Golf Talk

Fedex Cup changes, more smoke and mirrors.

A couple of changes were announced today by the PGA Tour. First off, after much debate and controversy surrounding the inaugural season of the Fedex Cup, a few changes were made to accommodate the litany of complaints from both the players inside the PGA Tour and fans on the outside. The second change announced was the change to lower cut lines at all PGA Tournaments starting next season.

Fedex Cup Changes:

First off, the changes to the Fedex Cup. The first three events, The Barclays, Deutsche Bank Championship and BMW Championship will stay the same. But now there will be a full week off before the Ryder Cup. The final leg of the Fedex Cup, the Tour Championship will be played the week after the Ryder Cup.

If you ask me, I still that’s too many weeks in a row for these guys. And they still need to do something about the 175 player field to begin with. I mean, nobody ranked 175 is going to win it, why not start at like 125. The PGA Tour supposedly listened to the players this time, as Joe Durant was representing the players, but it still seems like they haven’t really listened to what the players want.

Lower Cut Lines:

In an effort to increase the pace on the weekend matches, the PGA Tour has announced they will change the rules regarding the cut lines for all tournaments in 2008. Previously, the cut was set at somewhere in the top 70 players with ties rounding up. Well a change will be made where if the number of players exceeds 79, they will make the cut one stroke lower even if it is below 70.

This is going to be very controversial for a lot of players, as many of them use the statistic of cuts made to determine success for sponsorships and the like. While this will improve the pace of play in the final rounds, it will have a detrimental effect for the players.

PGA Tour, Fedex Cup

The Fedex Cup was simply a smashing success this season. We brought the top 144 players in the world together into a thrilling four-week event format that created so much buzz it was the talk of the entire sporting world. And how about that fantastic finish. I mean WOW, the players were neck in neck for a whole two days. And for the first time we had more players on the course than fans.

A bright new era indeed

Though we would’ve preferred players not miss events, we designed the system specifically so that players that we knew would miss events would still end up running away with the trophy. Think of it like bye weeks, that was the plan all along.

The $10 million prize will not be distributed in cash but instead will be deposited into a deferred account so that when the winner is washed up and hustling long drives at the local driving range they will have some pocket money to play with.

The NFL?? What’s that? I can’t think of any distractions on a Saturday or Sunday in September that would interfere with our viewership. In fact our numbers look great, they far exceeded our modest expectations.

Now that the PGA Tour has a playoffs, the players have something truly to aspire to. We can only hope that next year’s Fedex Cup will live up to this year’s excitement. In fact, we hope it is so compelling that players choose to play in the Fedex Cup rather than that silly Ryder Cup event that is hardly worth mentioning.

Look at these wonderful insightful sports writers that agree with us. CNNSI’s golf.com says,

Now, the FedEx Cup is finally in the books. The verdict? It delivered.

And Reuters UK had this to say,

The first three playoff events unfolded in spectacular fashion.

In fact, we could only find one negative column about the Fedex Cup from the AOL Fanhouse, and clearly, they must be drinking the koolaid over there.

I mean, what else could you ask for. Tim Finchem is a genius for coming up with this idea. He is sure to draw praise from fans and players alike.

Fedex Cup, Tim Finchem

Tiger wins, like taking candy from a baby. (Photo by Streeter Lecka)

In Tigeresque fashion, TW destroyed the field on Sunday to claim yet another title en route to the easy $10 million crown and the Fedex Cup, and the claim again that he is the greatest golf player in the world. Nobody was even close to touching him, Tiger said it himself before the round that he’s basically ‘untouchable’ when he leads by three.

The only faux pas on his round was hitting into the pair ahead of him. Tiger boomed his 5-wood 286 yards and skipped through the green where Zach Johnson and Sergio Garcia were putting. Sergio putted out with no problems, but Zach three-putted. Afterwards, Zach said he was affected, but he shrugged it off. Tiger said he apologized. In this case, I blame the officials. That’s why they have those portly fellows walking around is to let them know when to hit. Someone should’ve told Tiger to hold off until the group ahead was finished.

