2019 FedExCup Playoff Changes

[klineka]

Real interesting article here highlighting some changes that might be coming to the FedEx Cup playoffs. 

The highlights: 

• The PGA Tour is putting the final touches on a revamped FedEx Cup structure that would award a cash bonus to the leading player from the regular season, followed by a new scoring format for the Tour Championship to decide the FedEx Cup champion
• Five people aware of the discussions say FedEx Cup points will not be involved in the final playoff event at East Lake. Instead, the No. 1 player would start the Tour Championship at 10-under par, with scores to par staggered depending on the 30 players’ position in the standings.
• That means whoever gets the 30th spot at East Lake would have four rounds to make up as many as 10 shots. The change eliminates the awkward moment — and divided attention — of one player winning the Tour Championship and another winning the FedEx Cup, which happened last year for the second time.

I've added a poll and am curious to hear others thoughts on this.

https://apnews.com/c7ebf5542dfb43cfbb33bd47807e0492/AP-Sources:-PGA-plans-major-changes-for-revamped-FedEx-Cup

Edited August 27, 2018 by klineka

[iacas]

I don't think it's terribly awkward. The player who wins the FedExCup had the strongest (by their numbers) full season.

I understand how it works. You accumulate points.

My daughter finished fourth in one of her Tour Championships and second in the other… and won the Player of the Year or Tour Champion award in both cases. It wasn't confusing at all, even though the points were doubled in the Tour Championship event on both of the tours. 

[rehmwa]

24 minutes ago, klineka said:

The change eliminates the awkward moment — and divided attention — of one player winning the Tour Championship and another winning the FedEx Cup, which happened last year for the second time.

I find that to be an idiotic concern.  These are two different things and can have two different winners.  There's not an issue here at all.  Frankly, when those are different people, I find it to be an indication that the current setup is working as intended and not manufactured to be something dumb.

Edited August 27, 2018 by rehmwa

[HJJ003]

I’d be for changing the points system or structure I guess, but I think they are putting too much emphasis on winning the tour championship to win it all. Golf isn’t like other sports. If someone runs away with the title because they won six times a year so be it. They deserve it. 

[MacDutch]

Problems where there’s not. Keep it like it is.

[rehmwa]

This is really dumb - it's like a reverse handicap thing.  So the guy the REALLY wins the tournament doesn't get the credit some we can scratch some OCD itch?  It's a crock.

If it's such a big deal, then just do a brackette match play (I do NOT like this either) - at least it's honest.

That last round, IMO, is worth less than the rest of the season.  The tourney winner only has to beat a field of 30 vs all the other tournaments of the year.  FedEx cup should maintain some semblance of season winner, not tourney winner.

[brocks]

What makes me barricade myself inside my house is when the FedEx Cup champ isn't the Player of the Year, since they're both season-long awards for the PGA Tour.  Why don't they fix THAT, huh?

[David in FL]

Sounds like a solution in search of a problem...

[Moxley]

I've never particularly liked the obsession with making things simple, but the changes don't make things any worse than they were before. 

My issue is that the tour championship does not adequately take into account the performance during the regular season, so  player who is more than a thousand points clear of a 2nd place has only the slenderest of advantages in both old and new systems. 

I'd like the new system more if it dealt with this - perhaps by awarding (deducting) an extra stroke for awarding an extra stroke for every 500 pts clear (i.e. a win) the leader is. If you've dominated the whole season, you really ought to be able to pretty much just show up in order to win.  

[Moxley]

In a further twist to the above, it seems that some people are fearing that this season's winner could be somebody who hasn't actually won all season, never mind won the the tour championship.

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/tony-finau-can-win-the-fedex-cup-without-winning-a-single-tournament-this-year

Although I don't in theory have an issue with this sort of event, I don't like the way this has come about - Finau would only be able to secure a win with a 2nd place due to the re-seed stripping away so much of Bryson's advantage, and the excessive multiplier for playoff events (4x regular events, and thus more than 3x more than major championships). 

I guess this is sort of the point of playoffs, but it seems a bit of a worst of both for me. 

[RFKFREAK]

I'm really not a fan of how you can accumulate points throughout the season and then someone has a couple of hot weeks and catapults to the top of the points list.  I take nothing away from Bryson Dechambeau because winning in back to back weeks in the playoffs should count for a lot but it seems to me that in most years the guy who went into the playoffs in first place was soon replaced at the top of the points list after the first or second week which I feel minimizes the body of work in the regular season.

[iacas]

17 minutes ago, RFKFREAK said:

I'm really not a fan of how you can accumulate points throughout the season and then someone has a couple of hot weeks and catapults to the top of the points list.  I take nothing away from Bryson Dechambeau because winning in back to back weeks in the playoffs should count for a lot but it seems to me that in most years the guy who went into the playoffs in first place was soon replaced at the top of the points list after the first or second week which I feel minimizes the body of work in the regular season.

Like… playoffs in every other sport.

[RFKFREAK]

Just now, iacas said:

Like… playoffs in every other sport.

Haha, as I was typing my response I thought that myself, haha.

 

[mdl]

Why not just take the top 64 (or 32) in fedex points from the regular season and have a playoff like every other sport.  Seeded match play!

You could imagine some combo with the proposed change to have handicapped stroke play to say go from top 70 to top 32  or even top 16 with stroke play, then have a seeded match play to get the fedex cup champion.

Edited September 14, 2018 by mdl

[Eric C]

13 minutes ago, mdl said:

Why not just take the top 64 (or 32) in fedex points from the regular season and have a playoff like every other sport.  Seeded match play!

You could imagine some combo with the proposed change to have handicapped stroke play to say go from top 70 to top 32  or even top 16 with stroke play, then have a seeded match play to get the fedex cup champion.

While I like the idea from a pure competitive play perspective, the lack of revenue from only a week-long playoff event at a single venue as opposed to spreading it across 4 events / 4 venues would wind up making the purse much smaller. I guess I don't know this for sure, but it seems logical.

Also, given that every qualifying event with the exception of the WGC Match Play is stroke play, I don't think the playoffs would then be representative of the competition throughout the season.  Correct me if I'm off base here, but someone who is great at stroke play isn't necessarily always great at match play.  

I vote four events, 16 rounds, lowest score each week wins the week and lowest score over 16 rounds wins the cup.

[brocks]

39 minutes ago, Eric C said:

I vote four events, 16 rounds, lowest score each week wins the week and lowest score over 16 rounds wins the cup.

You have guys like Ricky and Rory this year, and Tiger and Phil other years, who don't play all four events even when eligible, so I doubt the players would go for that.

[Eric C]

5 minutes ago, brocks said:

You have guys like Ricky and Rory this year, and Tiger and Phil other years, who don't play all four events even when eligible, so I doubt the players would go for that.

To me, another reason in favor of my format. You don't see Tom Brady taking a week off during the playoffs.

[brocks]

28 minutes ago, Eric C said:

To me, another reason in favor of my format. You don't see Tom Brady taking a week off during the playoffs.

True, but Tom Brady isn't an independent contractor.  Nobody is going to make Tiger or Phil play if they don't want to, and neither the Tour nor the sponsors want the Cup to be a joke, with some second tier player winning because most of the big names skipped an event --- or worse, were not allowed to play any of the four if they didn't commit to all four.