Official The Tour Championship, East Lake GC Atlanta, GA

[cxx]

I think that people do understand how the playoffs work, some are just upset because their favorite didn't win it.

[Tim Delgado]

[quote name='cxx' timestamp='1348458470' post='5683763']
I think that people do understand how the playoffs work, some are just upset because their favorite didn't win it.
[/quote]


Not me. I don't have a "favorite" player, but I enjoy watching the golf.

I just think if a guy wins TWO of the four "playoff" events, it should be automatic that he wins the playoffs.

Just the fact that Rory could have finished second, and STILL lost this absurd title to Sneds should say it all.

I thought this thing was billed as a "season long chase", not just who gets hot and wins the last, smallest-field event.

SUPER lame IMO. Lucky break for Sneds though.

Tim

[Rustynuts]

Is it possible for Rory to have won the first three play off events, then come second in the Tour Championship and still have Sned won with his results?

[Pudgelewis]

I kind of agree that the setup is off, but I'm REALLY glad Snedeker won. Always did like the guy.

[imakaveli]

[quote name='Vindog' timestamp='1348448267' post='5683147']
[quote name='imakaveli' timestamp='1348447575' post='5683083']Yes, the result is a post season event completely disconnected with the overall performance of the season but the supposed meaning of the GedEx Cup is to crown the best player of the year, that's why is (is?) a race through all the year
[/quote]

The meaning is to crown the champion via the Tour Championship (final), which you qualify for via the playoffs, which you qualify for via the regular season.

It's not that hard.
[/quote]

Yes, crown the champion of the year, not the champion of the Tour Championship, actually for them is pretty hard

[hackamore]

[quote]Is it possible for Rory to have won the first three play off events, then come second in the Tour Championship and still have Sned won with his results? [/quote]

Yes, Snedeker still would have won in that scenario.

[Pat_Irish]

Guys ...regardless of who wins, the system is crazy,,,Its possible to play in less in 4 events and still win as long as its one of the first 3 you drop, Maybe a better system would be a point for every $ you win and at the end its all added up and the guy with the most takes all, otherwise lets just have one event for $10m and everybody has a chance, at the end of the day, its about giving the top 30 money winners a chance to get even more,,,without anyone spoiling the party

[Bingo1976]

[quote name='Vindog' timestamp='1348442457' post='5682749']
[quote name='Bingo1976' timestamp='1348442201' post='5682731']
Surely, if someone is going to 'earn' 10 mio bucks for golfing, it should be based on his performance over the year. I don't understand why the US seems obsessed with post season stuff to find 'the best'.[b] How is getting 2500 points for beating 30 players worth the same as the previous weeks when you beat 125, 70 players etc.[/b]
[/quote]


This is a good point. Reduced field events are less difficult, I agree. Personally I think they should be full field events but only award the points to the players who "advance"

Not going to touch the first statement.
[/quote]

Glad you agree, but what is wrong with the first statement - it only seems to be american sports that have this concept of a post season. It makes sense in your version of football when a 31 game season would end up with 5-a-side due to injuries, but to play about 100 baseball matches in one season, and then have a set of playoffs to find the best doesn't make sense, and doesn't seem to happen much outside of the US.

Not trying to 'hate' but surely someone's performance over 12 months in all seasons, on all types of courses is a better judge than performance aginst limited fields.Th

Think I'll stick with proper events like the Majors and Ryder Cup for my excitement

[nichho]

The problem with the Fed Ex Cup isn't the format it is the fact that it is aligned to golf and sometimes the end of a four day tournament can be exciting instead of just interesting and sometimes it is barely interesting; Sunday wasn't even interesting I'm afraid, I actually fell asleep and only woke up as Fincham was proclaiming Sneds to be the king of golf.
I'm happy for Snedeker, a very good golfer,he seems genuine and plays golf quickly which is always refreshing. I was also happy for Bill Hass and Jim Furyk, adding $10 million to an already bulging bank account was very nice for them. Unfortunately it barely registered on my tickleometer.
You can shorten the field to 10, offer a $100 million first prize but if nobody is scrapping for it down the wire then it's a end of season invitational snooze-fest.
A couple of seasons ago J Byrd hit a hole in one during a play off in the dark to win a fall season event. I'm struggling here but I think it was Paul Goydos who chipped in a couple of times on his way to a win. The point is, the money was insignificant compared to the Tour Championship as was the field but the golf was better, more exciting and Tim Fincham can't buy that, he can't buy excitement.
Even majors suffer from this, Louis Oosthuizen's Open Championship win..snooze-fest. The only event which pretty much guarantees excitement is the Ryder Cup; is that because it is a team event? Is it because nobody can predict the outcome? Don't know but I know that it has got my juices flowing and that's before a ball has been hit!

