PGA TOUR’s Season Finale Format Falls Flat of Expectations

It’s no secret that the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the season-long race have drawn plenty of criticism over the years. For the past few years, the PGA TOUR has given the leader of the standings a two-stroke lead over the second-place player, with staggering stroke advantages continuing the further the field goes back.

But there are still some questions as to whether it is the best format as things continue to move forward. Scottie Scheffler, the player who is benefitting the most from the format thanks to a record year in earnings fueled by six wins on TOUR, including a Major Championship at The Masters, called the format and the idea that it being a season-long race “silly.”

“I think it’s silly.” Scottie Scheffler does not enjoy the FedEx Cup playoff format. pic.twitter.com/p2TBtqHD1Z

— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) August 14, 2024

Justin Thomas said earlier this week that if it were a casual game and another PGA TOUR player were to give him strokes, he’d be “pretty pissed.”

This begs the question: Why hasn’t the TOUR developed a better format for the FedEx Cup Playoffs?

There are plenty of ways to do it, and another sport that has an individualized format where the player’s performance truly determines their placing and success from a year-long perspective exists: NASCAR.

In 2004, NASCAR introduced a playoff system. 36 races in a year, with the first 26 being a competition to make it into the final ten races, known as the Nextel Cup Playoffs. The field then reset from a points perspective, separating everyone by ten.

In each race, drivers earned points, but the final ten races truly tested the consistency of the drivers. As an unspoken rule, drivers could have one “mulligan,” where a wreck or failure to finish would not necessarily take them out of the chance to win the championship altogether, but it definitely hurt your chances.

The TOUR could adopt something like this but allow more players into the FedEx Cup Playoffs, as field sizes are much larger than fields in NASCAR races. The FedEx Cup Playoffs could be a few events longer; perhaps five would be appropriate. 

Players would earn points for their finishes: 1st gets, hypothetically, 100, 2nd gets 95, 3rd gets 90, and so on. This would reward consistency throughout the playoffs instead of giving one player a stroke advantage. They could still win the FedEx Cup without winning the TOUR Championship.

If they make the playoffs and finish in the Top 5 of every event, and have a better average finish than every other player who qualified for the playoffs, they would likely win the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the $25 million bonus, and it would all be rooted in consistency throughout the Playoffs, along with a good year-long performance that would qualify them to be in the final five Playoff events.

This is not the only possibility, either. There are, undoubtedly, endless ways to improve the playoff format. But as of now, what we have is not the best way to determine a winner.

Cover Image via Golfweek