The FedEx Cup Playoffs are the most lucrative in professional golf, with a hefty prize purse up for grabs at the season finale. However, in recent times, much has been made of the format for the event.
Currently, the format is a staggered start whereby the position you're in going into the Tour Championship determines your starting score. Essentially, it was introduced to try and provide drama and captivate television audiences.
Now though, in a report by The Athletic, that could all be changing, with it being reported that a matchplay/bracket-style format is amongst the possibilities to crown the FedEx Cup champion.
According to the report, one of the options would be a strokeplay event to narrow down the 30 players, with a number of matches following that would be decided via head-to-head strokeplay.
As of writing, the PGA Tour has no matchplay style tournaments on its schedule, with the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play being scrapped back in 2023. What's more, TV networks have been reportedly hesitant to make the Playoffs a matchplay format due to the possibility of games finishing early, as well as there being fewer matches televised the longer the competition goes on for.
In regards to when the bracket-style format, or indeed any new format could be implemented, it could be as early as this year but, according to the reports, it would likely be next season.
Outside of the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour follows a similar playoff format but, instead of the staggered start in the final event, all players begin on equal grounds at the DP World Tour Championship.
If you are searching for a circuit that does use matchplay in its season ending event, LIV Golf uses a mix of it and strokeplay in its Team Championship. Matchplay is used on the first two days, with four teams making it through to the final. From there, all four players' scores count in a winner-take-all event.
