1 trend from this week the PGA Tour should be worried about

It’s no real surprise that PGA Tour members lean in the direction of groupthink. As a collective, they are so similar that they might as well think largely the same way. They lead similar lives, live in the same few regions — tax-havens mostly — and will even cast similar votes whenever they visit the ballot box. 

Often it shows itself in the form of positivity — course is great, greens are great, gotta shoot lower scores — but it is most interesting in the form of non-positivity. Like this week, when some of the best players in the world can’t really be bothered to care much about the tournament as the penultimate stage of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. 

Take Rory McIlroy’s press availability after his first round Thursday, where he was asked if the altered format — sans “Starting Strokes” — changes his approach.

“I guess it would still be nice to finish second after this week just to get a little bit more cash, I guess,” McIlroy said. “Yeah, again, I guess you’re trying your best to win the golf tournament. Yeah, I guess you’re just not looking at the leaderboards as much because it obviously doesn’t really matter heading into next week where you are.”

Four times in that answer: I guess, I guess, I guess, I guess.

There was no guessing which “playoffs” meant more to McIlroy last week. He skipped the first leg of the FedEx Cup chase, and was meanwhile posting on Instagram promotion for the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai, events held three months from now. McIlroy admitted he wanted some extra rest, given how busy the end of his 2025 is going to be, and the annual sweaty grind of a mid-summer week in Memphis was easy to drop.

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Jason Day said he was more than ready for the Tour to take its playoffs somewhere besides hot and humid Memphis in August. The Tour used to ensure stops in the New York, Chicago and Boston markets at least every other year. The courses were more “iconic” in Day’s mind, than where the tournaments go right now, with Olympia Fields, Medinah, TPC Boston, etc. 

“At some point I hope we go back there because I think it would be nice to go back to some good memories, especially at a golf course I’ve enjoyed playing,” Day said. 

You can take almost the entirety of Scottie Scheffler’s post-round press time, where he hemmed and hawed and admitted the current system is just … fine.

“I think when you look at the FedExCup, I think it’s a greater discussion,” Scheffler said. “Like if you’re going to have a true season-long race, truly the best player every year wins, odds are it’s not going to come to that interesting of a conclusion in most years.”

This year’s format, for Scheffler, is better than Starting Strokes. If winning the FedEx Cup is your goal, it’ll take you a good season to get to the Tour Championship, “then it’s on,” Scheffler said. That aligns with anyone who wants to win a major knowing that they have to qualify for that major and then play well at the exact right time. 

But … Scheffler still liked the original system best — back when players received FedEx Cup Points all season long, even through the Tour Championship — even if he knows it was flawed, as it was difficult for fans to know exactly what it took to win. 

That understanding that the FedEx Cup Playoffs have been flawed is so ubiquitous, it demands the question: how long can we keep doing this without major change that is locked in place … forever? Or for at least a couple decades — long enough to ensure that it means something on the annual calendar. Or means something closer to what the Tour marketing staff tells you it means. 

Without consistency of format, visiting locales the players love, timing those events to the month of August exclusively and guaranteeing that thing that everyone is playing for feels extra special, the Playoffs conversation can end up leaning in a completely different direction. For that, our example comes back to Scottie Scheffler, whose pre-tournament press conference revolved more around the Ryder Cup than anything else. So much that Scheffler had to stop and remind reporters Hey, that’s not for another month.

“I love answering questions about the Ryder Cup, but this is ridiculous,” Scheffler said with a chuckle. “We’re at the BMW Championship. The Ryder Cup is over a month away. If you want to talk about this week, let’s talk about this week. If not, I’ve got practice to do. I’m getting ready for a golf tournament.”

Scheffler was light-hearted when he said it, but he meant it. You can’t blame him for not wanting to talk about anything but the BMW Championship. But then again, you can’t blame the reporters for wanting to talk about an event that is far more important.