Fed Ex Cup Suggestion Box 2
Count Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post among those trying to fix the FedEx Cup playoffs, as so many of you readers are. Unlike most of you, who gently advise the players to "Man up, Alice," as one of you put it, Wilbon seems to empathize. His proposed amendments:
For starters, reduce it from four weeks to three. The top players simply aren't going to play four straight weeks. And from the results Tiger and Phil have, they shouldn't be told they have to. That one week off, scheduled however the players want, should appease a lot of people.
And which event goes? And who wants to tell them?
Start with 120 players, cut to 80, then to 40 or fewer. It would have an NCAA tournament feel. That would probably mean cutting the prize money, which the players would just have to swallow.Wilbon thinks the grind of four straight events is the main problem.
Four straight FedEx events means essentially a month away from home. Nobody should expect a pity party, but I understand Tiger and Phil saying: "No. I'm staying home."
A friend of mine observed that the the regular-season FedEx Cup points were like frequent flyer rewards and the players use them to "buy" various personal experiences: "I'm going to use 15,000 of my FedEx Cup points to attend my son's guitar recital, so I'll miss the Barclay's", and so on.
Kind of the way it works right now anyway. If you can afford it, you take time off. If you can't, you grind away.
--Bob Carney
09.09.07
Hey Bob, if your FedEx Cup suggestion box is still open, check out my post on Waggle Room from a few days ago:
http://waggleroom.com/story/2007/9/4/172143/8330
In my plan, the FedEx Cup culminates in a winner-take-all, match-play Tour Championship.