Weird: Justin Thomas Sums Up New FedExCup Format

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The PGA Tour faced one major dilemma in trying to improve the FedExCup: how to make sure FedEx gets full value for their sponsorship.

Players make a lot off the cup race, as do executives when bonus season comes around. In theory, it makes sense as a way to bind the season together.

Had the FedExCup continued next year as expected—three events down from four, with points awarded based on finishes—no one would have called that weird.

Throw in a bonus fifth round at East Lake, a day after the “third” playoff stop produced a Tour Championship winner before advancing a top four or six players to a final day shootout for the big (FedExCup) prize, and no one would have called that weird.

Maybe unfair to the season points leader, but playoffs aren’t fair.

So to have recent FedExCup champion Justin Thomas calling the new 2019 system “weird” right out of the chute, with the social media reaction suggesting he gave the perfect summary of how most feel, comes off as pretty weird given all of the brainpower put into the latest FedExCup overhaul.

From Bob Harig’s ESPN.com story:

"It's something that is very, very weird and going to be hard to get used to,'' Thomas said. "We talked about it, and it's ... never going to be perfect.''

Thomas, the reigning FedEx Cup champ, is part of the tour's players advisory committee. It means he has a voice in how business is conducted. And yet he doesn't seem sold.

Weird, however, is not fatal, and as I noted in our Golf Central chat today, the new format is a huge improvement. Granted, the bar set by the current format was low. As in, the worst playoff format in all of sports and has been over eleven years despite all of the efforts to defend it.

Still, as weird as the new format may seen, there are many positives…



Ranking The 11 FedExCup Finishes: Kyle Porter Deserves Time-And-A-Half

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Maybe he just wanted to inflict pain upon himself during the bye week or maybe some editor was annoyed with Kyle Porter of CBSSports.com, because I can’t fathom anyone wanting to relive the eleven FedExCup finishes in much detail. Though Porter has provided a service to anyone wanting to know why the format will be changing.

A glance at the list yielded one quibble for me—Furyk’s backward cap year is only 6th!?—and mostly sympathy for Porter’s plight in trying to find the beauty in what has to be one of the drearier sets of championship-concluding memories.

The stars are aligned for a grand finish this year regardless of format, so keep those fingers crossed!

Perhaps starting in 2019 we’ll get a new format that yields something more satisfying. I’m confident it won’t take much of a change to get there, but still unsure about the floated concept. From Morning Drive:

Spieth: The Thin Line Between Success And Struggle

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As Joel Beall notes in this Golf World op-ed, the line between struggle and success in today’s game has grown ridiculously thin given the ascension of younger players and lofty standards set by the likes of Jordan Spieth.

In considering Spieth’s failure to make the PGA Tour’s top 30 and a spot in the Tour Championship field, Beall points out the ways Spieth toed the line between success and struggles in a 2018 he’ll ultimately try to forget.

And there's the rub. Spieth has fumbled away his share of titles—the '14 and '16 Masters, the '15 and 18 Opens, darn-near the '17 Open—proving he's no stone-cold assassin. They're falters that warrant criticism. Continuing to put himself in positions to win, though, also deserves a share of acclaim.

Especially at his age. Arnold Palmer, after all, didn't win his first major until 28. Phil Mickelson, 33. Though arguments can be had when a golfer "peaks," there's no debate that careers, thanks to training, medical and equipment advancements, have been extended longer than ever. Also in that vein: unlike the game's of his fellow young guns, Spieth's is predicated off precision, not power. While that occasionally works against him, his attributes should age gracefully in the next two decades. The sport has cruelly proved that you can't count on anything as a guarantee for the future … but save for injury or off-the-course issues, Spieth is on pace to be one of the greats.

Which, unfortunately for him, is part of his current problem.

AP’s Doug Ferguson reports that Spieth will be getting married this November and likely adding a couple of fall starts to get out of the rehearsal dinner tasting dinner, or something like that.

PGA Tour Driving Distance Average At 296, Rory Has Chance To Be First To Average Over 320

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Since the Ryder Cup will distract us from the final tallies post-Tour Championship, I thought I’d offer a refresher course for those interested in the distance debate.

