Phil Mickelson capped off a tumultuous summer at home with a spectacular rally Sunday to win the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Tiger Woods finished another big year by winning the FedEx Cup and its $10 million bonus.

Watched yesterday and the final today.

The HD broadcast on NBC was a true joy and a top notch presentation.

Phil played a spectacular round and clearly was on top of his game today.

Tiger wasn't playing great today but good enough to take second place and win the FedEx Cup.

Now looking forward to the Presidents Cup and hopefully another great HD broadcast coming October 6 - 11 2009

I'm not a Tiger-hater... but I have the same problem with the FedEx cup that I do with Nascar... how is it possible not to win the events but still win the trophy?

I know it's a "points" thing... but I'm thinking Nascar and Golf needs to tweak the rules/points a bit to slant the Cup winner towards someone who has won the individual tournaments a bit more.

Tiger played 17 events, made 16 cuts, 6 wins, 3 seconds, 14 in the top 10.

Michelson played 18 event, made 16 cuts, 3 wins, 1 second, 7 in the top 10.

The HD broadcast on NBC was a true joy and a top notch presentation.



It seemed like they had more cameras than usual, offering, in some cases, three views for Tiger's shots.

However, they seemed to have a problem with blinding white out (white balance?) a few times. Also, the Shot Track subdued and even changed the picture colors somewhat.

NBC always has a problem with color blooming (including white) on their golf broadcasts.

I'm not a Tiger-hater... but I have the same problem with the FedEx cup that I do with Nascar... how is it possible not to win the events but still win the trophy?

I know it's a "points" thing... but I'm thinking Nascar and Golf needs to tweak the rules/points a bit to slant the Cup winner towards someone who has won the individual tournaments a bit more.

There were four Fedex Cup events.
Tiger finished T2, T11, 1st, 2nd
Phil finished T52, T30, T27 and 1st.

Do you really think Phil should have been the overall champion?

There were four Fedex Cup events.
Tiger finished T2, T11, 1st, 2nd
Phil finished T52, T30, T27 and 1st.

Do you really think Phil should have been the overall champion?

No. Certainly not. Who ever said Phil should have won?

I don't follow enough to dig into all the stats to say who I think should win... and like I said, I like Tiger... I'm just thinking overall of how confusing the ways you get points are... and don't like the Nascar-like way it is possible to win the Cup without even winning 1 tournament if you consistently place in the top 5 all season while others bounce up and down.

Not sure I have a better design system in my head... but I just like to see the winners win. When it comes down to the last week, last tournament, and you don't have to win it to win the Cup... that just makes it a downer to me.

It'd be like in football if you didn't actually have to win the Superbowl to win the championship... you just had to beat the point-spread or something.

The idea is to make the season a marathon and not a sprint. Every sport does it.

The Fedex Cup does have crazy rules.

Furyk had a theoretical chance to win the cup and $10 million on the last day without winning a single event all season.

All he needed was to finish second in the final tournament, with Tiger 4th or lower, and a player outside the top 8 seeds winning.

The whole FexEx Cup "race" is such an artificial construct to begin with. It's almost embarrassing the way they've been pimping it all year, as if just declaring it to be exciting will somehow make it so. The golf season unofficially ends after the last major, and that's the way it's always been. That's when people stop paying attention for the most part. They've been trying to drum up some TV ratings after football season starts and this is the best they can up with. In their desire to make it as fair as they can, while still enticing the top players (re: Tiger, basically) to show up, they've made it more complicated than NASCAR. The $10 million prize is a also little obscene IMO, considering the economy and the fact that these guys are basically all millionaires anyway. Tiger could make a real statement by just giving it all away to the PGA charities (after taxes and Stevie's fee, of course). Something tells me he'd still be able to buy little Sam new shoes. ;)

The idea is to make the season a marathon and not a sprint. Every sport does it.

I wouldn't say "every" sport does it... Not even every "individual" non-team sport does it. Most trophies come from winning an event or series of events... not from accumulating the highest point total through an average overall higher placement without necessarily winning.

