OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — Instead of outrage and grave concern that Rory McIlroy chose to sit out the first FedEx Cup playoff event — without dropping a single spot in the rankings — let it be a reminder that golf is not like other sports.
These are not the “playoffs.” That’s for team sports.
This is golf, which has never had a defining finish to its year and never will.
The FedEx Cup attempted to create a finish line until the tour tried to promote it as so much more. What it did was create an incentive for the best players to compete after the majors were over. That part has worked beautifully, and it still does, with or without McIlroy.
Perhaps one reason McIlroy’s absence got so much attention was no one had skipped a postseason event (barring injury) since Webb Simpson five years ago. Simpson pulled out of the BMW Championship at No. 3 in the FedEx Cup, saying he wanted to be fresh for the FedEx Cup finale at East Lake.
McIlroy had said in June he has earned the right to do whatever he wants, and that includes skipping a $20 million tournament (for the third time this year), and sitting out the first round of what the PGA Tour calls its “playoffs.” He remains at No. 2.
But he certainly wasn’t the first to do that. Tiger Woods was a no-show for the first playoff event in 2007, and he still went on to win the FedEx Cup. Phil Mickelson skipped the BMW Championship that year when it was the third of four postseason events.
Sergio Garcia? He missed seven postseason events when he was eligible (and presumably healthy), one year taking time off in Switzerland and Spain because he wanted a break.
McIlroy finished up nine holes of practice at Caves Valley on Monday afternoon as some of the players who advanced to the second stage were still on their way to the BMW Championship after a steamy week in Memphis, Tennessee. Given the heat, he’s probably fresher than most.
He first raised the question last year when he was No. 3 in the FedEx Cup, finished next-to-last in Memphis and wondered what he was doing there. He only dropped to No. 5. It changed nothing. So it was no surprise McIlroy sat this one out.
Scottie Scheffler could have easily done the same. The TPC Southwind is where he last missed a cut (in 2022, when the postseason opener had 125-man field and a 36-hole cut). The FedEx St. Jude Classic also gave him a sponsor exemption when he was 17, and he has never missed it as a PGA Tour member. His choice.
But playoffs?
Jim Mora and his infamous “Playoffs?” interview comes to mind this time of the year.
The FedEx Cup might be a lot easier to understand — and appreciate — if the PGA Tour had just stuck to the right language when this season-ending bonanza first was unveiled.
It was at East Lake in 2006 during the Tour Championship — remember, that was the year Woods and Mickelson both decided to skip the PGA Tour’s finale — when former Commissioner Tim Finchem laid out the details of the FedEx Cup.
He said golf was the only major sport where the regular season was more compelling than the finish (he apparently didn’t think much of tennis). And so Finchem introduced a concept referred to as a championship series of four tournaments.
He used that phrase — “championship series” — 20 times in a lengthy news conference. The eight times he mentioned “playoffs” was comparison with other sports, and how the championship series would be “our version of the playoff system.”
And then some marketing genius leaned on “playoffs,” the word was painted onto a grassy hill at Westchester Country Club, the term stuck and it still doesn’t make sense.
That especially was the case when it began with 144 players, leading Jim Furyk to do the math.
“In football, there’s 32 teams in the NFL and if I’m correct, 12 teams go to the playoffs,” he said in 2007. “This year, 125 guys also keep their tour card and 144 people are going to the Playoffs. So that’s roughly 110% of the league.”
Golf is not like other sports.
The concept is fine. The PGA Tour’s version of the playoffs is working because it provides three weeks of its best players competing for a trophy that is slowly gaining in stature. It’s not one of the four majors. It’s probably still a notch below The Players Championship.
The PGA Tour has tweaked the format five times, seeking a solution that doesn’t exist.
The most recent format — “starting strokes” — was the most controversial, with the No. 1 player starting at 10-under par before the Tour Championship began. Not even Scheffler liked that. But it at least rewarded the players who performed the best throughout the year.
Now the 30 players who emerge from the BMW Championship this week will all start from scratch at East Lake, and the low score wins. The “season-long champion” could be someone who wins for the first time all year.
How is the FedEx Cup trophy any different from the old Tour Championship trophy?
The money is better. And unlike the last Tour Championship before the FedEx Cup began, at least everyone will show up.
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On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season.
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