THE PLAYOFFS - what could be in 2028

NEWS FLASH – Rory McIlroy played the FedEx St Jude Championship!!

Fantastic news, right?! Well, it should have been. Unfortunately, Rory’s pre-tournament presser wasn’t quite what the PGA Tour was hoping for as it kicked off the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. When asked why he was playing, he said,

“A few different things went into the decision. I think having four weeks off going into the last two events of the year was going to be a little too much for me in terms of being competitive. This is a good week. Obviously, I want to play well, but it's also a good week to just see where my game is, do a little practice, as much as I can in the heat. I think it's important to be here, it's the tour's playoffs and I think it's important for all the players to be here.”

Build it Rory, build it! 🤦‍

At least he finished the quote on a half-hearted positive. But hey, he did show up, unlike last year citing he was already in the next round given his ranking.

It was no surprise his play reflected the enthusiasm to be there. T66. Third last. In the end it was a Scottie Scheffler cakewalk after Friday's 61 catapulted him to a lead he never surrendered. A closing 66 meant an 8-shot win for the Texan in the Memphis heat. 

The FedEx Cup Playoffs have always felt a little ‘off’ throughout its history. I was on tour when they first hit the schedule in 2007. The carrot for players to ‘buy in’ was the bonus (retirement) money awarded to the highest finishers throughout the (original) four playoff events. The PGA Tour was hoping ‘FedEx Cup Champion’ would eventually be mentioned in the same breath as ‘major winner’, or even ‘Players Champion’, but there’s still a long way to go. There have been pros and cons to the format and, after 20 years, it’s still being tweaked.

The pros…

‘Bubble’ watch

• From the last event of the season (Wyndham Championship), drama ensues around who makes the playoffs. Originally you had to make the top 120; now it’s top 70. We saw Jackson Kouivan sweat it out last week at Greensboro to sneak in at 70 on the dot. This week Matt McCarty hung on to the last spot for the BMW Championship at No. 50. The same ‘bubble’ watch will happen for the top 30 come Sunday.

Mega cash

• Obviously a ‘pro’ for players who make the playoffs, but for fans watching? Meh… no one really cares how many zeroes are on the end of their bonus payouts (FYI FedEx will distribute a $100M pool among the players this year).

The cons…

Weird format

• The final event (Tour Championship) has tried different formats over the years that just haven’t worked, leaving casual (and some hardcore) viewers rather confused. The staggered start being one. Giving Scottie Scheffler a two-shot head start over his nearest rival, and up to 10 strokes on others, made it feel like a weekend club comp, not the finale to an elite sporting season. Then there was the separate points list going on at the same time, one for the Tour Championship and one for the FedEx Cup. I know it’s not rocket science, but with all the permutations coming down the stretch, it started to feel like it.

Lack of early drama

• For the season’s top players, they’re (almost) guaranteed to make it through to the finale. It’s why Rory skipped the FedEx St Jude Champs last year. He could have done the same this year but (reading between the lines) wants to stay on PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp’s good side. The Tour Championship is where ‘finally’ the drama begins with (in their latest format) every one of the 30 players starting from scratch. Whoever wins, wins the FedEx Cup, simple.

2028, however, will (hopefully) be where they get it right. A couple of options in play are…

Firstly, a cumulative 3-tournament series where the FedEx Cup Champ comes from their total score over the 12-rounds. As the saying goes, “the cream eventually rises to the top”. The only problem is if someone gets on a heater the first two events, the final week could be a dud.

I prefer option two…

Match Play.

The ‘big four’ US sports (baseball, football, basketball, ice hockey) all have playoffs with a knockout format. It’s ‘win or go home’. Now, I know I’m biased 😉, but match play is the perfect way to crown the FedEx Cup Champion at the end of the season. I can hear them now, the top players griping about getting beat early (hey, play better), but don’t worry, they can still have their ‘season-long’ points race, rewarding the highest place finishers with vast sums of bonus money. Not that they’d need it given they’ve already won a boatload of cash. 

How they get to match play is the tricky part. Is it the ‘top 8’ from the season like the ATP Finals in tennis? Or perhaps it’s top 16 or 32? Maybe there’s one or two stroke-play events to qualify for the final, but then it gets tricky again in case the No. 1 guy throughout the year doesn’t make it through.

Personally, I’d love to see the top 8 from the regular season play one event at the end of the year…

36-hole match play:

• Quarterfinal
• Semi-final
• Final

Bang, done!

If that’s too much golf over three days (poor things), stretch each match out to 18 holes a day so it runs over six days. Imagine the post round analysis going on if Scheffler’s 3 down through 18. He and his team get the chance to regroup and work on his game, while the rest of us diagnose what he needs to do to win the match… because we’re all (armchair) experts. Maybe this is a step too far, but it’s worth playing around with.

And finally, the piece de resistance. As Rolapp intimated, host the match play at an iconic venue. Cypress Point and Pine Valley immediately come to mind. Having the best players go toe-to-toe on the best courses in the world? Now THAT’S box office stuff!

The 2028 playoffs are still two years away, and I’m sure there are plenty of other great ideas out there, but hey, it’s nice to dream.

Cheers,

Nick