First Tiger Woods snubs the first game in the playoffs, now Phil Mickleson is snubbing the third game after winning the second.

The whole playoff structure is too complex anyway, not to mention unfair. What other sport gives such a huge advantage to the regular season leaders? The chances of any player outside the top ten winning the FedEx Cup are almost unsurmountable. They need to redesign this whole schmozzle...

More on the playoff debate...

yeah they need to make it where you're fucked if u miss one event.

Can you imagine a baseball team deciding to sit out a game in the World Series?

It doesn't matter what format/rules they implement, they will never get the buzz they want because the focus for golf will always be majors, just like in tennis, where winning the year-ending championship in Shanghai is nice, but people could hardly remember who are in the finals each year, and you don't see tennis try to do something to make that championship more exciting. No reason to artificially generate something out of thin air.

Well, last year neither Mickelson nor Tiger played at The Player's, that won't happen this year, so it is a success.

I think the problem before was that Tour Championship was too late that everyone (players and viewers) was already in offseason mode and shifted attention to other sports. If they just put it at early October, then from April to Oct, there is an important event to focus every month (four majors, Players for May, and Ryder/President's Cup for Sep). Not all sports need a rousing finish; the ones that need it are because the rest of the season are not as meaningful, but with tennis and golf, the meaningful events are already all embedded into the entire season.

The PGA is running commercials that say "30 players... Who will win?... Watch the drama!"

Yet there are now only 5 players who can win the playoffs, even though 30 are playing the final game this coming weekend.



Is this the stupidest playoff format ever devised, or what?

It's very stupid. I thought all 30 players had a shot at winning the 10 mill.

The 10 million dollar prize may be closer to 40 by the time some of those in contention reach 45 years old, which is the time at which it pays out - assuming you have played less than 15 events that year.

I thought it was an annuity paid out slowly through your retirement...

Playoff rewards
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx_Cup
The player with the most points after The Tour Championship will win the FedEx Cup itself and $10 million of a $35 million bonus fund. The runner-up gets $3 million, 3rd place $2 million, 4th place $1.5 million, 5th place $1 million, and so on down to $30,000 for 144th place. However, players under 45 will not be able to access any FedEx Cup bonuses (as opposed to prize money earned in the tournaments themselves) until turning 45. They can invest their bonus in any manner they choose, and once they turn 45, can choose to defer payment until they turn 60 or play in fewer than 15 PGA Tour events in a season. Once a player chooses to take payments from his fund, he will receive monthly checks for five years.

So even the 30th place, 144,000 dollar winner has to wait until 45 to access that money? That I did not know.