Two weeks in the past, Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 participant on the 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 at least one event,” Scheffler mentioned in Memphis, Tenn. “Hypothetically, we get to East Lake and my neck flares up and it doesn’t heal the way in which it did at The Gamers, I end thirtieth within the FedEx Cup as a result of I needed to withdraw from the final event? Is that basically the season-long race? No. It’s what it’s.”
In Scheffler’s thoughts, the FedEx Cup playoffs as an alternative determine “the man that performs the perfect in these playoff occasions,” not the perfect participant all through the season. Take Keegan Bradley, the fiftieth and last 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 event at 6-under-par, simply 4 photographs behind Scheffler. Bradley has a strong probability to win the $25 million bonus on the finish of this week in Atlanta.
“I might use Keegan Bradley as a terrific instance of what the playoffs are,” Scheffler mentioned Tuesday. “You possibly can have anyone who has had not their finest 12 months, after which rapidly he turns it into what could possibly be his finest 12 months or one in every of his finest years on tour.”
At its core, what Scheffler is describing just isn’t a season-long competitors. All affordable 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 strictly why the format was modified to the “beginning strokes” mannequin in 2019. Within the tour’s eyes, by giving strokes to every participant based mostly on their place within the standings initially 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 event and a single champion: The participant who wins the Tour Championship additionally wins the FedEx Cup. It’s flashy. It’s (considerably) simple 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 event that’s merely only a golf event — however with $25 million on the road.
In its earlier format, the Tour Championship successfully had two champions: the participant who carried out the perfect at East Lake, and the one who completed the factors record on high. 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, and so they flip into strokes: Scheffler is beginning the week at 10 underneath, Xander Schauffele at 8 underneath, Hideki Matsuyama at 7 underneath, Bradley at 6 underneath and Ludvig Åberg at 5 underneath. Then Nos. 6-10 start at 4 underneath. Nos. 11-15 are at 3 underneath; Nos. 16-20 at 2 underneath; No. 21-25 at 1 underneath and No. 26-30 at even par.
The FedEx sponsorship permeates the PGA Tour’s playoffs system. (Andy Lyons / Getty Photos)
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’d like 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 mentioned. “Personally, I assumed the previous format, I didn’t have a ton of points with. Personally, after I watched it I discovered it type of fascinating 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 detrimental.”
“When it comes to the season-long race, I believe, yeah, I might have deserved to win the season-long race with profitable the quantity of instances I did and profitable a playoff occasion, however on the finish of the day then we get right here and it will be like, properly, the factor we labored all 12 months to have a terrific end on TV for is now over.”
Therein lies the issue: the significance of “the product.”
Scheffler gave an extended, trustworthy rant concerning 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 practically 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 determine the issue with the FedEx Cup playoffs. He identified precisely what’s stalling the PGA Tour as a company typically.
Scheffler’s recognition of why the Tour Championship doesn’t make sense — and his acceptance of that motive — is telling contemplating the state of the skilled sport. Within the face of the LIV risk, 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 maintain the tour operating, and so they all the time win.
“Actually, it comes all the way down to the blokes placing up the cash for us to play with,” Scheffler mentioned. “On the finish of the day, we’ve got sponsors for our tournaments, and so they’re going to need it a sure manner, and if FedEx placing up the type of cash they’re placing up at this occasion, we’re going to need to play it the way in which they wish 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 keen on sharing his opinion on this topic, a minimum of within the public eye.
“All I can do is present up and compete and provides my enter the place it’s crucial,” Scheffler mentioned. “Typically sitting up right here giving my enter can get blown out of proportion.”
Scheffler is aware of the place he will be helpful, 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 Photos)
