Home > Furman Bisher > Archives > 2008 > September > 12 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USTour Championship an anticlimactic end
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It so happens that I have just finished reading five pages of the Official PGA Tour Guide titled “FedEx Cup,” in which the most significant information is in the smallest type: “Subject to Change.” Change there has been, but sadly, not in time to bring relief to the Tour Championship. This is supposed to be the crowning glory of the season, the “Super Bowl of the Tour,” in which the official champion is enriched by $10 million and sent away to an offseason of utter luxury.
With all the tinkering the Tour has put into making its FedEx venture foolproof, the Tour Championship comes up as a somewhat hollow climax. As you are surely aware, the championship has already been played out. All Vijay Singh has to do is tee it up, play the tournament at East Lake, even finish last, and he is the champion. This is brutally unfair to East Lake, and to Coca-Cola, who is what the tour labels the “presenter.” Which is why East Lake is the host and is in line for condolences.
Oh, yes, Singh says he is not coming to East Lake simply to pick up his check, “I’m going to try to win the Tour Championship,” he said in a teleconference. “I love Atlanta and East Lake. I’d rather be in this position than knowing I’d have to win the Championship to take the FedEx Cup.” They don’t raise any dummoxes in Fiji.
Singh won two of the tournaments known as playoffs, and tied for 44th in the third. Even if he finishes last at East Lake, he would have 124,651 points, and Camilo Villegas, who won the BMW Championship, would have only 123,050 should he win. Singh has won the Tour Championship before, in 2002, and lost another in a playoff to Hal Sutton in 1998, both at East Lake.
It’s possible to win the Tour Championship tournament, and take home $1,260,000, but not be the Tour champion. Stewart Cink says he’ll be playing hard, and so will the other 29 players, including Vijay, but no matter how hard they play, what they win is only one more tournament. The deed is already done, and this all brings to a head the pressing question of why the FedEx Cup in the first place? Which, it might be added, prompted Commissioner Tim Finchem to say, in the teleconference, that this unforeseen circumstance “kicked off another round of what do we do next?”
I got a suggestion: Tank it.
Isn’t the PGA Tour strong enough to carry its own load? This would never have happened, you might suggest, had Tiger Woods not decided to go in for surgery at this inopportune time. That brings up the question: Is the life of the PGA Tour dependent on one person? And if it is, there’s something out of kilter at Ponte Vedra. And look what else weighs heavily on East Lake: That the probable Player of the Year didn’t make the field, Paddy Harrington, winner of the British Open and PGA Championship. Something has to be seriously warped when that happens. Which brings up a thought that has puzzled me since Finchem first introduced his spinoff of the NASCAR marketing tool: Was he registering his fear of the rivalry of college football, the opening of the NFL season and the peak of major league baseball pennant races?
If this be the case, then the PGA Tour is staring in the face of a serious challenge. Tiger won’t be here forever. Arnold Palmers and Jack Nicklauses don’t keep popping up ever 25 years or so, and it is apparent that overseas stars don’t light up the American gallery. That in mind, I would have to say that the PGA Tour has come to a crossroads in its search for the magic touch. Indeed, what do they do next?
“Subject to change” — the type is small but the problem is major.
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By This Gets Old
September 12, 2008 5:43 PM | Link to this
“Tiger won’t be here forever”
Not only that he might not be here again. The ratings and interest levels tell the story.
By greg
September 13, 2008 8:26 AM | Link to this
The fed cup is a joke.The 4 majors are golf’s super bowl.I love golf and watch each major cover to cover and did not watch any of the previous three fed ex tournaments. Will not watch East Lake either.
By bill
September 13, 2008 11:48 AM | Link to this
If the points were more heavily weighted for the later tournaments this would not happen. At least there would be several mathematical possibilities for different winners based on their performance in the final tournament.
By MP
September 14, 2008 8:05 AM | Link to this
It’s what you get when you let TV rule the roost! Just ask the BCS people. Or ask former baseball fans who are sick of 3 hour games and a world series that ends in late October when it’s 40 degrees outside.
We have the FEDEX cup because FEDEX offered billions of $$ in advertising on TV. The scoring system is just an afterthough. Finchem did not think this thing through very well.
The winner of the Tour Championship should be the FED EX cup winner plain and simple.
By Chuck Cole
September 16, 2008 9:18 AM | Link to this
Why don’t they drop the points after the regular season? The top half of the field gets to advance to the next tournament. The winner of the last tournament is th Fed Ex Cup winner.
By Chuck Cole
September 16, 2008 9:18 AM | Link to this
Why don’t they drop the points after the regular season? The top half of the field gets to advance to the next tournament. The winner of the last tournament is the Fed Ex Cup winner.
By Chuck Cole
September 16, 2008 9:21 AM | Link to this
Why don’t they drop the points after the regular season? The top half of the field gets to advance to the next tournament. The winner of the last tournament is the Fed Ex Cup winner. That way, no one builds a lead that can’t be caught and everyone in the tournament has a chance to win.
By Tall
September 16, 2008 10:37 AM | Link to this
Both Mr. Bisher and Greg are right. Drop the whole thing. It’s obvious the tour players themselves are not that interested. In fact, I think the the PGA should take the week off after a major tournament. No tournament after the Masters, U.S. Open, PGA. Pro golf has turned stale.
By Born2Buzz
September 16, 2008 11:55 AM | Link to this
Chuck Cole, that makes too much sense.
Yea, if you want to call it a playoff, make it a win or go home playoff. Like…the playoffs in every other sport that has them.
By richbrave
September 19, 2008 9:52 AM | Link to this
FURMAN:
Excuse the familiarity of this post, but at my age I’m deferential to no one. Like you, I’ve earned the right to accept or reject personalities and acquaintances into my life as I see fit.
That said, I wonder how you are coming on the MATHEWS - JONES comparisons. I and many others really care to read your take on the two as your perspective would be historically significant and genuinely unique having reported on them both.
And of course there’s the trust factor. You would do the subject justice in your thoroughly efficient manner. Thank you for your kind consideration.