HOW THE FEDEX CUP WILL WORK

Features
  • January 4, 2007

There seems to be some confusion about how the FedEx Cup points race and elimination series will work. Read on to learn more….

Davis Love III understands it.So too does Joe Durant. But then they should. They were on the PGA Tour’s Players committee that helped create the new FedEx Cup play-off race.
Yesterday, on the eve of the season-opening Marcedes Benz Championship which will launch The FedEx Cup chase at Kapalua in Hawaii, a whole host of other Tour players were still scratching their heads, though, and wondering what it was all about.
Take burly Jason Gore for example.
He understands that there will be a pile of money at stake at the end of the season, but apart from knowing that he’ll have you play out of his skin to get there, he has no idea of the finer details of the competition.
“No,” he quipped when asked by the Miami Herald if he understood how the new competition would work.
“I just work here and I figure if you play good golf, they’ll explain it to you.
“If you don’t? Well then there’s no reason for an explanation, is there?”
Stuart Appbleby, the defending champion this week who is looking for a record three straight victories, also reflected a ‘just play well and the details will sort themselves out’ general attitude of the players when he said: “It’s probably no different [for us] right now.
“We’re just trying to get our pace, and it’ll get more intense as time goes on,” added the Australian star who recently bought some property at Kapulua and is planning to join Jim Furyk at the Hawaiian paradise by building a house there.
Most Americans, be they golfers or spectators, will tell you that the FedEx Cup race will mimic the highly successful NASCAR points race that winds up its season with some thrilling cut-throat eliminations that progressively reduce the field until only the very best are left in the final battle.
But that’s about as much as they know, so here is a brief summary of how the FedEx Cup points race will work.
Players will earn points based on the way they finish during a 33-event ‘regular season’ after which 144 players will qualify for the four-week elimination process.
Point margins will be reset to bunch the playoff field, and the player pool will then be reduced each week to get to final 30 who’ll go forward to the Tour Championship.
The points leader after that will win a $10 million bonus regardless of whether he wins the Tour Championship and US PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem is “confident the playoffs will bring the same pressure and compelling drama to golf that other sports have enjoyed for many years”.
Tiger Woods, whose participation will be key to the FedEx Cup being successful, isn’t quite so sure
“It’s a curiosity for all of us,”he said.
“We’re all going to go through this new experience together. It’ll be interesting to see how the players handle it, how the fans receive it, and who comes out on top.”

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