The PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs have been a drag for a really long time.
No matter what the Tour has tried, the result has lacked the excitement and interest it would have wanted for what should have been a dramatic end to a long season.
We’ve seen and heard a lot of ideas to improve it, and it finally looks like the Tour may explore the match to decide the champion of the season as CEO Brian Rolapp mentioned the possibility during his press conference last week.
I believe the move to match play can finally give the tournament postseason an identity that fans can rally around.
Individual sports have struggled to find the right balance in a playoff system
The Tour has not been alone with its playoff issue. NASCAR has famously tinkered with its format in recent years. There used to be a simple points system for a season, but the champion was often decided with a few races left. In 2003, Matt Kenseth won the title despite only winning once all year, and since then NASCAR has messed with its playoff system.
In recent years, the NASCAR playoff format had become overly complicated, so it reverted to a simple 10-race playoff this year with no eliminations and a direct points system to enter the playoffs and take home the title.
Tennis has also had to try many different formats for its ATP Finals. It seems to have found a sweet spot in recent years with a format that allows for plenty of short, exciting matches and an overall tournament that feels different from the rest of the year.
The tournament joined to confuse the format in 2019. Before that, the season champion and the winner of the tournament championship were often different. This created a strange finish in which two players could be considered winners and fans were left following both tournament contenders and points contenders throughout the season.
After that, it got trickier as the Tour introduced a staggered stroke system to open the tournament and fans seemed to lose interest in what should have felt like a dramatic season-ending event.
Match play has always felt like the solution, and it seems like Tour CEO Brian Rolapp agrees.
Rolapp mentioned the possible introduction of match play for the postseason
In his presser Wednesday ahead of The Players Championship, Rolapp went over the possible upcoming changes to the Tour, many of which have received positive feedback from fans and critics.
We’ve reviewed many of them here at MyGolfSpy but what I’m most excited about is the match play to determine the FedEx Cup champion.
Something has to be done about the tournament playoffs. After the Open Championship ends in July, the golf season looks like it’s basically over. There’s still some fun to be had as players move on to the next stage of the playoffs, but that’s about it.
And it’s indicative that I’m more likely to name the winner of the Valspar Championship some years than the winner of the Tour Championship.
The old WGC Match Play event was a big hit on the schedule every year, especially when Austin Country Club became the permanent home. It seemed to be one of the most popular tournaments every year for fans and there were also many players who expressed their support for the event.
But the Tour canceled the event when it continued to change its schedule and focus on signature events. The explanation seemed wrong – but Rolapp may be correcting Jay Monahan’s terrible mistake.
The format remains to be seen, but I have something in mind
For the first of three playoff events, the Tour can use stroke play to cut the playoff field from 125 to 64 using in-season points with a multiplier so players can make a big jump.
In the second playoff event, match play begins. Thursday and Friday would be standard 18-hole matches, which would reduce the field to 16 players. That’s when the real fun could begin, bringing 36-hole matches on Saturday and Sunday to send eight players to East Lake for the final.
At East Lake, you can start the week on Wednesday with 36-hole matches over two days to divide the field into semifinalists. They would play 36 holes again on Friday and Saturday to set the stage for the final on Sunday.
Sunday’s 36-hole final would mirror tournaments like the US Amateur, really highlighting the match and setting a dramatic stage for the Tour champion.
It’s more likely the Tour will opt for something simple with 32 players going to East Lake and playing 18-hole matches from Wednesday to Sunday to determine the champion. But I like the idea of ​​the franchise for the final tournament, along with playing 36 holes in the finals.
Here’s what the 2025 playoffs would look like with match play
And for the winner? I think Tommy Fleetwood would currently bring home a tournament match to win the tournament championship due to his consistent play and balanced play.
This bracket looks incredible and the idea of ​​it running for several weeks with 36 hole matches in play really excites me. It is likely to change the whole opinion of the tournament playoffs and finally get the attention that the tournament final deserves after a long season.
What do you think about the development of matches in the tournament championship? Let me know below in the comments.
Top Photo Caption: Rory and Xander faced each other in the WGC-Match Play Senior Championship. (GETTY IMAGES/David Buono)