[Vindog]

[quote name='Bingo1976' timestamp='1348557568' post='5690689']
[quote name='Vindog' timestamp='1348442457' post='5682749']
[quote name='Bingo1976' timestamp='1348442201' post='5682731']
Surely, if someone is going to 'earn' 10 mio bucks for golfing, it should be based on his performance over the year. I don't understand why the US seems obsessed with post season stuff to find 'the best'.[b] How is getting 2500 points for beating 30 players worth the same as the previous weeks when you beat 125, 70 players etc.[/b]
[/quote]


This is a good point. Reduced field events are less difficult, I agree. Personally I think they should be full field events but only award the points to the players who "advance"

Not going to touch the first statement.
[/quote]

Glad you agree, but what is wrong with the first statement - it only seems to be american sports that have this concept of a post season. It makes sense in your version of football when a 31 game season would end up with 5-a-side due to injuries, but to play about 100 baseball matches in one season, and then have a set of playoffs to find the best doesn't make sense, and doesn't seem to happen much outside of the US.

Not trying to 'hate' but surely someone's performance over 12 months in all seasons, on all types of courses is a better judge than performance aginst limited fields.Th

Think I'll stick with proper events like the Majors and Ryder Cup for my excitement
[/quote]

Euro cup, World Cup, UEFA Cup, Olympic team sports all have pool play and bracket finals. I could go on...

Not really saying you were being hateful, just a bit misguided. It's not solely and American thing, the playoffs....although I guess in Europe it's mostly called a "knockout stage"

[Yepyukon]

[quote name='bobfoster' timestamp='1348456292' post='5683637']
As far as I can understand things, apparently someone won today. [b]It involed a bunch of math[/b], and likely, interviews with sponsirs telling all of us how wonderful the sponsors think this tourney went.

I'm really quite excited about this.

This was an incredibly important day I suspect.
[/quote]

It really didn't involve any math. Brendt was one of the 5 guys that if they won, they won it outright. The other 4 guys finished T8, T10, T15 and 28 out of 30 players. I do agree that the reset of points was pretty severe, but they have learned from the past (with both Tiger and Vijay) that if they do not reset, they can have the entire thing wrapped up and not even show up to the tournament.

As far as golfers making too much money, well, that pretty much goes for any celebrity. Baseball players making 100 million over 6 years and movie stars getting 10mil per movie.

[Bingo1976]

But those are all one off events, and usually structured that way due to timing issues. I was referring to more league based competitions - ie the regular season of soccer doesn't end with the top 8 going in to playoffs. This is more analogous with the US tour regular season.

Either do the FedEx cup properly as a matchplay tournament, winner takes all, or recognise the Tour money winner as champion, and have a spin off fall season with its own prize. It just seems to me that the US tour wasn't broken before the FedEx cup, but now it seems to be getting excessively complex, and I don't see how either of the last 2 winners have been the best other than at having a good week against 29 others on one course - not worth 10 million bucks IMO

[Yepyukon]

Instead of giving points to the winner of a tournament for the Fed Ex Cup, what if they base it off performance? You get 20 points for every birdie, 1/2 point for every % GIR, etc... so that they reward consistent play throughout the year. Your leaders would remain largely unchanged (if you win a tournament, chances are you are getting a lot of birdies and thus a lot of points) but it could be an interesting twist.

Although, I would love to see it changed to Match Play to end the year personally.

[Vindog]

[quote name='Bingo1976' timestamp='1348589550' post='5692645']
But those are all one off events, and usually structured that way due to timing issues. I was referring to more league based competitions - ie the regular season of soccer doesn't end with the top 8 going in to playoffs. This is more analogous with the US tour regular season.

Either do the FedEx cup properly as a matchplay tournament, winner takes all, or recognise the Tour money winner as champion, and have a spin off fall season with its own prize. It just seems to me that the US tour wasn't broken before the FedEx cup, but now it seems to be getting excessively complex, and I don't see how either of the last 2 winners have been the best other than at having a good week against 29 others on one course - not worth 10 million bucks IMO
[/quote]
Call it pool play with knockout rounds or call it divisional play with playoffs it's the same thing as far as team sports are concerned.

The Fed Ex cup is a tournament within season. It's not meant to crown the best of the year...the POY award does that. FedEx put up a bunch of money and says "come and get it, this is the format."

It's not as complicated as people are making it out to be. And hardly is it "breaking" the Tour. Sponsors are renewing and the Tour just signed a huge TV deal this year.