As predicted, no Tiger vs Phil matchup on Sunday. My Yahoo!Fantasy picks did extremely well as did most who picked Tiger. I had Sergio and Hunter in my list so I got a nice bump from him. Missed out on Calcaveccia but no big deal. Phil finished middle of the pack as expected.

PGA Tour, Fedex Cup, Tour Championship, Tiger Woods, Zach Johnson

Tiger leads, but Zach was the story on Saturday. (AP Photo/Rob Carr)

Not even a Zach Johnson round of 60 could topple Tiger on Saturday. Heading into the final round of the TOUR Championship and final leg of the Fedex Cup, Tiger still holds a solid 3-shot lead at 19-under. The much ballyhooed pairing of Tiger and Woody came with the expected outcome, Tiger going one way (low) and Woody going the other way (nowhere). Back to Zach, we shouldn’t expect anything but, for some reason he plays so well in Georgia.

So, in the end, Tiger will get the deferred $10 million and put it in a 401K for little Sam, Tim Finchem will still have egg on his face, and Phil Mickelson will still be in Tiger’s shadow. The more things change, the more they stay the same…

PGA Tour, Fedex Cup, Tour Championship, Tiger Woods, Zach Johnson

It was vintage Tiger, a six hole stretch that featured five straight birdies and a 50-foot eagle putt that had him flirting with 59. He made the turn in 28, but would par out most of the way to finish with a 7-under 63 and take a 3-shot lead into the weekend. WOW. Anyways, the only other player that can take this thing away from Tiger’s firm grasp is Phil Mickelson and he’s somewhere around the middle of the pack, about where I had him finishing.

So, is it time to crown Tiger the champ? Pretty much, this thing is done like dinner, crown him already.

PGA Tour, Fedex Cup, Tour Championship, Tiger Woods

Thunderstorms rolled in on Thursday and delayed starts for many players, including Tiger Woods. At the end of the day Tiger had only completed 11 holes. The first round leader is Tim Clark carding an 8-under 62 round. Tiger was at 4-under before stoppage of play. The players are out there early on Friday so we’ll see where they settle out. Phil Mickelson was struggling a bit at 2-over with about 7 holes left in his first round, but I see now that he’s jumped back to 2-under to finish his round earlier in the morning.

Lots of golf left to be played on this one, Tiger looks good to bubble up the leaderboard. Phil may challenge, though I say he stays around middle of the pack.

PGA Tour, Fedex Cup, Tour Championship, Tim Clark, Tiger Woods

These greens are funky, watch me slide, says Tiger

The final leg of Tim Finchem’s “playoffs” experiment, the Fedex Cup, concludes this week with the TOUR Championship in Atlanta. What could’ve been a disaster turned out to be a non-issue as players arrived this week to find the greens in pretty decent shape, we’ll see if that pans out with tournament play on Thursday. The field, as many of you should know by now, has been reduced to just 30. Supposedly the top 30 in the world, but there would be more than a few players who would argue against that. In any case, I’ll give you my Yahoo!fantasy picks as always, just read on.

A List

I believe half of the field is in the A list this week so you’ll have your pick of the litter to choose from.

Tiger Woods - Hard not to pick TW given that he’s been so good recently. He’s pretty much assured himself of the $10 million prize but Tiger plays to impress rather than cash in so we’re thinking he plans to avenge his loss to Phil a couple of weeks ago.

Phil Mickelson - Another Tiger vs. Phil matchup would be nice to see. I actually don’t think that this will be the case come Sunday but should Phil win, not only would he claim the $10 million prize, he could say he made Tiger his biatch twice in a row (ya, wishful thinking, I know).

B List

Justin Rose, Steve Stricker, Sergio Garcia and Camilo Villegas

Justin Rose is probably the best player in the world this year to not win a single event, sucks to be him, good for us fantasy dorks though. Steve Stricker is hotter than Natalie Gulbis in a bikini right now, the cup is more like a basketball hoop for him right now. Sergio Garcia continues to be, the best player to never have won a major. Camilo, I just like the way he lines up his putts, he won’t win.

