Let The FedEx Cup Criticism Begin!: Local Knowledge: Golf Digest

Let The FedEx Cup Criticism Begin!

Monday, August 20, 2007 Comments

The FedEx Cup starts this week, and the media is wasting no time in telling us that the tour playoff is, well, a waste of time. The absence of Tiger Woods in this week's Barclays field provided plenty of ammunition to take shots at the event.

Writes David Whitley in the Orlando Sentinel: "The FedEx Cup was a contrived money-grab to begin with. When the sport's pre-eminent star blows off the opening act, all credibility is lost. It's like baseball starting the playoffs without the Red Sox, Angels, Mets and the national anthem. Tour officials are trying to put a happy face on things, but they must feel as if they've had a graphite shaft plunged into their backs."

Added Damon Hack in the New York Times: "In a sport that lives on tradition and so often returns to familiar themes, the FedEx Cup chase, in which golfers have spent the season accumulating points, has had trouble gaining the players' affections. It was designed with the golfers and their fans in mind: a shorter season that finishes before the heart of the N.F.L. season and the World Series, and a big-money prize at the end. But the players have not uniformly endorsed the FedEx Cup despite the Tour's zealous promotion of it."

And this from Ian Hutchinson in the Toronto Sun: "After moving tournaments such as the Canadian Open into awkward positions to accommodate this season-ending showdown that was supposed to get fans jacked in the weeks and months beforehand, the FedEx Cup has yet to live up to the promise made by the Tour's slick marketing campaign."

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Archived Comments (2) Click to expand

The PGA Tour officials have quite clearly goofed up by not pulling out all stops to ensure that Tiger Woods competed in last week’s tournament. Tiger may not be in need of the extra cash nor would the FedEx Cup be a bright feather in his cap but the tour officials really needed him to give a lift to the FedEx Cup because they have gone out of their way to talk it up. This being the inaugural season they really needed to start on a strong note and when the leader opts out of the start of the much awaited "playoffs", Houston knows “we have a problem”.

Perhaps the biggest draw of the FedEx Cup was the $35 million purse, but the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is still out of the players reach. They only get to lay their hands on the money later. This system of deferred compensation really kills the whole thrill of the winner walking away with $10 Million which would probably have been the biggest paycheck offered for a sports event. Trevor Immelman has already gone on record saying “I would rather have the money now”. No wonder then that a lot of players feel the event loses a bit of it’s sheen because of the payment mechanism. If you can’t get the players excited about this new venture there is no way that you can get the golf enthusiasts hooked to it and irrespective of whether Tiger wins the inaugural edition or not you can’t help but wonder that this has been a case of slick marketing gone wrong.

Andy Brown
[link]http://www.golfswingsecretsrevealed.com[/link]

Posted by andybrown August 29, 2007 4:40 AM

The PGA Tour officials have quite clearly goofed up by not pulling out all stops to ensure that Tiger Woods competed in last week’s tournament. Tiger may not be in need of the extra cash nor would the FedEx Cup be a bright feather in his cap but the tour officials really needed him to give a lift to the FedEx Cup because they have gone out of their way to talk it up. This being the inaugural season they really needed to start on a strong note and when the leader opts out of the start of the much awaited "playoffs", Houston knows “we have a problem”.

Perhaps the biggest draw of the FedEx Cup was the $35 million purse, but the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is still out of the players reach. They only get to lay their hands on the money later. This system of deferred compensation really kills the whole thrill of the winner walking away with $10 Million which would probably have been the biggest paycheck offered for a sports event. Trevor Immelman has already gone on record saying “I would rather have the money now”. No wonder then that a lot of players feel the event loses a bit of it’s sheen because of the payment mechanism. If you can’t get the players excited about this new venture there is no way that you can get the golf enthusiasts hooked to it and irrespective of whether Tiger wins the inaugural edition or not you can’t help but wonder that this has been a case of slick marketing gone wrong.

Andy Brown
http://www.golfswingsecretsrevealed.com

Posted by andybrown August 29, 2007 4:45 AM