The PGA Tour completed its fifth year of the FedExCup and golf analysts and observers weighed in on the state of the format and system. GOLF WORLD's Bill Fields wrote the more things change with the FedExCup playoffs, "the more they will remain the same until the September slate evolves into something that more accurately resembles a true post-season with a final act/tournament that doesn't just hope for the Game 7-type drama that played out last week but whose structure guarantees it." Until the PGA Tour is "bold enough to try something, it won't know how captivating that could be" (GOLF WORLD, 10/3 issue). GOLF WORLD's Jim Moriarty writes the FedExCup "remains largely in violation of the first rule of marketing: If you need a press release to explain what you've just seen, it's too complicated." But Moriarty adds, "If the PGA Tour is willing to allow the capriciousness of the game to manifest itself, the FedEx Cup will eventually become all that it could be. If it aspires to being more than just a delaying tactic, keeping players from trips to deer stands and fly-fishing streams, it has to arrive at that point where one player stands over a putt knowing it's worth $10 million dollars and, he misses, the guy standing across the green watching him hit it inherits the tax problems instead" (GOLF WORLD, 10/3 issue). In Charlotte, Ron Green Sr. wrote the FedExCup "misses the mark." Green: "It's interesting as it comes down to the wire but it's not exciting when somebody has to tell you who won and why. There's no more admirable organization in sports than the PGA Tour but the cup competition is too cosmetic and too difficult to follow throughout the season" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 9/28).
GOT A BETTER SUGGESTION? The AP's Doug Ferguson wrote under the header, "FedEx Cup Is Best Possible Finish To Golf Season." Ferguson: "This might have been the most compelling golf playoff that hardly anyone saw." Anyone who "thinks the FedEx Cup is contrived drama either is mistaking golf for a team sport or has forgotten what golf looked like before the PGA Tour created this postseason plan." Ferguson: "No one ever said the FedEx Cup was perfect. Trouble is, no one has come up with a better solution." The FedExCup "is not that hard to understand," but it "would help if NBC Sports were not hung up on a math exhibition during the telecast" (AP, 9/27). YAHOO SPORTS' Jonathan Wall wrote, "Some will say the lack of big names hurt the final round, but as we've seen all season, 2011 -- as [PGA Tour Commissioner] Tim Finchem said hundreds of times during the week -- is all about parity." Wall: "Nobody should be surprised two guys from the back of the pack [were] on the biggest stage on Sunday afternoon. If you're the tour, this was exactly the kind of finish you wanted going into the Fall Series -- especially after Finchem hammered out a new long-term television deal with the networks earlier this year. Now, if the tour could somehow find a way to end the season before the start of college football and the NFL, they'd really be in business" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/26).
CLASS OF THE FIELD: GOLF WORLD's Dave Shedloski names Finchem his Player of the Year for the '11 season. Shedloski: "We ask you, who had a better season than this guy? The PGA Tour commissioner signed up Humana and former President Bill Clinton." Finchem also "mined television gold one more time, negotiating deals with the networks through 2021 and proving yet again that he is one of the most clutch major performers in all of sports" (GOLF WORLD, 10/3 issue).
