FedExCup = A Waste of 10 Million Dollars

[makaveli]

I just don't understand why are you making fun about me thinking that a matchplay would be more entertaining to close the season... Unfortunately I am pretty poor and I don't have 5m$ to sponsor a tournament, but I don't think you have to be rich to express opinions on this board, or do you?

Quote:

You may well be. I certainly don't think a sudden death matchplay would be more entertaining.

It would be gimmicky and pointless. Perhaps they're looking for something beyond mere "entertainmnent".

If you've got an idea on how to create excitement and relevance, I'm sure the PGATour would welcome your ideas - as long as you're paying.

Something like the Kodak Challenge.

Why don't you put up $5 milliion dollars of your money and have a matchplay tournament for the 16 top finishers in the FedEx Cup and have it run the week after? Winner take all.

I'm not about to tell FedEx how to invest their advertising money. The FedEX Cup gives them a huge international profile.

[LankyLefty]

You might as well jus have a dice game then, golf is just not a sudden death sport. In basketball or baseball when one team is better then the other I can show in just a game. In golf a better player might be outplayed over the course of several rounds but over the course of several tournaments the better player usually comes out. Sudden death would just be a dice game.

[makaveli]

Ok you guys don't like sudden death and match play, that's ok, maybe I like it cause biggest competitions in soccer are sudden death like World Cup or Champions League so we are more used to it, but anyway, I don't think that a suddend death Ryder Cup played with rollind dices would be that entertaining, of course all imho

[jamo]

Ok you guys don't like sudden death and match play, that's ok, maybe I like it cause biggest competitions in soccer are sudden death like World Cup or Champions League so we are more used to it, but anyway, I don't think that a suddend death Ryder Cup played with rollind dices would be that entertaining, of course all imho

I don't think it has anything to do with you being used to it. The biggest American sport, football, has sudden death playoffs.

[makaveli]

So I can suppose you like Super Bowl even if is like rolling dices?

This discussion is becoming endless imho...

Originally Posted by jamo

I don't think it has anything to do with you being used to it. The biggest American sport, football, has sudden death playoffs.

[sacm3bill]

Originally Posted by Shorty

You may well be. I certainly don't think a sudden death matchplay would be more entertaining.

It would be gimmicky and pointless.

The NCAA basketball tournament is sudden death - maybe that's gimmicky and pointless too, but it sure is popular.

Originally Posted by LankyLefty

You might as well jus have a dice game then, golf is just not a sudden death sport. In basketball or baseball when one team is better then the other I can show in just a game. In golf a better player might be outplayed over the course of several rounds but over the course of several tournaments the better player usually comes out. Sudden death would just be a dice game.

IMO, there's nothing about golf that makes it less viable to have a one-and-out tournament.  Using the NCAA example, the team that wins it all is rightfully considered the champion, even though they didn't play against every other team, nor did they necessarily accumulate more wins/points over either the regular season or playoff season.  Not only that, but the FedEX cup has the potential for someone to win despite not winning a single tournament all year (http://blogs.golf.com/presstent/2011/09/truth-rumors-kuchar-could-win-fedex-cup-without-winning.html). So no system is going to be perfect or agreed to by all.

[Varsity_Golf]

I don't find anything wrong with the FedEx cup playoffs or the system of how it is determined.....I think some people just don't like it because they don't know how it is broken down.  If you would check out this link, maybe it would fill you in (by "you" I am talking to all who dislike the FedEx cup) http://www.pgatour.com/2008/fedexcup/11/25/2009changes.chart/index.html

If you don't like how it is run, contact the PGA Tour.  They are the ones that have control over this kind of stuff, not people on an internet Forum.

Thanks.

[Topper]

I don't have any additional points to add that haven't already been brought up except that I like the playoffs.  It does divert some viewing time that would otherwise have gone to football.  I don't know about value, but FedEx gets a fair amount of exposure throughout the year which seems like a good value compared with $2.6 million for a 30 second Super Bowl ad.

