Scottie Scheffler claimed his second victory of the season—but the playoff format he’s dominating is under fire. Andy Johnson, founder of Fried Egg Golf, recently joined the podcast to voice his concerns about the FedEx Cup Playoff’s current setup, highlighting what he sees as a fundamental flaw and calling for significant changes to the format.

“It’s never been about the playoff. FedEx Cup is just a fancy way to shuffle a bunch of money into the top players’ hands. It’s not actually a playoff. That’s what it is. It’s a vehicle to distribute money.”

For Johnson, the problem begins after the top 70 players in the FedEx Cup standings qualify for the opening playoff event. They spend the entire regular season accumulating points and positioning themselves in the standings, but those positions hardly change once the playoffs begin. That, in Johnson’s view, undermines the very competition the playoffs are supposed to create.

He believes the current system rewards players who have already performed well financially, rather than creating a genuine race where players can make meaningful moves up the standings. With few major swings in the rankings, the first two playoff events can feel more like a waiting game than a high-stakes competition, with everything ultimately building toward the Tour Championship.

That is why Johnson is calling for sweeping changes to the format. Changes that would give all three playoff events greater significance, create more movement in the standings, and make the postseason genuinely compelling for fans rather than a drawn-out prelude to the finale. 

“Why [aren’t] the playoffs more volatile? Why isn’t there some like win or go home a aspect to it?” he asked. “It’s because we have to give the best players their money. Best players can’t go home because then we wouldn’t be able to give them their money.”

Johnson then turned his attention to the players hovering around the 50th spot in the standings, pointing to names such as Sahith Theegala, Michael Brennan, Eric Cole, Maverick McNealy, and Matt McCarty. In his view, none of those players made a meaningful move during the tournament, underscoring his broader concern with the current playoff format.

For Johnson, that lack of movement is precisely the problem. With so much at stake, players on the bubble should battle to climb the standings, yet the leaderboard shows little in the way of significant shifts among that group.

“Like none of these guys did anything,” he added. “They all played like mediocre golf. That’s part of this. Like nobody on the bubble did anything of note. None of them deserve to move on, which is why the playoff should be smaller.”

The one notable exception, however, was Im Sung-jae. The South Korean arrived at the tournament sitting 53rd in the FedEx Cup standings, but a T5 finish on Sunday vaulted him to 40th. That surge puts him within striking distance of the top tier and, more importantly, inches him closer to securing his place in the season-ending Tour Championship. 

“[Im Sung-jae] is the only guy that played well,” Johnson added. “Like that’s the thing you have to have. Some of these guys have to play well. They have to hold up their end of the bargain too.”

That being said, would the FedEx Cup playoffs become more interesting if the rankings were much more volatile? Absolutely! However, making such a change might be harder than simply pointing it out.