This Is Bush

Are you consumed with FedEx Cup Fever?  Do you keep an abacus handy to update the various iterations and permutations of FedEx Cup points resets?  

Buckle in, because this is going to be one of THOSE posts, yanno, one that assures that I will receive no Christmas cards post-marked Ponte Vedra Beach.  But while Nurse Ratched will be held to account for this nonsense, I always start these posts with a couple of important caveats:

1. As majordomo of the most prestigious golf tour in the world, Finchem has a problem unique in the world of sports in not controlling the 4.5 most important events on the annual golf calendar (the half is the biannual Ryder Cup);
2. Finchie (hey, if Tiger can give everyone cutesie nicknames so can your humble blogger) has done a good to great job in a matter of great importance to his core constituency, ensure that they continue to peg it in pursuit of obscene sums of money.

I find both of those obvious points, but most of his actions to which I object are directly related to Item No. 1 above, and it's only fair to acknowledge the context.  But I believe that he could achieve Item No. 2 in ways that would be far better for the game and those that play and watch it.

Now that the disclaimers are out of the way, let's wade in with this story that broke while I was away:

GREENSBORO, N.C. – A mix-up in how the U.S.Presidents Cup points list is

Robert Streb, the big loser in the recalculation.

calculated caused a series of uncomfortable phone calls this week. 

PGA Tour officials informed a collection of potential U.S. Presidents Cup players on Tuesday that the list, which is based on points earned over a two-year period, had been incorrectly calculated and a new list, published Wednesday afternoon, showed a different lineup.

It's spelled s-c-h-a-d-e-n-f-r-e-u-d-e, making the calculation so complicated that not even the Tour itself screws it up.  The only way it would be more enjoyable would be if it was discovered after the fact, though I think Streb's putting display with his wedge should earn him a special exemption.

Just a reminder that the Prez Cup was Tim's first attempt to deal with Item No. 1 above, creating an off-year event that would rival that event the Tour foolishly left with the PGA of America.  Now the Prez Cup is reasonably inoffensive in and of itself, one nice group of gents from Orlando teeing off against another equally nice group of gents from Orlando, but as for rivaling the Ryder Cup, well not so much.

So, we find ourselves on the precipice of the 2015 FedEx Cup, and with the rise of the next generation of talent on Tour, I can't wait to see how they acquit themselves in this year's playoffs... yanno, for instance, Patrick Rodgers:

Only in the complex, convoluted world of professional golf could a promising newcomer such as Patrick Rodgers play so well that he earned spots on the two biggest American tours – only to be prohibited from playing on either of them. 

With much fanfare, the mega-money FedEx Cup playoffs begin on Thursday, with the season-ending Web.com series set to begin next week. Yet Rodgers is facing a two-month break, because he’s ineligible to play in either series, despite being a Web.com member and having secured a PGA Tour card for 2015-16.

WTF?  Here's the explanation though it's not really all that helpful in the explaining part:

As a top college player, Rodgers in 2015 quickly turned a handful of sponsor exemptions on the PGA Tour into gold – a card for next season. He finished inside the top 125 in FedEx Cup points to secure his status going forward, but since he was playing as a non-member, he remains ineligible for the FedEx Cup playoffs and the millions in bonus money on the table. 

“A rule change that certainly needs review and discussion,” Buffoni said. “Hopefully, the tour will address this situation going forward, as players of Patrick’s caliber have proved in limited starts that they can compete successfully and deserve the chance to advance to the playoffs.” 

Because of a new rule change instituted this year, Rodgers, 23, likewise can’t play in the Web.com Tour series, either, though he began the season on that tour, won in February and sits at No. 23 on the points list. (The top 25 at the end of this week earn PGA Tour cards for next season.)

But we'll surely see rising star Brooks Koepka, who of course has actually won on the PGA Tour in a full-field event:  Not so fast... 

I’m moving my bitching a little further down the line to the injustice that the PGA Tour

Looks like Brooks just got the news...

is bestowing upon the young idol regarding the Presidents Cup. Koepka famously chose to play the European Tour last year instead of playing the Web.com tour, and went the route of using his sponsor exemptions to earn enough money to obtain special temporary membership on the PGA Tour. He sealed up that membership rather early in the process, and played 16 events on the PGA Tour last year, nabbing two top-5 finishes, including a T4 at the U.S. Open. However, as he was not technically a member of the PGA Tour, he was unable to obtain FedEx Cup points. 

