I apologize for the delay in writing this blog post, but next year's edition of the Tour Championship, the final event of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup Playoffs, will follow a completely different format than the format in use for this year's Tour Championship.
Under the current format, the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings immediately prior to the Tour Championship were invited to play in the Tour Championship, which is currently a conventional stroke play event, albeit with a small, but very elite, field of golfers. Prior to the start of the tournament, a points reset was conducted in such a manner that anyone who is eligible to play in the Tour Championship has a mathematical possibility of winning the FedEx Cup, which is the trophy that the PGA Tour awards to the PGA Tour season champion, and those in the top five in the FedEx Cup standings prior to the Tour Championship are mathematically guaranteed to win the FedEx Cup if they win the Tour Championship. Under the current format, it is possible for the winner of the Tour Championship to not win the FedEx Cup. Notably, if all 30 players in this year's Tour Championship finished in the same order that they are after the first round of this year's Tour Championship, Rickie Fowler (23rd in FedEx Cup standings before Tour Championship) and Tiger Woods (20th in FedEx Cup standings before Tour Championship) would compete in a playoff to decide the Tour Championship, but neither would win the FedEx Cup, because Justin Rose, who was second in the FedEx Cup standings before the start of the Tour Championship, is in a two-way tie for third place in the Tour Championship after one round, and Rose would earn enough points to win the FedEx Cup.
I actually like the current format of the Tour Championship, since it preserves the integrity of the FedEx Cup as a season-long championship while providing a perfect balance: under the current system, everyone who is eligible to play in the Tour Championship has a mathematical opportunity at winning the FedEx Cup, and no player can clinch the FedEx Cup in any tournament preceding the Tour Championship. However, as a lot of people seem to have nowadays, the PGA Tour, which, to their credit, did a very good job with the major changes to the Tour schedule for the upcoming 2018-2019 season, has seemingly adopted a mentality of "if it ain't broke, break it", as next year's Tour Championship will have a significantly different format.
Under the format that will be used for the Tour Championship starting in 2019, the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings immediately prior to the Tour Championship will be invited to play in the Tour Championship, but that's where the similarities end. First, the points reset will be conducted differently, with all 30 players having the same number of points at the start of the Tour Championship. Second, the Tour Championship will no longer be a conventional stroke play event, although the Tour Championship will use a variant of stroke play that the PGA Tour officially calls "FedEx Cup starting strokes", which I will refer to as reverse handicap stroke play. Unlike a conventional handicap system, in which a handicap index based on a player's golfing ability is used to determine a net score for a single round of golf, the reverse handicap system that will be used for the Tour Championship does not use handicaps for each round, but instead gives players different scores relative to par to start the tournament based on their Tour Championship seed, which is their ranking in the FedEx Cup standings prior to the points reset before the Tour Championship, and the player with the lowest score under the reverse handicap system wins both the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup. The #1 seed in the next year's Tour Championship will start the tournament at ten strokes under par, with a two-stroke lead over the #2 seed and a ten-stroke lead over the #30 seed.
There is a very big reason why the new Tour Championship format is a terrible idea. The new Tour Championship format makes the rest of the season almost effectively a series of qualifying events for the Tour Championship, since it's certainly possible for a golfer to make up a ten-shot deficit in four rounds on an 18-hole golf course. This will, in turn, potentially result in lower TV ratings for a lot of the regular PGA Tour events, as one could watch all four of the men's golf majors, The Players Championship, the World Golf Championships tournaments, and the Tour Championship, and not miss much of what is going on in the world of men's golf. Also, making the winner of the Tour Championship automatically the winner of the FedEx Cup will all but completely devalue the FedEx Cup as a season-long championship and make the FedEx Cup being slightly more valuable as a season-long championship than winning a single tournament during the season, although the reverse handicap system that the Tour Championship will use starting next year will insulate the FedEx Cup a bit from becoming just a winner's trophy for winning the Tour Championship.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The author of this blog post is NOT being paid by FedEx or any other corporate sponsor of the PGA Tour to write this blog post.
