Playoff Format

[jclab20]

Not going to lie, I think the staggered scoring leaves a lot to be desired out of a "season long race". That being said, what are your ideas and how do you make the playoffs/TOUR championship better or at least more interesting? I think match play is intriguing, but if the whole season is 4 round stroke play, it does not make a lot of sense in my mind to completely change a format to a completely different style of play.

[Terry spitz]

Can you imagine if because the chiefs won the Super Bowl last year they get 21 points spotted to them every game the next year. That’s basically what golf has done for the tour championship. Handicap is for local golf courses to allow players of all abilities to compete more evenly. The PGA has created a reverse handicap for the tour championship. I have never heard of any professional sport giving points or strokes before the start of any tournament. The PGA has ruined golf. It’s not worth watching. They play all year long heads up and you would think the players would want to win outright without a huge advantage of starting with a 10 shot advantage 

[DaveP043]

15 minutes ago, Terry spitz said:

Can you imagine if because the chiefs won the Super Bowl last year they get 21 points spotted to them every game the next year. That’s basically what golf has done for the tour championship. Handicap is for local golf courses to allow players of all abilities to compete more evenly. The PGA has created a reverse handicap for the tour championship. I have never heard of any professional sport giving points or strokes before the start of any tournament. The PGA has ruined golf. It’s not worth watching. They play all year long heads up and you would think the players would want to win outright without a huge advantage of starting with a 10 shot advantage 

They also want to give some type or reward to players who have performed well throughout the season.  Do you remember the previous format, with essentially two competitions running simultaneously?  There was one leader board for the week, and a separate board for the actual tour championship.  I wouldn't mind match play, but how long would it take to play down from a field of 32 or 64 players?  And how willing would FedEx be to fund a competition where you might have two relative now names competing for the title they sponsor?

I don't think there's one right answer, but we should all remember that this is first and foremost entertainment, its all about sponsor money and eyeballs watching.

[Alf. S]

If you think TV sport is now about fairness then I'm afraid you're mistaken. It is all about money and trying to keep sponsors/money men happy. The FedEx cup is exactly that, how can they keep interest alive up until the last tournament. With 6 wins and world number one then numerically we know who should win. Come Sunday if Scottie stumbles you could have any of 10 players could win it. Adam Scott  winning, I love the guy but!!!

I use to watch Formula 1 week in, week out until 2021. In the last race of the season, Lewis Hamilton was coasting to victory in the season ending Adu Dhabi Grand Prix and winning the championship. There was an accident with 5 laps to go with a Safety Car put out, once the accident was cleared the rules were that the race would finish with a boring procession. But money talked the back markers were cleared out the way to let Verstapen who had just changed his tyres to race against a tyre stricken Hamilton to win the race and the championship. The Race Director said "That's racing" but was subsequently sacked by the FIA and no further action taken. Why was it done, IMO because the sponsored wanted an exciting end to their showcase race.

BTW if PIF get into the PGA Tour,  the Tour Championship will probably end up being played in Abu  Dhabi or Dubai!!

[fixyurdivot]

They play the entire season without the staggered handicap system, then suddenly they need one?  Seems odd.  

[Lchung788]

A playoff system in a tournament based sport will always feel weird to me, but just from a fan opinion of my own, I’d rather see a seeded match play tournament at the end of the year.  That has its own issues of course but yeah, it largely feels like the PGA tour just wants to own a major of sorts

[Syks7]

I'm half wondering if rewarding the player that finishes at the top is something that's simple that gives them an edge but doesn't provide a stroke advantage. 

-- As an example finishing at the top allows you to pick your tee time and playing partner from those that finish 30-16.   Say Scottie loves to play at noon at JT hates it.  He could pick the noon time, pick JT as his partner and have an edge that's similar to home field advantage in other sports.

Full disclosure, I don't know if pros have preferred times of day to play like most amateurs do, but I'm using it to illustrate that the solution might be relatively simple.

[CPP]

Like one posted noted, its all about the money these days.  I guess its entertainment for some, somewhere. I mentioned this to my wife ( not a golfer or a fan) , she noted how did the guy get so far ahead, I said they spotted him 2, why she asked, because he's the overall top player this year, he's #1.  I said, well its kinda odd don't you think. She said will the other players should have won more

[Shapotomous]

I dont care how they do it as long as they keep a system where the winner at East Lake wins the Fed Ex Cup.  I really didnt like the other set up they had and neither did the players...or Fed Ex....or the TV production where you needed the computer program running in the background to calculate the points given based on finishing position relative to other players.

[Shapotomous]

Also comparing to other sports is ok but just realize sports like football (american version or the rest of the world's version), baseball, basketball, hockey, etc are playing golfs version of seeded match play.  Home field is the advantage given for year long excellence.  Maybe that is the answer for Fed Ex cup golf, a set up much like the US Amateur for the last few weeks.

