The FedEx Cup Series explained
IN: News | by Bruce Young | 21 Aug 2007
The much vaunted FedEx Cup Series enters its final phase this week when the first event of the finals, The Barclays, is played at the Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York.
For those who are still struggling understand just how this series works (and there have been plenty of us) I will attempt to outline what it has taken to qualify for this event and what it will take to reach the last of the four finals and potentially win the US$10 million available in the form of a contribution to a player’s superannuation fund.
The top 144 players on the FedEx Cup points table at the completion of last week’s Wyndham Championship in Greensboro have advanced to this week’s event, those players having accrued points over the first 36 weeks of the 2007 PGA Tour season. Most PGA Tour events in 2007 have carried a total of 25,000 FedEx Cup points with the distribution spread between the winner and those finishing in 70th position in each event. There have been some variation on that point availability, for example majors and world golf championship events have carried more and events played opposite those events worth significantly less.
At the completion of last week’s Wyndham Championship, which brought the regular season FedEx Cup events to a close, the leading point scorer, Tiger Woods, had his points reset to 100,000 with the player in 144th position in the FedEx Cup race starting the Barclays with 84,700. The resetting has brought the field much closer together and now Vijay Singh at 99,000, is just 1000 points behind the leader.
Each of the first three events in the Playoff Series will provide a total of 50,000 points per event with the winner earning 9000 points and, in the case of the first two events, the 85th player (in the event of a tie for last place) will earn 85 points. At the completion of this week’s Barclays the field for next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston will be reduced to 120 of the leading point scorers on the revised FedEx points table. There will be a cut at the Barclays and the Deutsche Bank Championship but in the final two events, the BMW Championship (max field of 70) at Cog Hill in Chicago and the Tour Championship (field of 30), there will be none.
The series culminates at the Tour Championship at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta where the leading thirty players will play for an increased point distribution with the winner to receive 10,300 points down to 395 points for the 30th player. Each event in this series carries total prize-money of US$7,000,000 but on Sunday September 16th the overall point leader after the Tour Championship will earn a bonus US$10 million in addition to any money he was won during the series. The runner up will secure a bonus US$3 million down to the 30th player who will earn US$175,000. There is an outrageous bonus total of US$35 million.
In case you are feeling sorry for anyone knocked out early in the first stage – don’t bother. The player finishing in last place on the points table at the completion of the Barclays and eliminated will still earn a bonus US$32,000 and for the player in last position and eliminated at the Deutsche Bank, he will receive a bonus US$110,000.
Many will say that such a point and money distribution is just a way of the PGA Tour throwing more money at the Tour and its members and the apparent lack of interest in the format to date reflects a public apathetic to such indulgence. To be fair the Series needs time to establish its position and relevance in the game and to be played out in full before an informed judgement can be made.
By missing the first event of the playoffs at Westchester Country Club this week, Tiger Woods appears to be giving his nearest challengers on the PGA Tour an opportunity to challenge him for the huge payout. If he is, however, to overcome this significant start he is offering every one of the players in this series, there will be few players who would deny Woods, who has done more than anyone else to provide them access to riches on a week to week basis, the right to another huge cheque.
Let the finals begin.
