The moment when young golfers like Jordan Spieth talk about the FedEx Cup in the middle of January, as he did this month, is the moment when television network executives know that the PGA Tour’s 10-year-old playoff system is working.
“It’s one thing for the media to talk about FedEx Cup points,” said NBC’s veteran golf producer, Tommy Roy. “But it has to be the players. That’s who this has to matter to the most. They do matter. Jordan Spieth mentions it all the time.”
 |
Networks say the FedEx Cup provides an ongoing storyline for the sport.
Photo by: Getty Images |
Ten years ago this summer, representatives from all the networks showed up to a PGA Tour presentation for advertisers and media in New York, where additional details about the new format were detailed. For years, network executives had lobbied the tour to do something that would create interest in the tournaments at the end of the season, and they attended the event to demonstrate their support.
Ten years on, TV executives say the FedEx Cup not only helps spur interest in the end-of-season tournaments, it also fuels interest in early season tournaments.
“It is an ongoing storyline beginning with the first tournament of the year,” said CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus. “The race for the FedEx Cup is a story that continues throughout the entire season and it culminates in what makes for an exciting finish to the end of the season.”
It took a while for the FedEx Cup to take hold. It experienced some hiccups, like in 2008 when Vijay Singh accumulated enough points to clinch the cup before the last tournament even started.
And the sport’s TV announcers were more concerned with how much money players were making rather than the FedEx Cup points they were accumulating. That started to change about five years ago, Roy said.
“Early on, I was pushing them to talk in terms of FedEx Cup points,” Roy said. “Now, I don’t have to do that anymore. All our announcers think in terms of FedEx Cup points first, money second.”
Rather than look at TV ratings, Roy said the number of top 10 players who enter these late-season tournaments shows how far the FedEx Cup has come.
“It used to be that they were pretty much done playing by the Tour Championship, other than the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup,” Roy said. “Nowadays, all the top players in the world are still continuing to play. That’s what you need if you’re going to get some attention going up against football.”
The tour made enough changes to the system to ensure that golfers can’t clinch before the final tournament.
“The PGA Tour has gone a long way over the years to make it easier to understand point totals and who remains eligible for the various tournaments,” McManus said. “It was a little bit confusing at first. But it’s been refined and simplified. Now the system is pretty good. I’m sure there are tweaks they can come up with to make it even better. But I think the system right now is pretty darn good.”
