Okay, I haven’t paid that much attention to the FedEx Cup from the start so I’m a little behind, but I can’t be the only one!
I remember hearing or reading that when the FedEx Cup Playoffs began the points would reset. Silly me, I thought that meant to ZERO. Isn’t that a reset? I also remember that there are eliminations in each playoff tournament and only the top however many will advance to the next round. So, when I found out Tiger was skipping the first event, I thought he was essentially shrugging off forfeiting his chance at the FedEx Cup since he wouldn’t earn any points and would be eliminated. It turns out that after the completion of the first event, Tiger is fourth in the standings. How the fedex did that happen?
I just had to look it up, didn’t I?
Until now, I hadn’t taken any time to look any of this up but I always read a lot of golf news and opinions and what I’ve seen on the points system is so bogged down and confusing I tend to just skim over it. I just took a look at the “About the FedEx Cup” page on PGATOUR.com and literally shook my head and made that bleuhhbuhluhbuhluh noise. Of course, the reset wasn’t to zero, but players were seeded based on their performance during the “regular season” and reset with a different point total than what they had. Of course. Why play all season just make it to the playoffs? There has to be seeding. Without it, the top players would have to play in all the playoff events to avoid elimination and I’m sure they didn’t want that.
*Side thought* I wonder – if my Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim win enough games in September, can they skip the Division Series and go straight to the League Championship Series? Ah, the leisure of being a baseball fan: the most difficult thing to figure out is the magic number and home-field advantage. *End side thought*
Still, they got me – I couldn’t resist clicking on the “Fan Guide” link to find out if there was a simple way for me to understand it all. There isn’t.
Watch and learn?
I spent most of my golf watching time this weekend on the Safeway Classic and the US Amateur, but I managed to TiVo my way through some of the Barclays on Sunday to try to get an idea about how the whole
FedEx Cup playoff thing was working. They had a lot of graphics with projections like “if he makes this par putt, he’ll be at 102nd in the rankings… if he misses it but makes the bogey putt, he’ll be at 116th”… and on and on. Maybe that kind of stuff will get more exciting the further into the playoffs we get, but for now? Yawn. Double yawn for having to rely on behind-the-scenes statisticians figure it out and the production team to air it.
As the field narrows and if the points gap gets wider, it might be easier to predict parts of it ourselves. Something like “For Vijay to have a fedexing chance at winning the cup, he must win at the BMW and the top three guys need to finish at 5th or lower.” It’s easy to get excited about playoffs when they’re easily understood: if team A wins a game here and team B wins a game there, they will face each other in the championship; if Team C gets a touchdown and a safety and Team D scores two field goals, I win the pool. Hey, maybe we need a FedEx Cup pool!
Predictions aside, there’s also the trouble of possibly having two winners at the final – the winner of the tournament (hooray!) and the winner of the Cup, who finishes 10th in the event but has more points than anyone else (polite golf clap).
I want to get excited about the FedEx Cup. I really do! But even the prize is confusing. I’m not a financial analyst and if I won $10 million in the lottery, I would need someone else to manage it for me. I’m one of the dumb-dumbs in the “if I made less money I’d take home more” tax bracket. I don’t understand tax shelters for multi-millionaires or how the FedEx Cup $10M annuity could entice Tiger Woods when he can make that in cash for an appearance fee. Frankly, I really don’t think I want it explained to me, either. Though I usually enjoy rooting for Tiger – or at least don’t mind when he wins -I think I’d rather just root for some obscure player to win the Cup, which might just be possible the way this thing works. Plus, that coincides nicely with the one thing that truly is exciting about this system, at least for those obscure players: Finish in that top 30 in FedEx Cup points and earn exemption for the next season. That’s gotta be less stressful than Q-School!
“The PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedEx Cup will change the way you watch golf and produce a true PGA Tour champion.” That’s their tag line. Will I glaze over and start to drool as I watch golf? Will the true PGA Tour champion be the best golfer on Tour?
The most exciting thing about the FedEx Cup playoffs for me right now is whether or not the FedEx Cup playoffs will get exciting. If not, at least I’ll have a new swear word. Stop. I. Can’t. Stand. The. Giddiness.
August 28, 2007 at 3:46 pm
I understand the whole fedexing thing a bit better now. I think.
Like the Graphic too. Polite golf clap for that.
August 28, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Thanks – I was giggling as I created it and it still makes me laugh when I look at it. I’m sure it’ll piss off someone but oh well!
“When you absolutely, positively have to give some players a salary in disguise.”
August 29, 2007 at 1:51 am
Got your thinking cap on ? How’s THIS for another foozler ?
IF Tiger does not win the Tour Championship AND doesn’t win the Fed Ex Cup title – there is a possibility of THREE player of the year type of awards.
Tiger had the traditional POTY award sewn up by the end of the British.
Back to the Fed Ex – the point (no pun intended) of the whole thing is to have an award big enough to attract Tiger (since he skipped the Tour Championship last year and Mickel-nuts skipped the last 2 years), and have the points set up so he would be pretty much assured of winning…BUT…they didn’t count on him skipping the first event.
The rest of the field isn’t so far back that they can’t possibly win…well…sort of. Simulations (minus the one where Tiger skips an event) showed that the winner would have to start in the top 15 to have a reasonable chance to win – making the other 129 in the playoffs pretty much SOL.
Oh – if the obscure player makes it all the way to Atlanta, or even Chicago, they will most likely be safely inside the top 125 on the money list and have their card for the next year. But don’t hold your breath on that. Rich Beem was the only one at the Barclays who had a chance to move up a significant number of points from a very bad position 134th to 113th) – but he threw away a lot of points on Sunday. (Doug LaBelle moved from 121 to 120)
The Tour will be doing some tweaking after this first run.
Clear as mud – isn’t it ?
August 29, 2007 at 1:30 pm
I really don’t think I want it explained to me, either.
lol
I posted a snippet on The Golf Space from a Wall Street Journal article about how the PGA calculated the standings. They used software algorithms borrowed from the securities industry and ran, according to the article, millions of simulations to figure out how to set the standings. Maybe they could release a consumer version of their software to let viewers play along? lol
August 29, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Kind of sounds like the NASCAR points system! Try understanding that! I guess you can’t blame guys with more points than they need for not wanting to show up to ALL of the events. And I do agree that it would be fun for someone totally obscure to come from behind when no one is looking and take it all! Yea for the normal folks like us!
Sarah
golf school