[PHOTO: Getty Images]
This column will attempt to achieve what no piece of golf content has managed in the past 18 years: propose an idea to change the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs.
I know. It’s risky stuff. Pioneering, even. No-one has ever wanted to change the post-season for the best golfers in the world.
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Here goes…
The entire FedEx Cup playoffs should be overhauled, reduced in tournaments but increased in total players and re-imagined using a match play format with a twist – where top seeds compete in the first round to earn a bye or face a second chance saloon against lower-ranked pros.
So, really, just a couple of minor changes.
It’s quite the handful, so let’s explain. Whether my idea was inspired by Rory McIlroy’s very fair decision to rest and not walk in Memphis this week, or borrowing from the great game of rugby league, or even taking an idea proposed by Australian golf journalist and numbers guru Ben Everill, who has previously suggested something similar for the WGC–Match Play, I’m not sure. But I am certain that the FedEx Cup playoffs’ quest to balance entertainment with rewarding season-long consistency could be found in adopting a finals system currently used by Australian rugby league in the NRL.
In the NRL finals, eight teams make the post-season and they are split into two brackets. The top four seeds play against each other in two “Qualifying Matches” (1 vs 4, 2 vs 3) in week one while seeds 5–8 also play in two “Elimination Matches” (5 vs 8, 6 vs 7). The two losers from the Qualifying matches get a mulligan when they face the winners of the two Elimination matches. That forms two Preliminary matches which eventually decide the two teams who make the Grand Final.
For years, golf’s FedEx Cup playoffs have promised drama, pressure, and a true test of the best players on the PGA Tour. But for all the millions of dollars on the line, those formats – whether it be this year’s straight-up version of the Tour Championship, or the starting strokes idea or the old points reset – have felt more mathematical than meaningful.
For golf, the answer is a complete shift to matchplay, a reduction to two playoffs tournaments instead of three and a ballooning of the total number of PGA Tour pros who make the FedEx Cup finals to the top 128 on points. From 70 to 128? You bet. It addresses a growing concern among rank-and-file players from outside the top 70, some of whom feel that the current cutoff is unfair. This way, 128 players qualify for the playoffs – similar to the old 125 – and, like the FA Cup in English football, even the No.128 seed could hypothetically go on a magical, giant-slaying run and perhaps meet Scottie Scheffler in the final.
As an aside, the top 64 on the FedEx Cup who form Bracket A [below] could also become the first category for exemption into the following year’s signature events. The tour could then add the last six players standing from the 65-128 bracket to fill out Signature fields of 70. Another storyline.
A Simple, Two-Week Format
Week one is a FedEx Cup showdown, and everyone plays. The new format begins with a 128-player field seeded and split into two brackets: Bracket A, with 1 vs 64, 2 vs 63 etc playing Qualifying Matches; and Bracket B featuring 65 vs 128, 66 vs 127 etc playing Elimination matches. Ideally, this held is on the West Coast and beamed into east coast living rooms at prime time.
On Thursday, all 128 players tee it up in 64 matches: 32 Qualifying and 32 Elimination. Qualifying winners get Friday off and advance automatically into the third day while Qualifying losers enter the Second Chance Saloon – a pressure-packed Friday knockout round to keep your post-season alive. In Thursday’s Elimination pool (65 vs 128, 66 vs 127 etc), 32 losers are bundled out of the playoffs.
Friday sees the 32 losers from Qualifying face off against 32 winners from Elimination. The losers on Friday are sent home.
Saturday brings Thursday’s Qualifying winners and Friday’s survivors back together. The 64 remaining players – half rested, half tested – battle it out in another knockout round with 32 sent home. This is followed by a final round on Sunday of 16 matches that eliminates half and leaves us with a clean, 16-player field for the following week.
Week two is the Tour Championship, where the intensity sharpens. The remaining 16 are once again split into Qualifying and Elimination brackets of eight players each while all pros maintain their original FedEx Cup seedings from the start of the playoffs.
Day one of the Tour Championship sees the eight best-ranked remaining seeds face off against each other in four Qualifying matches (for argument’s sake, if, miraculously, all top eight seeds magically advanced together to the Tour Championship, it would be 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7 etc) and the worst eight remaining seeds play four Elimination matches (best-ranked worst seed vs worst-ranked worst seed etc). For the Qualifying matches, once again winners earn Friday off. Losers are thrown back into the fire in the Second Chance Saloon. After Friday, the weekend plays out with quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finally a made-for-TV Sunday showdown match to decide the FedEx Cup champion.
This structure delivers everything fans crave. It rewards the top seeds – but not with automatic byes or net tournament advantages. Instead, they defend their status from the opening tee shot. And if they lose early? They’re not out yet, which is the main concern of TV networks when it comes to individual matchplay – a format that sadly no longer exists on the PGA Tour. The Second Chance Saloon offers a single lifeline – one that rewards their regular-season performance but doesn’t guarantee anything.
TV audiences understand brackets. Sports fans rally behind underdogs. Golf’s finest thriving in direct combat. Marketing slogans like, “Every round earned,” “Matches that matter,” and “Last one standing.” I’d watch every minute.
