The FedEx Cup Playoffs are poised to undergo another massive overhaul, according to a report from the Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson that was published Monday morning.
The biggest change deals with the Tour Championship. Instead of allowing the accumulated and reset points to dictate winner of the season-long FedEx Cup, the PGA Tour is planning to implement a staggered scoring system to avoid what has happened twice in the FedEx Cup’s history: a player who wins the Tour Championship doesn’t win the FedEx Cup.
AP Sources: PGA plans major changes for revamped FedEx Cup.
Among them: The No. 1 player will start the Tour Championship at 10-under par.
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“Five people aware of the discussions say FedEx Cup points will not be involved in the final playoff event at East Lake,” Ferguson wrote. “Instead, the No. 1 player would start the Tour Championship at 10-under par, with scores to par staggered depending on the 30 players’ position in the standings.
“The winner will be the FedEx Cup champion, and the bonus is expected to be more than the current $10 million prize. That means whoever gets the 30th spot at East Lake would have four rounds to make up as many as 10 shots.”
The new overhaul appears to be a reaction to the 2017 Tour Championship in which Xander Schauffele won the tournament, but Justin Thomas won the FedEx Cup.
Another important piece of the puzzle that has yet to be decided upon is when the PGA Tour regular season would end. There is expected to be a cash bonus added before the Playoffs with $3 million dollars going to the regular season champion as well as a bonus for those who finish second and third.
When the regular season will end going forward is up for debate as well. There is talk that the regular season could end a week earlier at the newly-minted FedEx Invitational, the World Golf Championship event that is taking over for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in 2019, as opposed to the Wyndham Championship, which has been slated as the regular season finale for the last 12 years.
With a few wrinkles still to be ironed out, no announcements from the Tour have been made, but it appears there will be yet another large overhaul of golf’s Playoff system in the near future.
