It's telling there's no thread on this. The format is a a stinker. Making everyone start even at East Lake isn't going to make it much better. Throwing gobs more money in the purse doesn't do anything for the fans either.

IMO they need to radically shake up the format. Find a way to confer more of a major status to it rather than just a big bonus. Maybe some match play format or something. What are y'all's thoughts?

That said, watching Scottie is worth the price of admission. The hole out to close out the BMW on 17 was unbelievable. The field is obviously going to be very good even if watching the players move in and out of the top 30 isn't that riveting.

The PGA Tour has tried different things but for the last event or two of the playoffs, they need to incorporate Match Play format to shake things up.

I'm not sure how to make it better but I have enjoyed it so far. Challenging courses and shots under pressure

I think giving byes makes for worse tv ratings and ticket sales. And I'd hate to be #1 and catch a guy playing good on a course he has played the last two days.

I like the current format I want to see the top guys play 4 rounds because it's more enjoyable to follow them. Just my opinion.

They have constantly changed the format of this thing in some way since it began. So they clearly haven't been happy with it. And #2-30 this year have exactly the same chance of winning the title as #1. You don't see guys playing better in rounds 2, 3, or 4 than round 1 in any other week. Yeah, #1 may run into a hot player, but that's the fun of it. Scottie could lose on Friday, but it could also be really cool to see him duel to the death late on the back 9 3 straight times. Every day has everything riding on it.

As a NASCAR fan I find the problem very similar to their playoffs. There's no right formula because none of it is a solution to show who the best of the year is. I get that sponsor money and TV ratings drive the need for some solution but it's never going to work. Some years the right guy wins it and some years he doesn't.

DannyDuberstein said:

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I think you go to match play. The catch is these dudes don't want to play a crapload of matches after having played the previous 2+ weeks. You also want to provide a reward for being at/near the top of the standings. But you could do it this way:

- Top 24 are invited (not 30)
- #1 and #2 in fedex points get 2 rounds of byes (straight to quarterfinals)
- #3 and #4 get a 1 round bye

So 5-24 match off in the 1st round with 10 winners. The 2nd round has 12 players (10 winners + #3/4) with 6 winners. Then you have 6 winners + #1/2 to set up a final 8. Sunday is a championship for all the marbles, but also a consolation match that you put some solid payout on too. Need 2 matches to make it more tv friendly

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I personally think this is a fantastic idea

Yes, part of the fallacy is the "right guy" factor. At some point they just have to let that go and the thing is simply won on the course at the end, which is what they are trying this year. Match play would be a bit of a throwback to the old PGA Championship format. I think the main ratings challenge is that by late August, there's a bit of viewer fatigue. That's where I think a full-out shakeup could help. If you limit it to the top 24, there are no scrubs left. So unlike Accenture/Dell match play, your downside risk of who is in the semis and final is limited.

I'd also consider moving it to somewhere that isn't hot as balls. Play the semis and final on Sunday. Allows you to start on Thursday and guarantees you seeing #1/2 on Saturday.

Still working through this in my head, but maybe start Thursday with 64. First day cut to 32. Second day cut to 16, third to 8. Sunday only the 8 top golfers play. Increase the coverage of those 8. Do as many walk and talks as possible. You get cut line drama each day and Sunday you only get guys that have a chance to win with in depth coverage. Cut line ties go to playoffs each day to get the number exactly right. That would be some damn drama on a Thursday afternoon.

Maybe a hybrid of the two. Top 20-30 play the first two rounds with the top players starting at an advantage like the previous system. Maybe a cut after the first day. Top 4 go to match play on Saturday. Match play final (and third place match play to have something to fill time) on Sunday.

Match play championship. Reset the points at St Jude so everyone has to play. 1 and 2 get a bye in East Lake (or Pebble - I agree with move from the heat). Re-seed every round. The 14 that lose on Wednesday finish T-17. The 16 that play Thursday play all four days for consolation/ money.

That's called a playoff.

Just found out that the winner of the regular season actually gets $10MM. The more you know.

Note that the byes would go to Scottie and Rose as should be for this year.

Top 32 match play would be awesome.

