Great debate: What's the best format for the Playoffs?
Steve Dennis is a PGA TOUR staffer. Geoff Shackelford is a golf writer based in Los Angeles whose work appears regularly in Golf World, Links Magazine and on his own blog, geoffshackelford.com. They have been debating the best format for the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, and have agreed to take the debate public.
STEVE DENNIS: This feels like a no-brainer to me. The Playoffs were amazing last year, and should be even more exciting this year.
GEOFF SHACKELFORD: I love the idea of the playoffs and strongly believe they have the ability to become sensational. But before we go capitalizing the P-word, they need to qualify as actual playoffs where surprising eliminations occur and unpredictability electrifies the four weeks of play.
What I'd really like to see is something that skews a little closer to the LPGA's ADT Championship, with the idea of creating important lead-up events where players fight off elimination so they can take their shot at a big payday, where we see four days of "must see, must TiVo" golf at East Lake.
I envision at least two, maybe three days of playoffs like the old International where we whittle the field down daily, followed by a grand Sunday where the last men standing grind it out over 36 holes for $10 million. Because a true playoff would be a wide-open funfest where underdogs sometimes steal the thunder from the big boys. Right now, the system precludes that possibility.
(Editor's Note: At the ADT Championship, 32 players start the event, 16 are cut after two rounds, and the other 16 start over with a fresh scorecard beginning in the third round. Eight more are eliminated after the third round, the scorecards are again reset to zero, and the remaining eight play one final round for the championship.)
STEVE DENNIS: OK, but if the final event is a shootout where everyone starts with an equal chance to win the Cup, the first three events lose an awful lot of their meaning. Last year, Steve Stricker's win at The Barclays was very exciting -- not only did he beat a great field, he jumped to the top of the standings. The Tiger vs. Phil duel at The Deutsche Bank Championship was great drama in part because it was going to decide who would be leading the FedExCup race.
With a final event format like the ADT, neither of those finishes would have much meaning. You give up three weeks of very meaningful and exciting tournaments to generate extra drama on two days -- Friday and Saturday of THE TOUR Championship. That doesn't feel like a good trade-off to me.
Also, I don't like the idea of the lead-up events being "eliminations," because that puts the focus on the middle of the pack. Who finished 71st becomes more important than who finished first, which doesn't feel right to me.
Here's what I do like: the way the PGA TOUR Playoffs are set up, you're guaranteed to get a deserving winner. The winner of the FedExCup will either be someone who has played great all year and had a great Playoff run, or someone who has played well all year and had an unbelievable Playoff run -- a couple of victories and another top 5, in all probability.
GEOFF SHACKELFORD: A deserving winner? Yawn! If every sport worked so hard to protect their deserving regular-season champs, their playoffs would be meaningless. Sure, golf is different and you guys have done a nice job making the regular season mean something. But if the PGA TOUR is serious about entertaining its fans and finishing the season on a high, the FedExCup points should get you in the playoffs and seed you in a way that gives you a bit of an edge in trying to reach the big finale at East Lake.
Any good playoff lets that late season wild card make a run at the big boys. Small market versus Big market. You know, the whole Cinderella story thing. But right now, the entire system seems gerrymandered to get Tiger, Phil and all the other guys who don't know what it means to fly commercial to East Lake.
Frankly, no one wants to see really rich guys get richer every time. It'd be a lot more fun if they were chased by someone whose life would be profoundly changed by winning the huge money being handed out in the FedExCup.
And I know you guys down there in Ponte Vedra agree, otherwise you wouldn't be wiping the points slate clean after Greensboro and ruining any kind of huge advantage built up by those elite, uh, excuse me, those deserving players.
STEVE DENNIS: Hey, I love a good Cinderella story. But Cinderella should have to kick some serious aspirants to get the prize. North Carolina State had to win six in a row to collect the NCAA Basketball Championship in 1983. The New York Giants not only to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl last year to get the prize, they also had to get through Tampa, Dallas and Green Bay.
The PGA TOUR Playoffs are set up to allow for a Cinderella, if that player has an amazing run. If, for example, it had been the 100th seed instead of Tiger finishing second, first and first in the final three events last year, that player would have won the 2007 FedExCup. "Outta nowhere. A former greens keeper, about to become..." well, you know the rest.
But I don't want the 100th seed to win by making the cut on the number three times and then having the tournament of his career at East Lake. Even if he drives a Chevy Impala to Atlanta.
We agree on one thing -- it would be great fun and great theater to see a PGA TOUR "everyman" battling a top seed down the stretch for the title. (Think U.S. Open with Tiger Woods versus Rocky Balboa, er ... Rocco Mediate.) I just don't want it to happen by virtue of a gimmick. That might be fun for a year or two, but I'm hoping "Playoffs" is a part of the PGA TOUR vernacular for a long, long time.
GEOFF SHACKELFORD: Did you say gimmick? Now, there's a thing called the "wild card" in football and baseball that seem somewhat gimmicky to me. And an NCAA basketball committee sitting down to pick 65 teams to play? Gimmick! And whoa Nellie, there's the gimmick of all gimmicks called the BCS, which is college football's way to pick a champion that's even more convoluted than the point system in play for the FedExCup.
Now, let me be clear, you guys do a phenomenal job working with television to keep us updated on who stands where in the FedExCup. But near the end, a great playoff must be easy to understand. As insidious as the NCAA Basketball Committee can be or as lousy as the BCS consistently proves to be, both still come down to one game. No more points, no more politics, no more numerical ties to the regular season.
Yet the FedExCup keeps the numbers crunching in play right to the end. I can't explain that to the average guy on the street. But what I can explain is one day, $10 million on the line, last man standing takes home the huge check. Even non-golfers will tune into that, and you all may find it gimmicky, but let's be real here: the PGA TOUR is in the ratings business. More ratings means more money for your players, more love for your sponsors, more attention to your charities, and ultimately, more people celebrating the great game of golf.
STEVE DENNIS: The examples you give of gimmicks all have to do with selecting the teams that will contend for the prize, whereas the competition itself is a series of "normal" football, baseball or basketball games. What you're recommending for golf feels more to me like changing the rules of the game itself.
Moreover, I don't think you give fans enough credit -- they can figure out who's in contention, and root accordingly. Certainly NASCAR fans have figured it out, and theirs is a system that's arguably harder to understand than the PGA TOUR's.
I think we're going to have to agree to disagree, at least until the last putt drops at THE TOUR Championship on Sept. 28. I think golf fans are going to be talking about an incredibly dramatic and exciting finish to a great Playoffs. At which point we can start arguing about the intrinsic value and purpose of the Fall Series. I look forward to it.
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