"Gets worse and worse every year" - Former PGA Tour winner wants radical format change

Former PGA Tour winner Johnson Wagner says the format for the FedEx Cup play-offs needs overhauling as it "gets worse and worse every year".

The PGA Tour's post-season began, as ever, at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, with the top 70 players in the standings earning a tee time at TPC Southwind.

From there, the field was whittled down to 50 for this week's BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, with only the top 30 players going on to compete at the Tour Championship at East Lake.

Players' points carry over, meaning that the likes of Scottie Scheffler are rewarded for consistency across the season.

There is also very little movement in the standings, though, and some commentators have suggested the lack of drama makes the conclusion to the season boring.

For example, South Korea's Sungjae Im was the only player to break into the top 50 last week by sharing fifth place alongside Sam Burns.

Wagner told Golf on CBS that he believes it is time for the PGA Tour to create true jeopardy by resetting the points at the beginning of the post-season.

"If you look back to the Wyndham, we only had one player move inside the top 70 and that was Michael Brennan because he won the tournament," said Wagner.

"I remember the Wyndham Championship when it was 125 [players] in that first play-off event, there was a lot of guys moving in and out, and it was one of the greatest Friday cutline stories.

"Sunday, away from the winner, who's going to move in? Who's going to move out? And it's just gotten worse and worse every year."

Wagner continued: "Now that the PGA Tour is paying out regular season bonuses – didn't Scottie Scheffler just get a $10 million bonus – then they should all start over.

"It's the play-offs! Just because you're the number one seed in the NFL, yes, you get a bye, and there's a way to go about that, but I don't care if you're Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy, if you don't perform in the playoffs, you're out of there."

If Wagner's idea was implemented, then McIlroy's season would have concluded last week.

McIlroy, 37, took a three-week break after the conclusion of The Open at Royal Birkdale and showed visible signs of rust as he toiled to a 66th-place finish in the sweltering heat.

The Masters champion said at times he "felt lost" on the course as he finished a remarkable 25 shots behind champion Scheffler.

That McIlroy played in the $20m tournament was a surprise given he controversially skipped the tournament last year.

McIlroy said the format gave him little reason to play as he was assured of a start at the Tour Championship with the amount of points he had accrued.

McIlroy added the 2026 FedEx St. Jude Championship to his schedule after talks with PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp.

He added that a four-week break was too long.

"I think it's important to be here," he said. "It's the Tour's playoffs, and I think it's important for all the players to be here.

He added: "I've had some good conversations with Brian Rolapp over the last couple weeks.

"Yeah, I think it's important for me to be here and show support and looking forward to teeing it up."