McAllister: Harrington has no problems with Playoff format
By Mike McAllister, PGATOUR.COM Managing Editor
ST. LOUIS -- He won the Open Championship. He followed that by winning the PGA Championship. He might very well be the Player of the Year.
But unless Padraig Harrington gets his game in gear this week, he won't be in the elite, 30-man field for THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola at the end of this month.
Some see that as wrong. Some think Harrington, by virtue of winning those two majors this summer, should have already had his ticket punched for East Lake. Some think THE TOUR Championship without Harrington leaves a void that can't be overlooked.
"I understand that if you don't play well in the playoffs, you get kicked out," Hunter Mahan said Thursday as the rain pounded Bellerive Country Club, postponing the first round of the BMW Championship until Friday. "But I think it would be a real shame if Padraig Harrington ... isn't in THE TOUR Championship."
One person who doesn't have a problem with it, however, is Harrington himself. That's because he gets the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. He understands that once the postseason starts, it's anybody's ballgame and if you don't bring your "A" game, then you may not move on.
That's how playoffs are. No one guaranteed the Patriots a Super Bowl win just because they went undefeated in the regular season. No one guaranteed Michael Phelps eight gold medals before he went to Beijing. In fact, no one guaranteed Phelps a spot on the U.S. Olympic team until he qualified at the trials.
And because Harrington has missed the cut at both The Barclays and the Deutsche Bank Championship, he has put himself in a precarious position. He's 44th going into the BMW Championship, which means he'll need a strong showing at Bellerive to move on.
He's blaming no one but himself for his predicament.
"I'd actually think I'd be more inclined if you miss the cut, go home, you're out," Harrington said earlier this week. "I think I'm in a lucky position that I still have a chance at qualifying. I've missed two cuts. I certainly should be out.
"This is the playoffs. It's four tournaments. It should be judged on the merits of those four tournaments, with a little bit of bias to the start of the year."
In other words, if you play well in the regular season, then you should get some kind of reward. And indeed, Harrington is getting rewarded because he's still in the Playoffs, still has a shot at East Lake. Others who didn't play as well as Harrington did this year and who missed the first two cuts are already out.
But the volatility of the Playoffs has clearly caught some players off guard. It will take an adjustment period to get used to the concept that the top performers no longer have safe passage to THE TOUR Championship and its guaranteed paycheck. THE TOUR Championship is no longer a reward for a regular season but a reward for a great playoff run -- just like the Giants were rewarded with a great playoff run by beating the Patriots.
PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem said Wednesday that golf fans indicated they wanted such a playoff environment, something they're accustomed to seeing in other sports. "They wanted it to feel more like a playoff, more like a do-or-die situation, and we just moved the needle a little bit in that regard, and so there is more volatility," he said. "I'm not so sure that's a bad thing. It's something to look at."
Indeed, there are plenty of opinions out there on whether the Playoffs point system should be tweaked, and if so, how.
Mahan, for instance, thinks there should not be 144 players to start the Playoffs, but 70 -- the figure we're at going into the BMW Championship. He said that's more like the playoffs, in which the regular season in most sports eliminates at least half the teams. As Mahan said, "They don't let every team in the playoffs -- they cut it down pretty good."
Harrington, on the flip side, would give more weight in the Playoffs to guys who finish on the front page of the leaderboard, and lessen the value of just making the cut. "You always want to reward the guys who are putting themselves out there, not the guys who are scraping by in points systems," Harrington said.
In fact, Harrington would actually flip the scale of volatility, in which the more volatile times would be the last two Playoffs events, not the first two as it stands now.
Maybe there's some merit to that. Besides being one of the best players in the world, Harrington is one of the more insightful players on TOUR. Whether you agree or disagree with him, he always has something interesting to say, and you know he's thought it through before opening his mouth.
And whether you agree or disagree with the current points structure, the key here is that it's a huge topic on TOUR. It's creating conversation. Commissioner Finchem doesn't mind that at all.
"I do think that the Padraig Harrington thing actually stirs up debate about this, and debate is good and healthy, and some level of controversy gets people talking about it," he said. "People around the country are having a lot more discussion on talk radio this year than last year, so I don't know how you measure that, but that's good stuff."
And if Harrington wins this week and rallies to earn a spot in THE TOUR Championship, that'll be good stuff, too. And if he doesn't play well and fails to make the top 30 for next week? Then not-so-good for Paddy, but good for somebody else. That's what happens in the postseason.
Harrington will be the first to tell you that.
Shop your favorite brand name golf equipment and accessories at SHOP.PGATOUR.COM
FAN ZONE
PGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network