A blockbuster end to the PGA Tour season. A season-long points competition. A bonus worth five times the typical first-place check.
If that sounds like the FedEx Cup, turn back the calendar to the age of persimmon woods and Sansabelt pants.
This was the Vantage Championship in 1986, and it was designed to give golf a compelling finish. That became the precursor to the Tour Championship, which soon became a tournament for the rich to get richer at the end of a very long year in golf.
Enter the FedEx Cup, the biggest shake-up in golf during Tim Finchem’s 13 years as commissioner.
For the last 50 years, the golf season has been defined by four major championships that begin in April with the Masters and end in August with the PGA Championship. The Fed- Ex Cup is a points race that starts with the opening tee shot at the Mercedes-Benz Championship in Hawaii and concludes with four “playoff” events that start this week.
The winner gets $10 million, which the tour touts as the richest prize in sports.
Even before the first shot in the playoffs, the tour lost its hope of all the stars competing four weeks in a row. Tiger Woods, the No. 1 player in the world, said he would sit out the first tournament.
Under this cloud of uncertainty, the FedEx Cup heads toward a conclusion when The Barclays starts Thursday at Westchester Country Club. Only 144 players qualify for the “PGA Tour Playoffs.” Week by week, the field will be whittled down until the top 30 reach Atlanta for the Tour Championship at East Lake.
Here’s the crib sheet on the FedEx Cup:
Points have been awarded from the season-opening Mercedes through the week after the PGA, with the top 144 players eligible for The Barclays.
Points are reset going into the playoffs to keep someone like Woods from having too large of an advantage. Woods finished the regular season about 11,000 points ahead of Vijay Singh. When the playoffs begin, Woods will be the No. 1 seed with 100,000 points, while Singh is No. 2 with 99,000 points. The 144th player starts at 84,700.
The winner of each of the first three playoff events gets 9,000 points, with 5,400 points for second on down to 85 points for last place. The Tour Championship offers 10,300 points for first place.
It’s a lot of math for players to digest, especially since they grew up studying a money list that got them into the Tour Championship.
Tour officials have said the top 15 in the FedEx Cup standings have the best chance of winning.
The field at The Barclays will be cut to the top 120 players for the Deutsche Bank Championship. The top 70 will get into the BMW Championship in Chicago, with the top 30 advancing to the Tour Championship.
Some players have questioned the payoff – deferred money into a retirement account instead of $10 million up front.
“If you have kids old enough to understand, they’re more excited about the $10 million than we are because they’re the ones who are going to end up getting it,” David Toms said.
