BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

An analysis of the design of the PGA Tour’s FedExCup

Cinnamond, Alan (2015) An analysis of the design of the PGA Tour’s FedExCup. Working Paper. Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK.

[img]
Preview
Text
18392.pdf - Published Version of Record

Download (243kB) | Preview

Abstract

The FedExCup is a professional golf championship on the PGA TOUR that includes the first playoff system staged on any of the world’s profess ional golf tours. The FedExCup, incorporating elements of theory on the design of i ndividualistic sports competitions in its organisation and structure, enhances the PGA TOUR s eason by providing an additional competitive element and has to date been effective in meeting a number of its objectives. However, despite having the largest prize fund in g olf and the seventh largest first prize in all team or individual sports, the FedExCup is evidentl y considered neither by top players nor by fans to be the most important competition in gol f, thereby conflicting with theory on prize incentives in sport competition. The FedExCup canno t currently match the inherent importance and tradition of the major championship tournaments; however, its importance may be enhanced with a reorganisation of the finale tournament, ‘The TOUR Championship’, to a three day tournament and the introduction of n ew matchplay playoff competition between the top four players in the final standings after The TOUR Championship. This would serve to separate the two distinct competitio ns: (a) the competition for the event, and (b) the competition for the ‘league title’, and mak e them complementary rather than embedded. The objective of this restructure is to maintain all of the existing positive elements of the design of the FedExCup, but to also add a more dramatic context to its conclusion; critically it would make the competitio n more attractive to spectators and as a consequence, increase the perceived status of the F edExCup to a level more befitting of its prize fund.

Metadata

Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
Additional Information: Birkbeck Sport Business Centre Research Paper Series V8(2) - ISSN: 1756-8811
School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Business and Law > Birkbeck Business School
Research Centres and Institutes: Birkbeck Sport Business Centre
Depositing User: Administrator
Date Deposited: 21 Mar 2017 15:34
Last Modified: 25 Feb 2025 13:26
URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/18392

Statistics

6 month trend
238Downloads
6 month trend
296Hits

Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

Archive Staff Only (login required)

Edit/View Item
Edit/View Item