FedEx Cup

[kujo]

Did you know that the winner of the 4 tournament play off need not necessarly win the FedEx cup at end of the Tour Championship?

Did you know that the total payout is $35Million for FedEx cup points race with the winner taking home a cool $10Million - the largest ever bonus payout in the history of sports?

There is a lot of confusion / interesting format with FedEx cup. I am starting this thread to keep all discussions on FedEx cup in here and to follow the points race itself.... Here is the PGA website link for more info:
http://www.pgatour.com/2006/fedexcup/12/29/fan_guide/

For me the first order of business is: what is the projected cutoff points for the 144th position?  any guesses?

cheers
-kujo

[kujo]

Following is a portion of the transcript when the FedEx cup announcement was made in June 2006.  Click here for the full text:  http://www.pga.com/news/tours/pga-tour/ ... 062806.cfm

But let me show you for a second how the playoffs set up and how they work. First of all, the players play again through the regular season and they get to a seeding point. So when they are seeded, the points they have earned to date go away, and they now are awarded a certain number of points that they will carry into the playoffs, and they will earn points each of the four playoff weeks. The screen you see is the reset point distribution.

So if Stuart, who is in fifth or sixth place right now this year, and we were doing the Cup this year were to progress and end up in first place, he would have 100,000 points. He'd have a 1,000-point lead over the No. 2 player, and you can see the distribution right on down the list. The philosophy here is that Stuart should be awarded some benefit for the play that he has had all year long. He's won tournaments, he's worked hard, he's played a well and he's got himself into that

No. 1 seed position. But it is not an award that precludes him from significant competition. Therefore, the intervals between players are fairly slim. And it creates on one hand more or less a home-field advantage, if you will; in some sports you can argue whether there is real a home-field advantage, versus a very volatile system where a lot of players go into the playoffs with an opportunity to win.

With each event, if we could go to that next screen, with each event we distribute 50,000 points. The first three of these events which will be first in New York with the Barclays, second in Boston with Deutsche Bank and the third in the Midwest and every other year in Chicago with BMW will be 50,000-point tournaments. The winning player gets 9,000 points. The fourth event, The Tour Championship in Atlanta at East Lake, will have 50,000 points, also. The increments here receive a little bit more points because we have a smaller field.

What you just saw in terms of the interval level, there is great volatility in this system and you can certainly make a move. We anticipate that the full field starting at Barclays, every single player has a mathematical chance to win the Cup, and we've run countless models that demonstrate that that is the case. Although, obviously, the players in that top 10, 20, 30, have a significant advantage over the players down the list. But there are so many points awarded to those first two or three positions, that if you play well enough, you can really move up the list. So this is a point distribution for the playoffs.

Then the money distribution is a total of $35 million. The winner of the Cup at the end of The Tour Championship will receive $10 million. The second-place player will receive $3 million, the fifth-place player $1 million, and the 10th-place player $500,000 and right on down the list. This is the largest performance-based payout in sports. And it's a payout designed to really reward players after they have played all year to position themselves for the playoffs, and then consistently enough through the playoffs end up in one of those top spots.

PGA website's fan guide for FedEx cup helped. But, some of my confusion was cleared up after reading the above text. Four weeks of playoff golf with $63 million in total payout on a field of 144 players!! 

cheers
-kujo

[kujo]

Time to dust up this thread, as the Fed Ex cup is about to begin.

The big news so far is that, Tiger Woods will not play in the first event (Barclays). My thought, after going through the FedEx cup standings and the points being awarded was, this is probably a bad decision.  Also, it is a golden opportunity for one of the top 5 finishers (Vijay Singh, Furyk, Mickelson or Choi) to win Barclays and put some pressure on Tiger.

A simple scenario (and the worst case for Tiger is): Vijay wins the Barclays next week! Vijay would automatically be in first place and a lead of about 8000 points over Tiger before the Deutsche Bank championship.  This will put tremendous pressure on Tiger to win atleast 1 of the 3 remaining tournaments in order to close the gap. 

Anyways, I didn't have time to do more in-depth analysis. But, surprisingly, someone in PGA tour writing staff did and posted an article here.  Good reading.

cheers
-kujo

ps: of course (if vijay wins Barclays), Tiger can win once or claim second place twice or 3rd place thrice to make up difference... but the pressure will be on him....

[BSharma]

If the performance at PGA Championship is any indication of their current form, Tiger Woods will win the FedEx Cup.  Phil Mickelson is not playing well and I think his wrist has not healed yet.  Jim Furyk appeared to be clutching his shoulder quite often during practice in Tulsa and he is not at his peak form also.  Ernie Els is no longer the same player he used to be and Zach Johnson (Masters winner) is a notch or two below the top players.  I think that age is finally catching up to Vijay Singh and he is not able to drive the ball as far as he could do in 2004 or 2003 and the younger golfers with their new drivers are out-hitting him.  His chance of winning PGA tournaments rest on his putter and it has not been hot lately.  Vijay looks quite different on TV from what he appears in real life.  He wears a loose style tee-shirt and it makes him look slightly fatter on TV than what he is.  He is extremely fit, but like most people of Indian origin, he does not have great muscle definition. 

