The PGA Tour is receiving a lot of "blowback ... about the schedule" for next year's FedExCup Playoffs, according to Golf Channel's Tim Rosaforte. The Tour has scheduled the four playoff events for four consecutive weeks so there can be an off week between the Tour Championship and the Ryder Cup. Additionally, sponsors are upset with players "skipping events ... and then coming back with a chance to win" the FedExCup. Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson this year both missed The Barclays, the first event of the playoffs, but finished third and fifth, respectively, in the final standings. Rosaforte: "This is still a work in progress as it relates to the big picture. But what we get from a competitive standpoint, it’s hard to argue that it’s brilliant, especially this time of year.” Golf Channel’s Rich Lerner said the current system is "miles better than where we were six or seven years ago, when you turned squarely to football." Lerner: "I’m not saying people aren't watching football, but you turned squarely to football after the season’s final major. That’s not the case anymore” (“Golf Central,” Golf Channel, 9/22).
DOES IT ALL MEAN ANYTHING? GOLF.com's weekly roundtable noted there was talk that players were "flat for the Tour Championship" and wondered if the $10M payoff for winning the FedExCup still garners the "public's attention or is it just too hard to get excited about multimillionaires adding to their portfolios?" SI's Michael Bamberger said, "The money is not what makes it exciting, not for us. What matters is how bad the players want it. This year, for whatever reason, it wasn't there. It has been in other years." Golf Magazine's Joe Passov said, "It's a treat for fans to see the best tee it up against the best, but with these reduced fields and obscene amounts of cash on display, it still feels too much like of an exhibition. Love the pull and publicity during football season, but I keep thinking, so what -- these guys are all moving on to Asia and they'll grab the cash they need there, if they didn't get it in the playoffs." SI's Mark Godich: "It still gets the public's attention, if for no other reason than everyone likes to see how the world's best players respond with so much on the line." Golf Magazine's Josh Sens: "The FedEx Cup will never stir public interest like the events with real history and pedigree. But every day in this country there are multimillionaires adding to their portfolios while contributing virtually nothing. At least these overpaid golfers provide some entertainment value" (GOLF.com, 9/22).
