Jack Nicklaus wants to see the FedEx Cup Play-
offs re-tooled. Again.
It seems that fans aren't the only ones tired of seeing the FedEx Cup Playoffs decided long before the tour championship. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jack Nicklaus commented that he didn't bother to watch:
"Did they play that this year?" Nicklaus asks reporter Thomas Bonk, "I didn't watch a second of it. Two years in a row, it was basically over before the Tour Championship was even played, and that doesn't make sense."
Me? I'm an angry little man who's only chance of breaking par is on Tiger Woods '05 for my game cube. I was happy to see Tiger Woods win the cup last year, and bitter to see it go to Vijay-jay this year, so any rumblings from me about the format ring hollow. And besides, Camillo Villegas was just two putts away from making the cut at the Barclays and winning the damn thing.
But Nicklaus? The Golden Bear? What a shot across the PGA's bow. Nicklaus is usually very reserved when it comes to criticizing Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour, and what's wrong with golf today. And that's what makes this even more intriguing. Camillo's charge on the final two events of the season should have given him a shot at the cup. Instead, they made him an the instant answer to an ongoing trivia question: "name two players who have surged to wins at the end of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, only to finish 2nd with no mathmatical hopes of winning the trophy."
The LA Times story ran on Saturday, and has picked up its fair share of blog play since. But what is really interesting to note is that not one of the blogs covering the story are from within the PGA Tour camp. That I can find. But apparently, there are only 56 days, 09 hours and 27 minutes to Q school finals.
The simple fact of the matter is that for playoffs to be interesting, the final round needs to make a difference. Surely the best minds in golf can come up with a system to accomplish this? How about, instead of a ridiculously complex points system, it works like this: you get 1 point for every person you beat in a playoff tournament. With increasingly less people in each tournament, a player would need to play in all four tournaments to have a chance of winning.
Under this system, Singh still would have beaten Villegas 269 to 264, but Singh's final round at the Tour Championship would have meant a lot more - two more strokes and Villegas would have had the cup. And I didn't even bother to look at where Sergio Garcia or Jim Furyk would have finished. But hey, what do I know? I'm just an angry little man who likes the final game of the playoffs to matter.
I'm no Jack Nicklaus, after all...
UPDATE: I went back and crunched the numbers on Sergio, and he would have beaten Singh & Villegas with a score of 318 points. Arguably fitting, since Sergio was in the mix in all four events. Let's see what the pundits and insiders of the PGA Tour come up with in the next few months.
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