Change brings clarity, curiosity With staggered start, new Cup format sets up winner-takes-all finish
#2 Alabama vs. Duke in Atlanta, 3:30 p.m. #3 Georgia at Vanderbilt, 7:30 p.m. #5 Ohio State vs. FAU, Noon
#6 LSU vs. Georgia Southern, 7:30 p.m. #7 Michigan vs. Middle Tennessee, 7:30 p.m.
#10 Texas vs. Louisiana Tech, 8 p.m. #11 Oregon vs. #16 Auburn in Arlington, Texas, 7:30 p.m.
#13 Washington vs. Eastern Washington, 3 p.m.
#15 Penn State vs. Idaho, 3:30 p.m. #20 Iowa vs. Miami (Ohio), 7:30 p.m. #21 Iowa State vs. Northern Iowa, Noon
#22 Syracuse at Liberty, 6 p.m.
# 23 Washington State vs. New Mexico State, 10 p.m.
#24 Nebraska vs. S. Alabama, Noon #25 Stanford vs. Northwestern, 4 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
ATLANTA — Justin Thomas has a two-shot lead, and the Tour Championship hasn’t even started.
If that seems difficult to fathom, consider that someone could win this week without having the lowest 72-hole score.
And remember, such a radical change was to make the FedEx Cup finale easier to follow.
The first staggered start in PGA Tour history — Thomas begins at 10-under par, the bottom five players are at even par — unfolds Thursday at East Lake when 30 players who reached the final stage of the FedEx Cup playoffs chase the $15 million prize.
“I could see a scenario where come Sunday, 15 guys might have a chance to win the entire thing,” Rory McIlroy said. “It will be exciting ... different. But at the same time, you’ve just got to go out there and try to play some good golf and not look around at what other guys are doing, and trust that by the end ... things will hopefully even out.”
The idea behind the new format was to bring clarity to the FedEx Cup by having only one winner Sunday.
Each of the last two years, one player won the Tour Championship and another player won the pointsbased FedEx Cup. It was especially awkward last year because while Justin Rose won the FedEx Cup, all anyone cared about was seeing Tiger Woods in his red shirt celebrating a two-shot victory, his first in five years.
“My bank manager didn’t mind,” Rose said.
One function of the FedEx Cup hasn’t changed: It was designed to give an advantage to players who had Colleges: A federal judge denied Michigan State’s request to dismiss a Title IX lawsuit filed in April 2018 by former female student Bailey Kowalski that claims in part that the school handled complaints involving athletes in a different way than it did complaints against non-athletes. Kowalski was an 18-year-old freshman journalism major when, on the night of April 11, 2015, she was drugged and gang-raped by three Michigan State basketball players after meeting them at a bar in East Lansing, according to her lawsuit . ... Wisconsin junior WR Quintez Cephus returned to practice, though he isn’t eligible to play in games yet at least in part because he lacks credits after he was expelled in the spring amid sexual assault allegations. The Wisconsin athletic department said earlier this week that Cephus won’t play in games until unspecified “eligibility issues” are resolved. Cephus was suspended from the team in August 2018 after he was charged with second- and third-degree sexual assault. A jury acquitted him Aug. 2. Chancellor Rebecca Blank on Monday allowed him to return to school and rejoin the team. the best season, and who played their best golf in the postseason when the points were valued four times higher.
Now, the advantage is strokes to par.
Thomas, who won the BMW Championship last week to become No. 1 in the FedEx Cup, tees off Thursday already at 10-under par. Patrick Cantlay is No. 2 and will start at 8 under, followed by Brooks Koepka at 7 under, Patrick Reed at 6 under and McIlroy at 5 under.
The next groups of five players in the standings will be at 4 under, 3 under, 2 under, 1 under and even par.
The leaderboards on the course, online and on television will show only the score to par, not what was shot each day.
If nothing else, the new format eliminates the kind of math that would give even Bryson DeChambeau a headache, computing where players needed to finish to earn points to win. Last year for example, Rose was the No. 2 seed and his birdie on the last hole gave him a three-way tie for fourth, enough points to win the cup. Dustin Johnson was the No. 4 seed and finished third. If he had finished in a two-way tie for second, he would have won the cup.
Using this year’s format, Rose would have won the FedEx Cup by one shot over Woods because as the No. 2 seed, Rose would have started six shots better.
Now it’s time to see if it will work. “I think it’s hokey,” Cantlay said. “It’s weird to have a format no one has ever seen. And I think it’s a shame we lose the Tour Championship . ... I’m going to reserve final judgment until I’ve gone through the week.”
Whoever finishes with the lowest score to par wins the FedEx Cup and gets credit for winning the Tour Championship, even if he doesn’t have the lowest score in the Tour Championship. Meanwhile, the tour will keep track of conventional scoring to award world ranking points. Golf: Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark will face trial England after being charged with sexual assault and being drunk on an aircraft. Olesen, 29, a five-time winner on the European Tour and member of Europe’s Ryder Cup-winning team in 2018, was arrested July 29 after returning to London from the World Golf Championship event in Memphis, Tenn. He indicated that he will plead not guilty. Olesen was suspended by the European Tour pending the outcome of the criminal case.
NHL: The Wild named Bill Guerin their new GM. Guerin, 48, had been with the Penguins since 2011. He served as assistant GM the last five years. Guerin replaces Paul Fenton, who was fired late last month after just one season . ... The Senators re-signed restricted free agent center Colin White to a six-year, $28.5 million contract. White, 22, had 14 goals and 27 assists last season . ... The Islanders and free agent center Derick Brassard agreed to a one-year contract. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Brassard, 31, had 14 goals and nine assists with the Penguins, Panthers and Avalanche last season. Soccer: Greek league runner-up and host Olympiakos scored three late goals to beat Russian debutant Krasnodar 4-0 in the first leg of their Champions League playoff-round match . ... The Montreal Impact of the MLS fired coach Remi Gard and appointed former Houston Dynamo coach Wilmer Cabrera to take his place leading the Eastern Conference seventh-place club.
Tennis: Defending tournament champs and top-ranked Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka are the No. 1 seeds for singles play in the upcoming U.S. Open. Also, chair umpire Carlos Ramos will not officiate matches involving Serena Williams or her older sister, Venus, at this year’s tournament following the confrontation that overshadowed last year’s final. Williams clashed with Ramos during her 6-2, 6-4 loss to Osaka. Ramos warned Williams for receiving a coaching signal from the stands before giving her a point penalty for breaking her racket and a game penalty for verbal abuse after she called him a “thief.”
— News services