Golf's playoff failure

Ask any avid golf fan who won last year’s Masters, or who secured the British Open championship, and you’ll likely get the correct answer.

Follow with his question: Who won the FedEx Cup? You might get met with a puzzled look. The PGA Tour playoffs, as they like to call it, began this morning in New Jersey with The Barclays, the first of four season-ending tournaments that are supposed to be golf’s version of the NFL playoffs.

Needless to say, it falls way short.

For me, and many other fans of the game, the season ends with the PGA Championship, the final major of the season. Sure, there’s $10 million up for grabs for the winner, but nobody cares about these tournaments, and the players are first in line.
Two years ago, when Tiger Woods won the initial FedEx Cup, he skipped the first tournament because he had such a huge lead. Last year, Vijay Singh, who missed the cuts at the British and PGA, won the first two events and only had two show up to win the Cup.

I understand that the guy who is playing the best golf at the end of the season – like the NFL playoffs – should leave with the top prize, but the PGA has missed the mark in its system.

That system has been tweaked again this year, with winning players getting five times as many points (2,500) as they would for a regular season win (500). The brass at the PGA is hoping people will finally start tuning in.