The former Tour player and longtime Golf Channel personality addresses some of the worst Tim Finchem messes left behind, namely the wraparound schedule’s ability to kill the opening day buzz, the FedExCup’s continued problems, the relentless FedEx “impressions” effort (that’s been worse under the new TV deal) and where the PGA Tour hides announcers that don’t follow their lame scripts.
FedEx has the relationship with the PGA TOUR because it’s a good business decision for them. Somewhere in Memphis, a bean counter does all the fancy math counting up “impressions” and distributing the beans across silos and gives the deal a thumbs up. Because of that (and if you haven’t noticed), there’s a season-long bonus pool where PGA TOUR players get astronomical bonuses for their finish on the final list. They have this thing called the FedEx Cup Playoffs that end the season, and somebody gets $15 million and a really cool trophy. I’m pretty sure the winner doesn’t care about the trophy.
Players finishing all the way to 125 on the list get nice bonuses, too. Great for the players. Great for FedEx. Great for the PGA TOUR execs who put the deal together.
Problem is, the event has an awkward format that has evolved over the years and every few years has to get reinvented. When it was first announced by former commissioner Tim Finchem at a press conference in Atlanta, he indicated that the PGA TOUR has the deal and will now get to work figuring out the format. Fifteen years later, they’re still figuring.