PGA / Vin Lowe / 21 September 2009 / Leave a comment Bet Now

Don't ask me how the PGA Tour constructed its current FedEx Cup playoffs points system. It doesn't make sense; it's confusing; shoot, it's downright perplexing - feel free to insert your own favorite descriptive, writes Brian Heard.

The why, I can speak to. The first two seasons (2007 and 2008) of the PGA Tour playoffs, the system was set up along understandable guidelines. Players built up points throughout the regular season and continued on through the four weeks of the playoffs. The points leader from the entirety of the season won the $10-million prize as FedEx Cup champion.

But that created a final playoff tournament - the Tour Championship - with very little drama; going in only a handful of players had a chance to win the No. 1 overall award.

So at the end of the season last year, the Tour tinkered with its playoff-points system.

First, it re-worked how playoff points were awarded. A regular-season win would be worth 500 points; a FedEx playoff event win was worth 2,500 points.

OK, fine. Randomly strange, but fine.

But the points built up through the regular season and the first three playoff events through last week's third FedEx playoff event, the BMW Championship (won by Tiger Woods, of course), are reset (largely based on performance in the playoff events) heading into this weekend's Tour Championship in Atlanta. Huh?

The upshot? This allows every player in the final field of 30 to have a mathematical chance of winning the $10 mil. And the top five controls their own destiny - a win would garner them the overall title. Seeds 6-10 have a very good shot at winning the FedEx Cup by winning the Tour Championship.

Well, it's all nice, I guess. It does provide more drama this week. But it's totally contrived drama, not borne of actual performance; at least consistent performance.

I mean really, the No. 5 seed in this week's Tour Championship is Heath Slocum. If he wins it, he wins it all. I'm sorry but that doesn't sit real well in my belly. No offense to Heath, who seems like a pretty cool guy, but he's made just 57 percent (15 of 26) of the cuts all season, only has three career wins, and is the dictionary definition of "journeyman golfer". Just because he pulled off a huge upset and won The Barclays (the first FedEx playoff event), he's given star status in the playoff-points system.

It's the equivalent of Hull City taking down Manchester United or Chelsea and being pushed to the top of the table, regardless of previous results. Ludicrous.

Even with the big payoff for winning The Barclays ($1.35 million), Slocum's still just 34th on Tour in money. And in the two subsequent playoff events, he missed the cut at the Deutsche Bank and tied for 38th (out of 70) at the BMW.

So am I wrong here? Doesn't it seem like way too much emphasis is being placed on four (playoff) tournaments at the end of the season? Under the old, sensible system, only Woods and Steve Stricker would have a chance to win the FedEx Cup. Granted that doesn't leave too much to play for this weekend, but it would be fair - those are your two leading money winners on Tour this year, and each has won a playoff event (Stricker took the second one, the Deutsche Bank).

Aside from Slocum, among the big winners in the FedEx Cup playoffs has been Australian Marc Leishman, who is only 47th in money, but is 16th in playoff points, after tying for 15th at the Deutsche Bank and taking second at the BMW. Then there's Padraig Harrington, who had a disastrous first half of the season, but has been in excellent form (with the exception of several inexplicable single-hole blow-ups which have cost him money and possibly more than two titles) since August. He's just 24th on the money list, but is sixth in playoff points and would win the FedEx Cup with a win, unless Tiger finished second or third.

The big playoff losers include Rory Sabbatini (18th in money), Paul Casey (20th in money), Ian Poulter (22nd in money) and John Rollins (25th in money), all of whom did not qualify for the 30-player Tour Championship.

No one will have any excuses this week - all the players should be well-rested as the PGA Tour was off this past weekend for the first time since the season began in January.

Choi wins LPGA's Samsung World Championship

While, the PGA Tour was on a week's hiatus, the LPGA Tour put on one of its high-profile events, the Samsung World Championship, played this year at prestigious, scenic Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, California.

Competing against an exclusive, invitation-only field of 20 (based on recent Major winners and current LPGA money leaders), 21-year-old South Korean Na Yeon Choi won for the first time in her two-year LPGA career, birdying the par-5 18th on Sunday's 72nd hole to finish at 16-under, a stroke ahead of Japanese phenom Ai Miyazato.

Choi's victory was not surprising - really, it was only a matter of time. The lanky, medium-height (5-foot-5) scoring machine (ranked 10th in scoring average and third in birdies on Tour) has been so close, so often. She's made the cut in every one of the 48 events she's played as a member of the LPGA. That number includes 18 top-10s, eight of which have been top-5s, and two runners-up. Before coming to the U.S., she'd won four times on the Korean LPGA Tour.

Her three-foot birdie putt for the title on Sunday was center cut and elicited from her more relief than joy - words were hard to come by.

"I can't believe I just won my first tournament," Choi said. "Throughout the second half of the tournament today I thought I was going to lose it again but it was easy, now I look back at it. It was a lot easier, but it was really difficult when I was doing it and I just don't know. I can't think of words to describe how I feel right now."

Despite the fact that Choi won the Samsung and countrywoman Jiyai Shin (another 21-year-old South Korean) leads the LPGA money list and is the only three-time winner on Tour this year, Miyazato is the LPGA's hottest golfer.

Already a legend in Japan - she won 11 times in two full seasons on the Japanese LPGA before coming to America in 2006 - the diminutive (5-foot-2), though surprisingly powerful 24-year-old, did not win on the LPGA until this July at the Evian Masters. Ever since, she's contended at every single event, and is the best player on Tour right now.

Miyazato erased a five-stroke lead by Choi on Sunday, actually taking the lead at 16-under with a couple of holes to play, but she puzzlingly found the water on 18 and bogeyed, opening the door for Choi to regain the lead and win the trophy.

Still, take a look at the results at her last seven LPGA tournaments: tied for sixth, first, tied for third, tied for fourth, tied for second, tied for 10th and second. Good stuff. Check that, great stuff. She's now second ($1,451,610) in overall earnings to Shin ($1,605,786) and if she continues her run of play, she'd be the LPGA's Player of the Year.