FedEx Cup Playoffs: More comment: Editors' Blog: Golf Digest

FedEx Cup Playoffs: More comment

Monday, September 6, 2010 Comments

More comment from you about the playoff system, this one similar to a previous writer's except that this correspondent seems willing to concede some point carryover.

I think it is time to make the FedEx Cup playoffs a real playoff event. I don't know of any sport in which a team or player can skip a playoff event, based on previous performance, and be eligible to advance. Points should be used only to qualify for the playoffs, with the best 125 being advanced. The four playoff events should each be a four day tournament, with no cut. The best 100, 70, and 30 respectively, would then advance to the next event, with the winner of the Tour Championship (the final event) winning the FedEx Cup. If they feel that points are necessary, then reinstate them only for the final two events. That way, a player might still win the Cup, even if they do not win the Tour Championship.

Lt. Col. Gerald F Hoff, USAF (ret), Melbourne, FL

You may hope against hope, Lieutenant, but I don't see the Tour going to the kind of playoffs you'd like to see for the reason you raise. It's the ability of top players, based on previous good play, to skip an event that appeals to some of them and keeps them supportive of the playoffs as is. I like your approach, but not necessarily your compromise. Why shouldn't the winner of the final event win the Cup? Would that be so terrible? The Tour and its top stars are not ready for the finality of that, however. They don't think it's fair; they don't think it identifies the strongest player over the course of the playoff events.

Bob Carney