C List

Brandt Snedeker and Hunter Mahan

The odds are stacked against either of these guys to win, but you have to pick someone so I went with these two young guns. Brandt, Mr. no practice swing guy, and Hunter, the 1 round wonder.

TV coverage will be the Golf Channel on Thu/Fri and NBC on Sat/Sun. Maybe Johnny Miller will drop another F-bomb on air, that was freakin’ hilarious.

Oh, in case you are wondering, yes, the Solheim Cup is this week as well. Talk about buzz-kill, the Fedex Cup wraps up the same time, then NCAAF, then NFL, even Women’s Soccer World Cup is getting more play. Poor ladies, oh well, they’ll get over it, they’re used to getting shafted. At least they get dope gear according to Natalie Gulbis.

PGA Tour, Fedex Cup, TOUR Championship, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson

The heat has been so bad in the Atlanta area the past few weeks that tournament officials for the upcoming TOUR Championship have canceled the pro-am and practice rounds due to the baked greens.

So now the players will have to play the final round of the “playoffs” John Daly style. Show up and tee off.

Just another slap in the face of Tim Finchem’s Fedex Cup concoction that has had disaster after disaster happen. And now it appears that they won’t even have proper greens to play on.

Fedex Cup, TOUR Championship, Tim Finchem

I guess this story never gets old. Tiger Woods hung around for most of three and a half rounds, and seized the lead on a blistering back nine to capture his career 60th win on Sunday. With the win, Tiger all but seals the deal on the Fedex Cup, it would take a last place finish next week at the TOUR Championship for him not to win, not likely.

Props to Aaron Baddeley, he played about as good as he could’ve, just ran into a hot Tiger Woods. Steve Stricker played decent as well, but just couldn’t convert some birdie putts.

If you followed my Yahoo!Fantasy picks, you’ll know that I pretty much owned all week. Tiger, Steve, Sergio and Carl all gave me good points, all finishing 10th or better.

I think the prevailing feeling is that everyone wants to get this TOUR Championship over with so that we can get to the President’s Cup in a couple of weeks. That should be a treat.

PGA Tour, Fedex Cup, BMW Championship, Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Aaron Baddeley

The big news going into week 3 is who’s not here (Phil) instead of who is there. For the third straight week, a top 5 player has decided to skip Finchem’s much heralded “playoffs”. But we gain a couple of players that played hookie last week, namely KJ Choi and Ernie Els so all is not lost. Of course let’s not forget that the PGA Tour itself in Tiger Woods is playing. The course is Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont (IL). The weather is suppose to be inclement so they’ve moved up the tee times. Conditions should be soft and ideal for scoring.

Jump on the link below to see my Yahoo! fantasy picks. In case you’re counting (well, I’m counting), I’ve picked the winner in my pool for 5 straight weeks (OK, Tiger won 2 of those, but still). I’m officially on fire…

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With two “playoff” events under its belt, here are the top 30 standings for the Fedex Cup before the BMW Championship later this week. The top 75 players will be playing with the top 30 advancing to the final event next week at the TOUR Championship.

1 Tiger Woods 30,574
2 Vijay Singh 19,129
3 Jim Furyk 16,691
4 Phil Mickelson 16,037
5 K.J. Choi 15,485
6 Rory Sabbatini 13,548
7 Zach Johnson 13,341
8 Charles Howell III 12,126
9 Brandt Snedeker 11,870
10 Adam Scott 11,196
11 Scott Verplank 10,691
12 Steve Stricker 10,621
13 Sergio Garcia 10,547
14 Woody Austin 10,483
15 Hunter Mahan 10,185
16 John Rollins 9,708
17 Boo Weekley 9,591
18 Aaron Baddeley 9,402
19 Ernie Els 8,980
20 Mark Calcavecchia 8,966
21 Padraig Harrington 8,783
22 Justin Rose 8,698
23 Luke Donald 8,676
24 Geoff Ogilvy 8,623
25 David Toms 8,251
26 Jonathan Byrd 7,757
27 Robert Allenby 7,536
28 Stewart Cink 7,080
29 Heath Slocum 6,801
30 Stuart Appleby 6,799

Phil Mickelson is out, but KJ Choi and Ernie Els are in.