To recap: the triathletes of the PGA Tour head to the 2018 finish line with their foam rollers and four-hour workouts fueling distance gains. However, as any player paid by Titleist will tell you, it’s not the amazing equipment advances made by engineers and coaches cleverly using launch monitors to improve their students, but instead the purity of athletes who may get called at any time by NFL teams looking for mid-season injury replacements.

In May 2002, the USGA and R&A drew a line in the sand and said any distance increases, no matter the cause, were not sustainable.

The PGA Tour driving distance average in 2002 was 279.84 yards.

279.8.

Since then, the governing bodies have eroded their credibility by claiming their rules have capped distance and things have flatlined.

The 2018 PGA Tour Driving Distance average heading to East Lake is at 296.0 yards, up over three yards from the 2017 numbers and over 16 yards from the sand-line drawing.

296.0.

More impressive is Rory McIlroy’s shot at history, with a current driving distance average of 320.0 yards heading to East Lake. The previous high for a season was by Dustin Johnson in 2015: 317.7 yards.

Back in March I noted this year’s spike and if we use the 295 barrier as another high water mark, we see another big leap in 2018.

2013-14
Honda:  45 players averaging 295 or higher
End of season:  49 averaging 295 or higher

2014-15
Honda:  50 players averaging 295 or higher
End of season:  53 averaging 295 or higher

2015-16
Honda:  65 players averaging 295 or higher
End of season:  55 averaging 295 or higher

2016-17
Honda:  63 players averaging 295 or higher
End of season:  77 averaging 295 or higher

2017-18
Honda:  111 players averaging 295 or higher
Heading to the last tournament:  108 averaging 295 or higher

So since 2014, we will have doubled the number of players averaging over 295 yards off the tee. Averaging.

While these numbers would be relevant if anyone actually believed in the governing bodies or had faith their ability to act in a credible way, we know the ship has sailed. The USGA and R&A can’t overcome years of saying things have flatlined when the numbers (and eyeballs) say otherwise.

More interesting to me, as a longtime distance student, is that eye-test element and just how many people continue to realize how distance does not make professional golf more entertaining.

Look at poor, defenseless Aronimink last week or even Bellerive. No one watching felt like the courses could pose the questions and strategic dilemmas intended by their designers, even after both layouts had received updates to address the changes that aren’t happening. The question before the PGA Tour and PGA of America, supporters of distance gains to “grow the game,” is whether such a brand of golf is interesting to watch and will captivate the younger audiences they obsess over. They’ll point to 2018’s ratings as evidence, but we all know that’s largely Tiger-driven.

And in case you don’t know, Tiger supports an end to the distance chase madness via bifurcation, just as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Bobby Jones have before him.

Happy (long) driving boys! I have full faith you can keep the average over 296 yards next week.

What To Make Of The Mixed PGA Tour Playoff Ratings News?

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Maybe the numbers do not matter with the PGA Tour Playoffs(C) moving to a late-August finish in 2019. Or perhaps a couple of golf-loving Nielsen viewers took the family to the Catskills Northern Trust Open weekend. 

Either way, with Tiger Woods lingering around and getting lots of coverage, the Northern Trust saw a drop in ratings while Labor Day's final Dell Technologies saw a nice boost from Woods. 

From Paulsen at Sports Media Watch:

Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Northern Trust, the first event of the PGA Tour playoffs, earned a 1.9 rating and 2.75 million viewers on CBS Sunday — down 10% in ratings and 12% in viewership from last year (2.1, 3.14M) but up a tick and 5% respectively from 2016 (1.8, 2.63M).

The news was better for Monday's final round at the TPC Boston, where a 2.1 rating was up 8% from 2017 on Tiger's back. The Monday coverage also faced little competition, again making it an attractive coverage day for some other tour to jump on now that the PGA Tour is abandoning Labor Day Monday's going forward. 

Paulsen also updates his Woods Effect numbers from the season with the Northern Trust being just the second tournament to not see an increase. Lead-in numbers are included for Golf Channel and those are also huge, with the 1.34 million average audience for Sunday's coverage. 

