The Golf Watch

"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.

"Transitory movement"

Scribes, take note.  I think we have finally found a phrase that could replace the word 'volatility' when describing the FedEx Cup playoffs.  I can't take credit for it, as Brandel Chamblee referenced it on Sunday night's edition of Golf Central.  What do you think of "transitory movement?"

Villegas finally wins, race for FedEx Cup ends

What was supposed to be a rejuvenated FedEx Cup points system ended up being, what some might call, a failure.  Although Camilo Villegas' wire-to-wire breakthrough win at the BMW Championship should be recognized, it has been overshadowed by the fact that Vijay Singh has all but won the FedEx Cup playoffs.  All Singh has to do is show up at East Lake and he wins the $10 million prize.  I'm sure FedEx is happy with this development. 

The reality of the FedEx Cup

Since it's only the second year of the playoffs, we can give the PGA Tour a break.  But Yahoo's Brian Murphy captures the "lack of interest" factor with this comical bit:

Hey, did you hear the incredible news?

Johnson Wagner’s tie-15th at the Deutsche Bank jumped him 23 spots on the FedEx Cup points list – he made it to 55th and will play this week at the BMW at Bellerive. I’m not kidding!

And – are you sitting down? Ben Crane’s tie-10th vaulted him 35 spots to 57th. He made it to the BMW. Again … I’m not kidding!

Oh, wait.

I’m sorry.

I confused you for somebody who gives a heapin’ hoot about the PGA Tour “playoffs.”

Let’s be honest. The FedEx Cup is good for giving us high-quality fields in a post-majors setting, and for that, the PGA Tour gets a golf clap from us. But let us never confuse it with a major championship, and let us never pretend that the points system – modeled, apparently, on the high school nightmare double combo platter of trigonometry and calculus – compels us in any way.

In order to be fair and balanced, here's what PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said in this Helen Ross item:

I think when we do our data after this is over, we'll find that the percentage of our fan base that understands and sort of gets what the Cup is for and what it's designed to do will have gone up again nicely after a pretty good start in year one.

All we're trying to do right now is continue to build interest in the concept, and then we have to rely on the competition to ... spike it based on finishes and leaderboards and things like that.

Singh wins Deutsche Bank, backs up 'best putter in the world' label

For the second straight week, Vijay Singh went low on a Sunday, capturing the second leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs.  It's pretty sad, but this Doug Ferguson lede says it all...

Another victory for Vijay Singh is turning the FedEx Cup into another snoozer. Singh made three long birdie putts and closed with an 8-under 63 to win the Deutsche Bank Championship on Monday for his second straight victory in the PGA Tour's playoff system.

That gave him such a big lead that he could win the $10 million prize without even showing up at the Tour Championship.

Match play for FedEx Cup?

According to Jeff Babineau in Golfweek's Tour Blog, Brett Quigley offered up an interesting playoff proposal for next year's FedEx Cup.  Essentially, match play...

My suggestion would be to have a Top 64 and have a match play tournament.  If they want true elimination for the guys, maybe having a playoff three weeks, a seeding, and then having the Tour Championship be a match play event. For me that would be a perfect scenario as far as you get drama, you have elimination and then you have one winner.

Finally, someone is making sense.  The concept of match play for the Tour Championship is a great idea, only top-64 is pushing it.  Having an Elite 8 or Sweet 16 would be the most realistic option for a true playoff feel.