The FedEx Cup playoffs started today and it’s
hard to overstate how little I care.
Similar to how NASCAR’s playoffs have failed to
boost its struggling fall schedule, the PGA’s efforts to gain an audience
during football season simply have not succeeded. It’s similar because people
watch a golf tournament or a NASCAR race to see who will win that race. They
don’t care about points or playoffs; they watch to see who will win that day.
In both sports, the biggest events are not the
playoff events. In NASCAR, people care about the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola
600, and the Southern 500, along with certain tracks like Bristol or a road
course that appeals to fans. In golf, it’s the four Majors that fans care
about, along with certain courses such as Pebble Beach or Sawgrass or River
Highlands.
No NASCAR fan would ever say the final race of
the season is their favorite, just like no golf fan would say the Tour
Championship is their favorite tournament.
While both playoff systems are failing, NASCAR
smartly didn’t sacrifice the rest of its established schedule to make it work.
Much to the PGA Tour’s detriment, they did, and
the results have not been pretty. The FedEx Cup tournaments still barely
register after its shift to August from September, and the PGA Championship has
been moved from a prime spot on the calendar to the most crowded part of the
sports calendar.
This year, the PGA caught a massive break with
Phil Mickelson winning during a five-week May, so it wasn’t against the
Preakness like it was in 2019 and will be in most years, sinking the Third Round ratings. This year’s odd NBA/NHL playoff schedules due to COVID will be
gone next year, putting the PGA Championship against the conference finals for
attention moving forward.
When you can take one of your biggest events and
make it the fourth biggest sports event of the weekend, you have to do it,
right?
The reason I hate the move so much is that the
PGA Championship for my entire life was an important signpost on the rhythm of
the year. It signaled that summer was coming to an end. It meant that school
was going to start again. It meant that football was about to return.
The marketing of the tournament as “Glory’s Last
Shot” felt so right for so many reasons. The sun starts to set a little bit
early. The dog days of August are starting to – well, sometimes – recede with
early hints of fall in the air. It served as the climax and exclamation point
to the major season for golf.
The last PGA Championship scheduled for August in 2018 provided incredible drama, as Tiger Woods tried to chase down the
seemingly indestructible Brooks Koepka. The sports world – not just the golf
world – eagerly watched every shot that weekend.
And that’s the part that really irks me. There
is nothing on television in terms of sports. Sure, European soccer has
returned, so my mornings are good. But baseball hasn’t quite reached the
pennant race stage. Preseason football doesn’t do it for me. Both IndyCar and
Formula 1 are on summer breaks. There’s no more Olympics. The NBA and NHL are
still months away. The Little League World Series is only starting its first
weekend. Even horse racing is a week away from its Midsummer Derby with the
Travers Stakes at Saratoga.
In short, this is a perfect weekend for golf to
completely dominate the sports landscape. If the PGA Championship was this
weekend, I’d be watching hours of it. Instead, it’s the first of three FedEx
Cup playoffs events and I may watch a little on Sunday if I’m around.
When I watch the PGA Championship, I know it’s
the same tournament that previous legends like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus
won, and the same tournament Greg Norman simply could not win. The FedEx Cup lacks any history and it’s most been met with apathy in its history.
I can tell you just about every PGA Championship
winner since 2005, but I’d be lucky if I could name more than three FedEx Cup
winners. It doesn’t matter.
As we hit this barren weekend of sports, I’m
disappointed. I miss Glory’s Last Shot. I miss watching the PGA Championship. I
miss the feeling of knowing the tournament means football is around the corner,
along with fall, school, new television shows, and cooler weather.
There’s a lesson to be learned by those running sports, but it’s one they never learn. In the immortal words of Mike Love,
“Don’t fuck with the formula.”
On the plus side, I do have a full weekend where
I don’t have any sports I need to watch. It’s probably a good thing to turn off
the TV.
Comments
Post a Comment