Fedex Cup: Who really won?

by Neville Idour

Which major world sporting event can you win when you finish fourth?

Answer: Golf’s combined Fedex Cup and Tour Championship. Surely the crazy unfair format has to change.

It is 15 years since the PGA Tour playoffs began and the brains trust still hasn’t got it right. The last two years of combining the two titles simply hasn’t worked.

Compared to the breathtaking battle between Patrick Cantlay and Bryson DeChambeau in the penultimate event at Baltimore in Maryland, the finale at East Lake Golf Club in Georgia was like a damp artificial squid. Money was not the driving force for DeChambeau and Cantlay. In fact, I’m sure their endeavour would have been no different if there was no money at the end.

So for the record let us first look at who really won, bearing in mind that to make the final 30 all had to have played well in the first two events.

Any player who made the 145 for the first event then played his way into the 70 for the second tournament at Baltimore. Then the top 30 had earned their stripes and the right to compete on an even playing field to go for the Tour Championship/ Fedex Cup title. Instead it was a reverse handicap event, hardly befitting a race between the world’s best.

Jon Rahm was always ahead being two shots up on Cantlay after round one, three after round two, two after round three and three ahead at 14 under par after the final round. Kevin Na was also rock solid and would finish strongly to tie for the win at 14 under par. Xander Schauffele, last year’s winner, had 64, one of the rounds of the day to finish third just a shot adrift.

Cantlay managed tied fourth. The real final placings were Rahm and Na (-14), Schauffele (-12), Thomas, Hovland and Cantlay (-11), Horschel (-10), Johnson and Berger (-8), DeChambeau and Ancer (-6). Shame there couldn’t be a playoff between Rahm and Na, a more exciting prospect than we saw.

The contrived format ensured those players ranked from 20 to 30 had virtually no chance of victory and even those from 11 to 19 had little chance. The finale was really reduced to money making as American golf reporter John Hawkins suggested: “The season finale has been reduced to a pie slicing contest with each of the 30 pastry chefs given four days to cut themselves as large a piece of the $US60 million dessert as their 14 clubs will allow.”

No one would deny that the 30 are all financially absurdly rich. Some might say “obscenely” rich. I certainly haven’t read or heard any player complain about the prizemoney offered weekly and lobbying for a US$60 million prize pool in the season finale.

Many of the players are clearly unhappy with the format. The “official” winner Cantlay said: “Frankly it is not a good format. It is criminal that (good friend) Xander Schauffele didn’t win the 2020 Tour Championship despite shooting the lowest score. There has to be a better solution.” He actually shot seven shots better than Dustin Johnson but lost to him by three shots.

Rahm offered: “I don’t like it. I don’t think it is fair.” Justin Thomas, who won in 2017 after finishing second to Schauffele, called it “a nice consolation prize.”

One of the main concerns has always been that a player can have a great season and be clear going into the finale yet finish as an also ran in that one event. This was a main reason why the PGA opted for the current format to reward the points' leaders. But it is not real, it is contrived.

So what is the answer?

Well how about we draw an analogy. How would people feel if the Super Rugby leading team at the end of the round robin was given a 10 point start on their playoff opposition and the second team an eight point start? I think you would need to emphasise this is a G rated publication.

Maybe the PGA need to bite the bullet and just accept that the Fedex Cup is a season long points race that is all about qualification for the Tour Championship 30-strong finale where the players also earn points to decide the Fedex Cup winner. The Tour Championship will then be a genuine battle between the top 30 for the season with the winner having earned the title after three events, likened to a quarter final, semi-final and final.

As for the prizemoney, if the PGA Tour still feel the need for $60 million in prizemoney it should be split, say, $40 million for the Tour Championship and $20 million for the Fedex Cup. This would then ensure the year long successes would be well rewarded if a player fell short in the finale.

On that note I rest my case. What do you think?