FedEx Cup BMW Championship
The FedEx Cup playoffs are fully underway, and Hideki Matsuyama took the first leg of the three events last week in Memphis. Matsuyama himself has had an interesting two weeks to say the least. He won a Bronze Medal in Paris, then allegedly got robbed in London during a layover, and had to make a caddie change all which led to winning a playoff event. The craziest thing about Matsuyama’s two weeks is the robbery situation. He and his team got taken for everything, including money and passports. Half of his team had to be sent back to Japan, luckily Matsuyama made it to Memphis. This win was huge for Matsuyama, it propelled him to third in total FedEx Cup points. Despite this win, he's still around 3,000 points shy of Scottie Scheffler. At this point in the race, it's really between Scottie and Xander but the flawed design of the playoffs is where the problems are.
The FedEx Cup, in my opinion, is fundamentally flawed, the notion that it is a season long race is absolutely ridiculous because anybody in the top 30, the field size for East Lake will have a chance to win the FedEx Cup. Scottie has even said in multiple interviews he could have thousands of more points than the rest of the guys, but if he skips East Lake he won't win the FedEx Cup. All the points do for you in giving you a handicap during the Tour Championship, for example since Scottie will most likely end up being the points leader going into East Lake he will be a two shot lead on the field to start the event, that's it. That’s beyond frustrating and frankly stupid. The playoffs should be run completely differently; here’s my idea. You can still have the season-long race, after the last regular season event, the points leader receives money or whatever reward is decided. Following that, the playoffs begin with the top 125 players and the points reset and its sudden death. Week one starts with 125 players then drops to 70, then concludes with the top 30 at East Lake. This style and format would be high energy and will provide a lot more excitement in the long run. When I think of playoffs, I think of win or go home and the design of these playoffs that are currently in place are the exact opposite. At the end of the day all these guys care about is money, so give them the money at the end of the regular season and make the playoffs mean a little bit more and not be so money driven. Unfortunately, that's where golf is going, and frankly already here. Money is the only thing these guys care about and it’s obvious, but honestly, that’s okay. My biggest problem lies with the people who have the money and want to have free range to do whatever they want, Jon Rahm being the biggest culprit.
Rahm has allegedly made comments regarding some regret about leaving for LIV. Rahm believed he was the needle, and if he went to LIV the PGAT would roll over and let them back or let them play both. Turns out Rahm wasn’t the guy he thought he was. The PGAT dropped him like a sack of potatoes and that hurt his feelings. Unfortunately, Rahm has made his bed and at this point he's stuck. One day we will live in a world where the golf community is whole again, but until then Rahm and the rest of the players that moved to LIV will have to accept their decision. (Mike)