Impossible not to call FedEx Cup a success after two rounds of Barclays

HARRISON, N.Y. (Aug. 24, 2007) - Is the FedEx Cup destined to never live up to golf’s majors? Of course. Does PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem need to put in a rule eliminating no-show stars like Tiger Woods from the playoffs? Absolutely. Is the $10 million retirement fund prize the biggest joke in sports since the XFL? No doubt.

Still, even with all that, there can no question that the FedEx Cup is a resounding success. You can see it in the number of media outlets that are here in the endless volume of stories being produced on this first of the playoff tournaments, The Barclays.

WorldGolf.com’s spot in the press room is surrounded by so many Golf World spots that the magazine could stage a hostile takeover of Queens. (No one’s taking over Westchester, with its fleet of mansions and hair-trigger rent-a-cops). And this media onslaught goes up and down the board.

Remember this is The Barclays. I worked in the greater New York metro market for several years and I can tell you that The Barclays used to receive about the same coverage as a WNBA game in the New York area press. I had a sports editor who loved golf and this tournament interested him about as much as an episode of General Hospital.

No one cared about the Barclays. Until this year.

And the sudden attitude switch has nothing to do with them dropping Classic from the tournament name. Say whatever you want about the FedEx Cup, it clearly has skyrocketed interest in an otherwise golf dead part of the year.

The PGA Tour players have clearly noticed.

“There’s a lot more of you guys around here than there normally would be,” Phil Mickelson said. “There are a lot of faces I see who wouldn’t otherwise be here.”

Granted this is the first week in the first ever FedEx Cup. It will be interesting to see if the coverage holds up in the tournament next week with the U.S. Open starting, college football kicking off and king NFL beckoning closer. It will be even more telling to find out what happens next year when the newness factor is gone (and so is hopefully the skipping allowance).

But for now, there is no denying the Cup success.

Don’t think the FedEx Cup matters? Tune in to the front of WorldGolf.com Saturday morning to read how skipping the first playoff tournament could possibly cost Tiger the Player of the Year award voted on by his peers.