On the driving range up above, I know for a fact one departed local devotee of the tee-to-green action is having a cheeky little chuckle to himself. You see, the said character was never averse to doing the equivalent of a GAA player nicking a few yards prior to taking a free. Sure of himself, of course, that nobody would notice. Even though Stevie Wonder could see it.
You see, elements of golfing society have awfully elevated evaluations of themselves, don’t you know, old chap? Where calling penalties on themselves, and adjourning to the 19th hole (clubhouse bar) with pullover loosely draped over the shoulders and they might even draw on a tip cigar is all the norm.
All of which makes the adjusted playing structures introduced to the forthcoming Fed-Ex Cup Tour Championship at East Lake a very pleasant surprise indeed. Basically, the field of the top 30 players in the world will all start off on a level playing field whereas for the last decade or so the season ending event was run on a reverse handicap system. Whereby those at the head of the standings at the beginning of Tour Championship week were afforded up to and including a ten shot head start on the chasing pack.
That scenario being the exact opposite of what a handicap would mean in any other sporting arena. In other words, those who are struggling in comparison to the trend setters in a particular code are given an allowance by way of cutting the chasm between the haves and the have nots. For example, as a very senior observer of horse racing was oft heard to opine “Top weights are up there for a reason”. So it follows that the lower down the handicap a horse is, the less weight they are allotted to carry.
Whereas the system heretofore amounted to double taxation for those down the field in the Fed-Ex. At least now, as Rory McIlroy – who has won the $11M loot on several occasions – pointed out “It’s a clean slate for everyone and it’s a great opportunity for one of the guys who maybe wasn’t a huge part of the season to put their hand up and have a chance to win the big prize at the end of the year.”
The star of the Co Down went on “I’m maybe part of the minority. I didn’t hate the starting strokes,” he said.
“I thought that the player that played the best during the course of the season should have had an advantage coming in here. But the majority of people just didn’t like the starting strokes.
“Whether it were players or fans, I was on the PAC [Player Advisory Council] when we were trying to go through that, and really it was just a way to try to simplify the advantage that the top players were going to get over the course of the week instead of [Golf Channel’s] Steve Sands doing calculations on a white board.
“But you could also argue if it was starting strokes this week, Scottie with a two-shot lead, it probably isn’t enough considering what he’s done this year and the lead that he has in the FedExCup going into this week.”
Regardless of what system anybody uses, Scheffler remains the man to beat
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