Playoffs? Don’t Talk to Me About Playoffs!
Normally I don’t really think about the playoffs until December or January. If the term even comes into my mind at this time of year, I might be thinking baseball. But now we have the PGA playoffs and, quite frankly, I am not sure how I feel about them yet. I am completely into the four Majors every season, but I have somehow not really embraced the playoffs just yet. Maybe because they seem a bit anti-climatic. The playoffs really just happen in the background of the tournament. It is like fantasy football in that way – the outcome of the tournament (football game) is less important than the position the players end up at in the standings (stats).
OK, I will admit that I enjoyed watching Jim Furyk win the playoffs last season – mainly because he is just a good guy. And there is some suspense in who will win this year. But isn’t that the same suspense that we get every week now in golf. There is no dominate player these days so every week there seems to be someone else beating the field. I think that is the way golf should be. It is the only sport where performance is not limited by age and sex. The only sport where a college kid can be beaten by a senior citizen. We shouldn’t be surprised that no one really dominates the sport like Tiger did…or Jack did in his day. They were the anomaly in the sport and we should not expect that to happen every year.
So this week the playoffs continue at Cog Hill in Illinois. The top 70 players are battling to make it into the Tour Championship in Atlanta. Only the top 30 finishers in the playoffs get to play in the Tour Championship so this week we will be having a tournament within the tournament. It is not only about winning at Cog Hill, but about moving into the top 30 so you have a chance to win the playoffs the next week in Atlanta. Wait…I guess this is sort of exciting. Maybe we should be talking about Playoffs!