who is “we” ? Remember – the Fed Ex Cup is an expensive advertising campaign for Fed Ex, and an attempt by the PGA Tour to have the top ranked players playing at this time of the year – even though they are going up against football for viewers.

Last year, they got what they wanted – the points were stacked in favor of the top players, so they pretty much breezed into Atlanta (except for Phil, of course) – and TIger won. Tiger was the most important piece. Unfortnately, the weather didn’t cooperate and East Lake was a real mess. The points were stacked in favor of the top players, and THE top player cashed in. The guys at the bottom whined that they didn’t have a fighting chance to move up from week to week without winning. (duh – you didn’t win during the regular season – why should we expect you to all of a sudden become a world beater ??)

This year, they got what they wanted…sort of. They changed the points to get more player movement from week to week – and players like Ken Duke and Chad Campbell made their way to Atlanta, while Paddy Harrington and a couple others fell out. Now the top players whined in what amounted to “how come we have to actually play well to get to the big pay check ?” (An attitude that deserves a 2×4 to the forehead and a reminder that this is a SPORT not a welfare line, and competition is a GOOD thing.)

What they didn’t count on was Vijay Singh winning 2 straight playoff events and taking all but 2 guys out of the running. I suppose that wouldn’t have been a problem if Tiger had been the guy to dominate – after all – Tiger is the be-all-end-all of golf in the eyes of many. The big dollar Fed Ex prize was given the spotlight and the tournament was declared a bore three weeks before it started. Declared, of course, by the media. Last time I checked, none of these people have a crystal ball to predict the future.

In the end, it was the Tour Championship that won the day. Great play by big names – back and forth lead changing all day – a huge come from behind win in a playoff…and several hundred of the nicest sun dresses you could ever ask to see ! :-) The GAME actually came out on top – not the advertiser with the big wad of cash.

Until the Fed Ex and Tour people decide what THEY want out of something like the Fed Ex Cup. At the same time – they have to decide what to do with the Tour Championship. It is not possible to have a huge check floating independently away from the tournament itself and not be ready to have what happened the last two years happen. The media is too lazy to look past the spotlight of the Fed Ex money – that’s the easy story and one that they can criticize without breaking a sweat – regardless of the format. Either the tournament has center stage, or it is nothing more than a corporate outing with a couple of prizes to hand out at the end.

You can’t have a true playoff system then get upset when the guys who play the best make it to the finals ahead of the higher ranked players. And you can’t call the system a “playoff system” if you are really laying out a red carpet for the top players into the finals without manipulating the points in their favor – locking out the lower ranked players. If this is what they want – and it’s what they had before this monstrosity with the top 30 receiving an invitation to Atlanta – then the three playoff tournaments have no meaning for the finals.

You and I have no say in what the playoffs become. The Tour and the Fed Ex Cup people have to make a decision and live with the consequences. Either you please the top guys and leave out the lower guys – or you please the bottom guys and take your chances that the top guys actually put out the effort to play well enough to get to the finals.

What you and I want is what you said – great golf in September. What Fed Ex wants is ratings to get their name in front of more people. What the Tour wants is to make the players happy and rich – but that is mostly based on the top guys. We don’t count. Fed Ex doesn’t care as long as they make a splash. And the Tour is left to figure out the mess in the middle.

And I think the Tour won. Again, it got four very good golf tournaments. It got three guys who had a helluva month. That’s about as many names as the average sporting fan would stand to follow. It worked. The final margin was 500 points. If Villegas doesn’t miss the cut at Ridgewood, he’s the champion. That’s good drama. It just was in retrospect. That happens in other sports all the time.