PGA Tour entering crucial stretch before FedExCup Playoffs | Golf Today | Golf Channel

PGA Tour players around the bubble of the FedExCup Playoffs have a chance to go on a run and solidify themselves in the field, but are the tour’s new signature events making it too difficult on lower-ranked players? #GolfChannel #golfcentral #FedExCup

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PGA Tour entering crucial stretch before FedExCup Playoffs | Golf Today | Golf Channel
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where we say hello to Todd Lewis Todd you spoke to several players out there already today about this final stretch in the schedule before the playoffs how are some of those guys getting geared up for this high pressure stretch that’s coming well they’re trying to stay focused Aman by the way we are inside the prestigious historic Detroit Golf Club clubhouse this club established back in 1899 why because there was a significant weather system that mowed through the Detroit area this morning but it has stopped now and seems like players soon are going to be able to go out and Tackle this golf course and for those players that are right now outside the FedEx Cup playoff bubble well they have had a few more moments to think about what’s ahead of them you see the Signature Events are now over for 2024 so the rocket mortgage classic will kick off what will be a 7-week run and players will have six opportunities to play their way into the FedEx Cup playoffs now take a look at the schedule it starts here in Detroit ending with the Windom Championship the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings after the Windom will make it to the FedEx Cup playoffs secure the card for next season and have a chance to advance to East Lake and be a part of Signature Events in 2025 the biggest Point event in this stretch is the open at World TR and for those currently on that bubble or outside the top 70 of the FedEx Cup standings this next month and a half will be significant it’s kind of this last six events are kind of like a Sprint you know we had the last three weeks off I was home for a few weeks and got a lot of good practice in and uh you know you’re looking going to move inside that top 70 top 50 top 30 you know um so one or two good weeks can really kind of change the course of your season not just for this year but going into the next year you know you sneak in the top 50 and getting those elevated events and stuff that would be awesome so um got some good practice in at home and looking forward to the next six weeks golf is obviously a mechanical game but it’s a mental game as well how do you handle the pressure of these next six events and trying to secure your position for next year uh I think just really just trying to be normal you know just another a every week is just a new start a new new new tournament so you really just you know trying to trying to be as normal as possible you know try not trying to think about the future that much really focused on the moment so uh that’s my mindset for for for this year and maybe for my future too so yeah it’s special special time but at the same time just trying to be normal yeah the points this year are getting to a point especially this time of year where there’s so um there’s big gaps in between there just because of all the designated events and the point structure from those events and whatnot that um it’s really hard to move up unless you top two top three every week um and obviously you need some help as well but uh yeah so like I said earlier you just have to go out and play well so do you feel like you’re in a tough position if you’re not in the Signature Events and it’s h h how would you describe that challenge uh yeah I I think it definitely makes it tougher um like some guys had three weeks off this past stret some guys had even more than that which was uh pretty unfortunate like especially kind of during crunch time uh with the with the tour and the the end of the regular season coming up and whatnot and um I I was fortunate enough to play one designated event this year but um it would have been nice to get in more I I think the fields should have maybe been a little bigger but um I don’t make the rules so here I am now like I mentioned there are seven weeks coming up with only six weeks of PGA Tour competition one week will be off that’ll be for the Olympics that is not obviously a PGA T sanctioned event there are many players who are in this field who haven’t played in close to a month why because of the last three weeks we’ve had two Signature Events surrounding the US Open as a matter of fact Sam Stevens who you heard from there played a Corin fairy Tour event a few weeks ago just to keep his game sharp for the stretch run now the PGA Tour feels that there will be a turnover talking about players that will move into the top 70 and players that will move out to the out of the top 70 after the regular season to be about 20% so we’re looking at roughly 14 guys going into the playoffs 14 guys popping out now will the signature event series change for 2025 meaning will the field sizes stay at about 70 well according to the tour right now yes and the players are getting no evidence that that is going to change which makes this stretch run very very critical guys a lot of weather pressure outside the clubhouse and a lot of professional pressure inside the clubhouse what do you think of these Signature Events Jordan are they working or are they for you still kind of a work in progress they’re obviously a work in progress Aman and if you look at it I mean it’s separating a greater distance between the halves and the have knots that is very evident but the complaints are coming from both the halves and the have knots I mean you heard Scotty sheffler talk about hey pin professional golfer complain about and that’s just life too there’s going to you’re