16 matches Thursday, 8 Friday, 4 Saturday, 2 Sunday.. then 9 holes Sunday afternoon between the last 2 guys.

98Ag99Grad said:

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Season long winner needs to crowned after Wyndham. Then make the playoffs a true playoff until East Lake and thats just a different prize. No one believes Scheffler isn't the best player if he doesn't win next week. It makes no sense to keep carrying points over like they do.

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Seven Costanza said:

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Maybe a hybrid of the two. Top 20-30 play the first two rounds with the top players starting at an advantage like the previous system. Maybe a cut after the first day. Top 4 go to match play on Saturday. Match play final (and third place match play to have something to fill time) on Sunday.

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Pretty much what the Ameteur Championships do.

Start on Wednesday
1 day of stroke play to make a cut.
Top 16 go to match play. 1 match each day.

DannyDuberstein said:

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I'd also consider moving it to somewhere that isn't hot as balls. Play the semis and final on Sunday. Allows you to start on Thursday and guarantees you seeing #1/2 on Saturday.

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The scheduling is a problem too. The have em by the balls for TPC Sod farm and East Lake, and then with various mid-atlantic and midwestern courses its brutal. A three week stretch through August of Memphis, Baltimore and Atlanta is about as bad as it gets. Next year in St Louis will be no better.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DNbBb2EtIHS/?igsh=eTFyeDlremxuN2I=

The whole reason that NASCAR has the system they have now (and have really had since like '06) is because previously the Season Champ would crowned with 2-3 races left and no one tunes in for them.

It'd be the same as golf if they didn't have some sort of system in place.

Golf season has always ended with a whimper because the Majors are what matters most and once they're done, people kinda tune out. The Tour understandably tried to do something about that and came up with the playoffs. They had to make it lucrative to keep the big name guys from taking the rest of the summer off after the Open. But now the money is one of the big stumbling blocks to reform. It just makes no sense that one good week at East Lake can be worth more than literally the entire season for all but a couple of guys. So, the first thing I would do is reallocate the money. Maybe make East Lake the biggest purse of the year but only by 20% or so, not 300%. Take those leftover dollars and use them in the season long bonuses. With the dollars reallocated, you then can get a lot more creative with the format.

I like idea of match play. If you could tie it to some iconic courses, even better. If we're dreaming big, when you get down to the final 8 guys, head to the Monterey peninsula and do the first 2 days at pebble and the final round with the last 2 guys at Cypress (I realize this would never happen but I'm dreaming here).

TecRecAg said:

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The whole reason that NASCAR has the system they have now (and have really had since like '06) is because previously the Season Champ would crowned with 2-3 races left and no one tunes in for them.

It'd be the same as golf if they didn't have some sort of system in place.

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I fully understand why NASCAR did it, as I alluded to in my original post. That said, NASCAR purists still put stock in the regular season points champion, especially during years like last year when Logano won the playoffs but overall had a **** year. Those years suck.

As mentioned by someone else on this thread...the PGAT at least has the luxury of no fan actually believing the Tour Championship winner = The Golfer of the Year. Sure it can be some times, but if it ends up not being the case people don't really care.

Yes. Wasn't trying to say you were wrong, just expanding.

I'm just not sure there's an easy way to do it. Individual sports vs ~150 other people every week is tough to win.

We all know who #1 is this year.

It's a chance to be creative.

Do a top 32 double elimination bracket 9 hole matches. Front 9 in session 1, back 9 in session 2. Tie breaker is closest to the pin on a par 3 on opposite side.

Could concurrently run a "last chance" tourney for the first 16 who will lose their tour card. Standard 18 hole match play. Winner keeps their card.

Figure out a way to keep all the eliminated around (consolation stroke play tourney with decent money attached?)

