NORTON, Mass. — What exactly does the word “Playoffs” in FedEx Cup Playoffs mean? It depends whom you ask.
“If you’re going to have playoffs,” William McGirt told me recently, “then make it where there’s more volatility. Why would you reward a guy for letting that guy sit at home and take the week off?”
At last week’s Northern Trust, 120 of a possible 125 players were in the field. Sergio Garcia wasn’t one of them. For the third year in a row the Spaniard skipped the opener to the postseason. At 22nd in the standings, he could easily afford to with little repercussion. It was the benefit of a season in which he won a major (the Masters) and racked up seven other top-25 finishes, though his “reward” was dropping a handful of spots, to 30th, in the points race.