PGA Tour Should Have a Real Playoff
With college football having their first true playoff what if the PGA Tour (really) did the same? There’s no doubt that the FedExCup has been a great thing for golf. It keeps the tour in the news into the fall and gives us some exciting golf, rather than the Mickey Mouse tournaments in the past. These playoff events have elite fields and the rotation of courses gives it a fresh feel every year. My only bone to pick here is why not have it really all come down to the Tour Championship? A winner take all for the biggest singular financial prize in American sports. That’s right LeBron James and Derek Jeter may have won their championships but none of those were worth 10 million dollars.
Sure it’s not all about the money, but hey 10 million dollars is nothing to gloss over here either cause whether we like it or not, most of the time it’s all about the Benjamins. Let’s face it after a grueling spring and summer and the majors being out of the way the Rory McIlroy & Tiger Woods may not be so wiling to tee it up again for four straight weeks without 10 million on the line. Money talks, so if we’re going to dish out the biggest prize in sports the finale should really be epic.
Keep everything the same through the first three legs of the playoffs, shrink the fields by the same amount each week so that we get to 30 for the Tour Championship and then that trip around East Lake can be a four day winner take all sprint for the cup. Sure the season is a grind and now with the wrap around season that grind is one of the longest full seasons in American sports and it’s a long time to accumulate points and those points should matter. Until the final week.
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This brings up the question about what is the point of actually winning one of the three playoff events leading up to the Tour Championship? In the current format if you win one the spike in points can you put you in the driver seat to win the cup. You can keep the spike in points, that’s fine and that will also help guarantee a trip to East Lake, but once you get there it’s time to reset. Some may say, then how do you really benefit from winning a playoff event? I think the million dollar plus prize for the event itself and a spot in the Tour Championship is good enough.
Think about it, every sports season is a grind but if you win fourteen regular season games in the NFL those wins mean nothing once that Super Bowl kicks off. I’m not saying make the Tour Championship a one round winner take all. That would be extreme, but a four round tournament between 30 guys isn’t crazy. Think about the pressure, think about the excitement, and just imagine all they things we’ll get to hear Johnny Miller say. Players will be feeling the same pressure they do on the icy greens of Augusta all over again. The golf will be better, the fans will be louder and for the popularity of the PGA Tour; sports fans may delay getting wrapped up the NFL for one more week.
Now it’s time to close your eyes for a second and imagine what could be. It’s the final round at East Lake, Tiger and Matt Kuchar are in the fairway on 17 one shot behind Rory and Rickie Fowler who are on the tee. Ten million dollars comes down to four of the best golfers on the planet who all have a shot to win. Granted Tiger would probably hit an errant shot and then miss the Ryder Cup two weeks later cause his back hurts again. In a related story, 2015 is two days old and no back flare ups for Tiger, 363 to go!
The NCAA is the most stubborn and mind boggling organization in sports. They let guys like Jameis Winston win Heismans but if you go out to dinner with the wrong person your school ends up on probation, but even they have a playoff. Tim Finchem who in my opinion is one of the best commissioners in sports can follow suit and give golf fans a playoff that will create the true finale we all deserve. I understand that it’s impossible to make the FedEXCup as intense and exciting as any of the four majors and I’m not trying to do that. Nothing compares to the final round of a major, but why not at least try?
For the full 2015 PGA Tour schedule visit PGATour.com.