New Tour Championship Format

[Titleist99]

> @Body_Visions said:

> Been thinking about this.....couldn’t the same thing have been accomplished by having two separate leaderboards, instead of all the formulas?

 

The PGA Tour do not want two trophies nor do they want two champions. Last year Tiger Woods victory dwarfed Justin Rose FedEx Championship. No more of that nonsense!

[gioguy21]

> @TrueWRX said:

> My issue with it is it does not reward the best golfer during the season. Playoff tournaments give out way to many points. No way should JT be ranked above Koepka going into the final tournament

> Koepka has earned almost 9.7 mil this year with 3 wins(1 major) and 8 top 10s(2 2nds in majors)

> JT has earned a little over 5 Million and has 6 top 10s and 1 win

>

 

don't forget koepka won the wyndham rewards $2M and AON risk/reward $1M as well.

[DavePelz4]

> @imakaveli said:

> This FedEx Cup thing finds a way to disappoint us every year :D

 

And we should celebrate that because it's not easy to come up with new stupid ideas each year.

[RyRau]

Prior to the tournament starting I thought this format was a joke. Seeing the leaderboard after day 1 I have to say I’m pretty intrigued. Would still love to see match play though.

[denvergolf]

Seems a little crazy that a guy with 1 win is the fedex leader going into the tour championship. 1 win and 6 top tens (I think).

[denvergolf]

> @tiderider said:

> the players wanted the play over the season to count, so that's why they fixed it this way ... probably the best they can make it ...

 

OR...just stop shoving it down our throat when people don't particularly care.

[tekman]

It's a joke of a format. Name another sport where you start out with point in the finale ahead of your competitors. It essentially makes winning the tournament impossible for anyone starting around -3 or worse. So in essence it's just another way to ensure top 5 or above are the only ones with a chance to win. Besides that quadruple points for a playoff win? Are majors worth quadruple points? more than a playoff win? Garbage. I'd rather watch womens golf!

[OldBridge]

As we've said before, the problem with the playoffs is that it's not really a playoff. I think it'd be better if the playoffs started with a smaller field and then got winnowed down each week. Even the TOUR Championship could do that on a day-to-day basis so that on the last day you have 4 or so guys gunning it out for $20 million.

 

The problem for the PGA TOUR is that they want this system but fear having the big names knocked out early so they try to tweak it so those names stay alive as long as possible.

[asloper6001]

I think this format is going to surprise us this year. Golf is such a funny game were the people with the lead advantage are sitting back and the other players are firing away to catch up. It seemed to work well today, we shall see how it plays out though. I'm intrigued and I laughed when I first heard about it too, but I remembered very quickly golfs mental side. Saw some great shots coming from Paul, Rory, Hideki, and Xander. I also think this course is set up perfect for this format. If it was a cookie cutter course this would never work. This course is a true test for sure.

[BiggErn]

> @OldBridge said:

> As we've said before, the problem with the playoffs is that it's not really a playoff. I think it'd be better if the playoffs started with a smaller field and then got winnowed down each week. Even the TOUR Championship could do that on a day-to-day basis so that on the last day you have 4 or so guys gunning it out for $20 million.

>

> The problem for the PGA TOUR is that they want this system but fear having the big names knocked out early so they try to tweak it so those names stay alive as long as possible.

 

It’s not a playoffs it’s playing all year to get into a handicapped tournament

[MountainGoat]

> @asloper6001 said:

> I think this format is going to surprise us this year. Golf is such a funny game were the people with the lead advantage are sitting back and the other players are firing away to catch up. It seemed to work well today, we shall see how it plays out though. I'm intrigued and I laughed when I first heard about it too, but I remembered very quickly golfs mental side. Saw some great shots coming from Paul, Rory, Hideki, and Xander today.

 

I agree. It's working out fine. By Sunday, nobody will remember the staggered start.

[SwooshLT]

> @BiggErn said:

> > @OldBridge said:

> > As we've said before, the problem with the playoffs is that it's not really a playoff. I think it'd be better if the playoffs started with a smaller field and then got winnowed down each week. Even the TOUR Championship could do that on a day-to-day basis so that on the last day you have 4 or so guys gunning it out for $20 million.

> >

> > The problem for the PGA TOUR is that they want this system but fear having the big names knocked out early so they try to tweak it so those names stay alive as long as possible.

>

> It’s not a playoffs it’s playing all year to get into a handicapped tournament

 

So if they allocate points or strokes, what's the difference?

