Golf journalists, a twitchy lot in general made more so now that the regular PGA Tour season is winding down, have a new fall sport: critiquing the Tour's FedExCup playoffs, which culminate this weekend at the Tour Championship in Atlanta. The playoffs, now in their third year, have been tweaked annually to attract the top players, enhance the drama, boost television ratings and avoid buzz-killing outcomes like last year's: Vijay Singh won the first two playoff events and had only to complete all four rounds and sign his scorecard at the Tour Championship to collect the $10 million winner's check. The most significant change to this year's formula protects against a recurrence of such an anticlimax by reseeding the players before the final event so that the leader (Tiger Woods) enjoys only a small advantage, 2,500 points to 2,250 points, over second place (Steve Stricker). The third- through fifth-place qualifiers—Jim Furyk, Zack Johnson and Heath Slocum—started play Thursday with 2,000, 1,800 and 1,600 points, respectively, and so on down to 210 points for the 30th and final man in the field, John Senden.[Read more...]