Originally Published: August 19, 2008

With myriad of ideas, everyone agrees playoffs need at least some tweaks

Our experts give their takes in this week's edition of Fact or Fiction.

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If the FedEx Cup playoffs were a house that a family was trying to sell, everyone seems to believe some tinkering would be in order before putting the property on the market.

So with year two of the postseason just one tournament shy of being complete, do the playoffs need a couple of coats of paint or some full-blown rewiring to convince a sporting public of buying in?

Our experts ponder that question and more as they share their opinions in this week's edition of Fact or Fiction.

FACT OR FICTION?


The FedEx Cup playoffs system needs a serious overhaul for next year.

Bob Harig, golf writer, ESPN.com: FICTION.

A serious overhaul is not necessary. Some tweaks -- which were inevitable anyway -- will do the trick.

The PGA Tour mostly got it right this year when it added points to the playoff events in an effort to create more volatility. What we saw was more of a true playoff scenario, where those who did not perform failed to advance, while those who did moved on. Nothing wrong with that.

But players were correctly perturbed that simply making a cut caused so much movement. That can easily be addressed by giving fewer points at the bottom of the list, and giving more to players who, say, make a top-10.

By making the points top-heavy, it will force players to do more than make a cut.

Another tweak would involve giving more and more points as the playoffs progress. As it stands, a winner gets 11,000 points at each of the first three playoff events, then 12,500 at the Tour Championship. Why not make it 11,000, 11,000, 15,000 and then 20,000? That would make it much harder for a player to clinch the Cup before the final tournament even begins.

Jason Sobel, golf writer, ESPN.com: FICTION.
Here are three words I bet you never thought you'd see together: Poor Tim Finchem. I mean that figuratively, of course, and not literally, as after the initial FedEx Cup playoff season in 2007, the PGA Tour commish sought suggestions from players and fans on the best potential points system to maximize the entertainment value without minimizing the preceding regular season.

Without a doubt, Playoffs 2.0 is a more volatile version of the format. It seemed like it would be more entertaining, too, but the end result will generally be the same thing -- the season-ending Tour Championship will simply serve as a coronation for the champion.

That said, the system isn't so convoluted that it needs an overhaul. Let's drive this thing into the shop, give it a tune-up and let Finchem drive into next year with a well-oiled machine. First and foremost, fewer players should reach each playoff event, save for the last one. I'm not in the minority on this one, either; it seems like most players believe those in the bottom half on the points list shouldn't be granted a spot in these postseason fields. Next, the tour should award points in incremental increases for each of the four rounds, meaning a seventh-place finish at opening Barclays would count less than a seventh-place finish at the Deutsche Bank Championship, which would count less than one at the BMW, which would ultimately count less than such a result at the Tour Championship.

Finding the right formula and the magic numbers to ensure that future editions of the playoffs are more of a success will likely be one of the primary objectives for PGA Tour officials in coming months. The trickiest part is, there's no right or wrong answer until we know the results.

At least there's nowhere for the format to go but up. If there's some semblance of doubt heading into the Tour Championship in Year 3 of the playoff system, consider it a major step in the right direction. A few tweaks to the format -- not a serious overhaul -- and that's exactly what we could see at this time next year.

John Antonini, senior editor, Golf World: FACT.
I guess you would call this one a fact.

The PGA Tour Playoffs remind me of the Bowl Championship Series in college football. Every year the NCAA tweaks the BCS requirements and every year some deserving team gets left out of the New Year's Day shuffle.

I'm sure the PGA Tour will change the format of the PGA Tour Playoffs next year, and there will be even more consternation about what's wrong with the system. There have been some innovative suggestions about how to improve the PGA Tour Playoffs -- more gaps in points, fewer gaps in points, more players in playoffs, fewer players in playoffs, more playoff events, fewer playoff events -- but nothing will make the four-week stretch a true playoff except the one thing the tour is steadfastly against implementing.

Again, it's just like the BCS, which will never implement the one change that would turn its postseason into the greatest tournament in sports. So for now we have the NCAA refusing to allow a playoff in the top tier of college football and the PGA Tour, which has a playoff, but doesn't understand that the winner of its last event must be declared the winner of the FedEx Cup.

How hard is that to comprehend? Get players into the Tour Championship by whatever means necessary. If you prefer match play, give the top players an early-round bye. If you prefer stroke play, make the worse seeds compete in a play-in tournament. But whatever you do, make sure the winner in that Sunday's final round hoists, and perhaps even kisses, the FedEx Cup.

Does it make sense that Vijay Singh has already won the Cup with a tournament to play? Does it make sense that 29 players will go to East Lake with no chance to win the darn thing? (That is, if 29 other players show up. I'm guessing at least one left-hander decides to pass.)

Come on. Singh winning the Cup after three tournaments makes the Tour Championship as meaningless as Major League Baseball playing the fifth, sixth and seventh games of the World Series after the Boston Red Sox had already swept the Colorado Rockies in four games a year ago. Yes, a serious overhaul is needed for next year. But there's really only one solution.

Ron Sirak, executive editor, Golf World: FACT.
One of the reasons the FedEx Cup was created was to replicate the intensity and the drama of playoff games in team sports. That's all well and good, but what you don't have in team-sport playoffs is a game played after the series winner had been decided. That's what we have this year with Vijay Singh the guaranteed winner of the Tour Championship as long as he manages to make it through 72 holes and remembers to sign his scorecard after each round.

Clearly, there are still a few bugs in the system. And it is almost a certainty the PGA Tour will address those issues as soon as this year's FedEx Cup champion is crowned. (Hint: He's from Fiji). Perhaps the first three FedEx Cup events should be used to whittle the field from 144 to the 30 who will play in the Tour Championship and then reset every player back to zero. Perhaps the tour should imitate the LPGA and make the Tour Championship a multiple-cut event. Whatever the case, something has to be done. The FedEx Cup is a reverse Yogi: It's over before it's over.