The leader of the season-long points race on the PGA Tour thinks the season-long points race is … “silly.” Scottie Scheffler denounced the FedEx Cup Playoffs — the system used by the PGA Tour to determine a season-long champion — citing how wins compiled during the regular season do not ultimately matter the same as a player’s performance in the final three events of the year.
In Scheffler’s example, a player could win 15 or 20 times — or actually win seven or eight times, like Scheffler is poised to do — and still not be considered the season-long champion.
“I talked about it the last few years. I think it’s silly,” he said Wednesday. “You can’t call it a season-long race and have it come down to one tournament. Hypothetically, we get to East Lake and my neck flares up and it doesn’t heal the way it did at The Players; I finish 30th in the FedExCup because I had to withdraw from the last tournament? Is that really the season-long race? No. It is what it is.”
Even though players carry their points into the postseason and earn more at the first two playoff events — this week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and next week at the BMW Championship — everything resets at the Tour Championship where whoever is in first will start the tournament at 10 under, whoever is in second starts at 8 under and so on down the board.
“It’s a fun tournament,” Scheffler said of the Tour Championship. “I don’t really consider it the season-long race like I think the way it’s called. But you’ve got to figure out a way to strike a balance between it being a good TV product and it still being a season-long race. Right now, I don’t know exactly how the ratings are or anything like that, but I know for a fact you can’t really quite call it the season-long race when it comes down to one stroke-play tournament on the same golf course each year.”
Scheffler’s point is valid. If he gets injured and has to withdraw from the Tour Championship, he will officially be listed at the 30th-best player of 2024 on the FedEx Cup points list (because he would have finished last at the Tour Championship, a 30-player field). That is a laughably long way away from the type of season Scheffler has put together racking up six wins and a record $28 million in earnings.
But his point about TV ratings is also true. If there was not a reset at the Tour Championship, the season-long race would be all but over because of how far out in front Scheffler would stand entering that tournament. Scheffler’s lead on No. 3 in the FedEx Cup points race Rory McIlroy, a 3,500-point advantage, is substantially larger than McIlroy’s lead on … you (2,500 points).
“I love this format because, if it wasn’t this format, then none of us would have a chance against Scottie because he’s so far ahead,” explained McIlroy on Wednesday. “So, I really like this format.”
McIloy added: “I think it makes the Tour Championship more exciting from a consumer standpoint. Is it the fairest reflection of who’s been the best player of the year? Probably not. But I think at this point we’re not in for totally fair, we’re in for entertainment and for trying to put on the best product we possibly can.
“Yeah, the first year that it was the starting strokes at the Tour Championship in 2019, I was able to win that one — and then in ’22 again. I like this format. It sort of feels like it’s a bit of a reset after the regular season. Everyone is not quite on a level playing field, but it feels a little more like that.”
Love it or hate it, it’s what the PGA Tour is using now and in the immediate future. And while it takes a bit of the drama out of the early part of the playoffs — Scheffler and No. 2 Xander Schauffele will almost certainly be the top two players going to the Tour Championship — it does add intrigue late for whoever is able to get up into those Nos. 3-5 spots.
While it’s understandable that Scheffler is not in love with the format, McIlroy is correct that it is an overall better product for fans, the consumers of the PGA Tour product — even if it’s not all that fair for someone who is probably having the best PGA Tour season of the last 15 years.
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