Playoffs in sport always produce jeopardy and drama – Golf is no exception
NCG’s Matt Chivers is all for the Playoffs concept in sport and draws an interesting comparison between the PGA Tour and the English football pyramid…
Do you know what my favourite part of the football season is? The Playoffs.
Troy Deeney slamming in one of English football’s most memorable goals in 2013. Dean Windass volleying Hull City into the Premier League in 2008. Bobby Zamora’s opportunistic, last-gasp winner for QPR against Derby in 2014.
Sure, the nature of golf isn’t as frantic and fast-paced as ‘the beautiful game’, but aside from the four majors, the Playoffs create the most jeopardy and a burning desire for all involved to reach the first of three Playoff legs on the PGA Tour, no matter how brilliantly or badly they’ve played in the season.
This clangs similar chimes to football. A team that finishes sixth can overcome the team finishing third in English football’s second division and reach the Premier League, the promised land. This is what Blackpool did in 2010 and look at Keegan Bradley in 2024. He won the BMW Championship entering the tournament as the 50th-ranked player in the FedEx Cup out of 50 in the field.
Blackpool peaked at the right time and got their reward. Bradley has done the same and could win the FedEx Cup, now ranked fourth in the standings at the Tour Championship. This is the magic of the Playoff concept and I ask, how can you not love it?
Keegan Bradley has the chance to become Blackpool, an honour he doesn’t know about, yet can’t be sniffed at.
| Player | Starting Score | FedEx Cup ranking |
| Scottie Scheffler | -10 | 1 |
| Xander Schauffele | -8 | 2 |
| Hideki Matsuyama | -7 | 3 |
| Keegan Bradley | -6 | 4 |
| Ludvig Aberg | -5 | 5 |
| Sam Burns | -4 | 6 |
| Patrick Cantlay | -4 | 7 |
| Collin Morikawa | -4 | 8 |
| Wyndham Clark | -4 | 9 |
| Rory McIlroy | -4 | 10 |
| Tony Finau | -3 | 11 |
| Shane Lowry | -3 | 12 |
| Adam Scott | -3 | 13 |
| Sungjae Im | -3 | 14 |
| Sahith Theegala | -3 | 15 |
| Akshay Bhatia | -2 | 16 |
| Robert MacIntyre | -2 | 17 |
| Viktor Hovland | -2 | 18 |
| Russell Henley | -2 | 19 |
| Byeong Hun An | -2 | 20 |
| Taylor Pendrith | -1 | 21 |
| Sepp Straka | -1 | 22 |
| Matthieu Pavon | -1 | 23 |
| Billy Horschel | -1 | 24 |
| Tommy Fleetwood | -1 | 25 |
| Christiaan Bezuidenhout | E | 26 |
| Justin Thomas | E | 27 |
| Tom Hoge | E | 28 |
| Aaron Rai | E | 29 |
| Chris Kirk | E | 30 |
ALSO: What clubs does Scottie Scheffler use?
FedEx Cup Playoff format is spot-on
Season-ending excitement isn’t exclusive to UK soccer fans. The NBA, the NFL and the PGA Tour are just a handful of American sports organisations that adopt Playoff events to maximise drama for both the participants and the fans. Playoffs are part of the international sports furniture.
This three-week stretch at the end of the PGA Tour season isn’t comparable to the majors. We know this and the players know this. You would rather win The Open than this week’s Tour Championship finale. But the majors are extra-special weeks in a season. The Playoffs are a necessity and where drama and stories are concerned, this is where they can join the majors in the same conversation.
This has been significantly helped by the staggered format which, to me, is the most logical strategy to provide the loudest crescendo.
Here at East Lake, the Tour Championship will determine the winner of the FedEx Cup. The staggered format has been in operation since 2019. Scottie Scheffler, ranked first in the standings, will begin on 10-under, and the 30th-ranked player will start on level par. The table above details the full staggered set-up at the start of the event.
Before this was introduced, the top 30 players would enter the season finale with their own points totals, with fans left bewildered by the individual permutations that could lead to each of them winning the FedEx Cup. The winner of the Tour Championship wasn’t guaranteed to win the Cup, but this confusion has now been remedied and all for the better.
