Streelman a dark horse? If you earned it.....fair and square...

[Valleygolfer]

http://www.thegolfchannel.com/shag-b...icament-39517/

[James_Black]

people are bitching about how a guy who worked hard managed to get in and Tiger didn't.
If Tiger made it then nobody would be complaining.

The guy managed to play well in the tournaments that counted the most to the points. Fair play to him.

[jamo]

I think my one issue with the FedEx Cup points system is that too many points are given for high (but not first place) finishes in the playoff events. I win should vault you up there, but a 3rd and two 40ths? Eh.

[MJP]

Cut the Playoff reward points in half and it would be a lot more fair. 1st for a playoff event gives even more than a major, doesn't it?

[golfro]

Cut the Playoff reward points in half and it would be a lot more fair. 1st for a playoff event gives even more than a major, doesn't it?

Agreed. Players like Ernie Els (though he's still in top 10 points standing) who has performed GREAT all year long are marginalized by play off tour event winners. They need to figure out a way to reward points to playoff tour event winners without pushing those who have been consistently posting up points all season long.

[iacas]

The whinging continues.

Guys, if you continue to reward regular season performance too much, then you'll get cries of "it's not a true playoff - the Patriots still lost the Super Bowl after going 18-0 and the #1 seed can get knocked out."

Frankly I think they've got a pretty good balance right now. It's exciting, and if you reward the regular season too much you'll have someone like Tiger in 2009 able to skip tournaments... which he couldn't do in 2009 but which he did do in 2007.

[mjtoal]

Streelman seems like a nice guy, and good luck to him for playing his game and getting in.

This season exposes how contrived the Fedex Cup is. The idea was to add some drama to the end of season parade before Tiger gets another large cheque. Great. And the formula has been tweaked to contrive it further over the last few years. However, it all defends on the broad brush outcome of the season being somewhat predictable, with the usual suspects somewhere around the top of the table and a few plucky outsiders added in to give some faux-drama before normal order is restored and the pre-destined conclusion is reached.

Oops. I guess they didn't figure on Tiger being caught (figuratively and literally) with his pants down, and entering the FedEx playoffs in journeyman territory. And then chopping it around for a couple of events.

Too bad for him and the TV executives, but I am glad. It nicely shows how this format just does not work in golf. It is easier to set this system up in team games and some sports such as tennis, where the predictable result is a safer bet.

[Valleygolfer]

Streelman seems like a nice guy, and good luck to him for playing his game and getting in.

Your statement laced with disdain of people who are successful in my opinion. You would rather see a bunch of no name players play each other or are you mad because the good euro guys play the US tour instead of the the dry European tour?

In order to implicate some sort of interest in the end of the pga season, the tour put the Fedex cup together. It does not need to be perfect but be lucrative enough to get the best golfers in the world out playing in their tournaments which it does perfectly. Money drives professional players and whether Tiger collects the large check, which he has every right to when he earns it or someone who shines late in the season. It is not their fault if a player does not perform when they have to. Obviously they could have easily achieved what Streelman has done but didn't. There is no way to satisfy everyone of course and the cup does the job to promote interest not only for fans but for the players that used to coast at the end of the season selectively playing tournaments.

[mjtoal]

Your statement laced with disdain of people who are successful in my opinion. You would rather see a bunch of no name players play each other or are you mad because the good euro guys play the US tour instead of the the dry European tour?

Oh dear, such ferocious but, sadly, misplaced patriotism. In fact you are quite wrong. I am quite happy for European players to play in the US and take home more titles and money. I wish that Paddy H and Rory were in the Tour Championship. You should be pissed that the US Open champion was not eligible for the FedEx Cup and instead is playing the Austrian Open this week.

In the old days, the Tour championship was a meritocratic event. The seasons best players qualified. Now someone can jump in with a week or two high finishes, because the FedEx Cup is a distortion of what the old Money List used to be. The old system was likely to give you big winners and consistent finishers. Now you can get players with mediocre seasons but a streak at the right time. These are more likely to be the no-name players you seem to scorn. If the Tour Championship was based on top 30 earners, you would have Rickie Fowler, JB Holmes, Rory McIlroy in the event. Instead, you have Kevin Na, Martin Laird and KJ Choi. You decide which is better. It also means that Charley Hofman can win the FedEx Cup, whereas on the money list he is currently 27th, with less than half the money earned by the leading money winner. The Tour may have calculated that Tiger would be in the top few places of the money list every year, so they set up a system which rigs some pseudo-drama from it. Unfortuantely golf is not tennis, and the system they designed has now thrown Tiger out of the final event. The same can happen any year.

[jamo]

If the Tour Championship was based on top 30 earners, you would have Rickie Fowler, JB Holmes, Rory McIlroy in the event. Instead, you have Kevin Na, Martin Laird and KJ Choi. You decide which is better. It also means that Charley Hofman can win the FedEx Cup, whereas on the money list he is currently 27th, with less than half the money earned by the leading money winner.

Because it's the Playoffs! The 8th best team in the NBA's Eastern Conference can still (theoretically) win it all, can't they? The Wild Card teams in the NFL and MLB can, and have, win the Super Bowl or World Series.

(Just so this doesn't sound hipocritical to my last post, I think guys should be able to make big jumps up by winning, not tying for 20th or whatever.)

[mjtoal]

Because it's the Playoffs! The 8th best team in the NBA's Eastern Conference can still (theoretically) win it all, can't they? The Wild Card teams in the NFL and MLB can, and have, win the Super Bowl or World Series.

