The PGA Tour needs to inject some life into FedEx Cup Fall: Here’s four modifications that can help

The second edition of FedEx Cup Fall has come and gone on the PGA Tour. While there were memorable moments — Rafael Campos’ victory at the Bermuda Championship, Joel Dahmen’s final-round 64 at the RSM Classic to retain his full-time status among them — the eight-event swing series was not without its shortcomings.

Battling for attention against the start of seemingly every major sport, including college football and the NFL, FedEx Cup Fall inevitably falls into the back of sports fans’ minds, if it registers at all.

The lone uptick in interest comes during the annual international team event, be it the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, and even the latter struggles to keep pace given the one-sided nature of the competition. 

So, where should the PGA Tour turn to maintain sports fans’ interest through the fall and winter?

For starters, it may need to do take a step it has been unwilling to transverse previously: trimming the schedule. Switching to a calendar-year playing slate at the beginning of 2024, the PGA Tour unveiled a 36-event regular season after which the top 70 players in the FedEx Cup standings qualify for the postseason. 

Tack on eight FedEx Cup Fall tournaments, three FedEx Cup Playoff events, plus the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, and that nearly 50 tournaments ideally commanding fans’ attention in 52 weeks. Of course, that total does not account for the DP World Tour, LPGA Tour, LIV Golf, the influx of exhibitions events or the PGA Tour’s TGL indoor league, which will debut in early 2025.

Some real die-hard fans will be able to take a bite out of every item served, but the majority will have had its fill by the end of summer. It’s fine to let the product breathe — like every other major sport — and it’s also fine to experiment and keep the sport fresh.

That’s precisely our goal as we outline four modifications that could inject some life into the FedEx Cup Fall.

Create a sprint to the finish

This suggestion may prove unpopular among PGA Tour officials (and those players on the bubble), but shortening the schedule would benefit the sport as a whole. Look, PGA Tour members will have been given eight months and roughly 25 playing opportunities to secure their jobs for the following year by the time the fall rolls around. Instead of a slow slog like the regular season, FedEx Cup Fall should transform into a sprint. 

Cut the number of tournaments in half, ramp up the pressure and put these players under the microscope. The most intriguing tournament of the fall is always the RSM Classic due to the finality of it all, but the movement in and out of the top 125 is minimal at best — only Henrik Norlander and Daniel Berger moved inside the cut-off point in the season finale.

Take No. 125, Sam Ryder, for example. After finishing the regular season at No. 127 in the FedEx Cup standings, Ryder played six events this fall and missed the cut in half of them. A top-five finish at the Bermuda Championship — his second top 20 of the season — was a welcomed result, one that secured him enough points so that he didn’t even have to play in the RSM Classic. That doesn’t seem right.

Mix up the formats

Outside the Zurich Classic in the middle of the spring, every tournament on the PGA Tour is stroke play. Gone are the days of WGC Match Play, much to the dismay of fans, so why not reintroduce the format back in the fall? The knock on match play has always been the hindrance of the television product late into the tournament, but it is clear TV ratings aren’t highly considered this time of year. Make it a round robin event, cut the field in half after the group stage and reward FedEx Cup points based on finishes. Sports fans are simple: They love brackets.

Go international

Competing for attention against college football on Saturdays and the NFL on Sundays is not an enviable position, but there are ways to change this. In the golf world, the DP World Tour wears the crown throughout the fall not only because of its host golf courses but due to the TV windows during which it airs. Serving as the perfect appetizer in the morning for those on the United States’ East Coast, international golf can lead into these bigger sporting events rather than compete against them. 

Limit sponsor exemptions

The biggest point of controversy this fall came the week of the Zozo Championship where Dahmen and Zac Blair received sponsor exemptions into the tournament. Hosting a limited field and played without a cut at the halfway point, the Zozo Championship dished out guaranteed FedEx Cup points to players on the bubble of securing full-time status.

It proved to matter quite a bit. Dahmen received 13 FedEx Cup points at the Zozo Championship and finished the year with 425 points at No. 124. Meanwhile, Blair gained 8.75 points in Japan and finished at No. 126 with 417 points. As for the man who received the short end of the stick (i.e., no sponsor exemption), Hayden Springer, he finished the year with 414 points — 11 points behind Dahmen — at No. 127.

Since golfers are competing for their PGA Tour livelihoods, the playing field needs to be fair for all involved.