Tiger Shoots 62 Day After Skipping Pro-Am...

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A permanent lifetime exemption from pro-ams is in order, no?

From Ryan Lavner's GolfChannel.com item after Tiger Woods opened the BMW Championship with a 62, tying Rory McIlroy for the lead and continuing to progress in his return from back surgery.

“I needed it,” he said Thursday. “I really did. I’ve played a lot of golf in the last six weeks, and I needed a day off to recover and make sure I was fresh today.”

To pass the time Wednesday, Woods said he went to the gym, received treatment and watched “a lot” of U.S. Open tennis. He felt even better about his decision when the temperatures soared over 90 degrees, and Hideki Matsuyama and a couple of caddies had to pull out of the pro-am because of heat exhaustion.

Of course there was also the Scotty Cameron coming off the 60-day DL that might have helped, too, as Tiger noted after the round. 

BMW Championship: First Look At The Restored Aronimink

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In the seven years since the PGA Tour visited Aronimink, the club has shed the architecture firm that gets shed a lot from classic courses--Fazio and friends--hired Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, and embraced its Donald Ross roots.

Jim McCabe with a PGATour.com primer on the place that will also hold a PGA Championship next decade (2027). 

But for now, it's the BMW Championship, which also means the preferred carmaker of No Laying Up has led to this fine piece on how the course has evolved since we last saw it.

Video: New Angle, New Camera View Of Hatton's 18th Hole Near Hole-Out

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Here was the original shot and replay from NBC posted by the PGA Tour if you didn't see Tyrrell Hatton's Sunday shot:

But the angle you have to see aired on Monday's Dell Technologies final round telecast from TPC Boston. Stay with this super slow-mo, ground level doozy.  (Apologies for this version but I could not find a cleaner one on the PGA Tour, Golf Channel or NBC Sports accounts):

Patrick Reed Gets Free Red Sox Tickets, Complains About Placement In The "Line Drive" Section

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Just when you felt like we were turning a corner, the PGA Tour's 21st century Bobby Joe Grooves took to Instagram to complain about free tickets to Fenway Park in the "line drive" section that prompted him to spend $650 on an upgrade that put him with other PGA Tour players who, hint, hint, got the good seats to begin with. And you wonder why Jay Monahan is prematurely grey?

The comments are pretty spectacular, as you might imagine for this case of extra-perverted first world griping over being too close to the action. For free. At Fenway. On a beautiful summer night. With your lovely wife. The year you won The Masters. 

Sunday Trophy Round-up: Crystal Is The New Silver For Bryson At Ridgewood, Henderson In Canada, Pavan At Czech Masters, Parel At Boeing, Streb At Nationwide

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All but one of Sunday's tournament winners takes home a piece of crystal for their efforts, starting with Bryson DeChambeau at the 2018 Northern Trust where he is turning this season into something very special in his young career, writes David Dusek for Golfweek.

The lone non-crystal trophy goes to the week's best sentimental champ, as Brooke Henderson becomes the first Canadian in 45 years to win her nation's CP Open, writes Golfweek's Beth Ann Nichols. But she did get this spectacular memory:

This win's for you, Canada 🍁🍁 #CPWO

A post shared by CP Women's Open (@cpwomensopen) on

Andrea Pavan took the Czech Masters on the European Tour where the crystal budget dried up and sent him home with this high-end doorstop:

Scott Parel won the PGA Tour Champions Boeing Classic and with it a bomber's jacket, a crystal globe and the photographic evidence yet that all white belts must go. 

HUGE congratulations to Scott Parel on his first @pgatourchampions victory! 🏆

A post shared by Boeing Classic (@boeingclassic) on

And Robert Streb kicked off the Web.com Tour playoffs with a win in the Nationwide Children's Charity Classic.

DeChambeau, Maybe Finau Making Captain Furyk's Task Easier?

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With a four stroke lead, Bryson DeChambeau seems destined to land a Ryder Cup captain's pick even with another week to go. He was the first man outside the eight automatic selections and has had a sensational 2018 season. 

