FedEx. Vousden delivers his view

Thought for the Day
Never refuse any advance of friendship, for if nine out of ten bring you nothing, one alone may repay you

The FedEx Conundrum
The first event of the season-concluding golf tournaments of the PGA Tour has just ended, With Hideki Matsuyama winning the FedEx St Jude Championship. The field of 70 pros who took part will now be whittled down to 50, who will contest this week’s BMW Championship, and then further reduced to the top-30. These lucky few advance to the Tour Championship, supposedly the flagship event of the year but in reality a massively cash-laden loyalty bonus for whoever runs hot that week.

The winner gets $18 million, while all 30 competitors are guaranteed a minimum $500,000.
These are eye-watering sums of money to almost anyone living in any sort of reality, but nowadays, in professional golf, just another way of measuring even relativity low-level success.

The FedEx playoffs have sat uneasily among regular tour events and the majors since their inception in 2007. Initially, the rules dictating who progressed through the three events were so complicated and unwieldy that only one man at PGA Tour headquarters knew them thoroughly, and he had to be kept in a sound-proofed, darkened room, lest he should frighten small children.

And although the criticism directed at the format has resulted in several tweaks and modifications over the years, the central objection remains firmly in place. The best golfer over the course of a season does not always walk away with the season’s biggest prize. Although previous winners have included Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy (the only three-time winner), Dustin Johnson and, last year, Viktor Hovland, the rollcall of honour also includes names like Billy Horschel, Brandt Snedeker and Bill Haas. With the greatest respect, not even the loved ones of these three men would describe them as head and shoulders above their peers, at least, not on the golf course.

Despite a remarkable 2024 in which he captured two majors, Xander Schauffele, the affable Californian, would no doubt concede that the golfer of the season in America has been Scottie Scheffler. His six tournament wins, including the Masters and Players Championship, topped off with an Olympic gold medal, leave little room for argument. He also stands at the top of the FedEx Rankings, having demonstrated week in and week out that he is the man to beat.

Any pro golfer who plays in a tournament in which Scheffler also competes, knows that if he beats the Texan, he’s got a damned good chance of lifting both a trophy and healthy pay cheque. But despite his year-long dominance, Scheffler may not, in all probability will not, walk away with the FedEx Cup, a point he acknowledged before last week’s event.

‘It’s quoted as the season-long race, but at the end of the day it really all comes down to East Lake’ [venue for the Tour Championship], he said. ‘I talked about it the last few years. I think it’s silly. You can’t call it a season-long race and have it come down to one tournament.
‘Hypothetically, we get to East Lake and my neck flares up and it doesn’t heal the way it did at the Players. I finish 30th in the FedEx Cup because I had to withdraw from the last tournament? Is that really the season-long race? No. It is what it is.’
His frustration is easy to see and even easier to understand.

Quote of the Week
Scotland is a peculiar land that is the birthplace of golf and sport salmon fishing, a fact that may explain why it is also the birthplace of whisky
Henry Beard

 

 

 

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