What do you think of the playoffs?

I could care less who wins the Fedex cup. ANyone else in the same boat? They should just get rid of it, focus in on the tournaments more. Im sick of the x player needs to finish -6 to finish 4th but if y player finishes -3 or maybe -4 and then if b player finishes +2 then z player wins the Fedex Cup. WHo Cares?

I agree, the tournaments deserve more focus. Especially the former Western Open, the tourney has been around forever, has earned its place in the world of golf but now it just seems kind of ordinary, an afterthought almost.

I think we all know what they're trying to do. They want a playoff build up like in football, baseball, hockey, etc...... It doesn't work with golf, IMHO. Leave well enough alone and just focus on golf tournaments. It's worked pretty well up until this silly playoff idea started. Focus on the majors, Tour Championship, Players Championship and Ryder, President's Cup's.

It seems like the Fedex Cup actually took away from the Tour Championship as far as entertainment value. It was great to see Phil playing good again, but to me it was just weird knowing that Tiger was going to walk away with the big prize in the end. Obviously, Tiger played better than anyone all year and played the most consistent in the playoffs, but the whole playoff system just lacks excitement and drama. Golf isn't a sport set up for a playoff system. If anything golf is better than most every other sport because we already have four big events each year while other sports have just one set of playoffs at the end of the season.

The Fedex Cup system is too contrived to ever be taken as seriously as any of the four majors or even events such as The Players championship. I think Finchem just wanted to feel like he made an impact on the world of golf and the PGA Tour in general, this system has been his brainchild from the beginning and I don't foresee it going away under his watch. Perhaps they can eventually find a system that produces the type of excitement they are hoping for, I would certainly love to see it. But for now I'll keep hitting the snooze button.

How about this? Don't call it the playoffs! It is barely a playoff. I like the titles of Fall Finish, or Race to Dubai, so maybe the FedEx Finals?

I enjoyed all of the four events, and without the monumental prize money or season long points structure Tiger and Phil would be at home and we would have B rate PGA events to watch, (which is on the horizon).

I don't blame the points either, you have to play well consistently to win the cup and there is none more so than Tiger Woods. The Tour Championship is NOT a major, and I don't want it to be. I didn't want to see Marc Leishman? or Heath Slocum win the season ending Cup when they weren't top performers throughout the season, but if they won the Tour Championship then they would have won the biggest tournament of their careers. Those that say it was not exciting enough, well Stricker could have won the thing. Blame those in the top five for not playing better than Tiger at East Lake. It worked as planned, just not all of the top players performed at the same time, just like what happened in the four majors this year.

I think it accomplished what is was set out to do this year, but I don't want them trying to make it more than what it really is. Let the fan's decide that.

I do enjoy the Fedex Cup, simply because we get to see four straight tournaments of typically very strong fields. I understand we would get that anyway at the Tour Championship, but the previous three weeks had better fields than usual end-of-the-season events.

Only 26% even care who wins. Id say thats a tell tale sign the Fedex Cup is hogwash.

I care who wins, but only to the extent that the right person wins. I don't like the way they've tricked it up to make it so easy for so many players to win, just by winning the final event. I think it's a joke that someone can win every tournament all year, but come second at the Tour Championship and not win the FedEx Cup. Tiger won this year and rightly so. He played the best through the playoffs. He played the best through the year. If someone like Furyk had won the Tour Championship and not Phil, then it would have been a farce.

No Yes No No

the fedex cup is just a contrived way to get better ratings and nothing more. the only thing that matters to the top guys like tiger and phil are the majors period. with all the people struggling just to put food on the table it is insulting to throw $10 million dollars at a player just for playing the best in four events. i dont think the fedex cup will even be around in five years. i think they should do away with the "playoffs" and reward winners by making the tour championship a winners only event. that would give you about the same number of players but guys like Jim Furyk who hasnt won in almost three years would not get in. just as tiger says, second place is the first loser.

The FedEx Cup is a perfect example of excess in golf. I think it does more harm then good to the game. Besides handing Tiger 10M for loosing the Tour Championship is ludicrous. That said, I think tour players are way over paid even without the FedEx cup. One million plus dollars for five days of golf is pathetic when some of that money could be used to create jobs for people. Also part of my reasoning for not co-sponsoring golf tournaments any longer.

