Your thoughts on the PGA Playoffs

[senorchipotle]

interesting? silly? ridiculous?

personally, i'm not too sure what to think about them. I love watching the late season tournaments like the barclays, etc. cause the best players are there. but the playoff theme is a little lame, and i'm not too sure about how seriously the guys care about winning the fedEx trophy. maybe if they had named it something else perhaps, i think the name cheapens it a bit.

[max power]

I think they're great, silly name and all. Nice to have all the big names together after the PGA, good golf on good courses for a solid month, and I'm sure the money alone is enough motivation.

[sean_miller]

Is it mathematically possible for the guy who qualified 125th to win the whole thing?

If he can, then it's the playoffs and it's better than just a bunch of tournaments that culminate with the top 30 guys getting more cash at the no-cut Tour Championship.

[MSDOGS1976]

I think they are basically OK. But they could have done without "playoffs" as part of the description. Every time I hear Kelly Tilghman say it, I feel like someone just scraped their finger nails over a chalk board.

[max power]

  sean_miller said:

Is it mathematically possible for the guy who qualified 125th to win the whole thing?

I'm pretty sure it is-I know Tiger would shoot up the list if he won just this tournament.

[sean_miller]

  max power said:

I'm pretty sure it is-I know Tiger would shoot up the list if he won just this tournament.

How funny would that be? In your face lefty - again!!

[JWL1957]

Its a joke. The best player on tour for the year always has been measured by wins.

[max power]

  JWL1957 said:

Its a joke. The best player on tour for the year always has been measured by wins.

I don't think many people are looking at the FedEx champ as the best player on tour. It's like a month long tournament.

[Shindig]

I love the playoffs. I think the fact that playing this week determines not only this weekend, or a tournament in the near future in the case of top-10s (or top-25s on NWT), but the rest of the month is pretty neat and exciting. I think the seeding is well done, and they finally got the format right (especially given how many things could have embarrassed them the first two years, and didn't). I like the way that someone who had a mediocre season can make up for it at the end with a good performance in these four events (as Tiger might well do this year, or as Stricker did the first year, CV did two years ago, and Heath Slocum did last year).

  sean_miller said:

Is it mathematically possible for the guy who qualified 125th to win the whole thing?

Yep! Going into last year's Tour Championship, had Heath Slocum won, he would have won the cup - even if Tiger had finished second! And he started seeded at 124. Not exactly sure about 125, but I believe it's possible.

[Frank-0-Sport]

Greetings ...

I have several issues with the playoffs, but I'll focus on one -- like the WGC's, they are the same events each year. No other events, many of which would love to see the superstars that might not otherwise play in them, are able share in the Fed Ex Cup experience.

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank-0-Sport

[Rexx]

Here's the current standings . Read the wiki about how it works. Right now, Els has 1846 points. The winner of the Barclays gets 2500 points. So, Tiger (or anyone) winning this week is likely to be in first (or top 5 at the least).

Of note, after the 3rd playoff event, the points are reset based on your current standing (see the wiki).

[senorchipotle]

  MSDOGS1976 said:

I think they are basically OK. But they could have done without "playoffs" as part of the description. Every time I hear Kelly Tilghman say it, I feel like someone just scraped their finger nails over a chalk board.

yeah, i kinda like the name 'playoffs,' though. i just don't like the name of the trophy. it should be called the ''bobby jones trophy,'' presented by fedEx or something similar, considering the championship is held at his home course and all. at least, i'd much rather be playing for the ''bobby jones trophy,'' the other sounds too much like nascar and beneath professional golf. they should also get jim mora to be their spokesperson.

non-u.s. citizens: youtube ''jim mora rant.'' it's a classic.

[mcfc_nick]

i think theyre great, its awesome having the biggest names playing for 4 weeks straight (should they make it to the tour champs) after the majors, especially this year as the ryder cup comes straight after it so its non stop golf

[Dvazzz]

I think that the pga's have been good, im from bergen county and went on thursday and friday. Its amazing to even watch them at the range. Seeing them really puts your game into perspective lol. Personally i think Jason Day has been playing great but going into today i think MArtin Laird is going to take it. Also, how perfect is Vaughn Taylor's tempo. I always thought ernie had the best but idk VT is just fluid.

[Easy]

Meh...it's ok I guess. I don't really get the points system. I think a win at the barclays gets you 1000 points and a win in a major gets you 500??? Obviously it's there way to add some spark to golf once the majors are done. Kudos for trying.

[Plox]

It's a cash cow, nothing more nothing less. The PGA tour doesn't make any money from the 5 biggest events - the 4 majors and the Ryder cup - because it doesn't run any of them. As for the 'best' players being there, 3 of the major winners aren't. A ridiculous system, which isn't indicative of the best player throughout the season, and is quite honestly an insult in that respect.

[iacas]

  Plox said:

It's a cash cow, nothing more nothing less. The PGA tour doesn't make any money from the 5 biggest events - the 4 majors and the Ryder cup - because it doesn't run any of them.

You're right about "five biggest events" (though they have the Presidents Cup and the Tour Championship and the Players...), but how does that make this a "cash cow" thing? These tournaments existed before - they're just attended by better players now. How is this a "cash cow" operation? That makes no sense.

  Plox said:

A ridiculous system, which isn't indicative of the best player throughout the season, and is quite honestly an insult in that respect.

"Playoffs" don't reward the full season. They reward good play in the "playoffs" with a

slight advantage for regular-season play. People (rightly, IMO) complained the first year that Tiger had it sewn up because he had such a great regular season.

[Comeback City]

I like it. It hits up some major cities - New York, Boston, Chicago and...Atlanta, and it's a nice month-long event and I do like how the fields cut down after each tournament.

Playoffs isn't exactly a fitting name, and it's really not that much different from the PGA Tour on a weekly schedule anyway. It's just a bigger trophy and purse ($10 million for the FedEx cup winner).