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Closing Shot: Quest for the Cup

This week marks the 12th year of the FedEx Cup Playoffs in which players compete over four events for the championship and its $10 million prize. Here’s how PGA Tour organizers made sure that first tournament lived up to the hype.

Arron Oberholser tees off at The Barclays at Westchester Country Club, the start of the first FedEx Cup Playoffs in August 2007.PGA Tour

PGA Tour executives wanted to make a splash with the launch of the FedEx Cup Playoffs in 2007, and big market New York provided the perfect stage.

 

FedEx and the tour unveiled a new ad campaign and erected a 12-story golf wall on a building in lower Manhattan. A golfer and caddie walked the city streets to hype the playoff.

 

Ultimately, the success of that first playoff depended on how well the tour could transform Westchester Country Club, located about 30 miles north of Midtown in Rye, N.Y., into a course and event worthy of all the attention.

 

Hosting the first FedEx Cup tournament was a huge shift for Westchester. For years, the annual tour stop there was scheduled around the U.S. Open in June and struggled to attract the best players.

 

All that changed after the tour moved the Westchester stop to August to launch the playoffs, eyeing the media exposure offered by the New York market. Suddenly, suburban Westchester became a hot destination.

 

We had to make sure we established ourselves as something different and exciting for the tour.
Brian Goin
Senior vice president and chief of operations, championship management for the tour

“It was a big deal,” said Brian Goin, senior vice president and chief of operations, championship management for the tour. “We went from being just another event to an event that all of a sudden had stature. It gave us a lot of credibility right off the bat in being the first one.”

 

Hosting the new event also brought some challenges. A hasty stenciling of the event logo on the course wasn’t finished until after midnight prior to the first shot of the tournament. But, more importantly, the players — and the public — weren’t exactly sure of the playoff format, which came with a complicated points system and a gradual cut of the field as the playoffs progressed.

 

“A lot of players were confused in the beginning,” Goin said. “It was very important coming into Westchester. We had to make sure we established ourselves as something different and exciting for the tour.”

 

A total of 138 players teed off at that first event, which was won by Steve Stricker. By the time the final playoff event finished on Sept. 16, Tiger Woods had been crowned the first FedEx Cup champion and claimed the $10 million prize.

 

Even though the event hasn’t been back to Westchester, the FedEx Cup has accomplished the tour’s goal of bringing added attention to the end of the golf season at a time of year when the four majors are just a memory. FedEx renewed its sponsorship in 2017 and, next year, the playoffs will be cut to three events to maximize interest and avoid scheduling conflicts with the NFL and college football.

 

For now, it’s time to tee it up again. The playoffs start this week with The Northern Trust in Paramus, N.J.

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