FedEx Cup Playoffs Pool Ideas (2026)

The FedEx Cup Playoffs are three tournaments in three weeks with the fields shrinking from 70 to 50 to 30, and in 2026 the finale is a straight 72-hole shootout - no starting strokes, no points reset, thirty players on equal footing. That makes the playoffs the best-shaped season pool in golf: short enough that nobody loses interest, deep enough that the standings can flip on the last day. Here are four ways to run one, from a single-event pool you can set up Wednesday night to a three-week mini-season.

1. Tour Championship pick-five (set up in five minutes)

Thirty golfers, everyone picks five, all five count, lowest total to par wins. There's no cut in Atlanta, so the usual missed-cut argument disappears and the pool is pure golf. With a 30-man field, duplicate lineups are likely in a big group, so publish a tiebreaker (count-back, then earliest entry) before picks open. Want it to matter who you pick rather than who everyone picks? Run it as a handicap pool: every golfer's rounds are adjusted by ranking band, so five favorites cost you ten strokes a round and a smart pick from the back of the 30 can win it.

2. The three-week playoff season

One competition across the St. Jude, the BMW and the Tour Championship, with points by finish each week into one standings table. Two choices matter. Rosters: re-pick each week (the fields shrink, so a locked roster loses golfers) - per-tournament picks are the right call. Points: with three events, make them top-heavy so a week win is worth chasing; a flat ramp lets a steady 8th-8th-8th beat a 1st-15th-20th, which nobody wants.

3. Playoff one-and-done

Three tournaments, one golfer each, never the same golfer twice. It's the whole one-and-done puzzle compressed into three picks: do you spend the world number one in Memphis, where 70 players dilute him, or hold him for Atlanta, where 30 players make him a coin flip with the field? The pool is decided by that one decision, and everybody argues about it for three weeks. Details on the format: One-and-done.

4. Add skins and a rabbit

Whichever main pool you run, put skins on every hole (the low team score on the hole takes a skin, a tie means no skin) and a rabbit on each tournament. It keeps the teams who fell out of the main race in the chat through Sunday, and in a 30-man no-cut event every team has a live golfer every round. See skins and rabbit for your golf pool.

Setting the deadline

The playoffs tee off early in the week's news cycle - fields are final Sunday night, tee times post Tuesday. Set the pick deadline at first tee time Thursday and send one reminder Wednesday; in a three-week season, send it every week, because the person who forgets week two never comes back.