[2putttom]

> @tekman said:

> It's a joke of a format. Name another sport where you start out with point in the finale ahead of your competitors. It essentially makes winning the tournament impossible for anyone starting around -3 or worse. So in essence it's just another way to ensure top 5 or above are the only ones with a chance to win. Besides that quadruple points for a playoff win? Are majors worth quadruple points? more than a playoff win? Garbage. I'd rather watch womens golf!

 

we shall revisit your post on Sunday

[Llortamaisey]

What bothers me is that everyone complains about how low these guys shoot but yet they’re willing to introduce a format where 3 guys are -10 after the first day. That has to be some kind of record, 30 under after the first day in the top 3.

 

They should have started JT at +10 instead and go from there down the list. Make even par the winning score after four rounds.

 

In fact they should do that for every tournament. Start everyone at 10 or 15 over par. Winning scores would be a lot higher without having to lengthen courses, rolling the ball back, or making everyone hit persimmon.

[ebrasmus21]

If I may be so bold as to sound extremely Californian I think the format is hecka stupid.

[Bingo1976]

> @Llortamaisey said:

> What bothers me is that everyone complains about how low these guys shoot but yet they’re willing to introduce a format where 3 guys are -10 after the first day. That has to be some kind of record, 30 under after the first day in the top 3.

>

> They should have started JT at +10 instead and go from there down the list. Make even par the winning score after four rounds.

>

> In fact they should do that for every tournament. Start everyone at 10 or 15 over par. Winning scores would be a lot higher without having to lengthen courses, rolling the ball back, or making everyone hit persimmon.

 

Or just make ever hole a Par 2 - it will have the same effect...

 

[manku]

> @tekman said:

> It's a joke of a format. Name another sport where you start out with point in the finale ahead of your competitors. It essentially makes winning the tournament impossible for anyone starting around -3 or worse. So in essence it's just another way to ensure top 5 or above are the only ones with a chance to win. Besides that quadruple points for a playoff win? Are majors worth quadruple points? more than a playoff win? Garbage. I'd rather watch womens golf!

 

It's only day one, and this post is not aging well.

As I said earlier, and Rory too, let's wait till Sunday night to pass judgement.

 

 

[Golfjack]

> @manku said:

> > @tekman said:

> > It's a joke of a format. Name another sport where you start out with point in the finale ahead of your competitors. It essentially makes winning the tournament impossible for anyone starting around -3 or worse. So in essence it's just another way to ensure top 5 or above are the only ones with a chance to win. Besides that quadruple points for a playoff win? Are majors worth quadruple points? more than a playoff win? Garbage. I'd rather watch womens golf!

>

> It's only day one, and this post is not aging well.

> As I said earlier, and Rory too, let's wait till Sunday night to pass judgement.

>

>

 

LOL yeah. Actually a benefit not many saw was the first day is now actually interesting. Guys have a goal to catch up to. So we have a bunch of underdogs, and JT. Now JT is back in the pack. Looking forward to see what happens.

[James the Hogan Fan]

> @tekman said:

> It's a joke of a format. Name another sport where you start out with point in the finale ahead of your competitors. It essentially makes winning the tournament impossible for anyone starting around -3 or worse. So in essence it's just another way to ensure top 5 or above are the only ones with a chance to win. Besides that quadruple points for a playoff win? Are majors worth quadruple points? more than a playoff win? Garbage. I'd rather watch womens golf!

 

Modern Pentathlon, your scores from swimming, riding, and fencing are computed into a head start in the final footrace.

Biathlon Pursuit events; the interval gaps from a previous race are used to assign head starts.

Nordic Combined is kinda predicated on the concept.

 

Now as far as points on the board in team sports, I can't think of any examples no, but golf is a little different. I think if they renamed the event 'The fedex cup finals' it might go over better.

 

My format idea:

week 1: #50-100 in a wild card round, or a last chance type qualifier. #50-75 stay.

week 2: 72 holes stroke play, top 32 stay. ties settled by playoff to determine 32.

week 3: match play. I know everyone says its horrible for identifying a champion but the NFL playoffs and March Madness are the same thing, as are the Am championships, and they seem to do ok.

[rt_charger]

The idea is just lunacy. To me the FedEx Cup belongs to the best and most consistent player for the season - as it should be.

 

Golf isn't a team sport, and it's not directly based upon what the people you're going up against are doing - unlike other sports, which makes golf unique. Because of this, you can't have the final tournament determine who wins the whole cup. It's not like a grand final of A vs B player in match-play - it's not fair to have winner takes all in this sport.