As a business owner that has evaluated all the express delivery services out theres, and spends a considerable amount of money on those express delivery services, I will NOT allow FedEx to be used. Their people are not only rude, the organization is bureaucratic and way over priced.

this year's had about as much excitement as last year's.

did i hear one announcer say somewhere near the turn that Phil was Tiger's best friend at that moment (because Phil's great play was making it more likely Tiger would win the FedEx Cup)?

i mean, if ever there was a moronic statement that summed up the first three years of this thing, that was it.

I like the playoffs because it's gets the names to play.. but I dont care who wins the Cup...Just the Tour Championship actually.

use this $10 million for a worthy charity like giving treatment to kids with life threatning illnesses like cancer,heart defects,leukemia etc.... This money could save lives.............These past 2 vyears I've been annoyed hearing Fed Ex cup this or that...Its all about winning tournaments , and not who racks up more points . Golf and playoffs? There were no play offs, it was emminent tiger would win even tho Phil won the tournament.....So in Fed Ex's mind :
Tiger won, Phil lost...even tho he won the TC.......

I didn't watch any of the Fedex Cup tourneys. I also didn't really care who won the Fedex cup. And I definitely do not plan to use Fedex as my shipping method....but that's because I live in Hawaii and Fedex charges outlandish prices to ship clubs....

I do not necessarily want them to get rid of the Fedex cup, however, so I voted "no" for that question.

I'd like to see less players involved in the series, if they even plan to keep it a series at all. I'd also like to see ONE final tournament with less players--whoever wins this final tournament wins this title.

How about a field of 8 or so? That seems like a good number. They could take the 4 Majors winners and maybe look at other ranking systems to get 4 other players in there: top money winner, Fedex points (if they insist on keeping that), etc.

If the powers really wanted a series of events, maybe those "playoff" events could determine who gets to play in that final championship....Now, you probably end up with 3 events that are less exciting than they are now (not that they are that exciting to begin with), but this makes the FINAL tournament this much more compelling, because whoever wins it, really wins it.

I think tradition has already set up the importance of winning majors, so this Fedex cup will take forever to become accepted (by me, at least!) If suits want to go and create excitement, maybe they can try to create another "major" tournament by putting the 4 Majors winners front and center in this final tournament. Smaller field....only the best players of the year.....8, no more than 10 players.

And don't worry about trying to crown or reward the most consistent player of the year, let the media and the votes to that....the winner of this final tournament is just that--the winner of the tournament....

I think Fedex should just sponser the Tour Championship. They can have their point system during the year to figure out who is playing in it. Make it the the biggest purse on tour and it will become the 5th major!!!!!

The name 'Playoffs' is to appeal to the American market, it has little to do with the format. I actually think that it has actually been excellent this season.

Here's why: The majors are the ones to win and the competition increasesat these tournaments. That is where great players are made as they consistently perform at the biggest stage. Now who have we had competing consistently during this years playoffs? Thats right the best players in the world: Woods, Harrington, Furyk, Johnson, Stricker and at last Mickleson. The fact that it was these guys who came to fore during the playoffs shows that these guys respect it. Never before have I been able to tune in for 4 weeks and see these top top guys in contention. It stretched these guys and that will be good in the long run.

I think that is also points towards players who will take the next step soon, Marino, O'hair etc. Guys who could live with big guys. It wasn't just a one off tournament this was a stretch where the best had to bring it pretty much every week and they did (Harrington had 6 consecutive top 10's after a terrible rest of season before).

As further proof for this compare the Fedex cup standings with the world rankings. The only players missing are the guys who didn't play (the Europeans) and Ogilvy. So my point is that the best players in the world cared enough about it that they got the job done and that is what I have loved watching.

Fedex

1 Tiger Woods
2 Phil Mickelson
3 Steve Stricker
4 Jim Furyk
5 Sean O'Hair
6 Zach Johnson
7 Padraig Harrington
8 Heath Slocum
9 Kenny Perry
10 Scott Verplank

World ranking (http://www.officialworldgolfranking.com/home/default.sps)

1 Tiger Woods, USA
2 Phil Mickelson, USA
3 Steve Stricker, USA
4 Paul Casey, Eng
5 Kenny Perry, USA
6 Henrik Stenson, Swe
7 Padraig Harrington, Irl
8 Sergio Garcia, Esp
9 Jim Furyk, USA
10 Geoff Ogilvy, Aus


Thos not on the tope ten world list (O'hair #14, Johnson #18, Verplank #47 and Slocum (anomaly))

Ok so here we are, major golf nuts, and NO is the majority. That says it all. The Fed Ex Cup is a waste of time. Of course the players will participate it adds to their bank accounts.

