Obviously there is no Limerick Summary nowadays because, at the time I'm doing this put up, the Zurich Classic is not finished. So I notion I'd comment on a latest flip of events that bothers me.
I'm talking about Brian Gay and Ian Poulter finally getting their Tour cards back. Don't get me wrong -- I'm very happy that they got them back. What bothers me is the Tour error that almost kept them off the Tour. It's time for a rant!
I'm linking you to a golfing.Com article that explains everything in greater element, however the quick version is that the Tour has changed the way they determine the factors for the FedExCup. That's what the Tour is using to figure out when an injured player has played properly sufficient to regain his card.
Again, quick version: The Tour has made it tougher to get the ones points because the men have been injured, so it is more difficult for players getting back from damage to regain their playing cards. If Brian Gay had now not realized what had passed off -- and that it should not have applied to him and Poulter -- each men would have lost their cards DESPITE having finished enough to get them again.
Brian Gay found out that some thing changed into incorrect, went to the Tour and, fortunately, not unusual experience prevailed at Tour HQ and that they offered both men their cards. And I realise most oldsters might be satisfied and permit it move at that.
But I'm troubled by using the Tour's selection to make it more difficult for a player to come again from a prime medical go away. Shouldn't a player trying to return from an injury be granted a slightly less complicated avenue again, permitting him to properly go back to shape?
After all, gamers preserve announcing that irrespective of how plenty you practice, you need time playing below aggressive pressure to actually go back to form. Logically, gamers will now not end as nicely all through that "return to form" period.
Yet the Tour has reduced the points that are available for those lower finishes! That puts recovering players in the situation Gay and Poulter found themselves in, and that simply doesn't seem fair to me. If you really want to help players return to the Tour, why would you set the standards so high?
Presumably the Tour has modified the factors structure to represent an advanced degree of play at the top tiers of the Tour. I question how making it less difficult for the top gamers to benefit points while the rank-and-record ought to war even more difficult to maintain their cards improves the make-up of the Tour. (But since while has the Tour made decisions which might be easy to understand?) However, this appears draconian to me.
At the very least, it seems that the Tour should use a different point structure for players returning from a major medical leave -- one that allows them to ease back into the competitive environment of the Tour, rather than expecting them to return in the same form they had before they were injured. As it stands -- using the sample point totals from the golf.com article:
Gay began digging into his FedEx Cup totals for his 2016-17 finishes and only then noticed a gently publicized change to this season?S points breakdown. The Tour has restructured the distribution, giving fewer factors to finishes under 14th. For example, a twentieth-vicinity end final season changed into really worth 51 factors, however this season it brings most effective 45; 30th place has been devalued from forty one points to twenty-eight.Note that Gay was 28 points short of his requirement, which was 464 (125th in ’14-15). But look at how the changes affect him:
- Two 30th-place finishes -- just outside the Top25, and a reasonable expectation for a player returning from an injury but playing well -- now bring only 56 points rather than the original 82. That's 26 points right there!
- With five Top20 finishes, he would only receive 225 points instead of the 255 awarded before the change -- 30 points less.
Drop down to Branden Grace, additionally with 12 begins (one MC, one WD) this season. He's sixty fourth with 359 points. He has a T10, T11 and T13... And handiest four Top25 finishes. Most of his finishes are among 20 and 35 (plus a T39 on the Match Play, same as Moore).
Neither of these players were on important medical.
Compare them with Brian Gay, presently at 83rd after 11 events (3 MC). He has only 280 points for this season. He has T6s and a T13 (it's 3 Top25s)... And not anything else better than a T28. Yet this is better than he did last 12 months whilst he first got here again from the essential clinical, whilst he missed nine cuts. He handiest had one Top10 remaining yr, a sixth area finish.
You're probably thinking that Gay played so bad, it's no wonder he didn't get his card. But that's the whole point -- under the old system, HE DID! There are a number of healthy players, in no danger of losing their cards, who don't have three Top10s in that time period. Players coming back from a major medical leave simply don't have the consistency of healthy players, yet they have to conform to a new point system that requires consistency to keep one's card.
The Tour desires to restore this. Situations like Gay and Poulter's really ought to no longer occur. Major clinical exemptions should help players paintings their manner back into shape, not penalize them for being injured.
End of rant.
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