not going to please everybody but in this case I don’t know who quite you’re pleasing to me you look at a guy like Scotty you know he goes and wins Memorial and because of the scheduling of these Signature Events he steps into Pinehurst and just never got his game was it because of the rigors of Memorial to Pinehurst the scheduling portion of it then you look at the hav knots the guys who aren’t uh able to get in the in the field for these Signature Events well they’re losing out on the purse opportunity greater than that the points opportunity so the discrepancy is bigger from a viewer and a fan of the sport I understand how the unfair side of it for those who are being left out but then again what are you also generating you’re getting the best of the best in these events and you’re setting up the FedEx playoff to watch the best in the sport golf is starting to feel unique in the side of yeah you want everybody have an opportunity but you also got to go earn it amen and so I get that it makes it more difficult when you don’t have the opportunity to go Garner those points but at the end of the day it can feel as simple as you got to play better to have the opportunity there has to be a portion of that in the conversation here despite all the discrepancies elsewhere there is but I suppose there’s also the question of the opportunity to play as well as the opportunity to play better and we’ve had this forc three-week layoff for a lot of these guys so I think there is a an issue with the Cadence of the schedule and having say the memorial the US Open The Travelers back to back it’s not just that guys are left who are actually have earned their card on their tour it’s not just that they’re left out for those three weeks to me it’s also the issue to your point of Scottish e you get beaten up at the memorial you’re committed to The Travelers after so suddenly you have one of the career defining events right in the middle there where the the schedule isn’t doing you any favors I I still think the field size is an issue here that’s your biggest issue of all it really is because you at the memorial you didn’t even have 70 guys in the field and I it doesn’t look as impressive to gather all the goliaths if you don’t have any Davids beside them and I think you you lose an essential nature of of sport here the idea of the upset player somebody making a statement against the big guys in a big moment and maybe the qualification process for it needs to be looked at but I still think the field size could be 100 have a meaningful cut because losing 15 or 20 guys out of a field of 70 isn’t really that impactful I think if you have a 100 guys there and lose 50 of them it it still doesn’t you know distinguish uh or demoralize anybody in terms of the paycheck they’re going to get at the end of it there’s still a big pot of money being distributed to these guys and I guess I do get the point of saying you want everybody the opportunity that’s the beauty of sport that I know you love dearly college basketball um that I played and having that tournament a pitcher right yes a pitcher that’s right um that that tournament in March is a big deal because you have the opportunity for the upset you have the Davids mixed in with the goliaths but at the end of the day what does everybody want to see when it gets towards the end Goliath yeah that’s what you want to see so is a deck being stacked towards a FedEx playoff that it’s going to be chalk full of Goliath well that’s what everybody at the end of the day kind of wants to see so you want them to have more of an opportunity to get there I get that part but at the end of the day can we be really that upset we’re going to watch the best of the best you can’t but I guess this is a problem that tourist had over the years as well in in all of its sort of finagling with the FedEx couple over the years it gives you the impression of trying to engineer an outcome yeah and you’re trying for the benefit of fans for the benefit of sponsors for the benefit of broadcasters everyone does want to see the best go toe-to-toe at the end but it’s sport the best have to earn their way to to that period at the end of it and there are other aspects of this that I I do think needs uh addressing as well of them we’re going to see over the course of the next few weeks just in terms of the turnover rate Todd mentioned by the number of guys you might expect to see move into the top 70 between now and the playoffs but the tour has projected somewhere between 34 and 38% of the top 50 would be gone heading into next season so that this isn’t just a a self-fulfilling cycle here where the same guys stay in these uh tournaments with higher point allocations and you just can’t possibly get them out of it which is how it was on the old WGC system so that turnover rate will will be an interesting one to look at but they really have to look at the sponsor exemptions in these events they’ve they get four in each of these events Adam Scott and web Simpson both board members have now received five free passes into events that they were not otherwise eligible for and you can make an absolutely valid argument that both of those guys are consumate professionals they add value to the tournament nobody would dispute their right to be there but there all the time and five of them there ought to be cap on how many sponsor invites you can get into these lucrative events and a give back of some kind if you take an exemption into a signature event you ought to be required to play a non-s signature event somewhere else it wasn’t on your schedule let your teer Woods of course who got that lifetime exemption for the signature events which I think we can both agree feels Fair special rules for a speci special rules for a special player how about the tough exterior but a warmer side to you championing the underdog here giving them an opportunity I’d love to see it