Does the FedEx Cup Really Deliver?

Tom Ferrell

Since its debut in 2007, the season-ending FedEx Cup playoff system has brought to golf approximately the same “excitement” that the BCS series brings to college football. That is to say: a halfway-there sense of excitement mingled with controversy and ennui.

The Deutsche Bank Championship – the second event in the playoff series – ended yesterday (are Monday finishes – even if planned as this one was – ever memorable?) with Henrik Stenson finally breaking into the winner’s circle after an absolutely incredible summer that featured the most consistently excellent golf of any player in the world and a total of zero wins.

The top 70 in the points race continue onto the BMW Championship outside of Chicago next week. Ernie Els squeaked in at number 70 by…uh…I can’t really explain how. And therein lies the rub. Just as the BCS chews up a largely superficial spew of data to produce a “championship game,” so, too, does the PGA TOUR’s incalculable formula produce its top players.

Golf is an objective sport. The field tees it up, and the lowest score wins. Trying to rank golfers on any scale other than victories (and maybe top 10s) becomes an exercise in futility. Whether it’s the Omega World Golf Rankings (Tiger Woods is still the best player in the world, by the way. In case you were wondering) or the Ryder Cup standings (slightly more decipherable, given that it’s points for top 10s), golf rankings are a tough nut to crack.

I commend the PGA TOUR for trying to inject some excitement to the end of the year, when the American psyche turns to football. But I can’t help but remember the credo of Henry Thoreau as he set into his life at Walden Pond: simplify, simplify.