FedEx Cup Recommendations

Creating a season-ending playoff system for professional golf is a tremendous challenge. While PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem has been taking a lot of flak lately, he should be commended for attempting such an ambitious venture. While the FedEx Cup has some serious problems, several of the lessons learned can be used to make it better. What's important is that the PGA has taken its first step towards a playoff system.

But if Mr. Finchem asked me for some grouchy advice, I'd be happy to dispense them! Basically, I think that any playoff system for golf needs to conclude with a match play tournament. That way, players are forced to compete in every round/event to win all the marbles. I think that a point system should be retained, but only during the regular season. Points would accumulate for each player during the season, and would determine the qualification and seeding for a post-season match play event. This event would include the top 12 players placed into a 16-slot, 4-round bracket system. The top 4 players would receive automatic byes into the 2nd-round.

However, I've never liked typical match play tournaments where a player must beat an opponent over a single 18-hole match to advance to the next round. It allows too many upsets from inferior players riding a flash-in-the-pan hot streak. Instead, I'd like to see each round played in a best of three match format. In other words, each player must win two out of three matches to advance to the next round. One match would be played per day, so each round would be played over the course of three days, if necessary. This format would be dramatically less draining on players who would otherwise play a full 72 holes in a stroke play event. I envision one round per week and since there are only 4 rounds, it would cover the same amount of time as the current FedEx Cup format.

Imagine the excitement of watching such an event. The winner would be the indisputable golf champion and truly worthy of the FedEx Cup! What do you think?

FedEx Cup Lessons Learned

Now that the inaugural run of the the PGA Tour's playoff series, currently known as the FedEx Cup, has come to a close, here are some of the things that I've learned:

• Tiger really is "The Man" - It seems like after every time Tiger tees off, some yahoo in the gallery yells out, "You the man!" It turns out that this yahoo was right all along. The FedEx Cup showcased the best player in the universe playing some of the best golf of his career. When Tiger hits fairways, he is virtually unbeatable. The FedEx Cup reaffirmed this emphatically.


• Tiger Woods' swing has changed for the better - During NBC's coverage, Dan Hicks commented that Butch Harmon believed that Tiger was swinging the club better than his phenomenal ballstriking year in 2000. That's not surprising because it appears that Tiger has returned to some of those Butch Harmon swing elements circa 2000. I'm no swing expert, but my eyes have noticed some changes in Tiger's swing over the last several months. He appears to be standing taller and reverting back to Harmon's bread-and-butter two-plane swing. Tiger originally hired Hank Haney to teach him the one-plane swing with the ultimate goal of relieving career-jeopardizing stress on his left knee and to solve his frequent swing flaw of getting "stuck." While the one-plane may extend the life of his rickety left knee, it does little to prevent him from getting "stuck." I think that Tiger has finally come to this realization and he will commit to the two-plane while incorporating certain teachings from Haney. I think that we are all naturally either one or two-plane swingers and that Tiger is a natural two-planer. No offense to Mr. Haney, but Tiger swings the club best on two-planes.


• Phil Mickelson is less of a choker, but he's still the joker - Phil has all the skill and talent to go toe-to-toe with Tiger. However, his mental approach will prevent him from beating Tiger on a consistent basis. Sure, Phil beat Tiger at the Deutsche Bank Championship, proving that he's no longer sitting near the top of ESPN's "Worst Choke Artists" list. However, his constant go-for-broke mentality almost cost him again. He's clearly too stubborn, too arrogant or both to ever relinquish this long-standing behavior. I guess it doesn't bother him because he's always smiling about it.


• The FedEx Cup format is far from perfect - I have a graduate degree in finance from a reputable institution, but even that high-priced education was insufficient for me to understand the FedEx Cup's point system. I can only imagine how the everyday golf fan felt about it. The architects of the FedEx Cup need to revisit the drawing board and devise a better system. Not only was it too complex, it allowed the top golfers to ditch some events altogether without causing much of a penalty. Not only did Tiger not participate in the first FedEx Cup event, The Barclays, but in retrospect he could have skipped the last event, The Tour Championship, and still have hoisted the FedEx Cup. That's a pretty ridiculous scenario for a so-called playoff system.


• Money talks - Usually this time of the year, the world's best golfers have packed it in for the season to watch football. The FedEx Cup's huge purse enticed them back onto the course for some serious competition. Heck, it wasn't until the FedEx Cup's second event that we got to see some head to head competition between Tiger and Phil this year. With all of it's flaws, the FedEx Cup succeeded in this regard.


• The FedEx Cup sure is pretty - One thing that adds legitimacy to the FedEx Cup is its beautiful trophy. Designed and created by Tiffany & Co., it is made of sterling silver and took approximately six months to create. At 15 inches in diameter, it is perfectly sized and shaped to hold all that prize money!

Did you learn anything interesting from the FedEx Cup? Please let me know! Stay tuned as I reveal my recommendations for next year's FedEx Cup in the near future. That means you Mr. Finchem!