"Control of your destiny" in FedExCup...

[joekelly]

I figure this phrase, rather philosophical for the golf world, and frequently heard on the TV,  has something to do with the scoring or points system used to determine the winner of the Cup. But only 5 players can get into this 'destiny' group.   As i understand it, the player with the most points after the 4 events wins the cup.  I guess possible that a player who takes 2nd place 4 times may win the cup and 10 MILLION DOLLARS.  But i don't quite get the 'destiny' angle.  I can say without a doubt that if i won that money my destiny would indeed benefit.  And say, didn't one player walk into the final event so far ahead of all others that he stayed home, did not play East Lake, and took the Cup (money)? Weird.  My choice: Watney. All the others already have large bags of money.

[jamo]

The "control your destiny" thing is just that any of the top five players in the standings will win the FedExCup if they win the Tour Championship. They instituted that rule after 2008, when Vijay Singh was so far ahead he just had to get around East Lake without having a heart attack (he did play though).

[turtleback]

Originally Posted by joekelly

I figure this phrase, rather philosophical for the golf world, and frequently heard on the TV,  has something to do with the scoring or points system used to determine the winner of the Cup. But only 5 players can get into this 'destiny' group.   As i understand it, the player with the most points after the 4 events wins the cup.  I guess possible that a player who takes 2nd place 4 times may win the cup and 10 MILLION DOLLARS.  But i don't quite get the 'destiny' angle.  I can say without a doubt that if i won that money my destiny would indeed benefit.  And say, didn't one player walk into the final event so far ahead of all others that he stayed home, did not play East Lake, and took the Cup (money)? Weird.  My choice: Watney. All the others already have large bags of money.

When Vijay won it he had such a big lead that he probably could have skipped the Tour Championship, but he didn't.  But the rules are far different now.

[jamo]

When Vijay won it he had such a big lead that he probably could have skipped the Tour Championship, but he didn't.  But the rules are far different now.

Didn't they fix the skipping problem after Tiger skipped The Barclays and still won the FedExCup in 2007?

[MEfree]

For the last several years, they have reset the points just before the Tour Championship so that the guy in first will lose to the guy in 5th if the 5th place guy beat the 1st place guy in a two man playoff.

So in theory, a guy could win every regular season and the first 3 playoff events and still not win the Fed Ex Cup if he lost the Tour Championship in a playoff to someone in the top 5.  If the guy in 6th wins the Tour Championship, he will win the Fed Ex Cup unless the guy in 1st finishes really high up (maybe as high as solo 2nd, but I am not exactly sure).

I am pretty sure that Bill Haas was in something like 27th place going into the Tour Championship while Luke Donald was within the top 5 and missed the playoff by a shot...Result- Haas Champion with Donald 3rd behind Web Simpson (who was #1 going into the TC, but played poorly).

So basically anyone can win if the top 1 or 2 guys play poorly enough at the TC.