Cue the music from The Twilight Zone.
Enjoy this week’s 2018 PGA Tour Championship finale in Atlanta, because this tournament is going to get downright weird in 2019!
Beginning next September, the season ending race for the Fed Ex Cup (filled with $10 million for the winner, that is) will be entering strange new territory as the tour desperately attempts to force the winner of the season ending tournament to also be declared the winner of the season-long points race, too.
Confused yet?
Let me explain. Last year in Atlanta, the winner of the year’s final event was Xander Schauffele. Unfortunately for young Xander, he lost the season-long Fed Ex points race to Justin Thomas. So, while one golfer won the tournament and a big $1.6 million check, Justin Thomas finished in second and carried off the Fed Ex Cup and its $10 million in bonus money.
The PGA Tour (and, I’m sure, the folks at Fed Ex) apparently didn’t like that ending as they would prefer to have one golfer win both prizes in the season finale.
Enter Goofy Golf 2019!
Beginning next year, the winner of 2019’s final golf event is guaranteed to be the winner of the Fed Ex Cup’s season-long treasure as The Bizarro Tour Championship will tee off in Atlanta.
Starting in 2019, the leader in the Fed Ex Cup points will be start the first round of the season finale with a bogus score of -10 (ten under par). The second place points leader will begin Round One at -8. Third place points will fetch you a starting tee time at -7, fourth place begins at -6, and fifth place tees off at 5-under par. From there, every five spots down the Fed Ex points list will start the event one shot further behind until those unlucky #26-30 players tee off this event at (gasp!) even par.
If the PGA Tour was trying to gain some attention with this weird algorithm to determine a season-ending champion, they have officially succeeded!
Just for fun, let’s play this out for this week’s field beginning tomorrow at East Lake in Atlanta.
According to the current Fed Ex points standings in 2018, Bryson DeChambeau would tee off on the first hole on Thursday at ten under par. Two shots behind, Justin Rose would begin at -8 and Tony Finau (third in the points) would start the first round at seven under par.
How about some of the others? Phil Mickelson (at #14) would begin at -3 or seven shots behind the leader before he hits his first tee shot.
Tiger Woods, you ask? He would start the day on Thursday at two under par with a lot of catching-up to do before Sunday’s 72nd hole.
What would happen in the event of a tie between two or more players at the end of the final round beginning in 2019?
I don’t know if Happy Gilmore’s clown hole is available to set-up as a playoff venue for next year’s event, but the PGA Tour’s new goofy golf circus deserves a fitting ending, don’t you think?
Ha ha ha ha…ptooey!