HOW THE CUP BECAME COVETED

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Entering its sixth edition, the FedEx Cup playoffs have gone from a confusing, somewhat controversial entity to a viable, welcome addition to the PGA Tour scheduleas well as the key to the new calendar

Golf is a tradition-laden game, mostly for the good, but there are times when the past is so well protected that almost any change is viewed as if a tattooed surfer dude in a tank top, scruffy beard and cut-off blue jeans has just popped onto the first tee of the swankiest club in town. Even schedule changes in the pro game are greeted by some as if half a dozen mulligans a round has been proposed.

But five years into the FedEx Cup playoffs, the most radical restructuring of the PGA Tour at the time and the focal point of even greater change coming next year, it can be said that the scheme originally greeted with skepticism has worked on almost all counts. The greatest impact is that it created four high-quality events at the post-majors time of the year when the big names had previously gone fishing.

The playoffs have already poured $175 million in bonus money into the bank accounts of players on top of the tour’s $290 million annual purse and bumped TV viewership during their four-week run. For the players it is free money, and for the fans it is compelling and meaningful golf at a time when the end of baseball and the beginning of football rule the sports world.

“I think people have interest in it, especially during the playoffs when there are four tournaments to really do something special,” says Bill Haas, the 2011 FedEx Cup winner. “It’s kind of our retirement bonus plan. And we need it, so I think we enjoy playing and having something special on the line, a little something extra. I think it’s fun for everybody.”

And now the FedEx Cup is the catalyst for the most dramatic change in the history of the PGA Toura 12-month season that begins in October after the 2013 Tour Championship, as well as the devaluation of Q school. With FedEx locked in as the sponsor through the 2017 season, the playoff is the centerpiece not only of the PGA Tour season but also of its television broadcast schedule, the tour’s most lucrative revenue stream.

“No question the FedEx Cup has been a success,” says PGA Tour executive vice president Ty Votaw. “All of our objectives have been satisfied, which were to get the best players playing against each other four consecutive weeks and having a greater definition to the end of our season. We’ve extended golf’s relevance into a part of the year when fan interest had waned previously. I don’t think we would have gotten to the 12-month season without the FedEx Cup.”