You can really feel the amount of top 30 golfers that defected to LIV when playoffs roll around. It's just so blah and mediocre when you look at the list of names battling near the top.
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Other than Rahm, Brooks and Bryson who in LIV would make the PGA more exciting right now? Granted, three great players, but it's not like LIV has tons of guys you want back, those might literally be the only three guys fans truly want to see. The bigger problem with the playoffs is they've always been kind of lame, it's not really important and frankly never has been.
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Other than Rahm, Brooks and Bryson who in LIV would make the PGA more exciting right now? Granted, three great players, but it's not like LIV has tons of guys you want back, those might literally be the only three guys fans truly want to see. The bigger problem with the playoffs is they've always been kind of lame, it's not really important and frankly never has been.
Koepka, Bryson, Rahm and Cam Smith are four superstars, then look at the superstars that are left - Scheffler, McIlroy, Schauffele, Hovland? Hell even putting the list of PGA superstars together is hard because so many guys just aren';t what they used to be (Thomas, Fowler etc)
I would argue that absolutely having those four LIV superstars would change the complexion of the playoffs. You say it like four stars (not sure why you left Cam Smith off) is negligible, but I disagree in a sport where there's arguably 9-12 actual heavy weights.
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But the playoffs are lame was my bigger point. Scheffler is so far ahead he can intentionally DFL the two events before, go out and play lefty and shoot 96 if he wants, still gonna start the finale in first. Really they should have a regular season title, and then have the top 8 or so guys do a matchplay tournament for the playoffs or whatever. It's also pretty tough to care about just $25 million, that's of course why no one cares about LIV. As for Cam Smith, sure, cool, throw him in there I guess. But arguably none of those guys actually move the needle at all, again, no one cares about LIV. But also, does anyone move the needle? Probably only Tiger. If he announced he'd be playing the next senior event it would outrate the PGA with ease.
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But the playoffs are lame was my bigger point. Scheffler is so far ahead he can intentionally DFL the two events before, go out and play lefty and shoot 96 if he wants, still gonna start the finale in first. Really they should have a regular season title, and then have the top 8 or so guys do a matchplay tournament for the playoffs or whatever. It's also pretty tough to care about just $25 million, that's of course why no one cares about LIV. As for Cam Smith, sure, cool, throw him in there I guess. But arguably none of those guys actually move the needle at all, again, no one cares about LIV. But also, does anyone move the needle? Probably only Tiger. If he announced he'd be playing the next senior event it would outrate the PGA with ease.
The playoffs are kinda lame, but way more lame missing four superstars in a league with 9 - 12 stars. If you just went that way I wouldn't have responded, but you started by directly refuting my point that losing major stars has hurt the watchability.
As for Cam Smith - he was trending towards being the best player in golf at times, he's not some throw in to the superstars argument ("cool, throw him in there, I guess").
Yeah, I agree though that some form of head to head play that actually showcases a huge, dramatic match up on the last weekend like other major sports do, would be a huge win for fans.
Cam Smith has that distinctly filthy stache and hairdo, so that would probably be enough for more people to recognize him than you'd think. But if Cam Smith is a "superstar" than Patrick Cantlay is a superstar. If you're watching NFL Preseason and NBC runs promos about "Cam Smith is golfing Sunday", ain't no one giving a good ####. Not saying it wouldn't be better to have him and the good LIV players there, but it's still not gonna get most people to care.
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Ironically, Mr. Personality himself, Scottie Scheffler was actually arguing the opposite. Even though he can win this thing by simply showing up he was arguing that they should change it even further in the other direction to make winning during the regular season more valuable, to make it more of a season long champion.
Quote:
you can't have a season long race and have it come down to one tournament, I mean hypothetically we get to east lake and my neck flares up and I finish 30th because I had to withdraw from the last tournament? I don't consider it the season long race
The reporter called him on it (Scheffler acting like it was a protentional negative for him) saying you have to look at the flipside too, if a player can just show up and stand straight for four days you win it, like VJ did? Scottie responds saying that's not good either. The reporter butted in to response basically suggesting "it's good for you that you get as much sleepwalking into and through eastlake as you do, so don't complain like this isn't set up for the season long leader to win this thing.
Scottie stumbled through what he doesn't like while not offering a solution, but ultimately his answers came off as wanting the season to just end and everyone cheers for him for being the best and that's it, lol.
But the playoffs are lame was my bigger point. Scheffler is so far ahead he can intentionally DFL the two events before, go out and play lefty and shoot 96 if he wants, still gonna start the finale in first. Really they should have a regular season title, and then have the top 8 or so guys do a matchplay tournament for the playoffs or whatever. It's also pretty tough to care about just $25 million, that's of course why no one cares about LIV. As for Cam Smith, sure, cool, throw him in there I guess. But arguably none of those guys actually move the needle at all, again, no one cares about LIV. But also, does anyone move the needle? Probably only Tiger. If he announced he'd be playing the next senior event it would outrate the PGA with ease.
Match play would be great for the FedEx cup. They could probably do three weeks of Saturday and Sunday rounds and either start with a field of 64 down to two for the final Sunday or start with 128 and do a foursome shootout on the last Sunday.
Last edited by calgarygeologist; 08-20-2024 at 11:49 AM.
I mean it would be great for the fans and a more "playoff final" feeling that gets people excited and ratings up on TV, but match play would just make the players even more apathetic towards playoffs, claiming it has even less to do with the "season long race" than it already does.
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The playoffs are miles better than what preceded it. The fields post-PGA Championship, were complete nothingburgers.
Is the playoff format perfect? Absolutely not. The current 3 week version is better than the 4 week version which was too long IMO. I wished they hadn't cut the Duetsche Bank. TPC Boston is a fun course.
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I mean it was known as "silly season" for a reason. At the same time saying the playoffs are better is peak relativity. Cause yeah it's better, but it's still not all that compelling. As I said while deriding LIV, but if the FedEx Cup is just about money, nothing more, that makes it tough to care. Maybe use the FedEx Cup to allocate Olympic spots instead, that would be more interesting.
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Oh sure, as much fun as the FedEx Cup is. Saw that ratings on Sunday were down 33%, that is grim. Might as well put it back in September and move the PGA Championship back into August.
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