Change is good

The PGA yesterday reported that they are tweaking the current version of the FedExCup format.

Before: the 3 "playoff" tournaments leading up to the final Tour Championship would consist of the top 144 players....up until the Tour Championship, when the top 30 start.
Now: the 3 playoff tournaments (Barclay's, Deutsche, and BMW) will be reduced from 144...to 120...to 70 in that order. Then, as before, you would have the top 30 compete in the Tour Championship.

Incredibly, the 2007 Tour schedule has gone from ho-hum-TV to compelling-TV in one fell swoop.

Maybe they hired the PR-spin-master guys from Borat.

The inside scoop is that this change will increase the player participation in the early season tournaments so they gain Cup-points...something the Tour has been trying to address since coming up with the FedExCup idea.
That might-well happen, but I think the 3 playoff tournaments and their sponsors just scored a Yahtzee!
Now we have a true playoff system where these guys get eliminated after each tournament. The idea of elimination creates drama...drama is something the Tour gets a glimpse of 4 times out of a year: The Masters, The US Open, The British open, and The PGA Championship. The other regular-season tournaments barely get a heart-monitor going. And that would have continued under the old format.

Funny how corporate money changes things.

Less than 2 weeks ago King Finchem declared that the way the current system was set up was great, with no holes in it.....that was until the Big 3 playoff sponsors put there collective feet down and did there own declaring by telling King Finch to make the format more compelling, or they would significantly reduce their presence.

My guess is they were watching major sponsor Coke throw-up on itself after Tiger pulled a no-show at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.


Thanks for reading. Keep it in the short-grass,

JFB