Matt Fitzpatrick sits second in the FedEx Cup standings. But that didn’t stop him from questioning the format and the necessity of it. Asked in his pre-tournament press conference how different this year feels now that he’s already through the Tour Championship, the Englishman used the moment to lay out why he thinks golf’s playoff system doesn’t really work.
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“I understand the playoffs in the U.S. are a very big thing in other sports, and it’s obviously hard to do that with golf because of the format of golf,” he said, speaking to the media. “I do feel like it is a bit weird, as Rory [McIlroy] has already pointed out. It’s kind of like, ‘Yeah, you just need to be top 50.’ You can kind of get yourself settled even before last week. So it is really weird, but I don’t have the answer to what that is other than from someone who is English: Do we really need playoffs in golf? Like, it’s just not really a thing in the UK.”
For Fitzpatrick, the issue is how only a few weeks can outweigh an entire season. He pointed to Collin Morikawa, who was third in the standings entering the 2020-21 playoffs on the back of a major win. Yet he finished 25th after three poor weeks and missed out on the bonus money. Morikawa missed the cut at the 2021 Northern Trust, which used to serve as the first playoff event, and then finished T63 at the BMW Championship and T26 at the Tour Championship. So what is Fitzpatrick’s solution?
Crown the player who has the best season overall.
Fitzpatrick said the pro who has the most points from the start of the season to the Tour Championship should automatically be the FedExCup champion. That is likely what will happen this season, and that’s exactly why Fitzpatrick is baffled by the necessity of the Playoffs. Interestingly, he is not the only person who thinks this, and this is far from the only reason players are unhappy about the Playoffs.
Rory McIlroy called it pretty “weird”
A few weeks earlier, Rory McIlroy made a similar point, explaining why the top 30 already going to the Tour Championship get a free pass through the first two playoff events.”
“As long as I am in the top 30 going to the Tour Championship, I have a chance. So why would I care about the first two?”
His opinion, much like Fitzpatrick’s, became a point of conversation. But it’s the same complaint from opposite angles. Fitzpatrick worries about good players getting punished on a few bad weeks. McIlroy describes how comfortable it can be for some players.
The PGA Tour has removed starting strokes and also reduced the FedExCup points awarded to the first two events. Yet that has barely solved the problem, as the stated aim of the FedExCup—to reward the most consistent player—isn’t always fulfilled
On the other hand, take Justin Thomas. The two-time major winner is put off by the timing of the Playoffs.
Justin Thomas says the FedExCup Playoffs don’t generate enough excitement
Justin Thomas believes the excitement and the hype necessary to sustain and build the FedExCup Playoffs haven’t materialized.
“I mean, no offense to the Tour and us, but what we’ve been trying to do hasn’t exactly checked the box that we probably needed to or wanted to in terms of the excitement of the playoffs,” said Justin Thomas in a recent appearance on the Golf Channel. “But just for golf too, where it’s like we have a postseason playoff to look forward to—and not to say that we don’t look forward to this [now]—but I think with a different setup and a different situation and different formats, it has the opportunity to just have a lot more excitement from everybody around.”
Thomas believes that the PGA Tour needs to overhaul the structure or the format to build excitement around the Playoffs. Otherwise, it’s more of the same with fewer players.
The PGA Tour is likely to change the Tour Championship format to match play in 2028. But it also remains to be seen what happens to the other two events in the FedExCup Playoffs.
It has already been confirmed that the FedEx St. Jude Championship will not be part of Tier 1 events in the PGA Tour from 2028 onward. So what happens to the BMW Championship is not immediately clear.
But one thing is clear: Brian Rolapp needs a strategy to make the FedExCup Playoffs worth it. For the pros and the fans.