Cape Town - PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has defended the unpredictability of the current FedEx Cup format, which has resulted in both Tiger Woods and Shane Lowry being absent from the season-ending Tour Championship.
Woods' fairy tale victory at the Masters and Lowry's magical triumph at The Open were arguably the two biggest golf stories of the year, but neither man was able to qualify for the FedEx Cup finale at East Lake this week.
Only the top 30 players over the course of the whole season manage to make it as far as Atlanta, and as far as Monahan is concerned, that's exactly how it should be.
“I want to emphasise the fact that what Tiger and Shane did this year, those are two of the greatest stories of the year. So would you want them here? 1 000%," he said.
“But you look at every other sport and their playoff format, and you’ll have top teams that fall out early.
“You’ll have some things that you may not have predicted, particularly at the moment when they won those two big events.
“You’ve got to play exceedingly well over the course of an entire season, and, with volatility, there’s risk.”