As a Tiger example... I'm sure Tiger would much rather have one 1 or 2 of the big 4 majors this year than the FedEx cup. I remember a couple of years ago Tiger didn't even have to compete at all in some of the FedEx cup events to be eligible to win.

Yep, you're right about that. Tiger would have rather won the PGA back in August instead of the Fedex Cup.

This contrived championship is a way to get players to participate in the Tours events after the last major. I'm sure ratings go way down once football season starts.

If you just go by majors, the best golfers this year were Ángel Cabrera, Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink, and Y.E. Yang.

Ricky Barnes, Tom Watson, and Tiger Woods each had one second place finish in a major which makes them equals among the second tier.

:D

Golf is a crazy sport... Last year Tiger wins a major on a broken leg! Then this year couldn't get over the top in any of the majors with a repaired leg.

Of course nobody will take odds against Tiger winning at least 1 major next year.

Back to the FedEx Cup...

If they want to make it matter... they ought to pick a series of tournaments, require you to participate in ALL of those tournaments in order to be eligible for the Cup. They can still stagger the points you get from each tournament according to how high you finish.

BUT, I'd like to see some kind of tweak to counter the Nascar syndrome of trying to play safe and finish in the top 5 and winning the Cup while not going for the win.

When you play the Masters, for example, you go for broke and the win... but if you don't like your chances in a particular FedEx Cup event, you can layup and preserve your top 5 finish to stay in the points race. Tiger is going to always go for the win... but guys farther down the line are going to go for the points towards that $10 million payday for the Cup!

NBC always has a problem with color blooming (including white) on their golf broadcasts.

I'm no expert on cameras, but I think this problem got a lot worse in HD. The SD cameras seemed to have better dynamic range.

The $10 million prize is a also little obscene IMO, considering the economy and the fact that these guys are basically all millionaires anyway. Tiger could make a real statement by just giving it all away to the PGA charities (after taxes and Stevie's fee, of course). Something tells me he'd still be able to buy little Sam new shoes. ;)

The FEd EX Cup is not "real" prize money like the other tournaments. It goes to a deffered retirement fund. This fund cannot be touched until the player turns 45.

OK NM looks like they changed this as people got scared that Tiger could amass a $1billion retirement fund if he won the cup 6 more times. Looks like as of 2008 players 1-10 receive the bluk of thier payments up front (for example 1st place gets 9 million cash 1 million on the retirement fund). The 1st year they had the cup the entire 10 Million was put into the retirement fund.

I really dont think he or any of the other players "need" to donate thier winnings to make a real statement, many of them donate millions a year to different charities many non publicly.

While I agree with others that the FEC may need a retool this year made it mire exciting then the 1st year when Tiger one it. This year more players had a chance to win the before which is the entire point of the rules changes.

The FEd EX Cup is not "real" prize money like the other tournaments. It goes to a deffered retirement fund. This fund cannot be touched until the player turns 45.So? It's $500k a year at that point going forward for 20 years, and I believe that's also tax free, as most annuities are. I don't see a problem with that. Not that I'll ever have to worry about it.....

So? It's $500k a year at that point going forward for 20 years, and I believe that's also tax free, as most annuities are. I don't see a problem with that. Not that I'll ever have to worry about it.....

:) All I was trying to say that it was not as easy as it sounds just "giving it away" as the previous poster suggested. He actually does donate his purse from the Chevron (used to be Target) World Challenge (1st place is 1.35 million) to his Tiger Woods Foundation. I dont have an issue with it either, but it seems people though 6 was an attainable number that that Tiget having a ~$1 billion available to him (paid over 5 years in monthly checks once he decides to withdraw) was a little too much LOL.....

I don't follow enough to dig into all the stats to say who I think should win... and like I said, I like Tiger... I'm just thinking overall of how confusing the ways you get points are... and don't like the Nascar-like way it is possible to win the Cup without even winning 1 tournament if you consistently place in the top 5 all season while others bounce up and down.

Not sure I have a better design system in my head... but I just like to see the winners win. When it comes down to the last week, last tournament, and you don't have to win it to win the Cup... that just makes it a downer to me.

