FedEx Cup Follies
So far this season we have seen Paul Goydos, Charley Hoffman, Aaron Baddeley, Mark Calcavecchia, Boo Weekley and Scott Verplank all win PGA Tour events.
Don't get me wrong, each of these guys can play and deserved to win, but one of the selling points of the FedEx Cup was it would encourage better players to compete more often. It's failed in that mission. The allure of FedEx Cup points has not persuaded the game's best players to adjust their schedules; if anything, they have taken it easy in anticipation of a big push between the PGA Championship, the FedEx Cup playoffs and the Tour Championship itself. And that has opened the door for more and more players to not only get Top 10s, but also compete for wins.
The FedEx Cup has also created a greater separation between the Have's and the Have Not's amongst the tournaments. It was announced in April that the Masters will extend an invitation into the 2008 tournament to all winners of FedEx Cup events starting with this season's Verizon Heritage. Tournaments that are not a part of the FedEx Cup schedule—which is everything after the Tour Championship, which concludes September 16th—won't have that carrot to dangle in front of players who will not have qualified yet.
Stick Pins
The new drainage system at TPC Sawgrass was installed in order to let the course play firmer and faster. Harder fairways give shorter hitters added length on their tee shots and force longer hitters to work the ball more or risk hitting through fairways and into the rough.
Mission accomplished.
But another way to bring more players into contention is the stop hiding the pins so deeply in the corners of the greens. Impossibly difficult pin locations create boring golf. Everyone plays away from the hole and we are left "in the land of the 25-foot birdie putt." Mix it up with the pin placements. Let the player hitting a 6-iron have a chance to hit it inside the player who's hitting a 9-iron once in a while. But that can't happen if every hole is 6 feet behind a huge bunker.
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