Fedex Cup standings

It’s Phil Mickelson’s turn to take shots at Tim Finchem and his “playoffs”. Phil officially confirmed that he is skipping the BMW next week but said he will be back for the TOUR Championship the following week.

The thing I have a problem with is Phil taking shots at Finchem, then making up excuses for himself for not going next week. First, Phil said this on Monday in his interview with NBC after winning,

“My frustration from this past year came from asking for a couple of things in the FedEx Cup that weren’t done and not really feeling all that bad now if I happen to miss (an event),”

Then Phil follows that up by releasing the following statement today (Tuesday),

“This decision was not an easy one to make, and in no way is meant as disrespectful to the tour or ’sending a message’ to anyone. I’ve talked for weeks about needing to find a balance between my game, my business affairs and my family, and now is the time for me to take some time off.”

Well, which one is it Phil?? Are you taking the week off to show up Finchem? Or do you really need to be with your family? You can’t have it both ways, sounds like a sour puss to me…

Phil Mickelson, Fedex Cup, BMW Championship, Tim Finchem

As predicted, Phil took down the champ (ie. Tiger) on Monday displaying his nice touch with his iron and money putts from within 10 feet. Tiger charged hard late with a few birdies, but Phil was equal to the challenge holing some birdies of his own. Aaron Oberholser and Brett Wetterich were a couple of putts from making it interesting but just couldn’t make the charge. So Phil got the best of Tiger today, but somehow the result doesn’t seem as significant as it should be. Part of the reason is because for all intense and purposes, the season is over. We were waiting for this matchup back in April thru Aug, the heart of the golf season, not in September when football is gearing up.

The other big story, of course, is whether or not Phil will be playing next week. In his post-win interview on NBC, Phil hinted at some conflict with PGA Commisioner Tim Finchem. I don’t blame Phil if he doesn’t play next week. This whole damn format is odd. It’s September, players want to be with their families, take their kids to school. They’ve just beaten themselves up for 6, some for 8 months, and now we have to play 4 more events?

PGA Tour, Fedex Cup, Deutsche Bank Championship, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson

The stars have aligned to give us the much anticipated Tiger/Phil pairing on a rare Monday final round at the Deutsche Bank Championship. But the leader going in is Brett Wetterich and if he has anything to say, Tiger nor Phil will be the story on Monday. Wetterich shot a steady 5-under 66 round to get to a 13-under total. Phil is at 11-under and Tiger at 10-under. Mike Weir had the fall of the day on Sunday, going from leader to a T35, poor Mike.

I really like Phil on Monday. I just think he’s putting really well and he’s sticking his irons within 10 feet. Tiger will always threaten but I haven’t seen that real killer instinct all week, he’s been too laid-back. But that could change on Monday, you never know with Tiger.

Aaron Baddeley is just a weird anomaly. One minute he looks like he could runaway with this thing, then another he’s floundering. He’s got to keep his emotions in check.

Watch out, Angel Cabrera made a major move shooting a 65 and is just 4-shots back, we all know what he can do.

Should be a fantastic final round, see you at the finish line…

PGA Tour, Fedex Cup, Deutsche Bank Championship, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Brett Wetterich

A day after the big three, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh laid eggs, they fired back with the low rounds of the day on day 2. But, they’re still behind, Mike Weir, Aaron Baddeley and Rich Beem lead at 9-under. Phil is at 8-under and Tiger is at 6-under.

Watch out for Ryan Moore and Sean O’Hair who are at 8-under. I think Ryan Moore is due to break out.

As for my fantasy pool, I had a big boost today as Aaron Baddeley jumped to number one, Phil had the low round, so I’m sitting pretty.

Early tee time tomorrow here on the west coast, see you all tomorrow…

PGA Tour, Fedex Cup, Deutsche Bank Championship, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Mike Weir, Rich Beem, Aaron Baddeley