Also in this issue:

• Cigar Stars
  An Interview with Alejandro Martinez Cuenca
• Celebrities
  The Sopranos: The Final Season
• Up Front
  Simple Pleasures
• Up Front
  Out of the Humidor
• More from this Issue

The New PGA

Pro golf unveils the FedExCup, a format that will crown a Tour champion with a four-tournament playoff

Jeff Williams
From the Print Edition:
Sopranos, Mar/Apr 2007

This year, the PGA Tour inaugurates the FedExCup championship, a season-long competition that culminates at the Tour Championship in mid-September. Players will gather FedEx Cup points throughout the season, then compete in four playoff tournaments, including the Tour Championship. One hundred forty-four players will qualify for the first playoff tournament, and a cut will be made for subsequent tournaments. Here are the basics of the competition:

The points system
There will be 25,000 points available for each regular Tour event, earned by the top 70 finishers and ties. At the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, PGA Championship and The Players, 27,500 points will be allocated. At World Golf Championship events there will be 26,250. At additional eligible events during the qualifying season, there will be 12,500.

Winners of major tournaments will receive 4,950 points, second-place finishers, 2,970, and third-place finishers, 1,870. At WGC events the top three finishers will be awarded 4,725, 2,835 and 1,785 points, respectively. At regular events they will earn 4,500, 2,700 and 1,700. At the additional events they will get 2,250, 1,350 and 850.

The final qualifying event is the Wyndham Championship at Greensboro, North Carolina, August 16—19, after which the points are reset and new point totals awarded to players as a way of seeding for the playoff tournaments.

The playoff tournaments
The four playoff tournaments are, in order, the Barclays Classic, August 23—26; the Deutsche Bank Championship, August 31—September 3; the BMW Championship, September 6—9; and the Tour Championship, September 13—16.

The No. 1 seed will get 100,000 points to start, the No. 2, 99,000, etc. There will be 500-point drops through No. 5, 250-point drops from 6 to 10, 150-point drops from 11 to 30 and 75-point drops thereafter. The winner of each playoff event will get 9,000 points; second, 5,400; third, 3,400, and so forth. Only 120 players will advance to the second playoff, 70 players to the third and 30 players to the Tour Championship, where the point awards will be slightly higher. It's possible that the winner of the Tour Championship and the winner of the FedExCup will be different players.

Photo by Reuters/Hugh Gentry

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