Some Rare PGA Tour Kudos

The Tour decided to make a couple of changes to the FedEx Cup for next season. First, what is unchanged: the regular season concept, the points associated with it, and the numbers qualifying for each Playoff event. They're bad happenings, I feel. There is definitely worth in having more volatility in the the standings, especially in Playoff events.

Also, the makeup of the Playoff events is a little funky giving 144 players the opportunity to play in a playoff. Yes, I know that is not all of those fully exempt on the PGA Tour, but it is still more than the guys who will be fully exempt at the end of the Fall Series each year. People are more familiar with the top 125 than the top 180-some that are exempted.

Still, the rationale for keeping these things the same isn't totally baseless:

But there was strong sentiment in Monday's board meeting that for the first year of a revamped system, it worked well enough not to rush into massive changes. Finchem said the board would continue to look at ways to tweak the playoff points, although the regular season would not change.

The big change is how players are paid. This, I feel, is something the Tour did right.

Starting next year, the top 10 players in the FedExCup standings will get most of their money in cash, and some of it deferred.

The winner, for example, will get $9 million in cash and $1 million placed into his retirement fund. The bonus money will all be deferred for those finishing out of the top 10.

All of the big names complained about this and the Tour responded in kind within a single year and did the right thing. Kudos to Ponte Vedra on that part. So, some good, some bad. That's a win for the PGA Tour.