The FedEx Cup

The 2008 FedEx Cup is a set of playoff tournaments that lead to a championship. Tiger Woods won the competition last year, and his absence due to his recovery from knee surgery this year will likely be a major disappointment for a company that has spent quite a lot of money attaching their name to this competition series. The series progresses from three playoff rounds that end in the title championship series. The last tournament is only open to the top 30 points leaders from the playoff rounds.

The first round of the playoffs - The Barclays - will begin on August 21st and runs for three days and includes the top 144 points leaders in the PGA. The following one, the Deutsche Bank Championship, goes from August 29th - September 1st, but is only open to the top 120 golfers after the previous playoff round. The playoff rounds continue through the BMW Championship and finally through the Tour Championship. The competition was started last year as a way to make golf a bit more similar to other sports in terms of how the season functions, adding a regular series of playoffs followed by a championship round.

The confusion arrives when you consider that the points are reset from what they are in the regular season when the first leg of the tournament rolls around. They aren't sent to zero - the rankings are preserved, but changed so that it makes the competition at the top slots more interesting in the tournament itself. The drop-out of Woods will potentially make it a more exciting competition, as the field is more open to challengers.