 

The reason play-offs work in other sports is because the final is the final, with the best of two parties being the overall winner. You can't have play-offs in a sport that is based entirely around individuals competing alongside, not directly against, other players.

[FairwaysToHeaven]

going to be fun watching JT win the finals by 1 shot over xander even as everyone knows xander actually beat JT by 5 shots over the 4 days.

[LICC]

> @rt_charger said:

> The idea is just lunacy. To me the FedEx Cup belongs to the best and most consistent player for the season - as it should be.

>

> Golf isn't a team sport, and it's not directly based upon what the people you're going up against are doing - unlike other sports, which makes golf unique. Because of this, you can't have the final tournament determine who wins the whole cup. It's not like a grand final of A vs B player in match-play - it's not fair to have winner takes all in this sport.

>

> The reason play-offs work in other sports is because the final is the final, with the best of two parties being the overall winner. You can't have play-offs in a sport that is based entirely around individuals competing alongside, not directly against, other players.

 

Why? It is not a Player of the Year Award. It is an award for the person who wins the three-tournament playoff.

 

People complain too much. Having three tournaments connected to each other is a good thing. It gets all the best players to play in August in the same tournaments. How do you tie three tournaments together otherwise if not through a playoff-type system? Working out how to give some favorable position to those who did better in qualifying is very difficult. Match play is a non-starter. It doesn't work for television and sponsors. Then how else do you do it? They had the points system but people complained it was too complex and annoying and didn't like the Tour Championship winner being different than the Fedex Cup winner. So they are trying this now. At first I thought it sounded silly, but let's see how it plays out.

[gvogel]

Wouldn't it be nice if they were playing the US Open this weekend as the culminating event of the season?

[disco111]

THE NEW FORMAT..............

 

[tekman]

> @gvogel said:

> Wouldn't it be nice if they were playing the US Open this weekend as the culminating event of the season?

 

Or the tour championship becomes the 5th major and the field, like the masters, is the top 70.

[mcputter]

> @tekman said:

> > @gvogel said:

> > Wouldn't it be nice if they were playing the US Open this weekend as the culminating event of the season?

>

> Or the tour championship becomes the 5th major and the field, like the masters, is the top 70.

 

Wouldn't it be nice if they were playing the Player's Championship this weekend as the culminating event of the season?

[TreyWingbat]

I like it, as it gives a clearcut winner based on this final event, like the Super Bowl or World Series.

 

In the NBA, NHL, NFL, teams basically play a quarter amount of their regular season games in the playoffs, so 4x the weighting for points is probably where the Tour got the idea from. This is called the Tour Championship... you are the winner of the PGA Tour for the season. They used to reset the points going into this event before, and not much was said. Other sports do things like home court / ice / field advantage, and the NFL even gives out a bye for the first round if you're a top 2 seed.

 

Tom Brady can have 3 mediocre games in October, but if he has 3 great ones in January / February, he's most likely the Super Bowl Champion, similar to the FedEx Cup Playoffs... you have to play your best at the right time.

 

Some have said the Majors should get a lot more points... well, the PGA Tour doesn't run any of the Majors, so they probably didn't want to weigh their non-events too much.

[Titleist99]

> @HoosierMizuno said:

> going to be fun watching JT win the finals by 1 shot over xander even as everyone knows xander actually beat JT by 5 shots over the 4 days.

 

I don't know that! So stop saying everyone knows. The playoffs is setup so all golfer has an opportunity to position themselves for the end of the season period.

If said golfer play poorly they suffer, If they play well they prosper. Everyone has the same opportunity to quadruple their point at the beginning of the playoffs. The system penalizes players that skip or withdraw from a playoff event (Tiger Woods). All players know the rule at the beginning of the season, all players play the same course. If your scenario happens it's because Xander Shaufflele should have played better, period!

[Titleist99]

> @mcputter said:

> > @tekman said:

> > > @gvogel said:

> > > Wouldn't it be nice if they were playing the US Open this weekend as the culminating event of the season?

> >

> > Or the tour championship becomes the 5th major and the field, like the masters, is the top 70.

>

> Wouldn't it be nice if they were playing the Player's Championship this weekend as the culminating event of the season?

 

No, the playoffs for me is much more exciting than the Players tournament....

[TreyWingbat]

Yeah, some have said Tiger should automatically be in because he won last year... no, he did not get enough points. Should the Raptors and Blues automatically be in the Finals next season?