This PGA Tour story starts with a celebrity golfer of some distinction, Aaron Rodgers, and the 2011 NFL season. Rodgers was the reigning Super Bowl MVP back then, and the quarterback of a Green Bay Packers team that had won 21 of its last 22 games, including 19 in a row.<\/p>\n
Rodgers was not simply a regular-season juggernaut who was about to win the first of his four league MVP awards. He was also a lights-out postseason quarterback with a 4-1 record.<\/p>\n
But in his one and only playoff game as a defending champ \u2014 the 15-1 Packers against a New York Giants team with a 9-7 regular-season record \u2014 Rodgers didn\u2019t start with a 14-0 lead on the Lambeau Field scoreboard. The Packers had to beat the Giants fairly and squarely to reach the next round of the playoffs, and they face-planted instead. They lost, 37-20, because the visitors\u2019 defensive coordinator, Perry Fewell, had a plan to contain a superstar distributor he likened to Magic Johnson. Rodgers is 7-9 in the postseason since taking the field that day.<\/p>\n
The playoffs are supposed to make or break franchise-player legacies. They are defined by high stakes and dire consequences, and that\u2019s what makes them such compelling theater. A whole season\u2019s worth of brilliance can go up in smoke in one bad week, or on one bad night, or on one bad pass.<\/p>\n
Or on one bad putt \u2014 if the FedEx Cup actually meant something profound to the players beyond the $100 million the title sponsor pours into it.<\/p>\n
But in golf, the notion of true postseason pressure is a punch line at a cocktail party. In 2007, the first year of the FedEx Cup playoffs, Tiger Woods skipped the opening round in Westchester County, N.Y., embarrassed the tour by showing up in Manhattan days later to promote his video game, and then won the big trophy anyway by seizing the third and fourth legs of the series \u2014 the BMW and Tour Championship \u2014 along with a $10 million bonus for his retirement fund.<\/p>\n
Eighteen years later, with the playoffs reduced from four legs to three, Rory McIlroy awarded himself a \u201cbye\u201d this week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and advanced into the next round (the BMW Championship outside of Baltimore) because, well, he could turn that 70-man field in Memphis into a 69-man field without facing a meaningful penalty. McIlroy is No. 2 in the standings with 3,444 points, 1,362 behind Scottie Scheffler but enough points ahead of everyone else to know that he could finish near the bottom of the St. Jude field (like he did last year) and barely fall in those standings.<\/p>\n
Of course, most sports fans have no idea what those points mean and have no interest in doing the postseason math (quadruple points available) to determine how a player ranked 63rd\u00a0can move into the top 50 to qualify for the BMW. The devoted golf fan gets it, but any unscientific survey would show that the average football-baseball-basketball-hockey fan who follows only the four majors is surprised to learn that regular-season golf points help protect the stars from early playoff knockouts.<\/p>\n
Rodgers could have really used this system. The New England Patriots could have used it, too, in the same year the FedEx Cup playoffs began. Given a head start of a couple of field goals against the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, those 2007 Patriots would\u2019ve finished as the only 19-0 team in league history.<\/p>\n
Yes, the NFL does grant first-round byes to the best team in each conference and homefield advantage to all higher seeds before landing in a neutral-site Super Bowl. But a football team has to beat the one opponent in front of it to survive. The 15-2 Detroit Lions caught no breaks in losing their first playoff game last season to the Washington Commanders, who entered the tournament at 12-5. Ditto for the 14-3 Minnesota Vikings, who lost their wild-card matchup with the 10-7 Rams.<\/p>\n
Though these are heartbreaking defeats for the higher seeds, again, that\u2019s what makes the playoffs the playoffs. Win or go home.<\/p>\n
In golf, a McIlroy or a Scheffler doesn\u2019t have to beat one particular opponent to stay alive. In fact, if the first round of the postseason was played straight up, Scheffler could finish behind 49 golfers this week and still advance to the second round.<\/p>\n
As it is, Scheffler could shoot four straight rounds in the 90s in Memphis and still show up at the BMW in first place in the standings.<\/p>\n
\nThe #FedExCup<\/a> Playoffs are here \u26f3\ufe0f<\/p>\n
Tee times are live for @FedExChamp<\/a>.<\/p>\n
(In partnership with @ROLEX<\/a>)<\/p>\n
\u2014 PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 5, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
So if the PGA Tour ever wants the postseason to be taken seriously, it will completely separate this three-tournament event from the regular season. No points carryovers. None. Zero. Nada.<\/p>\n
You want to make it from the first round to the second round? Finish in the top 50 that week. You want to make it from the second round to the Tour Championship in Atlanta? Finish in the top 30 that week.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not too much to ask.<\/p>\n
That system would create much more drama and would be much easier to follow. FedEx officials might be terrified it could cost them star power at East Lake, but it\u2019s a necessary risk to create playoff legitimacy and capitalize on a slow period on the sports calendar shaped by NFL training camps and the dog days of a baseball summer.<\/p>\n
The tour did the right thing in May when it abandoned its \u201cstarting strokes\u201d format for East Lake, an absurd system that actually had Scheffler show up on the first tee last year at 10-under par (as if he needed it!). Now all 30 members of the Tour Championship field have the same crack at the grand prize, the way it should\u2019ve been all along. In making this change, the tour promised that \u201cadditional enhancements\u201d to the Tour Championship are coming.<\/p>\n
Match play would make the most sense in Atlanta (nod to The Athletic\u2019s Hugh Kellenberger), with a top 32 advancing out of the BMW, a wild Wednesday of duels to create a Thursday Sweet 16, a Friday Elite Eight, a Saturday Final Four, and a Sunday finale. Stage eight matches on each of the last four days to decide tournament placements and, more importantly, to keep as many stars as possible playing on TV in case of a low-profile title match.<\/p>\n
If you want to make your postseason feel as big as a major in the middle of training camp holdouts, you do something like that.<\/p>\n
You also make sure the most popular golfer in a post-Tiger world doesn\u2019t mock the whole endeavor. McIlroy isn\u2019t chiefly to blame here; it\u2019s the flawed system. Rory used it to his advantage, passed on a course (TPC Southwind) that doesn\u2019t suit his game, and preserved his chance to win the whole thing for a fourth time.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, by bailing on Memphis, McIlroy snubbed FedEx \u2014 a tour partner for four decades \u2014 in its headquarters hometown right after he collected $10 million in bonus money for his regular-season play. How do you think FedEx officials felt about that one?<\/p>\n
For $100 million, they purchased the right to have a loud voice in the room on changes to come. Peter Malnati, player director on the tour\u2019s policy board, told Golfweek<\/a> that he is \u201cvery concerned\u201d about McIlroy\u2019s move and that \u201cthere is stuff in the works\u201d to prevent future absences. As there should be.<\/p>\n
The PGA Tour lost too many big names to LIV Golf to lose an attraction like McIlroy. The tour\u2019s new CEO, Brian Rolapp, spent many years as an NFL executive working mega-media deals for its postseason product. He should know that a playoff round becomes a joke without real-time consequences, and without the participation of all the stars eligible to compete in it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s simple: If the PGA Tour wants the FedEx Cup to matter, don\u2019t let the players mail it in.<\/p>\n
(Photo of Rory McIlroy: Richard Heathcote \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n