PGA Tour unveils third version of its playoff format
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And for the third season of the
That's another way of saying Finchem and his colleagues didn't like how it felt in 2008, when the Super Bowl of the PGA Tour, the Tour Championship, fell flat because Vijay Singh had all but wrapped up the $10 million prize by winning the first two playoff tournaments. With the changes, Finchem was asked if there was a way to wrap up the title before reaching the Tour Championship.
"No chance," he said.
Finchem highlighted the key changes for 2009 during a conference call:
Instead of the FedEx Cup standings being reset at the start of the playoffs, officials will do that after the third playoff tournament, the BMW Championship. Thus, there can't be a repeat of 2008, when Padraig Harrington piled up a ton of regular-season points but floundered in the first three playoff events and didn't even make it to the Tour Championship.
Bowing to criticism lodged by many marquee players, the size of the playoff fields have been trimmed to create what Finchem calls a "specialness to making the playoffs." Whereas 144 qualified for The Barclays, only the top 125 will do so in '09. The
In both 2007 (Tiger Woods) and 2008 (Singh), the FedEx Cup champion was pretty much assured even before a tee ball was struck at the Tour Championship, but now that won't be possible. The top five players in the standings would have the greatest chance at winning, though with the standings reset headed into the Tour Championship, there will be a mathematical chance that any one of the 30 could triumph.
Finchem also confirmed that the Tour Championship would be Sept. 24-27, two weeks after the BMW, so the Tour will be dark Sept. 17-20.
