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Revamp the Playoffs

JB

JB

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The playoff system has had a lot of changes and it almost feels like the early years were more of a beta test with the current being what they are running with at least for now. But this stat sure makes you question the entire thing, right?

Koepka won two of the four majors this year.
He could win the Tour Championship as well and still not win the FedEx Cup. Now granted he missed time so that is an extreme case.
How about this one. I believe (my math could be off) Tony Finau could finish 2nd and win the FedEx Cup with zero wins this year.

My solution is making a 4 event match play where the Tour Championship is 1 on 1 and winner take all.
 
JB said:
The playoff system has had a lot of changes and it almost feels like the early years were more of a beta test with the current being what they are running with at least for now. But this stat sure makes you question the entire thing, right?

Koepka won two of the four majors this year.
He could win the Tour Championship as well and still not win the FedEx Cup. Now granted he missed time so that is an extreme case.
How about this one. I believe (my math could be off) Tony Finau could finish 2nd and win the FedEx Cup with zero wins this year.

My solution is making a 4 event match play where the Tour Championship is 1 on 1 and winner take all.
Click to expand...

Interesting idea. My idea was to simply make the FEC and the Tour championship the same thing.

• If you make it through the playoffs, you get to compete in the Tour Championship.
• Standings only apply to the playoffs, not to the Championship. Once you're in, it's fair game.
• The Tour Championship has a $20M purse with the FEC and $10M going to the winner.
 
JB said:
The playoff system has had a lot of changes and it almost feels like the early years were more of a beta test with the current being what they are running with at least for now. But this stat sure makes you question the entire thing, right?

Koepka won two of the four majors this year.
He could win the Tour Championship as well and still not win the FedEx Cup. Now granted he missed time so that is an extreme case.
How about this one. I believe (my math could be off) Tony Finau could finish 2nd and win the FedEx Cup with zero wins this year.

My solution is making a 4 event match play where the Tour Championship is 1 on 1 and winner take all.
Click to expand...

How many people would watch if it’s Billy Ho vs Tony F or any of the non super stars on the tour.

I’m not saying it doesn’t need to be fixed, cuz it does. If what you shared is true that is something that needs fixing.
 
JB said:
The playoff system has had a lot of changes and it almost feels like the early years were more of a beta test with the current being what they are running with at least for now. But this stat sure makes you question the entire thing, right?

Koepka won two of the four majors this year.
He could win the Tour Championship as well and still not win the FedEx Cup. Now granted he missed time so that is an extreme case.
How about this one. I believe (my math could be off) Tony Finau could finish 2nd and win the FedEx Cup with zero wins this year.

My solution is making a 4 event match play where the Tour Championship is 1 on 1 and winner take all.
Click to expand...



Been saying this but here is what I would do:

4 tournaments, 1st 3 winnow the field down to 32, final is match play.

Give them a week off after the 1st 3 tournaments, start the last even Tuesday, but play it in Vegas at night. Finish it Saturday night under the lights (or go monday through friday) and in the final matches have the guys carrying the name of the groups push a cart with the money on it so they can see what they are playing for.

It is all for TV so why not amp everything up?

I also think you could make a losers bracket where the 8 guys who don't win a match get nothing (or maybe just their costs covered for flights/what not) and then each losers match be worth a significant amount of money.
 
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Tadashi70 said:
How many people would watch if it’s Billy Ho vs Tony F or any of the non super stars on the tour.

I’m not saying it doesn’t need to be fixed, cuz it does. If what you shared is true that is something that needs fixing.
Click to expand...

They both appear to be true, but I dont think you can set the rules ahead of time to fix it so Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods makes the final group. Outside of those 3, the casual fan probably isn't tuning in, right?
So go with something that brings a level of excitement. Not sure what that is, but 1 on 1 sure sounds fun : )
 
My idea is to scrap it completely as it’s complete bollocks, top 30 enter the tour championship like the old days, whoever wins, wins. Pretty simple.


#FiberLaunch
 
Like the US Am, a matchplay finish would be pretty good TV. But I think there's the potential to not have big names and that hurts.

Mark_UK said:
My idea is to scrap it completely as it’s complete bollocks, top 30 enter the tour championship like the old days, whoever wins, wins. Pretty simple.


#FiberLaunch
Click to expand...

I agree.

Get to East Lake, you have a shot to win in a winner takes all tournament. Top 30 has a good enough year to be crowned champion even if their only win is the Tour Championship, that way you eliminate the "No win champion" possibility.
 
I say go the march madness route but with a twist. 1-64 match play. Everyone keeps playing until we have a clear cut winner. 1 day winner take all. Everyone plays a hole, if someone eagles the first hole and no one else does its OVER. if 28 of them birdie they continue to hole 2 and it keeps going.

It could be a 2 hour event to an 11 hour event. Played under the lights so it can keep going for hours upon hours.
 
JB said:
They both appear to be true, but I dont think you can set the rules ahead of time to fix it so Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods makes the final group. Outside of those 3, the casual fan probably isn't tuning in, right?
So go with something that brings a level of excitement. Not sure what that is, but 1 on 1 sure sounds fun : )
Click to expand...

Idk, I kind of like the 30 man field tour champ. I’d just like the guys that earned big points during the year to retain more them.
 
Tadashi70 said:
Idk, I kind of like the 30 man field tour champ. I’d just like the guys that earned big points during the year to retain more them.
Click to expand...
Same here.
Match play is tricky cause u cant just have the final 2 out there playing on Sunday ad that would be a brutal watch on tv.

