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The response from the players has been abysmal. Most frequent complaints are 7 events in 9 weeks, and opting for the deferred payment.

Top ranked players really have a crammed schedule:

• The Open Championship
• The Canadian Open (4th oldest event)
• WGC @ Firestone
• PGA
• Greensboro (tour stop since 1938)
• playoff event
• playoff event
• playoff event (tour will not play in the Chicago area next year, first time since 1961)
• playoff event

and then the Presidents Cup two weeks later.

The Canadian already has sponsorship issues, and it's new date isn't helping them out. Greensboro has never been more than a tier 2 or tier 3 event, but still, it is one of the oldest tour stops, and this slot just makes the event even more irrelevant (the standings were pretty much set by then). Then we have this silly situation whereby the B MW (nee Western, 3rd oldest event behind the US Open and the Open) will leave Chicago and alternate with St. Louis. Like it really makes sense to leave the 3rd biggest market in the U.S., one that has a rich golfing tradition.

Not a lot of wiggle room for time off there either, so who can blame the guys who skipped an event or two. Weird that any playoffs allows for guys to skip a round, though.

$35M of the $63M in FedEx prize money is earmarked for the players retirement fund. Not saying it 's a bad idea, but if K.J. Choi didn't realize he wasn't getting a wheelbarrow full of cash at the end, I'm pretty sure most fans didn't.

Throw in the over hyped marketing....hmm, let's see how fans respond to the branding concept of mentioning FedEx playoffs 19 times an hour for four months straight of telecasts. Pure genius from Ponte Vedre on that point.

Here's to the quick and timely death of a poorly executed plan.

It was 100+ degrees almost every day from July 1st through the end of August. The days in the low 90's, and high 80's have seemed cool.
Somehow, I don't think God intended bent grass greens for the south. As long as it stays high 80's like it has been for almost a week, East Lake should be fine. We've had lots of nice courses lose the greens this year because of all the heat, and the lack of rain.
I almost always play on bermuda grass greens, but two of the courses in my immediate area either lost greens completely, or had to open temporary greens to save the bent grass. I guess the East Lake crowd would rather lose the greens than play on temporaries.

Ran a few numbers on the possible final outcomes for the FedEx points.

(Barring a couple situations where Tiger finishes in 30th or doesn't show)

Stricker can win if:

• He wins next week
• He gets 2nd and Tiger is 4th or worse

Phil can win if:

• He wins next week and Tiger is 3rd or worse
• He gets 2nd and Tiger is 10th or worse and Stricker is 3rd or worse

Basically if Phil and Stricker finish 3rd or worse, then it's a Tiger retirement fund.

Rory and KJ can only win if they win it and Tiger is last or a no show (and even then they still need Phil and Stricker to have off weeks).

Normally the courses are closed 4 weeks before a big event. The Golf Channel reported that they closed this course at the end of July giving an extra 3 weeks to get the course ready and that they've brought in help from other neighboring courses. I believe they are doing all they can to get the course ready (7 weeks) but the shortage of rainfall and the excessive heat is a tough obstacle.

Don't they normally have sprinkler systems?

I can't say for sure about East Lake, but many (if not all) courses must supply their own water when watering restrictions go into effect. No rain = low water levels in the lakes and ponds, and no water at all in the springs. That means there's nowhere to get the water from. No city is going to let the reservoirs get run dry because of a golf course.

I say one final tournament or perhaps two. One would be a stroke play event where say the top 120 or so would play an early week round whereby the top 70 would advance to the next round. Then there would be three more rounds where the field would be reduced every day and start over fresh each day. The final day would have say 16 golfers fighting it out for the cup. Or maybe the final 16 would go on for another tournament which would be match play fighting it out for the cup.

Let's face it, the current set up was done to get Tiger to play more tournaments and generate more Television revenue. If Tiger is uninterested, this thing will fail as it already has done partially. Tiger could care less about the prize money. Let's make it an intriguing, competitive final event or two.

Now that we've been through it once, it looks like the playoff point system may be too limiting. Only six players really have a chance at the Cup in the current system — the four who win the playoff tournaments, and the top two seeded players. Nobody outside that group is likely to earn the title without winning twice. That suddenly makes the series seem a little less exciting, don't you think?

Yes and no... Yes, by eliminating free rides to golfers like John Daly. He will be out of PGA golf for 4 weeks. Maybe the tournaments will realize they can survive without him.

No... The whole concept is screwy. End the season with The Players Championship. I think the tour is trying to hard to have Phil and Tiger in the same events all of the time. They don't realize that this dilutes the overall product of the PGA tour. The PGA tour is looking more and more like the European Tour. The lower profile events are getting to be worse and worse.

After just having gotten around to casting my own vote, the results so far are:

Fedex Cup Playoffs: A success or not?

Yes - 44%
No - 56%

I voted yes, based on the end result, which was 4 weeks of great golf, and a deserving Fedex Cup Leaderboard after all was said and done.... I do not think the Fedex Cup 'system' is perfect 'as is', but I will give the Tour a chance to make some improvements for next year.