Ya know what... if it wasn't for all the "x player needs to finish -6 to finish 4th but if y player finishes -3 or maybe -4 and then if b player finishes +2 then z player wins".. then you'd have seen Tiger in 1 of those tournaments, Phil in 1, Stricker probably 2, Harrington in 2, the other big names(top 15 or so) in MAYBE two of them. The Fed Ex cup got the BIG NAME players to PLAY in tournaments that they otherwise would NOT have played. When are you people going to realize this? Who gives a flying F%^K about the points... the top players are playing... this is a GOOD thing. The Fed Ex cup goes away, so do the top players, mark my words.

Good point.

Aside from anything else, I don't have a clue who won the Tour Championship in 2006, but I know it was Tiger, Villegas and Mickelson since then. I also know Tiger won the 1st FedEx Cup, Vijay won the second and Tiger the third. Which means I at least am paying more attention to the post PGA Championship stuff than I used to.

This was the first year the playoffs were exciting, until that stupid bye week right before the Tour Championship. That was the biggest buzz kill.

I think the playoffs could work. I would prefer to see a match play type of playoff with the top 32 to see who wins the cup. That would make it more of a head to head deal like other sports, and make it easier for others to follow. All the amateur championships use this style to determine their winners, and it's worked for many, many years.

Preach it Brother Slick. I couldn't agree more.

(PS - I also like your avatar. It seems to match well with the quote under mine.)

Hey, I've got it. Call it the Final Four!

Oh, no, wait, that's taken.

They should make the end of year event have LARGER purses in order to attract the big names. All the big guns usually dont need the money and take that time off. Make it worthwhile and they will play....

For the first time ever I heard one of the players refer to the prize money at the presentation after the tournament.
This pretty much sums up the value of the Fedex cup.
Not the history or the winning of a major title but just plane old money.
In a world where there are people are watching their children starve to death ,10 million dollars for playing golf is just disgusting.
Now if the prize money was going to a well deserving charity and the player received a sensible amount for his work ,that would be something special.

Its all about the $$$. If the winner of the Fedex Cup gets $10 million.. how much do you think Fedex benefits from this


Everyone is being duped into thinking their real interest is building a climatic ending to the golf season.

i think in theory the concept of playoffs and a championship is a good one, but in reality it just doesn't work for golf. the fedex cup adds nothing to the game for me, and is just more money chasing after already really wealthy players who aren't playing for money in the first place. the fedex cup itself isn't meaningful to any of them. also, many of the players are pretty well spent by late september.

as for a tour championship of some kind, i think that's an ok idea by itself. a small field event played at the end of the season (probably earlier than it was just played) as a bookend to the tour is interesting. the fedex cup that preceeds it i think is sort of a waste. i still prefer fedex over ups though.

If you wonder why Fedex charges so much, look at the 10 million they just padded Tigers pocket with. Plus the 3 mill to Phil and so on. Thats alot of money for advertising they have to make up in higher shipping rates.

It's not new money that they're playing for. That $35 million was always there, just in a different form. They used to divvy it up based on the money that you won for the season and it went into a pension pot. They just stopped sharing it out like that and started sharing it out like this. That's why they can't touch it until they're 45. Or at least, that's what I heard about it anyway. FedEx isn't ponying up the $35 million. I imagine they're paying a pretty decent chunk of change for the advertising and they must think it's worth it. They do get a lot of exposure out of it, throughout the season and a lot of the people watching are probably the type of person that could give them a lot of business.

The theory goes that they advertise, so they get more business, so they can cut their costs as they have less overheads per shipment to cover. Bottom line is FedEx must think they make more out of this sponsorship than they spend. Simple as that. Otherwise, it's a bad business decision.

Well they are getting it up front now, so Ive heard. Oh and dont expect Fedex to cut their shipping rates anytime soon. LOL

could care less who wins, its a waste of time. i will not use fedex because of the tournament, means nothing. the only thing i care about is who wins tournaments. the rest is garbage

I enjoyed it, watched most of the playoffs.

