Playoffs In Golf Aren't Playoffs Files: Sergio Passing On Dubai

Ewan Murray's files a story on Sergio Garcia, currently 30th in the Race To Dubai and bound to move up thanks to a strong BMW Masters showing, deciding to pass on the European Tour's grand Dubai finale.

As Murray notes, Garcia has been positive about this latest format tweak, but instead has played in Asia the last two weeks and is passing up the chance to take an easy check just for showing up in Dubai.

García cited scheduling and tiredness issues when he was among a trio of players in 2013 who refused to meet the playing criteria required for the flagship Dubai tournament, in what was the inaugural year of the European Tour’s Final Series. The format for that has since been tweaked and will be again during an announcement by Keith Pelley, the European Tour’s chief executive, in Dubai on Tuesday. Pelley will also unveil new criteria for Tour membership, the template for which was revealed by the Observer last week.

At the time of the previous alteration to the Final Series, García said: “I’m very happy with the changes and I’m looking forward to the Final Series. At the end of the day, we are all working together. I’m very happy to see that we’ve reached a middle ground which should help make us all happy.”

This latest in a neverending list of player defections, WD's and overall mail-in jobs during playoff season got me thinking: have any of these golf "playoffs" on the major tours ever generated an onslaught of positive press?  Or just mostly negative stories about player apathy, fatigue, boredom or nonchalance?