The Golf Watch

"That’s like grouping the Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and the Meineke Muffler Bowl"

I loved this FedEx Cup knock out of Jeff Babineau's end of year notes:

OK, so I snoozed through most of the FedEx Cup post-season renovations and nip-tucks, and it wasn’t until the other day I noticed the winner at The Players will be awarded the exact same number of FedEx points as the winners of the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship. The Players is a nice tourney, but puh-lease. I realize the Tour has an inferiority complex and is driven to elevate its own little backyard gem, but that’s like grouping the Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and the Meineke Muffler Bowl.

Kornheiser: The last two years of this have been so bad that this has to be better

On last Wednesday's edition of Pardon the Interruption, hosts Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon discussed the latest tweaks to the FedEx Cup format. I found Kornheiser's comments to be the most revealing:

There are two major championships that are totally flawed—The Chase (Nascar) is totally flawed and the FedEx Cup is totally flawed.  Two years ago, Tiger Woods skipped the tournament and won this thing.  This past year, Vijay Singh had to just walk around 18 in order to win the thing.  You cannot have your last event be meaningless. 

So whatever you have to do, even if its lie cheat or steal, to give people a chance to win, then you have to try and do that, in that sense I’m in favor of this...The last two years of this have been so bad that this has to be better.

As a footnote, I've always appreciated Kornheiser and Wilbon's golf analysis.  Both play and follow the game pretty closely, but are far removed from the inner circle of golf writers.  I guess that might be why their remarks are genuine.  They're not reading Jeff Rude and Ryan Herrington articles each week, rather, they represent the average golf fan.

Tour announces FedEx Cup plans for '09

I'll definitely provide more thought and insight on this topic over the next few days, but for the time being, Doug Ferguson of the AP breaks down the latest development in determining a winner of the FedEx Cup:

Under the new formula, points that previously had been reset at the start of the four-tournament playoffs will not be changed until the Tour Championship, meaning all 30 players who qualify for the finale will have a mathematical chance to win.

Finchem said the top five in the standings at East Lake would win the FedEx Cup with a victory, while the next five in the standings also would have a reasonable chance by winning.

It's a shame that match play couldn't have been incorporated into the plan, but hey...there's always next year.

Ratings at Tour Championship sing the same tune

After a glimmer of hope at the Ryder Cup, ratings tanked yet again last week, with a highly entertaining Tour Championship, and a disappointing end to the FedEx Cup. Thomas Bonk files in his weekly report:

With no drama (Vijay Singh had already clinched it) and no Tiger (he's sidelined), the Tour Championship got no ratings. Well, that's not accurate, so let's just say that given the factors going against it, the Tour Championship got thrown for a loss.

Saturday's third round on NBC had an overnight Nielsen rating of 1.3, down 46.4% from last year's 2.8 (that turned out to be a 2.6 in the final rating).

Sunday's fourth round had an overnight rating of 1.8, down 54.5% from last year's 3.3 (a 3.0 final rating).

Vijay awarded FedEx Cup while leaders are on 15, 16

I find it quite telling that the FedEx Cup was awarded to Vijay Singh while the leaders were still out on the course.  The presentation was pretty brief and low key, with NBC's Jimmy Roberts conducting a two minute interview with Singh. 

What I found so amazing about the whole "ceremony" was that Don Colleran, Executive Vice President of FedEx, didn't say one word.  In fact, for the second time, he didn't even have the pleasure of handing over the trophy...Tim Finchem had that honor (shouldn't Finchem be giving out the Tour Championship prize, not the FedEx Cup?)

Also, while Vijay was being interviewed by Roberts, NBC cut to Phil Mickelson's drive on 16. Ouch.

"If we really had a tournament with the top 30 players, I’m not here"

I have been saving this Bubba Watson quote from the Atlanta Journal Constitution for the right moment, and this seems to be as good a time as ever.  My theory is that if you have a player like Bubba who is inside the top-30 calling the points system flawed, then the PGA Tour has some major fixing to do over the offseason.  Here's the quote, courtesy of of Jeff Schultz from the AJC:

I’m here and it’s not right. If we really had a tournament with the top 30 players, I’m not here. I’ve never won a tournament in my life. I’m 97th in the world. I’ll take the checks and if they say, ‘You can go to the Masters,’ I’ll go. But nobody in the world would say I’m top 30.

Tour championship great! FedEx Cup not so...

Wow, so although the FedEx Cup race was dull as can be for the second straight year, the actual Tour Championship was thrilling.  Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim, and Camilo Villegas battled until the last putt fell, with Villegas winning on the first playoff hole over Garcia.  As Bob Harig put it:

For a tournament that was panned for its lack of excitement, the Tour Championship sure delivered some high drama in the last meaningful PGA Tour event of the year.

A full recap of the event can be found here.

Tour Championship shaping up to be interesting

Who would have thought five days ago that Sunday at the Tour Championship would be even mildly entertaining?  I certainly didn't.

But with Sergio Garcia in the lead, and the likes of Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson within striking distance, this should be a fun final day.

In any case, let's hope David Whitfield, the man who got hit in the head by Anthony Kim's drive on nine, is okay.  All signs point to a speedy recovery.

"It’s as if the pro golf scene here is dropping into a black hole"

With the LPGA no longer in town, and the AT&T Classic at Sugarloaf gone, Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal Constitution argues that there isn't much in the way of golf in Atlanta...

The Tour Championship? It looked great on paper. Tiger Woods was on that paper. Playoff drama was on that paper. Somebody lost that paper...

“Tour Championship” should be two powerful words. But only two other words could’ve pushed Thursday’s opening onto the radar locally: Free gas.

Instead, we were left with relatively empty bleachers and connect-the-dot galleries for a season-ending tournament that pays $1.26 million to the winner. It was all a bit deflating.

Football > FedEx Cup

In a much more decisive victory, this year's college football and NFL ratings crushed the FedEx Cup.  Last year, the difference was marginal.  This year, as Thomas Bonk reports...

The third round Saturday of the BMW Championship had a 1.1 overnight rating on NBC, down from a 2.6 in 2007; and Sunday's fourth round had a 1.2 overnight rating, down from a 3.2 in 2007.