Less than a year into its maiden voyage, the FedEx Cup is the latest in a long line of failures by the PGA Tour to keep fans interested all season. Despite a massive publicity campaign by the PGA Tour with advertisements and hype coming out the wazoo, there is scant evidence that golf fans care, or even know, what the points mean. There is no Monday morning water cooler talk about how many points Tiger or Phil picked up with their latest victory.

The seeds of the FedEx Cup series were planted more than two years ago when Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson said there were too many tournaments and that fewer events would force the top players to go head-to-head more often.

First off, their argument held less water than a sieve. Touring pros are independent contractors. As long as they compete in 15 tournaments per season and earn enough money, they keep their card and there is nothing the suits in Ponte Vedra can do about it. Jack Nicklaus had it down to a science and competed where and when he wanted. Tiger's complaints seem particularly incongruous considering he has put not one, but three tournaments (AT&T National, Deutsche Bank, and the silly season Target World Challenge) on the schedule.

Commissioner Tim Finchem listened to his meal tickets, revamped the schedule using NASCAR as his template and pushed seven events to the backwoods series called the "Fall Finish." Then he convinced FedEx to buy in.

“The new FedEx Cup competition, a dramatic season-long points bonus program for players spanning 37 weeks, begins with the Mercedes Championship in Hawaii and concludes Sept. 13-16 with The Tour Championship presented by Coca Cola,” says the publicity machine.

The PGA Tour thinks that is so important that item number one on their stats page is not the money list, but the Fed Ex Cup point leaders.

“The Championship Series, which focuses on the final push for the FedEx Cup title, will begin with the Barclays Classic in New York Aug. 23-26, followed by the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston Aug. 31-Sept. 3 and then the BMW Championship Sept. 6-9, before concluding at THE TOUR Championship in Atlanta,” continues the rant.

In theory then, someone could finish well back in the pack at Atlanta and still capture the $10 million bounty. Just what Tiger needs, another $10 million.

"We are excited about the fact that the FedEx Cup season will feature a strong and regular spacing of significant opportunities for the world's best players to compete against one another," Finchem said once the final version was put in place. "The major championships, The Players Championship, the World Golf Championships and the season-ending, four-event Championship Series will create and hold fan interest throughout the FedEx Cup season.”

Sorry Mr. Commissioner, that hasn't happened.

Neither the new format nor the inflated purses have had much influence on a player’s schedule or on the fans.  If anything, the pros will be even more selective with so much money floating around. Finchem lists 12 must-play tournaments, leaving just three more to achieve the minimum required to keep a card.

The PGA Tour just doesn't get it. Although the networks and the tour continually ram the propaganda down our throats, fan interest centers on the four major championships. That will never change.

Since it owns none of the majors, the PGA Tour has been trying for decades to create its own version of a major championship – and it has constantly failed. It tried with the Tournament of Champions (Mercedes Benz Championship) and the old World Series of Golf, which started with four players and eventually expanded to include tournament winners from August of one year to the next plus a few foreign champions.

Deane Beman created the Tournament Players Championship (the Players Championship) in 1974 and tried to convince us it was the fifth major. When that didn’t work, he created the Nabisco Championship (which actually was christened the Vantage Cup in 1986 but is now The Tour Championship) to close the season and billed it as the Super Bowl of golf. With a swollen purse and allowing only the top 30 on the money list to compete; it was designed to keep the big boys playing well into October in order to qualify. Sound familiar?

However, a funny thing happened on the way to the pot of gold. The pros figured out early enough whether they would qualify and adjusted their schedule accordingly. Greg Norman and Mark O’Meara made a mockery of the event one year when, a mile back from the leaders, they elected to set a record for the fastest 18 holes by running from shot to shot.

Along came the World Golf Championships in 1999 held in conjunction with the major golf tours around the world. Ah yes, more no-cut events with oversized purses for only the top players. Except for one trip to Australia, the Match Play event has always been played in America and the Bridgestone Invitational has never left American shores. After alternating between Europe and America, the CA Championship now permanently resides in Florida. Yeah, some World Golf Championships.

So now we have the Fed Ex Cup where a series of playoff events leads to even more money for the already super wealthy. Haven’t we seen this before?