PGA Tour playoffs fail on the smell test
This is the fifth year of the PGA Tour’s playoff system, and it is as incomprehensible as ever.The convoluted playoff system, along with the inconvenient post-Labor Day dates, the name change from Western Open to BMW Championship and the occasional move out of Chicago — the next leave-taking is next year, destination Indianapolis — is why Cog Hill’s Dubsdread course is not expected to be packed with people beginning Thursday.
Then there’s the playoff race, based on a points system Euclid would have difficulty grasping. The top 30 players in the points standings advance from Cog Hill to next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
You need 30 players for East Lake? Then take the top 30 finishers at Cog Hill.Eliminate all the equations and the “what ifs” and the “if only” nonsense.Take the top 30. If there’s a six-way tie for 29th place after 72 holes, have a sudden-death playoff. Imagine Phil Mickelson, Keegan Bradley, Charl Schwartzel, Rickie Fowler, Sergio Garcia and Webb Simpson, winner of two of the last three tournaments, in sudden death for the last two spots at East Lake. If one guy makes a birdie on the first playoff hole and the others par, then five guys — hey, Mickelson’s favorite restaurant — are fighting for the last ticket to Atlanta.
Points standings should only matter to determine the 125 players who make the playoffs. After that, it should be perform now or go home, as it is in team sports.
In trying to goose late-season television ratings, the PGA Tour adapted NASCAR’s concept, where a dozen drivers make the show and the points are reset for the chase races. Big mistake. Stock-car racing has seven-car pileups to spice the action. Golf has the chili dip.
Simpson wants to win this week, but all he really has to do is be in the top five going into next week. That guarantees winning the playoff title if he wins the Tour Championship.
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