And fans probably wont care too much to watch other consolation matches.

Might just need to revisit how points are awarded and re-weight accordingly.
 
I’m not sure what the best answer is but I’d love to see the first couple of tournaments go towards seeding a match play bracket and then duke it out. Similar to the amateur.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The rumored fix can not happen, where someone starts under par.

Maybe they start narrowing the field earlier in the year. Maybe have two check points before the end of the year. Weight event differently to drive marquee players to struggling events. Then those in the top 150 are eligible for the 4 events at the end of the year. The next check point would be for the top 100 with FedEx points are now eligible and then the end of the year they cut to 70 and ties. These guys play the next four events and the guy with the most points win. They can have that one for free....:banana:

mikedean441 said:
Same here.
Match play is tricky cause u cant just have the final 2 out there playing on Sunday ad that would be a brutal watch on tv.

And fans probably wont care too much to watch other consolation matches.

Might just need to revisit how points are awarded and re-weight accordingly.
Click to expand...
 
Match Play is the answer but unfortunately it doesn't play well on television.
 
Love me some match play, would make for a great TV product.
 
fupresti said:
Match Play is the answer but unfortunately it doesn't play well on television.
Click to expand...

And therein lies the problem, unless you have one of the needle movers involved.
Because each year there are more little holes found where its just odd.
 
JB said:
And therein lies the problem, unless you have one of the needle movers involved.
Because each year there are more little holes found where its just odd.
Click to expand...

I would reconsider if it the Tour Championship was top 4 players and then winners and consolation brackets. Maybe even go to top 8 and play it out over 4 days.
 
Do you know if NASCAR or the Champions tour has isssues with their playoff systems? If so how did they fix, because I have not heard anything about their systems being broken.
JB said:
And therein lies the problem, unless you have one of the needle movers involved.
Because each year there are more little holes found where its just odd.
Click to expand...
 
Tadashi70 said:
Do you know if NASCAR or the Champions tour has isssues with their playoff systems? If so how did they fix, because I have not heard anything about their systems being broken.
Click to expand...

I know many have complained about Nascar over the years, but I think its a different audience where they want to see a winner. Just my thoughts.
 
I'm not fixing it. I like it. The whole goal of these "playoffs" was to get the top golfers on the tour to play in tournaments after the PGA Championship before the (then) silly season. It has worked in that respect. I don't look at a player any different because he won the FedEx Cup. Bill Hass, Billy Ho, Sneds, they all played well at the right time, it's not like anyone was going to confuse them for major champions of that year or player of the year caliber seasons.
 
I am with you, I just want to see the best battle for the title. This week was a pretty good example of what I like to see.
ddec said:
I'm not fixing it. I like it. The whole goal of these "playoffs" was to get the top golfers on the tour to play in tournaments after the PGA Championship before the (then) silly season. It has worked in that respect. I don't look at a player any different because he won the FedEx Cup. Bill Hass, Billy Ho, Sneds, they all played well at the right time, it's not like anyone was going to confuse them for major champions of that year or player of the year caliber seasons.
Click to expand...
 
JB said:
I know many have complained about Nascar over the years, but I think its a different audience where they want to see a winner. Just my thoughts.
Click to expand...
Nascar did revamp the playoff several times. It used to be a formality and if you had a dominant season you were crowned. They've had to adjust several times to try to find the right formula for the 'chase' that they have now. I don't know all the details but my brother in law is a big Nascar fan and I've seen my share of races with him

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Tadashi70 said:
I am with you, I just want to see the best battle for the title. This week was a pretty good example of what I like to see.
Click to expand...

hell yeah. Sure it's a bit of NASCAR to it, but you know what, the fields are strong and we are getting the top players battling it out, which is entertaining.
 
It's not perfect, however I don't have an answer to fix it. It's sort of just the risk of the points system. It's there to rewards consistent players all year.

Maybe extent it to more than just the Top 5 have the right to win the Tour Championship and win the FedEx Cup?

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not sure if this has been floated before. but here's my thought: take all of the fedex cup money, and spread it over the remaining tournaments. the amount of the pot that is split increases by each tournament, with the tour championship getting 50% of the current fedex cup money.

there would still be a year-long points system. the events would still have points to make it to the next event. there could even be some kind of points carryover for the top 10 regular season points earners. everyone else resets to zero and has to play their way into each event.

the fedex cup has achieved something great: it's motivating these guys to keep playing the silly season. that's good for golf fans.

but what is the incentive for the tour pros to play? the penalty for a lack of events played? i don't think there's enough teeth in that penalty. so i think it's the promise to make more money. and the way you keep them incentivized to make more money, without this lopsided one-time payout to someone who just gets hot at the right time, is to spread the money over the tournaments.

don't @ me
 
chillyballer said:
I say go the march madness route but with a twist. 1-64 match play. Everyone keeps playing until we have a clear cut winner. 1 day winner take all. Everyone plays a hole, if someone eagles the first hole and no one else does its OVER. if 28 of them birdie they continue to hole 2 and it keeps going.

It could be a 2 hour event to an 11 hour event. Played under the lights so it can keep going for hours upon hours.
Click to expand...

That sounds like the 24 for 1 playoff they had for the last US Am spot this year. I watched some of that and it was atrocious watching some of the shots those guys hit toward (I can't even say "into" because some were so bad) #17 @ Pebble.
 
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