Under the current format, the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings immediately prior to the Tour Championship were invited to play in the Tour Championship, which is currently a conventional stroke play event, albeit with a small, but very elite, field of golfers. Prior to the start of the tournament, a points reset was conducted in such a manner that anyone who is eligible to play in the Tour Championship has a mathematical possibility of winning the FedEx Cup, which is the trophy that the PGA Tour awards to the PGA Tour season champion, and those in the top five in the FedEx Cup standings prior to the Tour Championship are mathematically guaranteed to win the FedEx Cup if they win the Tour Championship. Under the current format, it is possible for the winner of the Tour Championship to not win the FedEx Cup. Notably, if all 30 players in this year's Tour Championship finished in the same order that they are after the first round of this year's Tour Championship, Rickie Fowler (23rd in FedEx Cup standings before Tour Championship) and Tiger Woods (20th in FedEx Cup standings before Tour Championship) would compete in a playoff to decide the Tour Championship, but neither would win the FedEx Cup, because Justin Rose, who was second in the FedEx Cup standings before the start of the Tour Championship, is in a two-way tie for third place in the Tour Championship after one round, and Rose would earn enough points to win the FedEx Cup.
I actually like the current format of the Tour Championship, since it preserves the integrity of the FedEx Cup as a season-long championship while providing a perfect balance: under the current system, everyone who is eligible to play in the Tour Championship has a mathematical opportunity at winning the FedEx Cup, and no player can clinch the FedEx Cup in any tournament preceding the Tour Championship. However, as a lot of people seem to have nowadays, the PGA Tour, which, to their credit, did a very good job with the major changes to the Tour schedule for the upcoming 2018-2019 season, has seemingly adopted a mentality of "if it ain't broke, break it", as next year's Tour Championship will have a significantly different format.
Under the format that will be used for the Tour Championship starting in 2019, the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings immediately prior to the Tour Championship will be invited to play in the Tour Championship, but that's where the similarities end. First, the points reset will be conducted differently, with all 30 players having the same number of points at the start of the Tour Championship. Second, the Tour Championship will no longer be a conventional stroke play event, although the Tour Championship will use a variant of stroke play that the PGA Tour officially calls "FedEx Cup starting strokes", which I will refer to as reverse handicap stroke play. Unlike a conventional handicap system, in which a handicap index based on a player's golfing ability is used to determine a net score for a single round of golf, the reverse handicap system that will be used for the Tour Championship does not use handicaps for each round, but instead gives players different scores relative to par to start the tournament based on their Tour Championship seed, which is their ranking in the FedEx Cup standings prior to the points reset before the Tour Championship, and the player with the lowest score under the reverse handicap system wins both the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup. The #1 seed in the next year's Tour Championship will start the tournament at ten strokes under par, with a two-stroke lead over the #2 seed and a ten-stroke lead over the #30 seed.
There is a very big reason why the new Tour Championship format is a terrible idea. The new Tour Championship format makes the rest of the season almost effectively a series of qualifying events for the Tour Championship, since it's certainly possible for a golfer to make up a ten-shot deficit in four rounds on an 18-hole golf course. This will, in turn, potentially result in lower TV ratings for a lot of the regular PGA Tour events, as one could watch all four of the men's golf majors, The Players Championship, the World Golf Championships tournaments, and the Tour Championship, and not miss much of what is going on in the world of men's golf. Also, making the winner of the Tour Championship automatically the winner of the FedEx Cup will all but completely devalue the FedEx Cup as a season-long championship and make the FedEx Cup being slightly more valuable as a season-long championship than winning a single tournament during the season, although the reverse handicap system that the Tour Championship will use starting next year will insulate the FedEx Cup a bit from becoming just a winner's trophy for winning the Tour Championship.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The author of this blog post is NOT being paid by FedEx or any other corporate sponsor of the PGA Tour to write this blog post.
Comments
Post a Comment