You Asked For It

First of all, apologies for the lack of updates recently. I'm in the middle of homebuying, attending out of town weddings, and sadly a death in my family. Now, onto other matters.

A lot in the media are in an uproar that Tiger will not be participating in this weeks The Barclays on the PGA Tour. It is the first of the four FedEx Cup Playoff events. Tiger initially indicated his intention to play all four events, but claimed his body is weak (BS) and would resurface in Boston in two weeks.

The media does not really have a right to be upset here. After all, many have been declaring the FedEx Cup DOA for months. Tiger skipping the first event of the series can either help them write the first line of the obituary for the FEC, or bash Tiger. They're doing both. But, Tiger doesn't like Westchester. He never promised to play in this event. And, best of all, he really doesn't even have to show up in order to win the $10 million deferred championship prize. As has been aptly mentioned, Tiger will need approximately a Top 5, a Top 10, and a Top 25 to win the FedEx Cup. In other words, he simply has to appear for three tournaments because he has excellent records at the TPC Boston, Cog Hill, and East Lake.

As for Tiger bashing, go ahead and nail him for his lame excuse. Ed Sherman did. He observes that with the kind of physical condition we know Woods is in, it is simply not possible that he would be too tired to play this week. Woods could have come up with something better, especially after stating his intention of playing in The Barclays.

Really, though, Woods is probably sending a very obvious F-U to Tim Finchem and the Tour brass. I would wager hard-earned money that Woods will still win the FEC. If he does, it will be the ultimate illegitimization (not a word until now) of this playoff concept. Woods will expose it for how ridiculously far ahead of the Tour he is, even with the absurd leveling concept explained well by Chris Lewis:

I’ll bet, however, that his chief dislike is the way the playoff system disregards the regular season. This year Woods won five tournaments, two-and-a-half times as many as anyone else, and nearly $8 million, almost twice as much as Vijay Singh ($4.8 million) or Phil Mickelson ($4.2 million), his two nearest rivals. FedEx points? Woods had 30,574. Vijay Singh, in second, had 19,129.

Yet the FedEx Cup system obliterates nearly every trace of that dominance. In reseeding the players solely by rank it effectively reduces to a hair how much better he was. As we now stand, Tiger has 100,000 points to Vijay’s 99,000—the same amounts they’d have if Woods and Singh’s regular season records were identical except, say, for Tiger making one more putt. That’s just unfair. If this were pro football, we’d all simply nod and say that Woods deserves his bye week.

If Tiger had said all of that instead of that his body was weak, then I think we all would have nodded our heads in understanding. With how absurd the weighting system is, Woods technically should be afforded an opportunity to take a week off for the Playoffs. Guess what? Woods will anyway. And he's probably doing it to prove a point. Woods is one of the all-time best at holding a grudge and acting to express his disgust. I would not be surprised one bit if this one was for the Tour.

In the midst of this circus concerning Woods' decision to skip this week, the feelings of the larger rank-and-file that have been publicly expressed have gone largely underreported. There has been a lot of player outcry about it - from Joe Ogilvie (open mouth, insert foot), to Ernie Els labeling it a "thingy," to 17 year veteran (and personal favorite player) Jeff Maggert. Ed Hardin in the Greensboro News and Record brings us this gem of a piece. First, Maggert goes on the record about Woods' decision to skip:

"If Tiger doesn't win the FedExCup, he's still the player of the year," Jeff Maggert said Saturday.

In other words, the playoffs are meaningless unless Woods wins.

Maggert, a 17-year-pro, is already tired of the Tiger bashing that has erupted in the past week since the No. 1 player in the world announced he would be skipping the first of the four events that make up golf's new postseason. The difference between Tiger's intentions and Tiger's attendance mirror those of more players than you might think, Maggert said.

"Probably half the players out here couldn't care less about it," he said of the FedExCup. "The other half are indifferent."

...

"No, I don't blame Tiger at all. If I was in his shoes I'd be doing the same thing. There's no reason for him to have incentive to play four weeks in a row. Why should he? Obviously, he has a system to prepare for (major) tournaments, and why should he change that? It's just a fact of life, but they're trying to make this FedExCup thing for TV ratings or whatever. The fact is, when Tiger plays, TV ratings are good. When he doesn't play, they're not so good."

Then, Maggert takes a shot at PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem.

"I hear a lot being written, but I don't see anybody writing anything about Finchem," Maggert said. "I mean, this was his idea. He really didn't consult any of the players. He kind of shoved it down our throats and said, 'This is what we're going to do.' "

That 'a boy, Maggert! He has hit the nail on the head. Tim Finchem deserves a whole hell of a lot of blame for what has gone wrong with this FedEx Cup.

Finchem clearly did not have Tiger's blessing on this concept. Or, if he did, it was a loose understanding at best. After all, no one seems to know much about the thingy - about its points structure, money payouts, or what someone has to do in order to win. Tiger probably get the briefing that you or I have had about it. (What briefing?!)

So, Finchem, with Tiger's "blessing," went and sold the Cup to the rank-and-file and sponsors. He sold a playoff system that really isn't a playoff - 144 players get into it and all of them get a clip of the $35 million prize pool (though no one knows how or if everyone's money is deffered). He apparently didn't talk too much to the other players to get their blessing. Now they're stuck with a shorter meaningful season and less opportunities to make money after the next four weeks.

The greatest story in golf - Nick Flanagan's battlefield promotion - will be put on hold for a month because of these playoffs. Flanagan should be given a berth on his N'Wide Tour merits alone. Since everyone's points were reset, what does it matter to get another guy in there?

Basically, what we have here is failure to communicate, organize, and sell honestly. Now, the best player in the world is sending his signal that he doesn't approve. If the FedEx Cup is to continue, I'm going to definitely wager that things will change. (Anyone know a good bookie?) To close out the ceremony, I'd like to point you in a direction that I support. Here's Gary Van Sickle's suggestions courtesy of golf.com.