MIAMI - If you’re still trying to figure out the impact of the FedExCup on the PGA Tour, here’s a pertinent fun fact:

It’s only March - not even golf season yet in Philadelphia - and we’re already one-third of the way through the 36-tournament FedExCup season that culminates the second week of September at the Tour Championship.

So far, it’s hard to know what to make of the FedExCup. The PGA Tour is promoting the heck out of it, as you’ve probably noticed by the relentless TV commercials.

The tour pushes it to the media, too, hoping it will become the ultimate measure of success, eclipsing the money list or the World Golf Rankings. In the weekly updated packet of “PGA Tour Facts and Figures,” the FedEx points race now gets top billing.

Not that you need me to tell you this, but Charles Howell III was the leader until Vijay Singh won the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week, bumping him to the top. Phil Mickelson is third. Coincidentally or not, the same three guys rank 1-2-3 on the money list in the same order.

Even the players don’t seem to be sure quite what to make of the FedExCup. Ask them what it means to them, other than the obvious benefits of the $10 million bonus payout, and a lot of guys tend to look at their shoes, mulling the proper diplomatic response.

They don’t want to bad-mouth what could very well be a good idea that commissioner Tim Finchem and the suits at PGA Tour HQ modeled after NASCAR’s Nextel Cup. But they also don’t want to pretend to be all excited about it when they are not - at least not yet.

At the Mercedes-Benz Championship earlier this year, Jim Furyk was asked where he would rank winning the FedExCup, compared with winning majors, money titles, total victories and Vardon trophies.

“I thought I was getting out of here before you guys asked me that question,” joked Furyk, dodging the question. Then, he added, “I want to win the major championships ahead of everything else. And I have a hard time believing the top 10 players in the world are not going to sit up here and say the same thing.”

Just yesterday, as he prepared for another of the highly-promoted World Golf Championships, Tiger Woods was asked what really matters to him.

Woods left no doubt about his measure of success. He wondered out loud who in the room could say how many tournaments the greats like Nicklaus, Palmer or Hogan won or how many times they finished second, and so forth. His point was, no, most people don’t pay attention to that stuff.

“But you ask them how many majors they have won, the majority of people can name that,” Woods said.

That reality, the single most important stat in the game is what the FedExCup is competing with. Despite the PGA Tour’s best efforts, traditions are built, not born.

Of course, it’s early in the first year of the FedExCup. Nobody’s talking about the baseball pennant races, either. Everything could change about August or September, when the race is tight and money is on the line. Maybe we’ll care. Maybe even Woods will care.
Source: philly.com