[mymizunosrock]

I dont have the time to read through this whole thread, so what Im about to say may have already been said. I dont think that a winner in the play offs should be rewarded with so many points. They can just scrape in the top 125, then the top 100, have a win and find themselves in the top 10. It hardly rewards the "consistent player" during the year and the play off series when someone can leapfrog the field like that with one good performance.

[makaveli]

Just exactly what happened with Donald and Haas imho...

Originally Posted by mymizunosrock

I dont have the time to read through this whole thread, so what Im about to say may have already been said. I dont think that a winner in the play offs should be rewarded with so many points. They can just scrape in the top 125, then the top 100, have a win and find themselves in the top 10. It hardly rewards the "consistent player" during the year and the play off series when someone can leapfrog the field like that with one good performance.

[jamo]

I dont have the time to read through this whole thread, so what Im about to say may have already been said. I dont think that a winner in the play offs should be rewarded with so many points. They can just scrape in the top 125, then the top 100, have a win and find themselves in the top 10. It hardly rewards the "consistent player" during the year and the play off series when someone can leapfrog the field like that with one good performance.

I think that's the way they want it. Wild card teams win the World Series all the time.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by jamo

I think that's the way they want it. Wild card teams win the World Series all the time.

Definitely. Winning matters.

[makaveli]

Maybe this, or maybe the FedexCup points are not that accurate to award the best player of the playoffs... don't think we'll end up with a final answer though, just our suppositions...

Originally Posted by jamo

I think that's the way they want it. Wild card teams win the World Series all the time.

[Dave H]

Originally Posted by makaveli

Maybe this, or maybe the FedexCup points are not that accurate to award the best player of the playoffs... don't think we'll end up with a final answer though, just our suppositions...

Isn't the point of the final tournament to have the 30 best? Yes, Haas was 25th coming into the tournament but just by getting there shows he's among the best. Then by winning the tournament...

Luke Donald's consistency can't be argued with - his world #1 ranking proves that, but Bill Haas did something he wasn't able to do this time around - win a tournament when it mattered most. If Donald won, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

[Chilli Dipper]

Originally Posted by Dave H

Isn't the point of the final tournament to have the 30 best? Yes, Haas was 25th coming into the tournament but just by getting there shows he's among the best. Then by winning the tournament...

Luke Donald's consistency can't be argued with - his world #1 ranking proves that, but Bill Haas did something he wasn't able to do this time around - win a tournament when it mattered most. If Donald won, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Luke Donald will be the player of the year this year, but as far as the FedEx Cup goes, he came up one shot short. If he finished at 8-under, he would have won the $10 million prize even if he lost the playoff.

[Alistair]

Some of the PGA hype has been that the FedEx Cup brings the word's best together (well, those signed up to the PGA tour) and the winner is the overall best player of the season - or words like that.

Bill Haas came into the last tournament at 25th, and had won no tournaments all season. I think he played well in the Tour Championship and seems a great young golfer with fine character.  But his FedEx Cup victory hardly justifies the hype.  That's not his fault.  And I suppose we can't blame the PGA for talking up the playoffs.  I wonder who's believing what they say though?

[Jmdmbike]

Maybe the point isn't about the most consistent or the "best" golfer winning the Fedex. Maybe it's about the guy who puts himself in contention, comes through in the clutch and deals with the pressure winning the thing. It definitely would have been anti-climatic to see a Webb Simpson win on points even though he was out of contention in the final event. Like a game 7 scenario, the final event needs to matter for the playoff set-up to remain relevant. Whether or not you're glad Haas won, you can't deny how exciting it was coming down to the wire like that.

[jamo]

After the first year in 2007, when Tiger skipped an event and still won, the PGA Tour made the system more volatile in the playoffs, so a well-timed win would be more important. After 2008, when Vijay simply had to get through the Tour Championship without having a heart attack, the Tour made it so that the Tour Championship mattered more. Quite frankly, I think they found a pretty good balance. Playoffs are supposed to have flukey winners. The 2001 Mariners won 116 games and didn't even make it to the World Series. The 2006 Cardinals won just 83 games yet did make it to the World Series. From 1980 to 2010, 30 MLB teams won over 100 games in a season, only 4 won the World Series. Playoffs aren't designed to give a huge advantage to frontrunners.