Every player knows where they stand. They don’t need a calculator in their pockets. Rory McIlroy is six shots behind Scottie Scheffler. He knows what he needs to do to win the FedEx Cup. He needs to make up six shots across four days and finish above anyone else with the same objective.
The likes of Aaron Rai and Justin Thomas scraped in, but while they’re in, there’s a chance. Just like Blackpool.
I don’t know if it could be any clearer. Naysayers lurk in every corner of a room no matter how sensibly shaped it is, but I’m pleased to hear the dissenting voices towards the format are few and far between.
FedEx Cup Playoff Format 2024
| Tournament | Date | Winner |
| FedEx St. Jude Championship | August 15-18 | Hideki Matsuyama |
| BMW Championship | August 22-25 | Keegan Bradley |
| Tour Championship | August 29-Sep 1 | To be discovered… |
ALSO: PGA Tour 2024 schedule and results
Here is what three of the world’s best players said when I asked them about the format here in East Lake:
Shane Lowry
“There’s no doubt about it, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele have had the best years of anyone and they’re by far ahead of everybody else. But they only start a couple of shots ahead of people this week. But that’s the Playoffs. That’s American sports.
“I think if you look at every American sport, you play the season – you play for the regular season and then you go into the Playoffs and everyone starts at a level playing field again. I think that’s the industry we’re in. We’re trying to make it as best as we can for the people watching, and as easy as it can be.
“I think it’s pretty good, and I think it’s worked well over the last few years. I certainly don’t deserve to come here to East Lake and start on the same score as Scottie Scheffler. But it’s up to me to try and make that up this week.”
Ludvig Aberg
“I think it’s a cool format. Obviously it’s a playoff. It’s like any other sport in America where you have a regular season and you have a playoff. I think it’s great. It emphasises I’m playing well in these three tournaments, and if you play well, you get rewarded.”
Scottie Scheffler
“It depends how you want to describe it. If you want to just have a player that’s playing the best at the end of the year, I think the Playoffs will definitely identify that player. In terms of the season-long race, it’s maybe not always going to be the guy that plays the best the whole season; it’s going to be the guy that plays the best in these playoff events.
“That’s really what you’re identifying is the guy that plays the best in these last three events. It’s a format that’s changed a bunch or a few times over the past few years. In terms of when it first got started you had a year where I think it was Padraig Harrington won two majors and maybe didn’t make the BMW, and I know he didn’t make this tournament.
“So arguably it wasn’t really a great setup then. And then you change the points to be a little bit less valuable in the Playoffs, but you still see a lot of volatility. You look at a guy like Keegan Bradley who shows last week and had a great week and won the tournament, and now all of a sudden he goes from not being in East Lake to having a really, really great chance to win the FedExCup.”
NOW READ: This was Tiger’s greatest victory outside of the majors
NOW READ: How I Met Your Mother and 90’s hip-hop: This exclusive Q&A with Ludvig Aberg didn’t disappoint
What do you make of the FedEx Cup Playoff format? Could there be any improvements made to the FedEx Cup Playoff format? Tell us on X!
Matt Chivers
Now on the wrong side of 25, Matt has been playing golf since the age of 13 and was largely inspired to take up the game by countless family members who played golf during his childhood.
Matt is a member at Royal Cinque Ports in Deal playing off a 5 handicap, just a pitching wedge away from his hometown of Dover where he went to school and grew up. He has previously been a member at Etchinghill and Walmer and Kingsdown in Kent.
Having studied history at the University of Liverpool, Matt went on to pass his NCTJ Exams in Manchester a year later to fulfil his lifelong ambition of becoming a journalist. He picked up work experience along the way at places such as the Racing Post, the Independent, Sportsbeat and the Lancashire Evening Post.
Matt joined NCG in February 2023 and is the website’s main source of tour news, features and opinion. He has reported live from events such as The Open, the Ryder Cup and The Players Championship, having also interviewed and spoken to the likes of Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell, Henrik Stenson, to name just a few.
Consuming tour golf on what is a 24/7 basis, you can come to Matt for informed views on the game and the latest updates on the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, LPGA Tour, Ladies European Tour and LIV Golf.
What’s in Matt’s bag: Cobra LTDx LS driver, Cobra LTDx 3-wood, TaylorMade P7MC irons, Ping Glide 4.0 wedges, Odyssey putter.