I think that KJ Choi is peaking at the right time and his confidence appears to be high.  Rory Sabbatini, Scott Verplank, Justin Rose, Stewart Cink and Geoff Ogilvy may also challenge Tiger Woods, but he will leave all of them in his dust. 

[BSharma]

Since we are talking about Tiger Woods, why not put this joke in this thread.

Tiger Woods, Stevie Wonder and Prof. Jay

Stevie Wonder, Tiger Woods and our Prof. Jay are in a bar.  Woods turns to Wonder and says, "How's the singing career going?"

Stevie Wonder replies, "Not too bad.  How's the golf?"

Woods replies, "Not too bad, I've had some problems with my swing, but I think I've got that going right now and won the PGA Championship last week."

Stevie says, "I always find that when my swing goes wrong, I heed Prof. Jay's advice and I stop playing for a while and "Don't Think" about it.  Then, the next time I play, it seems to be all right."

Tiger says, "You play golf?"

Wonder says, "Oh, yes, I've been playing for years."

Woods says, "But you're blind!  How can you play golf if you can't see?"

Wonder replies, "I get Prof. Jay to stand in the middle of the fairway and call to me.  I listen for the sound of his voice and play the ball toward him.

Then, when I get to where the ball lands, Prof. Jay moves to the green or farther down the fairway and again I play the ball toward his voice."

But how do you putt?" asks Woods.

"Well," says Stevie, " I get Prof. Jay to lean down in front of the hole and call to me with his head on the ground, and I just play the ball toward his voice."

Woods asks, "What's your handicap?"

Stevie says, "Well, I'm a scratch golfer."

Woods, incredulous, says to Stevie, "We've got to play a round sometime."

Wonder replies, "Well, people don't take me seriously, so I only play for money, and never play for less than $10,000 a hole."

Woods thinks about it and says, "OK, I'm game for that, when would you like to play?"

Stevie says, "Pick a night. "

[jaydeep]

Doc, great one ... 

[kujo]

I mostly agree with Doc's evaluation of the current form of various top players. The "Tank" KJ Choi might be the wild card in this race for the biggest performance bonus payout in the history of sports!

Winning 10 Milllion dollars is equivalent to winning almost 10 regular PGA tournaments. Some of these top players should play better, compete well and fight Tiger for that money. I don't want him to coast on the 100,000 points he has earned so far. These four events are like playoffs. Your regular season performance only counts for the seedings and a slight advantage in points. Pretty much anyone can come through the playoffs and knock off the top seeds!!

If anything, Tiger not playing next week is a fantastic boost for the remaining players. They should take complete advantage of it....

cheers
-kujo

ps: there are no byes  for the top seed in these playoffs. If he thinks he can get away with not playing next week, hmmm...  there has got to be someone teaching him, he can't do that....   :devil:

[Kumar]

VJ is unravelling today (started on back nine0.. He is so far +5 just through 8 holes (he went 3 bogeys and double in a 5 hole stretch).. Can he make a birdie on par 5 18th hole , 7 foot birdie putt?

[jaydeep]

At FedEx Cup Playoff - First Round

T116 Vijay Singh    76  +5
T133 Daniel Chopra 77  +6

Very poor start for Daniel and Vijay.

[kujo]

Yes, poor starts by both our players. This is the playoffs, and you got to bring your "A" game to it!!

For Vijay, especially, this is a lost opportunity to make hay while the sun didn't shine (i.e with Tiger not around!)  

However, the "wild card" pick of K.J. Choi is leading the field right now, with -12 score and a projected Fed Ex points finish of 106,500 (if he wins this event). That would be 6,500 more than Tiger when they begin the next event. I know, it is too early to predict anything....

For people like Daniel Chopra who are ranked 70+ in the FedEx cup standings, their only way to performance based money (big time moolah) handed out at the end of playoffs is to be placed in the top-4 during first two events.

cheers,
-kujo

[Kumar]

VJ has a much better start today... so far -3 thru 7 holes with three straight birdies on the front nine and one stroke off the cut line (cut line could move up to -1).. All his troubles were at back nine yesterday, when he went +5.. Hopefully he can score a birdie or eagle on 9th hole..

[Kumar]

VJ finds trouble on back nine again.. Made two successive bogeys on 11th and 12th hole to fall back to +2 for the tournament (he missed the fairway on both the occassions and missed 10 footer and 11footer for par)

Come on VJ couple more birdies, you are in for the weekend

[Kumar]

And VJ bogeyed two more holes to finish +4 on back nine  and even par for the day (+4 for tournament).. Disappointing couple of weeks for VJ..

[jaydeep]

At FedEx Cup Playoff - Second Round

------------- Cut @ PAR -------------
T104 Vijay Singh  75 71  + 4
135  Daniel Chopra 77 82  +17

Very unforgetable tournament for Daniel and Vijay.

[PKBasu]

At FedEx Cup Playoff - Second Round

------------- Cut @ PAR -------------
T104 Vijay Singh   75 71  + 4
135  Daniel Chopra 77 82  +17

Very unforgetable tournament for Daniel and Vijay.

Thoroughly forgettable, surely?