ATLANTA (AP) — The success of a new PGA Tour postseason format depends largely on getting fans to understand what it means. And money is not the answer.Golf was never meant to have a Super Bowl or a World Series, no matter how hard the tour has tried to make it feel that way over the last 20 years. What matters is a green jacket in April and a silver claret jug in July. Golf has been defined by four majors since Arnold Palmer said so in 1960.So whether the new postseason format that CEO Brian Rolapp announced Tuesday — seven days of match play over two weeks in two cities — is an improvement over the previous iterations remains to be seen.But he delivered the right message with one phrase when Rolapp called it “one of the most difficult tournaments to qualify for and win.”That’s all it is, and that’s enough.The season starts with as many as 20 tournaments against the strongest fields, and the leading 90 players advance to the BMW Championship. The No. 1 player at the end of the week is the season winner (“Champion golfer of the year” is already taken) and handsomely rewarded.
The top 32 advance to the two-week Tour Championship — four players in eight groups (World Cup fever!) and the top two from each group move on to the final week. Then it’s single elimination with a twist — everyone has to stick around to the end so there’s more than just two players on the course by Sunday.Odds are the leader in points before the Tour Championship will have played the best golf (lately that has been Scottie Scheffler). And it’s just as likely that players who captured one or more of the majors that year would not be losing any sleep if the year didn’t end with a FedEx Cup title.
