Best of Times and Worst of Times For The FedEx Cup

Tiger wins the FedEx Cup in grand style. What could be better for Tom Finchem, the PGA and Federal Express than to have the best player in the game win the inaugural competition? That takes care of the best of times. Now what about the worst of times?

First, the scoring system was of the wrong magnitude. As many times as the commentators tried to get you excited about what-if scenarios, it was still ho hum. Who can keep track or get excited about a scoring system that has tens and hundreds of thousands of points? We like small numbers for our sports.

Second, it's too much golf for one trophy. The top pros care about the Majors, everything else is a 'nice to have' not a 'must have'. The season already wears them out. And this time of year golf has to compete with the NFL and Major League Baseball. Like every pro sport in the last 50 years where a league president comes along who thinks he'll earn his legacy by extending the season, Finchem figures that more of a good thing is even better. Only if you have another major, but the problem is you can't just declare something important and have it be so. Others have tried and it didn't work for them either.

Third, Tiger isn't going to play in it next year. No, he didn't tell me that, but think about it for a moment. The tournament didn't live up to the hype. He's already won it. Next year there is the Ryder Cup to take even more out of him. And his daughter will be one year old and with Tiger's dedication to family he'll have all the more reason to skip it. He'll simply tell the PGA he's tired and banged up, needs to spend time at home and why not let someone else have a chance to win it anyway.

And there's another problem for the current FedEx format, namely a four tournament in a row competition plays into the hands of the world's best golfer. Other players get hot but it lasts only a tournament. Who's going to stay with Tiger over 288 holes? At this point, no one. Right now the rest of the pack hopes they can steal the occassional 72 hole tournament from him when he isn't looking, anything beyond that would be a miracle. Look at poor Phil, who you can argue is the next best golfer at the moment. He finally beats Tiger in a tourament on the last day, acts like he's got Tiger in the palm of his hand and can, therefore, skip Chicago and then is so far behind he's written out of the script after Day 1 at Eastlake.

The only hope for the FedEx is to rework the format. Even then it's going to be tough to make this work out. Here's my advice to the committee that will evaluate this. Whatever you come up with, run it by Tiger and see if he likes it. If he does, you can guarantee that the rest will follow. If he doesn't, then go back to the drawing board until you get it right.