Good read here, a little long, but I think this is a great idea.

https://www.the-daily-drive.com/p/its-time-for-a-true-postseason-playoff?r=twuse&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

Fellas, I apologize that the link I supplied does not allow the entire article to be read. Here is the remaining part of the article:

1) Make the Wyndham Championship a wildcard play-in event. Dole out your season-long bonuses to the top 30 points leaders and grant them a bye week. The next 120 players compete in Greensboro with only the top 40 finishers advancing to join the other 30 in first playoff round. In this and every subsequent playoff event, sudden-death tiebreakers will determine those last spots to move on just like in U.S. Open qualifying.
2) All 70 players tee it up at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and only the top 50 move on. You skip it or play poorly even if your name is Scheffler or McIlroy you're out. (FWIW, the last time Scheffler finished outside the top 50 was in 2022; McIlroy has done so only three times since 2023 Masters. They can handle themselves.)
3) The 50 survivors play the BMW Championship and only the top 30 finishers advance to East Lake.
4) The Tour Championship is a 30-man free-for-all with the winner crowned as the true playoff champion. If that winner is a Cinderella story that began the Wyndham ranked 150th, more power to him. He earned it.
Wouldn't that kind of weekly drama with elimination sudden-death playoffs be a better way to cap off the golf season in the post-major void before football season kicks off and as baseball season drags on? The survive-and-advance desperation energy alone would be as compelling as who wins the tournaments and way better than the invisible math that nobody can follow now.
Consider McIlroy an endorser of this plan.
"I've heard this idea kicked around, where everything resets after Wyndham and then the top 70 just play for the top 50 spots to get into the next week and then everything resets again here, and then the top 30 from this week then make it to the Tour Championship," McIlroy said Wednesday at Caves Valley. "I mean, if you want to try to make it straight playoffs and elimination, I think that would be a good way to go."
Then he added the disclaimers, which is the whole coddling part we started this off with.
"You're trying to balance a lot of different things. You're trying to balance the competitive integrity of what the playoffs are, but you're also trying to keep the media rights partners happy, you're trying to keep the sponsors happy," McIlroy said. "They're the people that are paying the big bucks to expect the big names to be playing in their golf tournaments, and that's a delicate balance."
Delicate, indeed. Fragile even.
There are plenty of other ways the PGA Tour could make its closing stretch more compelling or meaningful. Maybe move the Tour Championship around again like they used, even if it's just to other venues in Atlanta or Georgia to keep sponsors Coca-Cola and the Southern Company happy. Do the same with the FedEx St. Jude, as the umbrella sponsor has regional headquarters and hubs in many places other than sweltering Memphis, Tenn.
And if they're feeling really frisky and creative, perhaps even create a fun post-Tour Championship Final Four shootout on Labor Day that pits the winners of the three playoff events and the regular-season points leader to determine the overall FedEx Cup champ. If Scheffler or somebody else sweeps all four, double his bonus money.
Just do something. Anything. Because doing the same tired thing over and over again for 20 years and calling it "playoffs" isn't fooling anybody.

How sick would a match play format be for the Tour Championship?! You could do a 30 man with top 2 byes, or a 28 man with top 4 byes (I like this one better).

I couldnt figure it out on a bracket but if you wanted to reward the top top guys, could give top 2 seeds 2 byes, and next 4 or 6 a single bye.

5 days of match play!!

Payouts below are estimates.

1st = 10 mil
2nd = 5 mil
2rd = 3.7 mil
4th = 3.2 mil
5th-8th = 1.7mil
9th - 17th = 658K
Rest (1st round losers) = 425k

28 Man Format


30 Man Format

wet course plus preferred lies = low low low low. They are just dropping darts.

With the Ryder Cup around the corner, I would love this. Plus it would increase ratings significantly. The playoffs are such a drag. And it shows in the ratings.

2wealfth Man said:

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wet course plus preferred lies = low low low low. They are just dropping darts.

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Such a joke for conditions. Letting players play with lift clean and place during the "championship"

love some of these ideas

Biggest problem with the playoffs is the notion that you're crowning an end of year champ at all.

They sell it as an end of season championship, but no one believes it. Not the players, not the fans, not the media. The fact that they have to throw so much money at the players just reinforces the narrative that no one actually cares.

I think they could make the golf season after The Open into something interesting if they gave themselves the freedom to do something out of the box and give up any illusion that it was to "crown" anyone.

Match play, different formats, wild course setups, betting games, team golf, whatever. You'd have to give it some stakes like money and exemptions and stuff, but don't make one of the stakes be "whoever wins is the champion" because everyone knows that's not true.