It'd be like in football if you didn't actually have to win the Superbowl to win the championship... you just had to beat the point-spread or something.

Regarding the "NASCAR" style points systems and other sports ... it's not that cut and dry. There has to be a balance and ultimately, the type of sport will dictate how the scoring/ranking/playoff system is run.

In auto racing, there are several options. You can select (either artificially or through tradition) one race as the Superbowl. Or you can have a season of races that are equally important. Indycar does the former and NASCAR does the latter. Which one is more popular?

Sure, the Indy500 counts as much in the season points standings, but everyone knows that it's the Superbowl. Most drivers would rather win the Indy500 than the Indycar championship. In NASCAR, Daytona is the Superbowl, but the SprintCup is just as prestigious as a Daytona500 win.

Look at the extreme. Pro cycling. The Tour de France is the big one. All of the other races are afterthoughts. Is it any wonder no one (in America) pays attention to cycling?

To be honest, golf (and other tournanament sports) is more like a racing circuit than a traditional stick/ball (or stick/puck for our Canadian friends) sport. A true playoff can't really exist. Heck, this FedEx "playoff" is pretty contrived as well. Golf is more about the Rankings and who won the Majors and the other Big events. This year, Tiger is still #1, but he didn't win a Major. So there's discussion and debate .. that's good for the game.

BTW, the only way that I could see Golf having a true playoff system is to have a huge, single tournament at the end of the season that's worth $XXXX. They could invite the top 256 golfers and work in a huge Match Play tournament. Winner takes all. This type of event would attract the big names and would equalize the talent. NOTE - the problem with this is if Phil and Tiger got knocked out early, the ratings would go down. Then, if a no-name won this "superbowl", it would lose a lot of credibility. Perhaps 2 rounds of stroke-play to weed out the lesser golfers. Heck throw in a round of Stableford scoring for excitement/agressive play. Start match-play at 16 golfers and you get 4 matches.

The FedEx Cup is a lot closer to the playoffs in the NBA, NHL and MLB. You are seeded based on the regular season yet still have to perform well in each series to advance. In the NFL, and college basketball a great season gets you into the playoffs, but you have to perform great on a given day to win the whole thing. The New England Patriots can tell you all about that. What exact system is better in determining your true champion is up for debate but ratings and will tell you people like the one and done system. The FedEx cup system allows people who had a great year the chance to not play great one week in the playoffs and still advance. The goal though is to make sure the top players show up each week. This year that worked.

:) All I was trying to say that it was not as easy as it sounds just "giving it away" as the previous poster suggested.Regardless of how and when he gets the money, it could easily be set up to go anywhere he wants. It could be made an irrevocable decision or a revocable one.

The goal though is to make sure the top players show up each week. This year that worked.

Perhaps. One might argue that the only reason Tiger played in all the Cup events was because he didn't win a major this year and was looking for some end-of-season validation. Who knows? But the bigger question is: did anybody care? Did anyone actually get excited about this "chase" besides the PGA tour's marketing department and the small handful of guys who had a chance to win? Does anyone care that Tiger won another $10 million? Did this Cup chase do what it was intended to do in terms of extending interest in the golf season past the start of football season? Not for me, it didn't. And I consider myself a huge golf fan.

Perhaps. One might argue that the only reason Tiger played in all the Cup events was because he didn't win a major this year and was looking for some end-of-season validation. Who knows? But the bigger question is: did anybody care? Did anyone actually get excited about this "chase" besides the PGA tour's marketing department and the small handful of guys who had a chance to win? Does anyone care that Tiger won another $10 million? Did this Cup chase do what it was intended to do in terms of extending interest in the golf season past the start of football season? Not for me, it didn't. And I consider myself a huge golf fan.

I agree. To me, the FedEx Cup is very contrived ... especially when compared to the vast tradition and history that golf enjoys.

To me, golf is about the 4 majors, above all else. The greats are measured by the number of majors they've won. And you're not a "great" until you've won a major or two.

Of the four FedEx events, the Tour Championship can easily stand on it's own. Not sure about the other 3.

Gold does have a playoff system. It's called "The Skins Game."

:D

But this year's was canceled.