My initial reaction is closer to “meh” than it is actual outrage. I’ve made it very clear in the past that I think the new qualifying system is terrible, but it is what it is. I don’t care about the FedEx Cup standings, or really even the playoffs for that matter, so I’m not going to feign indignation over him being unable to play the money grab at the end of the year, even though I don’t agree with it. The problem with this system lies in the fact that all of Koepka’s results for the 2013-2014 season count for exactly nothing when it comes to Presidents Cup qualifying.

I'll disagree with him on the relative importance of the FedEx Cup vs. the Prez Cup, as the former is sold to us as the logical and defining moment of the Tour's season.  I'm not implying that I buy it, just that you can't have it both ways (plus the latter could and might well be remedied by a Captain's pick).

And submitted for your consideration is the saga of Ollie Schniederjams:

Playing on sponsor exemptions this summer, he began the week with 99 non-members

points and basically needed to make the cut in Greensboro to continue his season. (The equivalent of a T-66 finish would have been enough.) After an opening 71 in easy conditions, he was 4 under for his second round and safely inside the cut line when he lined up his second shot on the ninth hole, his 18th of the day. He caught a flier from the first cut, his ball sailed over the green, and he had no shot to get the ball close. The bogey capped a Friday 67 and put him on the cut line at 2 under.

Schniederjans looked safe for the weekend – and for a spot in the Finals – until Roberto Castro, another Georgia Tech alum, stuffed his final approach to a foot in the last group of the day. That single-handedly moved the cut back to 3 under, and Schniederjans was out. 

But there’s more: Erik Compton withdrew prior to the start of the third round, citing a sore left ankle. Had he withdrawn before the end of the second round, the 36-hole cut would have moved back to 2 under and allowed 19 players – including Schniederjans – to move on.

“I was devastated,” he said. “I was crushed.”

Now, instead of a shot to earn his PGA Tour card through the four-event series, he has three weeks off and no status on any major tour.

Now I'm nowhere near as outraged by Ollie's bad luck as the prior two examples, as somebody is inevitably going to end up in the unenviable 126th spot on any points or money list.  On the other hand, a system that has Ken Duke and Vijay Singh qualifying but the three listed above not eligible we can safely consider flawed.

Here's Shack's rant from a post in which the title references the Tour eating its young:

It is not Finchem's fault that Ollie had bad luck or that Patrick didn't win the Wells Fargo instead of finishing second. 

No, it's Finchem's fault that he could not envision so many negatives than positives from the move to wraparound golf or the consequences of ending Q-School as a direct avenue to thePGA Tour. And it's certainly his fault if more college golfers start following Spieth's bold plan of leaving school in December instead of June after the season and graduations have played out.

(This state of affairs is especially worth remembering when the tour tries to align itself with NCAA golf, even as it tries to send well-developed collegians to their feeder tours whether they need the developmental golf or not.) 

The incongruity of the current schedule was largely created in the name of growing purses and keeping the playoffs on network television at the expense of common sense on many fronts. This unfortunate change will be the legacy of Finchem's term, especially if he stays on past 2016 to protect his vision of a playoff structure that remains as he envisioned: bloated, ill-timed as a sports event on the heals of majors and oddly discriminatory toward budding stars who--how dare they--choose to finish out the school year. 

Which is why it is imperative that 68-year-old Finchem retire in 2016 and pave the way for his hand-chosen successor to imagine a better way, particularly at a time when the game desperately wants to nurture its young, not hold them back.

Geoff, you have a little something coming out of the corner of your mouth...no, other side.

The FedEx Cup is the symptom because it's when all of the various decisions that have been made conspire to demonstrate that the net effect is to render the PGA Tour an increasingly closed shop.  The elimination of Tour Q-School has imposed a minimum obligation of a year's indentured servitude on young players, and I need to emphasize that the most important word is "minimum,"  Players such as Brooks Koepka, Peter Uhlein and Jordan Spieth have tried to circumnavigate these policies, by delaying the rise of young talent we end up with an inferior product.

I think the Jordan Spieth example is somewhat misinterpreted, as while he made it through the gauntlet, it's easy to forget the rub of the green involved.  If a bunker shot on the 18th hole at the John Deere, a shot that Spieth admits was caught thin and was moving at speed, does not hit the pin and drop, Spieth would likely not have been in the 2014 Masters field.  From there it's possible to conclude that he might have still been toiling overseas or on the Web.com tour, and his epic 2015 season might not have occurred.

But hey, we get to see Ken Duke in the FedEx Cup!