The PGA Tour Post Season~ My Two Cents:

If you want to call it the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the PGA Tour Post Season or the Playoffs, the Tour Championship or just four really great tournaments with the best field golf has to offer each week getting better and better. I guess when you put up a $10,000,000 bonus to the guy who wins the most points over the season, with a huge portion being passed out during said playoffs, the tour players come out. It seems like every big player is in attendance at all four tournaments, and that alone is a great way to finish the golf season.

The PGA Playoffs works like this: The Top 125 players on the FedEx Cup year long points list (points are accumulated each week at PGA Tour events, Major Championships and WGC Events) make it to the first stage of the PGA Tour Playoffs, The Barclays this year played at Beth Page Black. After the tournament at the Barclays the players are then cut down to the top 100 on the points list. The top 100 goes on to the Deutsche Bank Championship at the TPC of Boston. On to the next week we are cut down to the top 70 players at the BMW Championship at Crooked Stick in Indiana, and finally the Tour Championship at East Lake near Atlanta and the top 30 players. The top 30 players in the world are going to play that event, and its kinda funny no one cares (relatively speaking) about the $1,000,000 plus for the winner of the Tour Championship but the $10 million dollar bonus for the FedEx Cup Champion.

It is not a definite, but more often than not a player who is in the Top 30 can win the Tour Championship and win the FedEx Cup. For example last year Bill Haas won both and got himself a $11+ million dollar pay day. But there are scenarios where someone has to finish worse than T3 for so and so to win. I like the way the points have changed this year. They are heavier in the four playoff events, as they should be, but it is still representative of a players play all year long. You have to play good all year long to be at the top of the points list, and then be able to have four good tournaments in the post season and win the FedEx Cup. However that is really tough, and hasn’t happened since the beginning with Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh (where they have won the points list prior to the Tour Championship no matter how anyone else does).

I really think that the Playoffs for the PGA Tour is a great way to get people excited about golf at different times other than the majors. I know a lot of non golfers who watch the US Open or the British, everyone watches the Masters, the PGA Championship gets a boost in ratings as well. This is four weeks of great golf on TV, the prize money ensures all the big players are there, and it creates a lot of TV drama. I mean who could have asked for a better FedEx Cup ending last year when you have two players in a play off either one will take home the cup if they win the playoff, and Bill Haas gets it up and down out of the water. You can’t write television that good. Not to mention that is a one hole skin for $11,000,000 million plus, not bad for a few golf shots.

The FedEx Cup is really hitting its stride this year and this Chicago Golf Guy could not think of a better way to finish the golf season. If the playoffs are anything like last year (see video below) then we are in for a huge treat golf fans.