Players unsure what to make of revamped FedEx Cup playoffs

The PGA Tour is trying a radical new format in an attempt to spice up the FedEx Cup playoffs, and players are divided over whether it will work

The FedEx Cup, the season-long points race introduced by the PGA Tour in 2007 to add intrigue to the year’s last events, is going to look a lot different in its 13th incarnation.

The start of the playoffs still looks the same. The Northern Trust begins on Thursday at Liberty National in New Jersey with the top 125 players in the standings. Then it’s off to Medinah next week for the BMW Championship, where the top 70 will tee it up. But that’s where the similarities end.

Gone is one event, with the season-ending Tour Championship now the third of the playoffs. And instead of players beginning the Tour Championship on an equal footing, the players leading the FedEx Cup standings will have a big advantage before they even tee up. The points leader will begin at 10-under. Second place will start at eight-under, third at seven-under and so on, down to the 26th-30th places starting at even-par, 10 back before a shot is hit.

Tiger Woods’ victory at East Lake last year was one of the most memorable moments of the season. But it wouldn’t have happened under this format. Woods would’ve lost to Justin Rose by one. He begins this year’s playoffs in 28th place, so if he doesn’t improve his position he’ll start the Tour Championship needing to beat Brooks Koepka by 10 and Rory McIlroy by eight. Possible? Yes. But it’s not very likely.

It’s entirely possible that Woods, or any other player, will shoot the lowest score at East Lake and still not win. Imagine the reaction if he beats Koepka by nine shots but is still denied his 82nd win to tie Sam Snead. That’s commissioner Jay Monahan’s worst nightmare.

Woods admits the new format will take some getting used to, but credits the PGA Tour with trying something bold. “That’s something that we’re all going to have to figure out,” he said on Wednesday while at Liberty National. “We’re trying to make the system perfect. Try to make it great for all of us.”

“That’s going to be weird. It’s going to be weird for all of us because we’ve never really done that. Starting out 10 back, it’s going to be different for the guys who are there. It really puts a premium on placement going into that week … you don’t want to be too far back.”

The PGA Tour had several reasons to make the change. One of them was to end the playoffs before the start of NFL season. Another was to avoid confusion about where players stood in the standings. In years past, players and spectators alike looked like Zach Galifianakis playing blackjack in The Hangover while trying to calculate all the different scenarios.

It also eliminates the awkward moment when a player wins the Tour Championship but another wins the FedEx Cup. That’s happened the past two years when Woods won at East Lake but Rose won the $10 million, and in 2017, when Justin Thomas took home the cup but Xander Schauffele won the tournament.

For McIlroy, the 2016 FedEx Cup champion who begins the playoffs second in the standings, the simplicity of the new format makes it worthwhile.

“At least people know where they stand,” he said on Wednesday. “Even when I was in contention to win, I didn’t really know, if I win do I win the whole thing? It simplifies it. It simplifies it for us. We know where we stand, But then it simplifies it for the people that are watching on TV.”

The FedEx Cup has tried different formats in the past. In the event’s second year, 2008, Vijay Singh had it wrapped up without even having to play the Tour Championship. So the tour made a change, allowing any player in the top-five going into East Lake to win the cup if they won the tournament. That’s over with this year, and McIlroy admits it’s one of the drawbacks of the new format.

“In a way it’s good, but at the same time someone in my position, that’s in the top-five, you knew what you needed to do. Where now you’re sort of depending on what other people do as well,” he said.

Is the new format a bold change? Yes. But will it work? We’ll find that out in three weeks.