Two weeks in the past, Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 participant on this planet and the present chief of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs, referred to as the premise of your entire competitors “foolish.”
“You possibly can’t name it a season-long race and have it come down to 1 match,” Scheffler stated in Memphis, Tenn. “Hypothetically, we get to East Lake and my neck flares up and it doesn’t heal the best way it did at The Gamers, I end thirtieth within the FedEx Cup as a result of I needed to withdraw from the final match? Is that actually the season-long race? No. It’s what it’s.”
In Scheffler’s thoughts, the FedEx Cup playoffs as a substitute establish “the man that performs one of the best in these playoff occasions,” not one of the best participant all through the season. Take Keegan Bradley, the fiftieth and ultimate participant to make the BMW Championship, who then gained in Denver on Sunday to shoot as much as No. 4 within the standings. He’ll begin this week’s match at 6-under-par, simply 4 photographs behind Scheffler. Bradley has a stable probability to win the $25 million bonus on the finish of this week in Atlanta.
“I might use Keegan Bradley as an excellent instance of what the playoffs are,” Scheffler stated Tuesday. “You possibly can have someone who has had not their finest 12 months, after which rapidly he turns it into what may very well be his finest 12 months or considered one of his finest years on tour.”
At its core, what Scheffler is describing will not be a season-long competitors. All cheap factors, proper? Why are we calling this a season-long race if that’s simply not what it’s?
It’s extra sophisticated than that. The bone that Scheffler is choosing with the Tour Championship is precisely why the format was modified to the “beginning strokes” mannequin in 2019. Within the tour’s eyes, by giving strokes to every participant primarily based on their place within the standings at first of the Tour Championship, the FedEx Cup is balancing the duties of being a season-long race and one which ends with one winner.
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The PGA Tour needed the FedEx Cup to culminate with a single match and a single champion: The participant who wins the Tour Championship additionally wins the FedEx Cup. It’s flashy. It’s (considerably) straightforward to comply with. The published gained’t want fixed cuts to a dizzying graphic of the factors system altering in actual time. We are able to simply watch a golf match that’s merely only a golf match — however with $25 million on the road.
In its earlier format, the Tour Championship successfully had two champions: the participant who carried out one of the best at East Lake, and the one who completed the factors record on prime. Most famously, this led to the scene in 2018 the place followers swarmed Tiger Woods within the 18th fairway after he gained the previous, however Justin Rose gained the latter.
Now, factors freeze earlier than the Tour Championship, they usually flip into strokes: Scheffler is beginning the week at 10 below, Xander Schauffele at 8 below, Hideki Matsuyama at 7 below, Bradley at 6 below and Ludvig Åberg at 5 below. Then Nos. 6-10 start at 4 below. Nos. 11-15 are at 3 below; Nos. 16-20 at 2 below; No. 21-25 at 1 below and No. 26-30 at even par.
The FedEx sponsorship permeates the PGA Tour’s playoffs system. (Andy Lyons / Getty Pictures)
It’s nonetheless complicated. And Scheffler nonetheless isn’t into the entire thing. What does the FedEx Cup imply if it isn’t an correct illustration of what the PGA Tour calls it: a season-long race?
“I believe we want a season-long race. I believe the FedExCup has been actually good for our tour and for the sport. I believe it’s one thing thrilling to complete off the 12 months,” Scheffler stated. “Personally, I assumed the previous format, I didn’t have a ton of points with. Personally, once I watched it I discovered it form of attention-grabbing who was going to finish up the place, and I didn’t essentially thoughts that the winner of the Tour Championship wasn’t the winner of the FedExCup. It supplies rather less volatility, which is the unfavorable.”
“By way of the season-long race, I believe, yeah, I might have deserved to win the season-long race with successful the quantity of instances I did and successful a playoff occasion, however on the finish of the day then we get right here and it might be like, effectively, the factor we labored all 12 months to have an excellent end on TV for is now over.”
Therein lies the issue: the significance of “the product.”
Scheffler gave an extended, trustworthy rant in regards to the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup format Tuesday. A few of his solutions had been so lengthy that Schauffele, subsequent on the media schedule, needed to wait his flip within the nook of the media tent for almost 10 minutes, listening to Scheffler give his take. You possibly can inform Scheffler has thought of this topic extensively. In doing so, the world No. 1 didn’t simply establish the issue with the FedEx Cup playoffs. He identified precisely what’s stalling the PGA Tour as a corporation generally.
Scheffler’s recognition of why the Tour Championship doesn’t make sense — and his acceptance of that purpose — is telling contemplating the state of the skilled recreation. Within the face of the LIV menace, the PGA Tour has been plagued with conflicting priorities tearing it in several instructions. What do the gamers need? What do the followers need? What do the TV networks need? It doesn’t matter. None of it may well occur with out the sponsors — they hold the tour working, they usually all the time win.
“Actually, it comes right down to the fellows placing up the cash for us to play with,” Scheffler stated. “On the finish of the day, we now have sponsors for our tournaments, they usually’re going to need it a sure manner, and if FedEx placing up the form of cash they’re placing up at this occasion, we’re going to must play it the best way they need to play it. It’s simply so simple as that.”
So regardless of sharing his opinion in latest weeks, Scheffler concluded his information convention by saying that going ahead, he isn’t fascinated about sharing his opinion on this topic, no less than within the public eye.
“All I can do is present up and compete and provides my enter the place it’s vital,” Scheffler stated. “Generally sitting up right here giving my enter can get blown out of proportion.”
Scheffler is aware of the place he could be beneficial, and he is aware of the place he can’t. That’s simply the place we’re proper now with the PGA Tour. And that claims one thing.
(Prime photograph: Christian Petersen / Getty Pictures)