The FedEx Cup is not perfect but is it as much of abomination as everyone is making it out to be? Are you really OFFENDED that the TOUR tried to put together something different than the same old thing? Would you have gotten better golf watching pleasure out of weak fields at the last four weeks with no implications on anything after that week? Would you have tuned in to watch Tiger run away at COG HILL with an average Sunday if there were no further implications? I would not have. Remember, The Tour Championship was solid before, but Tiger skipped even that before the FedEx Cup. Seems to me they've done a decent job at providing the fan with a decent bit of golf to watch in the late summer / early fall.

Of course there are problems with it but I think it has gotten to the point where people refuse to accept that it is better than the alternative and appreciate that the TOUR and FedEx are at least TRYING to look out for us. Yes, it seems somewhat tailored to a $10 million thank you to tiger for staying state-side and playing enough tournaments. No, it does not seem like The Tour Championship is the "Super Bowl" of golf...yet... Yes, the timing of it up against football is less than ideal. No, there is no perfect "playoff" system for golf that maintains the value for sponsors, provides ratings and an enjoyable spectating experience. All things considered, though, I think they did a decent job at maaking the best of the situation.

All I am hearing on this board is hate hate hate hate hate. Sounds like I am at the Player Hater's Ball or something...Give this thing some time and approach it with at least a kind of open mind.

Look at it this way, we got to see a lot of air time of players that normally wouldn't get any. That was solely because of their position in the FedEx points standings. Normally, they are only going to show the leaders and the big names.

Well, I voted the way I felt and when I looked at the results, I was "Dead On" with everybody else. This Fedex thing is a joke and a waste of time. I don't consider any tournament to be worth paying attention to, when one guy can win the tournament and another guy can run off with the cabbage! Someone has to tell this little squirt who runs this "Carnival" (aka) The PGA Tour, that the only tournaments that the Golfing World cares about are the "Majors". The rest of the free time that we all have, we're out on the course.

I agree, nice post. Problem is this is GolfWRX, which your last paragraph described perfectly. Most of the golfing world (including all of the guys I play with) have enjoyed the strong fields in the playoff and have followed the FedEx Cup pretty closely over the last month and a half. The system is not perfect yet but it HARDLY an abomination to golf like you'd think it was after reading the crap around here.

Nothing against Tiger, but it was ridiculous that Phil won the tourney and Tiger gets the cup and the $.

They need a better system, or the last day needs to come down to a match-play situation, winner take all.
If it comes down to a boring match like Slocum versus Glover, so be it, I can't imagine the ratings were stellar anyway with the NFL in full swing.

True die-hards (like WRX) will be tuning in either-way.

I just found the whole thing to be very anti-climactic.

One good thing about the FedEX Cup is the four weeks of very strong fields. I have to disagree with the "Top 5"... I think the points should be changed around to money, and the Majors should be weighed heavier. Also, the buy week... what is this??? I dont like it at all, and if the players and PGA insist on having one, then you put it in the middle of the "playoffs".

But as far as the FedEX Cup in the whole sceme of things, I do think it brings more to golf. But the Majors are still much more impressive.

+1
I actually enjoy watching the playoffs, seems like every tournament there are big names great scores, shoot outs etc. It just good golf for a whole month straigtht. I like that. What I dont like is that the winner of the cup is not the winner of the tour championship.

I mean it could be worse. You guys remember that tournament (I think it was in Canada) where you earned points for birdies, eagles, etc. and lost them for bodeys, thank God there isnt anything like that going on.

Still what I would like is match play... get 200 guys to start and just let them start eliminating each other for $10 MIL that I think would be cool. Two weeks if necessary, whatever... that is the only way you could have playoffs.

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+1
I actually enjoy watching the playoffs, seems like every tournament there are big names great scores, shoot outs etc. It just good golf for a whole month straigtht. I like that. What I dont like is that the winner of the cup is not the winner of the tour championship.

I mean it could be worse. You guys remember that tournament (I think it was in Canada) where you earned points for birdies, eagles, etc. and lost them for bodeys, thank God there isnt anything like that going on.

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I believe that was the tournament in Colorado that got axed (and then Tiger and the AT&T National touok over that date). The Stableford system, no? I thought it was a kind of fun change of pace but, like match play, one week a year was enough.