[ShimmyCocoBop]

FedEx signed a 10 year deal to spend $650 million on the PGA Tour through 2027.

https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/fedex-agrees-ten-year-extension-with-the-pga-tour/#:~:text=Although the financial terms of,over the decade-long deal.

What kind of an obligation does the PGA Tour (and its players) have to FedEx for investing that amount of money? 

To me, the obligation is to provide some "must watch" TV to golf and FedEx fans.  There are a lot of concerns to be addresses for everyone to be happy with the final product, and I think all parties are working toward the best final product possible.  

However, the event is not yet the best final product possible. 

[Donn lost in San Diego]

1.  Any kind of match play is better than a 10 stroke stagger.

2.  5 stroke stagger.  What's the point of the last 5 guys qualifying but starting 10 strokes off?  There is virtually no chance that anybody more than 5 or 6 off is going to pass 15 or 20 other qualifiers and be in the hunt, and zero that a 10 stroke will get anywhere near the top guys who after all are this year's best.

3.  There are various ideas to make a dollar award for the best final season long points or Vardon winner, and the last event a stand alone, no stagger, tournament, each the same $ amount.  Scheffler would get say $5 mm for season total  points, and Mori would win the same amount for the last event.

4.  Less likely that anyone in charge will agree, but ending the season early so as to avoid the NFL, I don't like.  End the season in October, play Wed-Sat once NFL starts, accept less advertising revenue for those events, but add 3 or 4 more events to the regular season.  There are few guys on TOUR who will starve if a purse is $5 mm instead of $8 mm the last few weeks.  

[funkyjudge]

9 minutes ago, Donn lost in San Diego said:

1.  Any kind of match play is better than a 10 stroke stagger.

2.  5 stroke stagger.  What's the point of the last 5 guys qualifying but starting 10 strokes off?  There is virtually no chance that anybody more than 5 or 6 off is going to pass 15 or 20 other qualifiers and be in the hunt, and zero that a 10 stroke will get anywhere near the top guys who after all are this year's best.

3.  There are various ideas to make a dollar award for the best final season long points or Vardon winner, and the last event a stand alone, no stagger, tournament, each the same $ amount.  Scheffler would get say $5 mm for season total  points, and Mori would win the same amount for the last event.

4.  Less likely that anyone in charge will agree, but ending the season early so as to avoid the NFL, I don't like.  End the season in October, play Wed-Sat once NFL starts, accept less advertising revenue for those events, but add 3 or 4 more events to the regular season.  There are few guys on TOUR who will starve if a purse is $5 mm instead of $8 mm the last few weeks.  

I think Wed-Sat tournaments the last month of the season may even be worse than Thur-Sun because of college football and that starts in mid-August.

[jolter1]

The Tour is trying to make everyone happy, i.e. sponsors and tv ratings. Just start everyone at even par and let the chips fall where they may. You can easily determine who wins what awards based upon their play during the regular season. Heck, even Scottie is not a fan of the present system.

[michalama]

I’ve always found playoff systems in sports tournaments a bit odd, and as a fan, I’d prefer a format where the top teams or players face off in a seeded match-play format at the end of the season. Of course, this comes with its own set of challenges, but it seems like the PGA Tour is aiming to create something akin to a major championship of its own.

[Overspark07]

Having just been to the LIV Individual Championship where only two guys actually have a shot at winning, the FedEx Cup doesn’t seem so bad . I like the idea of a big match play tournament, however, if it were to remain stroke play how about:

1. Use a handicap system to stagger for the start of the playoffs. It would need a little revising to accommodate the larger field but same idea holds. Also, I think it needs to reward based on the points accumulated, not just rank order.
2. Score is cumulative and carries into the following weeks.
3. Keep trimming the field after each week like now.
4. Tour Champion is the lowest cumulative score over the three playoff weeks.

I suppose there’s a risk that someone is starting the Tour Championship with much more than a 2 stroke lead, but it makes each week count!

[Irish-Assassin]

I hate this format, I get it, the more you play on the PGA Tour the more points you make which gives you an advantage. 
But isn’t the advantage playing for one of the biggest purses at the end of the year? 
Personally, golf has some luck about it, we all need it and so do the pro’s, so in a few tournaments some may get this and gives them more points than others who may have had a little bad luck.

End of season should be played like a normal straight up tournament it was more interesting watching the battle back in the day, I stopped watching it due to the 10, 8,6 shots etc, 

[Stuka44]

I agree with the main sentiment.  I didn't watch any of it.  If throughout the season you play/finish enough tournaments to finish in the top 4 for the season, Congratulations you've earned a bye to the final 32 match play event.  You shouldn't be given strokes in final event, that is stupid.  Top 125 play the two stroke play events to get down to the remaining 28 for the match play.  Oh and since everyone who makes it to the match play has earned money in the previous two tournaments,  The entire purse in the match play event is paid out to the top 4 finishers is all.  For the top 4  you get a payout for finishing in those positions, and the bye to match play

Edited Tuesday at 05:41 PM by Stuka44