So you find the FedEx Cup confusing? Here’s how it compares with similar competitions in the LPGA and NASCAR.
FedEx Cup
The PGA Tour’s new postseason format.
Regular season: Throughout the season, players accumulated points to qualify for the new postseason format. The top 144 players advanced to the four-tournament finale.
The reset: The points were reset, and players were awarded points based on their finish. Tiger Woods, who was No. 1, started with 100,000, No. 2 Vijay Singh had 99,000, and so on.
The playoff: Steve Stricker won the first event, the Barclays Championship, and 120 players went on to the Deutsche Bank Championship.
The field then was trimmed to 70 players for the BMW Championship. The BMW will determine the top 30 players on the points list who will advance to the next week’s Tour Championship in Atlanta.
The payout: The winner of the FedEx Cup will receive $10 million in deferred compensation that will go into the player’s retirement account.
Does it work? Too early to tell. The system has many flaws. But it is providing quality fields at a time of year when most of the best players had formerly called it a season.
LPGA playoffs
The LPGA devised the first playoff in golf, making its debut last year.
Regular season: The season is broken into two halves, creating two races during the year. Fifteen players qualify for each half, plus two wild-card picks for a total of 32 players.
Players can qualify by winning a designated “winner event,” a tournament that carries a purse of more than $2 million.
Players can accumulate points, with one point being the equivalent of $1 earned on tour. Points do not carry over from one half to the other.
The top two players on the money list who haven’t qualified for the playoffs will advance as wild-card picks.
The playoff: The ADT Championship in November will feature three days of playoffs and then a final-day shootout competition.
*The field will be cut to 16 players after 36 holes, with a sudden-death playoff in case of a tie.
*The scores then are washed away, as the field is cut to eight players following 54 holes of competition. Again, a sudden-death playoff will be used in case of a tie.
*It basically is winner take all for the surviving eight players on the final day. The low finisher collects $1 million of the $1.5 million purse, the largest payday in women’s golf.
Last year, Julieta Granada claimed a two-shot victory over Lorena Ochoa to win the big prize.
Does it work? This format does feel like a playoff, with players being eliminated through the tournament. Also, 32 players advancing to the playoffs make more sense than the 144 players in the PGA Tour’s format. Breaking the season into two halves creates an added layer of awareness at midseason.
On the negative side, the tournament is held in mid-November, long after interest in golf has faded for the season.
Chase for the Nextel Cup
NASCAR’s version of the playoffs.
The qualifications: The top 12 drivers on the points list after 26 races qualify for the Chase.
The reset: All 12 drivers have their point totals reset to 5,000 points. Then each driver receives a 10-point bonus for each race he won during the previous 26 races.
The playoffs: The 12 drivers continue to accumulate points for the last 10 races of the season. Whoever leads after the 36th race wins the Cup.
The payoff: A minimum of $6 million.
Does it work? Like the PGA Tour’s playoffs, the NASCAR points system is unwieldy and hard for the fans to follow. Limiting the Chase to 12 drivers excludes too many.
But the concept has been a success because the battle for No. 1 usually goes to the wire. And the drivers don’t skip races, unlike a certain golfer in the FedEx Cup.
