The PGA Tour Championship was over before it even began.
Despite shooting two-under-par better than Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa could not catch up with the world No. 1 at this weekend’s TOUR Championship. The 10-under starting score for the top-ranked golfer gave Scheffler too much of a head start.
The argument for why the PGA gives golfers different starting scores makes sense from a bird’s eye view, especially for Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, who took a combined three majors this year. The scoring advantage is fair in that it rewards those who perform well across the entire season, but does it ultimately ruin the Championship because it’s exactly that—an advantage?
We accept certain advantages across the sports world as just. For instance, playing four out of seven games in a playoff series at home is a typical advantage that fans perceive a high-seeded team as earning fairly. Some advantages can be mitigated or evened out, but others cannot. One thing’s clear, though: the PGA’s scoring advantage is of the former and should be taken away or adapted before next year’s playoffs.
Golf is defined by its four major tournaments, and by the conclusion of every season, the large majority of fans only remember who won each major. The Tour playoffs might be the “championship” series, but they don’t have anywhere near the same importance and hype as the majors, at least in terms of “normie” fans tuning in. By the time the playoffs begin, the golfer of the year—in the eyes of the public—is basically already decided because of the majors, giving the playoffs even less meaning. Not to mention golfers have less of an incentive to treat the majors and the playoffs equally.
While the PGA has increased its purses over the years to try and compete with the LIV Tour and make tournaments more enticing for its golfers, the average fan only cares about the same four tournaments every year. Sure, watching the world’s top golfers go at it for three-straight weekends is fun for an intense golf fan, but nothing matches the majors’ pure exhilaration.
The difference in popularity between the majors and what is supposed to be the championship is exactly why the powers that be must take the playoff scoring advantage away. In majors, anybody can have a solid weekend and hoist the trophy on Sunday. That mentality is exactly why those events are appealing to fans because nobody truly knows who will be in contention that weekend. Wyndham Clark came out of nowhere last year at the U.S. Open. Tiger Woods was not supposed to win the 2019 Masters. The list goes on and on.
There’s also the viewership to take into account. Some fans may not want to keep track of a three-week playoff series, and it’s easier for them to follow majors because they’re nearly guaranteed to be only four days long.
If the PGA removed starting scores, it would give the playoffs a similar feel as the majors. That, combined with the gigantic purse, might provide the playoffs with the intensity it needs to drive attention.
The PGA needs to get rid of its playoff format also because there have been so many cases of golfers getting cut despite a strong showing. Compared to the majors, which all have a field of 156 golfers (except for the Masters with about 100), the Tour playoffs feature an initial field of 70, from which 50 make the cut, before going down to an eventual field of 30. The drastic difference in field size eliminates so many golf fans’ favorite players.
A simple counterargument is that the playoff format makes sense because golfers advance through rounds based on their performances just like the NBA, NFL and NHL, where teams advance by winning games. But again: if the PGA wants to make its playoffs anything like the majors, the fans have to find it exciting. And with the championship’s relatively small field, the two sets of events will never be on the same level.
It’s not that Scheffler didn’t deserve his two-shot lead over Schauffele at East Lake this weekend. He’s been the most consistent golfer all year and played his way into that position. The issue is that many assumed he was going to win because if you give the world’s No. 1 player a lead before play even begins, well, where’s the jeopardy that we watch sports for?
Scheffler’s dominance could be an anomaly, and keeping the current playoff format does set up well for a non-favorite’s comeback story. But if the PGA wants to make its playoffs anything like a major tournament, they should reconsider the format so that every golfer heads into the final weekend with the same odds.