Tony Finau, in third heading toward Sunday's Northern Trust Open final round, continues to bring a consistently strong game no matter the style of course or setup. While Matt Kuchar has the presence and Kevin Kisner/Xander Schauffele may have games more suited to Le Golf National, Rex Hoggard points out for GolfChannel.com how well Finau's audition is going. 

Tony Finau will be in a similar position on Sunday at Ridgewood following a 66 on Day 3 that moved him into a tie for third place at 11 under, five strokes behind DeChambeau.

“To say that I'm not thinking about the Ryder Cup, is definitely not true,” admitted Finau, who was 15th on the final qualifying points list. “But it's not the most important thing right now. I want to play good golf and get myself in contention this week. If it continues to prove to the captain and to the guys that make the picks that I'm worthy of a spot, then that's the case.”

Because of task force politics there will always be intrigue in the four picks, but it sure looks like the Captain's pick portion of the job is getting easy. 

Oh and we all know who the other picks will be. 

Video: Ridgewood From Above

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I won't even begin to try and convince you to get excited about the first round of the Playoffs (C), nor will I try to figure out the composite course in use for Ridgewood Country Club in this week's Northern Trust Open. 

Instead, just whet your appetite on a return to a A.W. Tillinghast gem thanks to Evan Schiller's drone shots:

Ryder Cup: Tiger And Furyk Talk About Tiger Woods

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Pretty funny to imagine Tiger Woods shifting to third person mode to assess his potential as a Captain's pick, though why we are pretending it's a serious discussion at this point is beyond me.

Ryan Lavner with the best revelation from Tiger's press gathering Tuesday at Ridgewood CC in advance of the Northern Trust:

“I’m one of the guys on the short list, and sometimes I have to pull myself out of there and talk about myself in the third person, which is a little odd.”

Poll: Are 59's Losing Their Luster?

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I was at a golf course snack bar when the Golf Channel was showing highlights from Brandt Snedeker's 59 at the Wyndham Championship. It was the 10th such round in PGA Tour history and when some golfers looked up and asked if he'd shot 59, I said yes and they went, "ah that's great" and then went about decorating their hot dogs.

A decade ago, I'm pretty sure we all would have stopped what we were doing to watch all of the highlights and regale in the history playing out before our eyes. 

Throw in a 58 by Jim Furyk and it seems like the 59 has gone from golf's equivalent of a perfect game to a no-hitter. Still an amazing feat and worth dropping what we're doing to see a player break the barrier, but also not quite as satisfying as it should be.

Is this because of how many have occurred since Al Geiberger broke golf's sound barrier, perhaps coupled with the 13-under-par nature of the first three when par-4s sometimes actually required a long-iron approach?

Or has the role of distance, improved technology, amazing agronomy and golf courses put in a strategically untenable position played a role in making them a little less magical?

First, our Golf Central discussion, followed by a poll...

Are 59s Losing Their Luster?
 
pollcode.com free polls

PGA Tour Enters A Legal Sports Betting State For The First Time Since Supreme Court Ruling...

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The playoffs arrive in New Jersey and Ridgewood CC for the first time in a sports-betting legal state.

Rex Hoggard reports for GolfChannel.com on what this means in 2018. In a nutshell, the PGA Tour does not expect any issues.

Although New Jersey was among the first states to embrace sports betting, wagers are currently limited to a few casinos and racetracks.

“I wouldn’t say the gaming would be any different than what’s currently being offered in Las Vegas or elsewhere, win bets and that type of thing,” said Andy Levinson, the Tour’s senior vice president of tournament administration.

There is one potential area of intrigue: soft-launched mobile betting apps in beta form according to this item by Devin O'Connor. 

Resorts, one of the six Atlantic City casinos with sports gambling underway, received authorization with partner DraftKings from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (D) earlier this month for a soft-launch of mobile sports betting.

The app was released to a limited number of users. The DGE hasn’t said when it might permit Resorts and DraftKings to open up the app to the general public. Other casino sportsbooks are also in the process of releasing mobile sports betting platforms.

Of note will be if any of these mobile platforms offer negative outcome bets where a fan could interfere with play and profit. Presumably these beta apps are not offering anything that could derail their popularity or their coveted relationship with pro golf in the coming years. Presumably.