The Cup: Let Us Not Forget That Which Is Priceless

[Frank-0-Sport]

Greetings ....

All this talk about money, money, money.

Let us not forget -- If not already so exempt by other means, the winner of the Fed Ex Cup Championship receives a 5-year PGA Tour exemption.

It wasn't so long ago that Steve Stricker was playing the PGA Tour with virtually no exempt status. Now he's in a position to secure his place on tour thru 2012.

KJ Choi, Rory Sabbatini and (albeit, depending on extreme fate) Aaron Baddeley are also in position to capture the Cup and the exemption.

To borrow from MasterCard: Winning a 5-year exemption? Priceless!

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank-0-Sport

[LeftysRule]

I don't see anyone beating tiger. It's remarkable how he can skip a tournament and still win it. Truly a statement of how great he is.

[WhiteSoxFan]

Truly a statement of how great he is.

Um, no. I am not going to argue Tiger's greatness. But, it's more of a statement about a flaw in the Fedex Cup system than it is about Tiger's greatness.

[hurley9192]

what?? the guy has flat out owned the PGA this year...he almost doubled everyone in regular season pts in fewer events and then they reshuffle the points which brings everyone else within 15000 or so pts, he skips a week and still manages to start running away with this race as well. His closest competitors, except for Phil, all fell by the wayside and there is Tiger pretty much in control of another chance at a championship. He was 6 under again yesterday and has essentially a 5 shot lead on the FedEx cup at this point.

If that's not greatness, then I don't know what is. And if you want to say the FedEx cup is flawed, then maybe we should check the money list and POY awards, maybe the 6 wins vs. 2 or 3 from the next closest competitors and another major will suffice as to his greatness. He's having one of his better years on tour and playing fewer events than ever and still running away with all the awards.

[WhiteSoxFan]

I said I am not arguing his greatness. He's obviously the best player on Tour, possibly the best player to ever play the game.

I simply feel the system is flawed if you are allowed to skip one of the four "playoff" events and still have a chance to win.

Can an NFL team just skip its first round playoff game?
Can a College football team skip a regular season game?
Can a tennis player skip the first round of Wimbledon?
Can a Major League baseball team skip the divisional series?

[Bo the Golfer]

That is why I'd bet my next paycheck that the PGA Your will not use the word Playoff next year-this has a lot of flaws but the golf has been great which is what counts.

[iacas]

Can an NFL team just skip its first round playoff game?

Uh, yes. The first- (and second-) place teams in each division get to skip.

Can a College football team skip a regular season game?

So Tiger should play 40 events per year? Because he skips regular-season events... and there aren't any playoffs in college football.

Can a tennis player skip the first round of Wimbledon?

Again, not the same thing. Tennis doesn't have playoffs. The closest thing to Wimbledon or any regular tennis tournament is the World Match Play.

Can a Major League baseball team skip the divisional series?

No, but they get home field advantage and get to choose some of the setup.

[WhiteSoxFan]

Uh, yes. The first- (and second-) place teams in each division get to skip.

OK, I don't want to argue each of your points. You have some good points, and the bottom line is we aren't comparing apples to apples. My main point is that in other sports, a team or player generally cannot choose to skip a "playoff" or other important event, and then still compete for the "grand prize". Each sport's system is different, and the FEC format that the PGA tour has designed is what is being played this year. It is what it is.

My opinion is that a major flaw in the system is that a player can skip one of the four events and still have a pretty good shot at winning, i.e. Tiger and Phil.

[Double Bogey]

The way to solve this problem is quite simple. The reason that Tiger and Phil could skip an event and still win the cup is becuase the points were used all year long. Those points should only get you into the tourney. I think that some point amount should be given to "rank" the players ahead of others (say #1 gets 2000, #2 gets 1750, #3 gets 1500, etc.) but not to the point where one player can win the cup and not play in every event.

[Jeepthrills]

It's funny that this is on here today. I was doing some stat geek stuff and figured out how many FedEx Points the top guys have earned all year. I threw out the points from the "reset", which by the way is the only reason people are even close to Tiger at this point. Had they not reset the points for seeding purposes, he would have won it already and could have skipped the Tour Championship as well.

Player Regular Season Playoffs Total

Tiger: 30,574 + 12,733 = 43,307
Phil 16,037 + 10,613 = 26,650
Stricker 10,621 + 13,850 = 24,471
KJ 15,485 + 5,601 = 21,085
Rory 13,548 + 5,838 = 19,386
Furyk 16,691 + 1,338 = 18,029
Vijay 16,691 + 214 = 16,905 This one stuns me.

Tiger has dominated the Tour this year and the FedEx ponits as well. He has also done it by playing far fewer events than anyone in contention. Erik was right on the money with his comparison to the NFL byes in the first round. He earned the right to miss a tournament. If the Tour wants to prevent this in the future, they may want to consider when they hold their "playoffs." To start them only two weeks after the last major and try to sandwich them in before the President's Cup is like asking Tiger what tournaments he would like to skip. All said I have enjoyed them so far. If Phil or Stricker come back to win it will be good theater. I hope the Sunday round is entertaining as it looks like the Lions will be blacked out locally.

I'm so glad that my time spent looking up numbers for myself could be shared.

[Jeepthrills]

I think that some point amount should be given to "rank" the players ahead of others (say #1 gets 2000, #2 gets 1750, #3 gets 1500, etc.) but not to the point where one player can win the cup and not play in every event.

Good theory, but only one player has earned more points than Tiger in the playoffs. Stricker has 13,850 to Tiger's 12,733. A difference of 1,117. If things hold the way they are now, Tiger will still beat him by about 10,000 points. If they want to do that, they should just keep it at the end of the year, put them in there based on their money rank for the year and start them all at 0. That way you have a true elimination event. The thing is, in all sports the regular season sets you up for the playoffs. The best teams earn the advantage of a bye or home field or weaker first round opponents by winning more all year. Tiger did the same thing.

[laconic517]

I said I am not arguing his greatness. He's obviously the best player on Tour, possibly the best player to ever play the game.

what if someone misses the cut at one of them? I mean its basically the same thing. If you go 2 1 1 you should win the cup period.