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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Justin Thomas fell to the ground Sunday at Sedgefield Country Club when his pitch shot at 18 hit the flagstick but wouldn’t drop, leaving him on the outside looking in at No. 71 in the final regular season FedEx Cup point standings.
The FedEx Cup Playoffs begin at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, with the top 70 players in the standings through the Wyndham Championship qualifying (down from 125 in 2009-2022). The top 50 players after the first event will advance to the BMW Championship and also qualify for all eight Signature Events (formerly known as the Designated Events) on the PGA Tour schedule in 2024.
The level of disappointment that Thomas experienced on being left out of the playoffs is only expected to be ratcheted up this week. Those moving on to the BMW in Chicago next week will gain admission to a world of $20 million purses, jacked up FedEx Cup points and limited field, no-cut events with guaranteed paydays in many cases. (The Players Championship will still have a full field and cut to 65 and ties while the Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial will have fields of no more than 80 players and a cut to 50 and ties.)
Two tours?
“I don’t like the idea of creating two tours, which is what it’s doing,” said veteran pro Brandt Snedeker. “I don’t think it’s good for golf, for our tour, for our sponsors.”
Fellow veteran pro Kevin Streelman, who previously served as a player director on the board and remains involved as a member of the Player Advisory Council, argued that the player who ends up at No. 50 receives too much of a jumpstart on keeping his card and remaining in the top 50 compared to the player who finishes No. 51.
“It seems like a pretty extreme reward,” he said.
Ryan Armour, a fellow member of the PAC, who dubbed rank-and-file players of his ilk “the mules” of the organization, agreed.
“The fifth ranked player on the PGA Tour and the No. 55 player on the PGA Tour, why should their schedule be so vastly different than what they are going to become next year?” said Armour when he joined the 5 Clubs podcast. “There is a big discrepancy between No. 5 and 55, but there isn’t between No. 49 and 55. That to me is what irked everybody.”
Fewer events, more points at the majors
In 2024, the season returns to a calendar year, running from January through September’s Labor Day Weekend and condensed from 44 to 36 events, plus three playoff tournaments. Meanwhile the number of limited-field events increase from two (Sentry Tournament of Champions and WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play) to eight. Add in that 750 FedEx Cup points will be allocated to the winners of the four majors and the Players Championship, an increase from 600, and 700 for the Signature events, up from 550, compared to 500 for winners of regular full-field events and 300 to winners of opposite-field events, and it’s clear how membership in the top 50 has its privileges.
It’s unprecedented change and has many players who won’t be in the top 50 concerned that the deck is stacked against them.
“My initial reaction was, ‘What the hell is this?’” said Michael Kim, who finished No. 79 and missed the playoffs. “I’m trying not be too knee-jerk reaction.”
Players outside the top 50 still will have other avenues to qualify for the Signature events. Thomas, for instance, is No. 25 in the Official World Golf Ranking and players in the top 30 will be automatically eligible. Should his ranking no longer satisfy the criteria, he likely would be a popular candidate for one of four sponsor exemptions.
The Tour also created categories called the “Next 10” and the “Swing 5.” The Next 10 is “composed of the top 10 members, not otherwise exempt,” from the current FedEx Cup standings. The Swing 5 are the “top five FedEx Cup points earners, not otherwise exempt, from the swing of five full-field and additional events that precede each signature event.”
‘Path is stacked against you’
Speaking earlier this season, Rory McIlroy proclaimed, “You play well for two or three weeks, you’re in a (signature) event. You know, then, if you keep playing well, you stay in them.”
But that may be an oversimplification. Will the 30 Korn Ferry Tour grads, 10 DP World Tour grads and five PGA Tour Q-School grads get enough starts on the West Coast Swing? They also may endure a three-week sabbatical in the middle of the season if they don’t qualify for the U.S. Open. For those who do play their way in, how can they sustain energy to make the opportunity a success? If they don’t play well, they’ll be right back in the full field event and likely gassed from playing upwards of five events in a row.
“They are giving you opportunities to play your way in, but the path is stacked against you,” said 2019 U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland, who remains exempt to the four majors and hopes to play his way into the invitationals or else receive sponsor invites. “The top guys had leverage at the time, they had Jay (Monahan) in a tough spot. Jay was losing guys left and right and the guys that wanted to stay made a play and set the Tour up in their favor. I don’t have a problem with that. The sponsors will benefit from having more of the top players playing every week. Is it good for the Tour as a whole? Only time will tell. If you play well, you will be rewarded and that’s probably how it should be.”
The Tour has crunched the numbers, running over a thousand simulations, and predicts the churn of players being replaced in the FedEx Cup top 50 year after year to be between 14 and 22 players.
“I wouldn’t have thought that,” said Peter Malnati, one of the player directors on the board, noting earlier this year, “It seems kind of hard to believe.”
Play well and you’re in
Webb Simpson, another player director on the Tour’s board who voted in favor of the Signature events despite being outside the top 50, said he believes the Tour created enough play-in opportunities – some 20 per event – to reward the hot hands.
“I’ve always had the attitude that you adapt to how the system changes and if you play good enough you’ll be in those fields. I know some guys probably have a problem with that statement, that there needs to be more fair opportunities for everybody, but if you play well enough you’ll get in them,” he said. “I think at the end of the day, the PGA Tour is not here to showcase the best 200 players in the world. I think we’re here to showcase the best 75-100 players in the world. I think that’s what fans want, TV wants, and some people may not like that but that’s the truth. Sure, we want to take care of everybody as much as we can but at the end of the day, can guys qualify for these? Absolutely.”
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