Four rounds do not make a right. The PGA Tour is ending its season on a gimmick, which is a bad look.
You've heard of baseball experimenting with placing a runner on second base in extra innings? This is professional golf's silly equivalent, in which the tour stakes season points leader Justin Thomas to a two-shot lead over the next player in the field before Thomas ever hits a shot at the Tour Championship, which begins Thursday in Atlanta.
It gets worse. Thomas not only begins his day at 10 under par, which gives him a two-shot lead over No. 2 Patrick Cantlay, but he will have a three-shot lead on Brooks Koepka, a four-shot lead on Patrick Reed and right down the line, all the way to a 10-shot lead on five players who start the tournament at par.
Imagine giving Usain Bolt a 10-meter lead in the 100-meter dash or Roger Federer a one-game lead at Wimbledon. Or hand New England a 7-0 lead in the Super Bowl before kickoff, based on the Patriots having the best regular-season record.
Preposterous? Of course. It feels like the tour implemented its new FedEx Cup playoff finale format knowing it would create controversy and attract attention and increase ratings just as the NFL and college football heats up.
That's not evil. It may even be smart. But it's definitely disappointing. Golf is not some summer TV schlock like ABC's "Holey Moley," which exists only to prove humans are unintelligent life forms that evolved from avocados. Golf is genuine competition. Nothing is rigged. Play well or go home.
But this? Players who already are 10 shots behind on the first tee will aim for every pin, and mostly die on those finely mowed hills. If watching carnage is your thing, then the Tour Championship is for you.
Even the players aren't sure what to make of it. Rory McIlroy, who begins five shots behind Thomas, sounded suspicious.
"If the FedEx Cup wants to have this legacy in the game like some of the other championships do, is people starting the tournament on different numbers the best way to do it?" McIlroy wondered.
The old way the PGA Tour determined its FedEx Cup winner was confusing. It was, and to some extent still is, a points-based system that most golf fans struggled to understand. But at least it was not an embarrassment.
A refresher: The season-long FedEx Cup competition culminates in a three-tournament playoff that concludes with the Tour Championship. A field of 125 at the first playoff event gets whittled to 70 at the second and finally to 30 entering the third _ the Tour Championship, where the winner walks off with $15 million.
One positive of the format change is that no longer will two winners be recognized Sunday. In the past, the overall FedEx Cup champion and the Tour Championship winner each hoisted trophies, confusing fans and irritating FedEx suits, who wanted maximum branding for the buck. Sharing the stage came to a head last year when Tiger Woods won the Tour Championship, outshining FedEx Cup champion Justin Rose.
Now, whoever wins the Tour Championship wins the FedEx Cup. A truer playoff. But surely the tour could have come up with a better way to crown its FedEx Cup champion than by subjecting the field to goofy golf. A compromise: Slot the top five players into the same group at 5 under par, then another group of five at 4 under and so on. Not perfect, but improved.
As for the current setup, "Come back to me on Monday and I'll tell you if it worked or not," McIlroy said.
I don't need that long. It doesn't.
