FedEx Cup: How new scoring format impacts Tour Championship

The FedEx Cup playoffs conclude with this weekend’s Tour Championship at the East Lake Golf Club outside Atlanta, GA. How will the new scoring format impact the event?

Last year, Tiger Woods marched down the 72nd hole of the Tour Championship with a horde of fans roaring in his wake. It was an iconic moment for golf’s biggest star. But Tiger’s tournament victory didn’t net him enough points to earn the FedEx Cup, golf’s season-long prize. Despite winning the final battle, Tiger somehow lost the war.

The PGA Tour took action, changing the format for the 2019 Tour Championship to ensure the winner of the event would also win the FedEx Cup. To do so, they’ve created a tiered scoring system in which the points earned during the season equate to a predetermined score to begin the Tour Championship.

Rather than having a level playing field, the Tour has created levels for the playing field. Top-ranked Justin Thomas begins this Thursday’s round at -10, Patrick Cantlay tees it up at -8, and so on down the list for all the qualifying top 30.

Louis Oosthuizen heads to Atlanta as the 27th ranked player in the FedEx Cup standings. A consistent season has earned him a tee time in the Tour Championship. But does a tee time translate to a chance to win?

The new scoring format has Oosthuizen, along with the other golfers who qualified in the final spots for the event, beginning the tournament at a 10 shot deficit. Oosthuizen, who has never won a tournament on American soil, has enough trouble competing with Justin Thomas under normal circumstances, so what chance does he have this weekend?

According to Vegas, he has a 1 in 175 chance. Better than Jason Kokrak’s +30,000 betting line, but at the end of the day, it’ll be difficult to stay motivated.

So how can Oosthuizen win this thing? He could set the course record on Thursday, then break that record on Friday and still find himself trailing as he heads into the weekend. He’s not just trailing Thomas by 10, but he’s also chasing Cantaly (-8), Koepka (-7) and 25 other golfers who start with at least a one-stroke advantage. So even if two of the leaders stumble, five more could put the tournament out of reach.

The Tour Championship, from Oosthuizen’s point of view, is essentially a softball game against Mr. Burns’ power plant ringers. The team simply couldn’t lose. … unless all of the superstars fell prey to a series of unrelated misfortunes.

“Three misfortunes? That’s possible. Seven misfortunes? There’s an outside chance, but nine misfortunes? I’d like to see that!”

Oosthuizen is far too nice a guy to wish any misfortune on his peers, so he’ll just have to go out there and shoot the best four rounds in the history of golf.

When the PGA Tour announced the new format last year some players expressed concern about whether the event would be competitive. This past week, player interviews sounded better trained, as golfers tow company line and repeated the phrase, “easier for the fans to follow.”

That’s true, it will be easier to know who’s winning, but it won’t be easier to know who’s playing the best golf. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I like it when the player who shoots the best score wins the tournament. Otherwise, it feels like a novelty event, something unbecoming for the decisive tournament of the season.

The tiered scoring presents a problem in and of itself, but the way the Tour determines the tiers creates issues, too. The new system overvalues playoff performances. Patrick Reed, the winner at the Northern Trust, had a mediocre season and a well-timed fluke victory in the playoffs. Does he deserve to start at -6 while Matt Kuchar, who earned twice as many wins and twice as many top-10 finishes this season, begins play at -4?

Qualifying for the Tour Championship earns players a slew of exemptions and healthy payday, so even those without a realistic shot at winning will walk away feeling good about the season. But as a fan, I don’t think the Tour Championship is nearly as interesting under the new format.

That is, of course, barring a remarkable, come-from-behind victory for Oosthuizen.