Meanwhile, others are taking high dives off the Manhattan skyscrapers. Padraig Harrington, having won back-to-back major titles this summer, missed the cut this week after making a double-bogey on his penultimate hole. He dropped 19 spots into 23rd in points. Keep in mind that only the top 30 in points advance to the FedEx finale, the Tour Championship, in Atlanta the week after the Ryder Cup.
If Harrington stumbles again next week in Boston, he's almost surely toast as far as making Atlanta -- and most experts have tabbed him as the tour player of the year. Cink was sixth in FedEx Cup points entering The Barclays, slipped to No. 9.
"I could become the poster boy for saying it's too volatile," he said. "I played pretty badly this week, and if I keep going like that, I'll be home watching the Tour Championship even after the good season I've had." Believe what you will about whether the FedEx should offer better balance between the regular season and performance in the so-called playoffs, but there are other issues at stake beyond the massive retirement nest egg offered for the top finishers, including $10 million to the winner.
Beyond the events of the next month, this is perhaps the most crucial part of the equation: The tour convinced the governing bodies of the first two major championships to use the FedEx points as one of their tournament entry requirements. For instance, all 30 players advancing to the Tour Championship are exempted into the Masters and U.S. Open.
Right now, that list would include Kevin Sutherland, a veteran with one career win, who hadn't been noticed in weeks and lost in a three-way playoff Sunday with Singh and Sergio Garcia. Or winless veteran Mathew Goggin, who hadn't been noticed all season.
"It's more than just about the bonus money," Cink said. "Guys who played well all year are getting knocked out of majors."
In a vacuum, the logic behind the changes heading into the second incarnation of the series was laudable. The gap between the players in first and 144th place heading into the first FedEx series event was tightened and more points were awarded from week to week. Part of the idea was to offer more of a penalty of top players skipped events, like Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Padraig and Ernie Els did in 2007.
The inaugural series was more of an extension of the regular season, wherein the players who performed best heading into the FedEx were given such an edge in points in the playoff reseeding, there wasn't much thunder from asunder in the standings. A tiny handful of players jockeyed their way up the standings.
There were no Hail Garys or 2-minute-warning rallies. As it turned out, Woods, the regular-season points leader, could have won the $10 million bonus even if he'd skipped two of the four series events. Now the points are so crazy, players atop the leaderboard were jumping and dropping six and seven FedEx spots with bogeys. Ben Curtis was tied for the lead with Garcia on the back nine on Sunday, bogeyed the 16th hole and dropped six spots in points.
"It's hard to understand how it works because last year there wasn't as much movement,"' said Phil Mickelson, who finished tied for 19th but only dropped from third to fifth in points. "There's a lot more turnover here. I think that although that's exciting for the playoffs, it also restructures how we look at the overall season. Now the season has a lot less meaning."
Who handled this redesign, Rees Jones?
Consider the walking litmus test for unexpected upheaval, Scottish rookie Martin Laird. He was seemingly dead in the water at No. 162 in earnings heading into Greensboro last week, looking at a return to Qualifying School, and was outside the top 144 in points required to play in the FedEx Series. He made the Wyndham cut on the number, finished tied for fourth and moved up to 128 in FedEx points.
Flash forward to Sunday, when he fired a 4-under 67 and moved into a tie for seventh, which helped him climb to 65th in FedEx points. A couple of more good weeks -- not great ones, mind you -- and Laird could be playing in the Masters and U.S. Open next year.
As Tom Petty once croaked, albeit with different spelling, the weighting is the hardest part. After the points makeover, the guy finishing 70th among those who made the cut was assured 2,100 points -- which is more than the player who finished third last week at the Wyndham Championship.
Australian journeyman Goggin began the week at No. 76 in points, finished tied for fourth and catapulted to 26th. Yet even he could see the borderline lunacy in the new scheme and the possibility of further chain-sawing.
"There might be a bit of a change after it's all said and done, because I guess there's a possibility you'll get guys finishing in the top 70 of the FedEx Cup points and probably not finish in the top 125 of the money list, so they won't get into the Memorial and other tournaments next year, which is kind of bizarre," he said. "If it it's going to be a playoffs, I think it's a lot more fun to have the volatility.
"But maybe the big swings early on, maybe make it not quite so severe so that it might be more pleasing to everybody, but I'm pretty happy with it so far."
Like Cink said, this is making our heads spin. The FedEx points redux has given me reflux.
