Drama vs Worthiness; is it that important to have final day drama?

The Season’s End

All Major Tours in the golfing world have now ended with the conclusion of the European Tour in Dubai last weekend and the LPGA Tour finals in Florida.  Worthy winners in Rory McIlroy and Lydia Ko joined Billy Horschel of the PGA Tour as the eventual victors in the season long races despite the fact that it was in fact Stenson who came out on top in Dubai.  With TV Ratings and money becoming, more and more, the driving factors behind tournament organisation, I ask, have any of the Tours found the balance between finding the right winner, whilst maintaining the excitement of the last event?

                A Tiger-less Masters this year saw the worst TV ratings in a decade for the opening major of the year and this was also deemed to be the result of a drama-less back nine.  Personally I felt that there was some drama in Dubai this past weekend; Cabrera-Bello seemed set for victory before two late double-bogeys intervened and a birdie-birdie finish from an “exhausted” Stenson saw him clinch it by two.  Perhaps the most exciting prospect of the whole week was the very real possibility of a play off between McIlroy, Rose, Stenson and Dubuisson, three of the world’s top ten as well as four Ryder Cup team mates.  Sadly Stenson’s imperious finish put an end to that possibility but there was at least a big back nine finish with some drama. 

Stenson’s victory did nothing to stop McIlroy from claiming the race to Dubai however and the argument is that because Rory’s victory was assured so early it detracted from the entertainment of the final event.  McGinley, in the commentary box, stated, that McIlroy had claimed two majors, a WGC event and the European Flagship event at  Wentworth and so a more worthy European Champion you could not hope to find and I'm inclined to agree with our Ryder Cup Captain.  Drama or no drama, a worthy winner was found.

                Arguably then, McIlroy should have laid claim to the FedEx Cup too but it was not to be thanks to two late and impressive victories by Billy Horschel.  However he would have stood no hope had there not been double points available in the last 4 events.  Indeed this format provides drama for the last month of the Tour but I’m not convinced it always serves the fans with the most worthy champion.  Each event provides drama in that you may be watching your favourite player birdie the last just to make it to the following week or that you enjoy watching an ever changing top five, all of whom have a chance at the FedEx should they win the Tour Championship but, as was the case this year, we saw McIlroy have an unexpected poor run of form and lose out to the relatively unheard of Billy Horschel.  Drama maintained and achieved, worthy champion; perhaps not.

                Lastly the LPGA Tour does it slightly differently again and it did provide a bit of drama, or at least it had the potential to.  For the season ending Tour Finals of the LPGA they reset the points and make it so that only the top nine stand a chance of winning with the top three being guaranteed victory with a win in the event.  Lydia Ko came into the event lying third behind Stacey Lewis and Inbee Park.  Ko’s impressive final day performance tee-to-green with 21/21 fairways and 20/21 greens         (including 4 playoff holes) was enough to secure victory in both the event and the points race.  It was not without drama.  Julieta Granada of Paraguay had led most of the week but fell behind coming into the back nine before 3 birdies on the bounce pushed into a three way tie with Ko and Carlota Ciganda of Spain.  Ciganda should perhaps have won it in normal time but for a three putt par at the par 5 17^th.  It was in the playoff that Ko seemed to adopt a fairly dull but none –the –less impressive war of attrition.  Fairway-green- 2 putt times 4 was enough to put away the challengers although her season long campaign had been assured by the relatively poor performances of Lewis and Park.  Drama; some.  A worthy champion; definitely.   

Creating a tense final event is difficult for organisers and I appreciate why they try to adopt ways of maintaining drama throughout the season but I personally would rather see the deserved winner rather than a great final event and so perhaps the formats of doubling points or resetting them needs a little fine tuning?