FedEx Cup rule changes make play-offs easier (for fans)

The FedEx Cup playoffs have a well-deserved reputation for confusing golf fans, if not all sports fans.

Complex point totals, unorthodox positions and the mystifying image of two winners at the close of the event – one for the final tournament and the other for the general play-offs – have only intensified the confusion of the audience.

The FedEx Cup playoffs have been streamlined this year to some of that confusion and to provide a more TV-friendly series. The event is still complicated, but much less. However, that does not mean that the remaining champion will be the golfer with the lowest score in the last of the three tournaments. It does mean that afterwards there will certainly not be two smiling winners who pose with prizes. The little bit of math to get there should not distract too much for those who tune into the television broadcast.

The first thing you should know about the new FedEx Cup playoffs, which start Thursday with the opening round of the Northern Trust at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, NJ, is that the competition now lasts only three weeks and ends before college and NFL seasons begin seriously, which is no coincidence. The play-offs of the FedEx Cup were four events and end on a Sunday at the end of September.

The second major change: as a wildcard team in the baseball or football playoffs, getting hot now is the most important thing in the late season, not the performance before the playoffs.

In a third turn, the payout for winning has risen from 50 percent to $ 15 million. Even cool-headed, wealthy golfers with lucrative notes get sweaty and nervous when they play for $ 15 million.

The players generally accept the revised arrangement.

"We are trying to make the system perfect," said Tiger Woods, two-time FedEx Cup champion. "We are trying to make it great for all of us. NASCAR did not do well the first time. They have a made some adjustments and we do the same. "

Rory McIlroy, the 2016 FedEx Cup champion, agreed.

"It simplifies it for us and we know where we stand," McIlory said, "and it simplifies it for the people who watch it on TV."

OK, now for the details . This week's field in New Jersey consists of 122 golfers who have put together the highest points in the season-long FedEx Cup standings – for example, winning a standard PGA Tour event was worth 500 points. The top 125 players qualified, but three withdrew.

P.G.A. Champion winner Brooks Koepka is at the top of the ranking with 2,887 points, but that is not as useful as it once was because this year the winners of the first two playoff events earn no less than 2,000 points. That means that Phil Mickelson, currently ranked 34th with 903 points, could pass this weekend with a win, at least in theory.

You get it. The rankings can be turned around quickly and there are plenty of top players ready to make a run at Koepka. McIlroy is in second place and Matt Kuchar is in third place. United Open champion Gary Woodland is fifth and 20 times tour winner Dustin Johnson is seventh.

At the end of the Northern Trust, only the top 70 golfers in the FedEx Cup rankings are eligible for the next event, the BMW Championship outside of Chicago on August 15-18. After that tournament, the top 30 in the rankings will advance to the final round of play-offs in the Tour Championship, which takes place in Atlanta on August 22-25.

The Tour Championship is the tournament that Woods, amidst a lot of fanfare, won last year for his first PGA Tour victory in five years. And after that performance, Woods, a commemorative coin, stood in front of one of those staggering photos alongside Justin Rose, who raised the gleaming FedEx Cup because he had collected the most common playoff points.

But Woods, 28th in this year's FedEx rankings and Rose, 11th, cannot both triumph on August 25 because the scoring system for the last event has fortunately changed. For this year's Tour Championship there will be a staggered, handicapped start – imagine a track race where some runners can start for other participants. In this case, the golfer who leads the FedEx Cup rankings after the BMW championship will start the Tour Championship with 10-under par. The player with the second most points will start the tournament with 8-under par, the third-ranked player will be 7-under, and so on until the golfers between 26 and 30 start with even par.

Once the event starts, it is no longer about FedEx Cup points. Instead, the goal is to finish the four rounds with the lowest score compared to par, including the benefit achieved by the staggered start. The winner of the Tour Championship is also the FedEx Cup winner. However, that leaves open the possibility that someone may register the lowest number of hits for 72 holes at the event, but not the lowest player compared to par because he started further back.

Good luck. Someone else will be the new FedEx champion of 2019 and wave a check of $ 15 million over his head.

If that happened, as a consolation, tournament officials could show the golfer with the lowest shot a total of a photo. with the playoff champion. But it's not likely. Not too confusing this year.

Karen Crouse has reported.