What's the FedEx Cup?

The regular season for professional golf concluded last week. Regular season? Yes, the regular season. With professional golf moving to an end of season playoff with a multi-million dollar prize, players spent the first three quarters of the year positioning themselves to qualify for the inaugural FedEx Cup.

First made public in 2005 when FedEx accepted the responsibility of being the title sponsor of professional golf's version of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Race, the FedEx Cup functions as a four week playoff. For the last twenty-five years, FedEx has been the title sponsor of the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis, TN its international headquarters. The annual tournament raised over a million dollars every year for the St. Jude Hospital that is also in Memphis. Founded by Danny Thomas, the legendary entertainer, St. Jude's primary focus was and is on caring for children with various forms of cancer. When FedEx was approached to be the corporate sponsor for the FedEx Cup it only agreed to do so after Stanford Financial Group agreed to become the title sponsor of the St. Jude tournament and professional golf agreed to place the tournament the week before the US Open, a major championship. The leverage FedEx used to ensure that the Memphis tournament saw its visibility increase and the quality of players increase as well, as the tournaments that are the week prior to a major always have stacked fields.

With FedEx on board, a format was developed that would create a playoff system that worked well for golf. The PGA Tour came up with a viable and workable system that would further the PGA Tour's growing fan base. Beginning with the Mercedes-Benz Championship the first week in January until the Wyndham Championship in the middle of August, tour players would compete weekly in a point's race. The top 144 players would qualify for the FedEx Cup playoff. After qualifying a seeding process will take place with the top point's leader, this year being Tiger Woods, receiving 100,000 points. Second place would receive 99,000. That scale would continue down to the 144^th ranked player.

The Barclays Championship, the first playoff tournament would include all 144 players. Tiger Woods created a stir at the Barclays this year because he chose not to compete. But with his points lead, he did not have to compete to stay in the race. His feelings were that four tournaments back-to-back would be a difficult task mentally, so he chose to take the week off believing he would be playing the final three weeks of the FedEx Cup. After the conclusion of the Barclays Championship, only the top 120 players would continue on to compete in the next playoff tournament.

After the Barclays event, the Deutsche Bank playoff event comes up on the schedule. Held August 31-September 3, the Deutsche Bank would push the playoffs even further in competition. Just like the Barclays Championship, the standard cut rules apply, with only the top seventy scorers playing on the weekend. That changes the last two weekends of the FedEx Cup as no cut is involved because of the number of golfers eligible to compete.

After the Deutsche Bank tournament, the top 70 golfers, based on points would be allowed to compete in the BMW Championship. Held September 6-September 9, the BMW Championship will go on a rotated course action. Cog Hill, Crooked Stick Golf Club, and Bellerive Country Club will rotate hosting the event. After the BMW event, the top 30 golfers will go on to compete in the final tournament of the FedEx Cup, the Tour Championship.

Held September 13-September 16, the Tour Championship had been the final event on the regular tour season. But with the FedEx Cup, the Tour Championship has taken the nod of being the championship tournament for the FedEx Cup. Fifth in stature to the four major tournaments, the US Open, the PGA Championship, the Masters, and the British Open, the Tour Championship has not only been well received it has also been one of the richest purses in golf. Hosted by the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, GA the point's leader after the conclusion of the Tour Championship will receive a ten million dollar prize. The second place point's leader will receive $2 million. Third will receive $1.5 million while fourth receives $1 million.

While there are some obvious kinks in the rules that govern the FedEx Cup, including the need for every player to compete, the FedEx Cup will be high drama the last four weeks of the PGA Tour year. With last week being the first week in the FedEx Cup and the drama at a feverish pitch, tour veterans understand the possibilities associated with winning $10 million. And that will set the stage for some excellent golf over the next three weeks.

Go Tiger!