OK, so let me be clearer. I don't like the ideas of playoffs because they don't work in golf. The 8th team shouldn't be able to overcome a season of medocrity with a run of a few good games. These guys are not playing off, they are just playing on in an enhanced reward period.

If the top 128 in the money list played off in matchplay, say 1 vs 128, 2 vs 127 etc, and so on, perhaps with a bye in the first round offered to the 4 major champions, last years FedEx Cup winner, etc, that could se=weeten it a bit for the better players. That would be a playoff series.

[Valleygolfer]

Oh dear, such ferocious but, sadly, misplaced patriotism. In fact you are quite wrong. I am quite happy for European players to play in the US and take home more titles and money. I wish that Paddy H and Rory were in the Tour Championship. You should be pissed that the US Open champion was not eligible for the FedEx Cup and instead is playing the Austrian Open this week.

I watch the the Euro tour. It is fairly mundane and boring, call it lack of coverage or pathetic sportscasters, it lacks luster. I watch it because it is golf.

Your previous post hints that you may be a hater of the prosperity that the tour provides for its best golfers and probably of strong opinion that most Americans are glutinous resource wasters. It was not patriotism as much as being a season internet user smelling out complaints being masqueraded about golf tournament geared towards a jab of your perception of American life and poor choices made by one immature golfer. There are four Fedex cup tournaments, you might be able to win or do well in one as Streelman did, but to win it, still requires some consistent good play. I am sure there could be modification done with it to make it better but it does get the best out there. Honestly, a player that is streaky and wins out of the blue would include this years Open winner and didn't the U.S. Open winner miss a cut somewhere?

[Frank-0-Sport]

Greetings ...

An invitation to the The Tour Championship, as it is existed from 1987 to 2006, was a reward for those who were best over the course of 45-or-so events leading up to the start of the Finale. Even if you didn't perform as well as 29 other players, you still had to maintain some level of consistency in your play, otherwise someone else could overtake you and steal your spot. And once that spot was gone, there was no second chance to get it back.

Nuff Ced, McGreavy!!!

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank-0-Sport

[mjtoal]

I watch the the Euro tour. It is fairly mundane and boring, call it lack of coverage or pathetic sportscasters, it lacks luster. I watch it because it is golf.

Nah, you are missing the point and getting yourself all hot and bothered for no reason. I watch more of the PGA Tour than the Euro Tour, but that was not the question, so any snarky little dig at the Euro Tour is irrelevant to the issue.

By the way, I am quite glad that Euro TV coverage is not aimed at the ADHD viewer that some of the terrible US coverage is. I make no secret of my dislike for Tiger's behaviour, and make no apology for it. I also particularly dislike the hypocrisy of him claiming privacy after using his pretty blonde wife and cute kids as part of his family man image, which was a lie. I am therefore pleased that he is out of the picture, but that would have happened in either the old style qualification or the new one, so is therefore a moot point.

[Valleygolfer]

OK, so let me be clearer. I don't like the ideas of playoffs because they don't work in golf. The 8th team shouldn't be able to overcome a season of medocrity with a run of a few good games. These guys are not playing off, they are just playing on in an enhanced reward period.

Although interesting some what, not much difference IMO. Once again a streaky player could knock a better player out and come up against better players having not so ideal rounds and still end up with a Streelman somewhere near the top, but who's to say Streelmaning isn't the real deal. There is a reason you are on the tour. I bad thing I see in this scenario is the "one round knock out". Besides we already have the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship.

[mjtoal]

Although interesting some what, not much difference IMO. Once again a streaky player could knock a better player out and come up against better players having not so ideal rounds and still end up with a Streelman somewhere near the top, but who's to say Streelmaning isn't the real deal. There is a reason you are on the tour. I bad thing I see in this scenario is the "one round knock out". Besides we already have the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship.

I agree. But that is exactly why playoffs don't really work. Results in golf are less stable than in football or tennis, so you can't be sure your most telegenic players will always get there in any short burst session.

[Valleygolfer]

Nah, you are missing the point and getting yourself all hot and bothered for no reason. I watch more of the PGA Tour than the Euro Tour, but that was not the question, so any snarky little dig at the Euro Tour is irrelevant to the issue.

I do not take the internet personal. I call a spade a spade if you know the saying. Your personal opinion of how Tiger handles an issue is irrelevant. A lot of men live a lie. So what if he wants to be private personally while he is dragged around by the press. Honestly, what could he say that would change anyone's opinion of him. Nothing. He obviously doesn't care if you love or hate him. I use him for golf entertainment that is all.

The fact you watch more PGA than Euro just proves my point. There is more to watch with the PGA and Euro tour tourneys are just not that exciting to watch unless it is the Open.

I agree. But that is exactly why playoffs don't really work. Results in golf are less stable than in football or tennis, so you can't be sure your most telegenic players will always get there in any short burst session.

True but the effort for this set up was to lure the tiger out of his den, as well as any of the other golfers that hole up late in the season.

and we watch....so they win....working or not.

[mjtoal]

I do not take the internet personal. I call a spade a spade if you know the saying. Your personal opinion of how Tiger handles an issue is irrelevant. A lot of men live a lie. So what if he wants to be private personally while he is dragged around by the press. Honestly, what could he say that would change anyone's opinion of him. Nothing. He obviously doesn't care if you love or hate him. I use him for golf entertainment that is all.

OK, whatever. When did this become a thread about the PGA versus Euro Tour?

I thought it was about the imbalances in the FedEx Cup. If the intent was to make sure Tiger played the big events and won the Tour Championship, it sure failed this year.