GolfWRX.com: Ready - Set - FedEx Cup! - GolfWRX.com

There's just one week until the debut of the FedEx cup on the PGA Tour. The final "points based race" the PGA Tour created in order to cure the post major lull among fans while still shortening the too long PGA Tour season.

The Tour appeared to rush the idea to market, and as the FedEx Cup approaches, more questions than answers seem to be emerging about the convoluted system. The FedEx Cup was supposed to generate big interest from the top players - Tiger has already begun showing reservations about the first event, the Barclays, and it seems nearly impossible for him to win the final event after skipping the first one. Woods isn't alone, as many players have showed some reservations about playing four weeks in a row at the end of the season while other perennial strong finishers will never get that chance. So is the FedEx Cup all it's cracked up to be?

Fuzzy Math

No one seems to understand the FedEx Cup, players, fans, even Tour officials can't seem to make heads or tails of the rules they proposed. By the book, after next week the field of the Barclays will be trimmed to the top 144 players on the FedEx Cup points list. The players have been accumulating points throughout the year and Tiger Woods has a tremendous lead, nearly double over his closest competitor, Vijay Singh. However, once the actual points race begins, the points are reassigned with Woods starting at 100,000. Yet all the space he's built up so far translates into a lead of just a thousand points over Vijay Singh (99,000 points), who leads by a fraction over the next competitor all the way down to number 144 who has an astonishing 84,700 points.

So all that separates Tiger Woods and Marco Dawson is 15,300 points. Seems like a lot, right? It's not because the point break down is different - a win in a playoff event earns 50,000 points, so seemingly the player in 144th position could catapult to #1 with just one win. Interesting for sure, but if Tiger, Vijay, and Phil don't make it to the end, will fans still want to tune in? With Tiger Woods already contemplating skipping the inaugural event at the peak of his popularity will television ratings survive? Or will he survive to make it in the top 72 to advance to next week? The FedEx Cup already appears to be falling short of generating interest among players and fans which many hoped it would.

After this week, the FedEx Cup begins and the remainder of the PGA Tour Schedule shapes up like so:

August 23-26 - Barclays Classic - Top 144

August 31-September 1 - Deutsche Bank Championship - Top 120

September 6-9 - BMW Championship - Top 70

September 13-16 - Tour Championship - Top 30

Will it be the saving grace the PGA Tour hoped for to generate interest while easing the pains of contraction? Only time will tell.