For the last 20 years, golf fans have grown accustomed to the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup Playoffs. Players would compete throughout the regular season, earn designated points for tournament finishes and either secure their place in the postseason or fall short. While there have been alterations since the first iteration of the postseason format, the finale has never created much fanfare.
Yes, the Tour Championship has produced some memorable moments: Rory McIlroy's hole-out eagle and subsequent playoff victory in 2016, Tiger Woods winning the event in 2018 with Justin Rose claiming the FedEx Cup, plus a handful of others. However, no matter what the PGA Tour tried -- accumulated points, staggered starts, reducing the final field to 30 players, enhancing purses and bonuses -- the Tour Championship has never reached the level of its counterpart events from team sports. Mostly, it has been confusing, slow and an afterthought amid the final long days of summer.
That is where PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp entered the fray, leading the charge for a reimagined Tour Championship -- two weeks of match play across two renowned golf courses. From 32 players at the onset of the postseason in group stage competition to 16 players competing in a bracket format, a legitimate Tour Champion will be crowned each season starting in 2028. That surely sounds more compelling than the current format, but it is not without some potential downsides, which golf fans (and the PGA Tour) will have to take in stride for the sake of growth and trying to conjure together a real postseason with real stakes.
These are not overdone but rather the precise temperature. The stakes are well-balanced in that there is a penalty for playing poorly, but not so much that a top player is put in danger of missing the postseason in its entirety. Look at McIlroy this season.
He finished 66th in a 69-man field at the St. If he were to perform as such in the Championship Series Finale, it should not matter; he would have a strong enough regular season to propel him into the postseason. However, should McIlroy fall apart in Week 1 of the Tour Championship, he will not emerge from his group, missing out on the Week 2 bracket and the chance to be Tour Champion.
That's precisely how a system like this should work -- play well and move on, play poorly and pack up your locker. Compare it to college basketball, if you wish. A potential top seed losing in its conference tournament will not prevent it from joining March Madness, though it might ding its positioning in the final bracket.
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