Uh, if it was a success how come they had to revamp it?
The Tour has been said to be trying to find a way to guarantee that the big prize will still be undetermined before the Tour Championship starts. There is also a desire to re-tweak the system so that certain top players make it to the top 30 at the Tour Championship. This year nine players, including Ryder Cup star J.B. Holmes and two-time major winner Padraig Harrington, began the Playoffs in the top 30 but dropped out of the top 30 before the Tour Championship, in part, because of the increased volatility.
Bad playoff play must not go unrewarded!
The other issue the Tour has been wrestling with is a way to give more players a chance at the $10 million first prize when they arrive at East Lake in Atlanta for the Tour Championship.
“Everybody’s on board and the sponsors are very excited,” Johnson said.
I tell you, the excitement is palpable.