Musings: Playoff time on the PGA Tour

It’s playoff season on the PGA Tour, as 144 players gather at this week’s Barclay’s with their eyes on the $10 million first-place prize. I can sense you out there rolling your eyes, but don’t be so quick to dismiss the Tour’s admittedly gimmicky attempt to compete with football season and the pennant races. This thing could actually get exciting.

Unlike last season, when the coronation of Tiger Woods seemed a foregone conclusion before the playoffs even started, this season’s FedExCup title is truly up for grabs. One of the reasons is a format change that seems to favor a current hot streak over a season-long run of good performances. Sound familiar? Haven’t we seen a couple of wild card teams suddenly get hot and win the whole thing in football and baseball lately?

Here’s how the Tour explains the changes in a recent memo: “First, we narrowed the gap between players' point totals at the reset going into the playoffs. For example, the gap between first and second was 1,000 points last year; we reduced that to 500 points this year. We made similar reductions all the way down to 144. Second, we added points in all the playoff events. The way we did this was to increase by 2,000 the points awarded to each place receiving points. For example, a third place finish was worth 3,400 points in 2007; it is now worth 5,400 points.

“Rich Beem, who started as the 134 seed, finished seventh at The Barclays and only moved up to 113th. Under the revised structure, he would have moved up to 68th. Vijay Singh started as the No. 2 seed, but missed the cut at The Barclays. He dropped to sixth, but would have dropped to 23rd under the revised structure. At 23rd, he would be in danger of missing the Tour Championship, especially if he missed another cut. Camilo Villegas started as the 52nd seed and finished 21st at The Barclays, ninth at Deutsche Bank and seventh at BMW, moving up to 28th going into the Tour Championship. Under the new system, he would have been 14th going into the Tour Championship.”

Don’t make yourself dizzy trying to parse those two paragraphs. Just suffice it to say that this year’s playoffs should be competitive. Dramatic, even.

That doesn’t mean that the player ranked No. 144 heading into the playoffs — two-time U.S. Open winner Lee Janzen, for those of you scoring at home — has a legitimate shot to jump up and win the whole thing. But it’s possible. And the format brings virtually everyone who’s hovering around the top 20 right into the mix. There’ll be no skipping and protecting leads this time around. This year, you’ll have to show up to win, which is a good thing.

Here’s the top 10 in points heading into the playoffs. Obviously, No. 1 is absent, leaving Kenny Perry as the top seed.

	Player	Points
1.	Tiger Woods	100,000
2.	Kenny Perry	99,500
3.	Phil Mickelson	99,250
4.	Padraig Harrington	99,000
5.	Anthony Kim	98,750
6.	Stewart Cink	98,625
7.	Vijay Singh	98,500
8.	Justin Leonard	98,375
9.	Ryuji Imada	98,250
10.	Geoff Ogilvy	98,125

Punching Their Ticket

This week’s Wyndham Championship, won by local favorite Carl Pettersson (a former NC State golfer), was a playoff play-in tournament for a number of bubble residents. Here are the players who squeezed into the top 144 based on good performances in Greensboro:

Player	Previous Rank	Wyndham Finish	Current Rank
Rich Beem	166	3rd	114
Martin Laird	164	T4	128
J.J. Henry	177	T4	135
Justin Bolli	153	T15	141
Lee Janzen	154	T15	144

Falling out of the top 144 following the Wyndham: Marco Dawson, Brett Rumford, Todd Hamilton, Tag Ridings and Gavin Coles.

Beem played with fire, having to eagle 15 and birdie 16 on Friday to make the cut on the number. He fired dual weekend 63s to surge to third and earn a spot in the playoffs. “I knew I had to play my butt off just to make it up there,” he said. “I didn’t want to have four weeks off, and I’m glad I at least got into the first one. I’ve got a chance for the first one and the second one, so on and so forth. I’m there now.

“You can’t win it unless you get in it.”

Pettersson Power

Carl Pettersson wasn’t on the FedExCup bubble, but he enters the playoffs on a wave of momentum after carding the eighth-lowest 72-hole score in PGA Tour history. The Swede won before appreciative fans in his adopted home town of Greensboro, not far from his college home in Raleigh, where he played for the NC State Wolfpack.

Pettersson flirted with history on Friday, shooting a sparkling 61 that actually included two bogeys. His final round, a more pedestrian 2-under 68, kept him two shots clear of runner-up Scott McCarron.

“Obviously, this week has been fantastic,” he said. “I just kept telling myself I could do it, and it was an unbelievable feeling today.”

Pettersson vaults to 13th in the FedExCup points standings, placing him in prime position to contend for the big prize.

Bring In Da Funk

After a long and distinguished career, Fred Funk finally won a major, and he did so by going for the throat with Tiger-esque zeal. Funk buried his competition at the JELD-WEN Tradition by staying aggressive, and it got him to a point where a late double bogey did no damage. Funk won his fourth Champions Tour event by three shots over Mike Goodes at the Crosswater Club in Sunriver, Ore.

“We were going down the second fairway, and my caddie, Mark (Long), said ‘Let’s say you are four behind,’” Funk said. “We were trying to make it as if we were behind all day. Don’t protect anything and fire at the flags.”

“He wasn’t going to be denied today,” said Jay Haas, who finished tied for third.

The win was a warning shot of sorts to the youngsters. Funk plans to play a full PGA Tour schedule in 2009 after splitting his time between the two tours in 2008.

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