There was an enthralling conclusion to the DP World Tour season on Sunday, with Matthew Fitzpatrick and Rory McIlroy battling it out in a playoff in Dubai.
The DP World Tour could have hardly asked for a more exciting finish to their year. As Rory McIlroy prepared to tee off on the 72nd hole, the likes of Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Aberg were on the range preparing for what had the potential to be a six-man playoff.
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Matthew Fitzpatrick put paid to those hopes with his birdie on 18, while McIlroy made yet another significant eagle putt to join the Englishman on 18 under par.
Ultimately, Fitzpatrick got across the line on the first additional hole. McIlroy, meanwhile, took home his seventh Order of Merit crown.
And the PGA Tour has been encouraged to learn from what took place on the Earth Course this past weekend.
The PGA Tour has been urged to make a change after the DP World Tour Championship
The Tour Championship format has been an issue for several years for the PGA Tour.
The tour has struggled to work out how to make the FedEx Cup playoffs exciting while also recognising the best player throughout the year.
Scottie Scheffler was among the critics of using starting strokes at East Lake.
And that led to the slightly strange situation where Tommy Fleetwood won the FedEx Cup with his maiden PGA Tour victory.
It is likely that the format will change again in the future. But speaking on 5 Clubs, Gary Williams insisted that the PGA Tour should adopt a similar system to the DP World Tour.
“The DP World Tour, Matt Fitzpatrick has now won this event for the third time, he outlasts Rory McIlroy. Unfortunately, the playoff was kind of anticlimactic because Rory drove it into the creek after making eagle in regulation to force the playoff. Look at that great leaderboard, my gosh. And you look at that, and yes, they have a season long race, and they have two trophies, and I’ve always been fine with that,” he said.
“I know the PGA Tour used to do that with the FedEx Cup and the Tour Championship, I wish they would look at that again. They had a great event and I wasn’t confused as to who was winning what. Fitzpatrick wins the event, Rory wins the Race to Dubai, wins the Harry Vardon trophy for a seventh time.”
Tiger Woods’ Tour Championship triumph shows the way forward for the FedEx Cup
One of the most iconic Tour Championship events came back in 2018; the last time the FedEx Cup champion was not decided by the winner of the event at East Lake.
Of course, on that occasion, it was Tiger Woods who won the tournament. It was truly amazing to watch the final fairway fill with fans as Woods closed in on his triumph.
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What some may forget is that it was Justin Rose who won the FedEx Cup that week.
Perhaps that is what the PGA Tour is afraid of – that the winner of the FedEx Cup will become something of an afterthought. However, that was largely because it was Woods winning the event.
Perhaps, the time has come for the PGA Tour to make a bigger deal of the best player over the season before resetting the points to zero for the playoffs.
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