I was doing a local DC radio chat on Thursday (shoutout 106.7 The Fan) with J.P. Finlay and Brian Mitchell, who asked me why the playoffs were being held in Memphis this week. He was wondering what happened to New York, Boston, Chicago, and what they could recall of their prior connection to the playoffs. Both hosts are avid golfers who enjoy and follow pro golf, though not as a primary job or hobby. I mentioned the change took place a few years ago and that it was for a very obvious, and maybe sound reason: the Tour’s ultimate title sponsor, FedEx, holds the market, course, and event near and dear. And sponsors call a lot of the shots, so we’re embarking on an August that includes playoff stops in Memphis, Colorado, and Atlanta instead of New York or Boston or Chicago like he recalled. I’m not sure the confusion abated.

I found the exercise both illuminating and emblematic of the problem that besets the PGA Tour, and certainly its playoffs. It is so large, with so many stakeholders, special interests, and objectives, that what comes out the other side of this entangled web of conflicts and masters to serve never approaches what could be the PGA Tour’s best version of itself. We see this with almost everything they put out, from golf tournaments to playoff systems to real, authentic interaction with fans to little bits of social media content. The fans are a part of it. The “product” is a part of it. But it’s rare that either of those elements is the focus. And that’s how you find yourself explaining why their most “important” stretch of the season drops into Memphis and Atlanta in sweltering August.

It’s fairly obvious this is not the best possible version of a PGA Tour postseason product, but it’s maybe the best they can do right now given their sponsors, schedule, and player-run cruise ship. Talk to people who work for or partner with the PGA Tour and you’ll just get punts and dejected shrugs about how “we can’t” or “that’s not how it works here.” Which, while depressing, is fine. Even understandable. Just don’t expect us to buy all the marketing and forced importance of a FedEx Cup postseason.

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Speaking of, your No. 1 player calling the finals format in Atlanta “silly” is probably not the most enthusiastic endorsement to start your postseason. Scottie Scheffler seems to have an issue with the marketing of a “season-long race” when the actual title and final finishes come down to a four-round stroke play event with staggered starting scores. He could get hurt, have to WD or struggle through it at 50 percent, finish 30th, and it’s not reflective of anything about the season. That’s his bone to pick and it’s true, but where the Tour gets in trouble is with its many megaphones constantly bombarding us with flawed messaging. The FedExCup is a playoff setup where, just like if Patrick Mahomes gets injured in the NFL, things can happen in a smaller window of time that might lead to a result that doesn’t reflect the “best” or most talented team from across the entire season. They should lean into that more instead of trying to tell us that the FedEx Cup champion is the overall best golfer of the year.

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Thanks in part to that ubiquitous Tour marketing machine, it’s about to be the month of Andrew Green. Between Andy’s initial raves from his day at Interlachen on Monday, images of Green digging in the dirt at Chevy Chase on my own social feeds, and the full force of the Tour starting to unveil content around his East Lake restoration, Green’s work continues to feature prominently.

There’s an argument the Tour will make that going to good or great golf courses is not a priority. It’s an objective, but not a factor to consider over many other concerns. But we’re about to hear plenty about how Green has done important and great work for the host venue of their season-long championship. They’ll be all about embracing highly respected architects, their work, and related content around it as the major story of the week at the Tour Championship. It feels contradictory, convenient, and an admission that they could be doing more to prioritize the actual playing fields for their biggest events.

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Someone at the U.S. Amateur griped to me that former pro, Christian Brand, was moving through the bracket (he was eliminated in Wednesday’s Sweet 16.) A once-pro winning the U.S. Am. I retorted that the No. 1 amateur right now, Luke Clanton, has a mortgage company all over his shirt and hat and, rumor has it, had a sponsor’s jet sent to bring him from the PGA Tour event in North Carolina on Sunday to the Amateur in Minnesota on Monday. (Clanton was also eliminated on Wednesday.) Brand made $160k in almost 70 events on the Korn Ferry Tour. It seems harder and harder to gripe about this on an individual basis. It is a critique of neither Clanton or Brand, nor the overall system. It’s simply the world we operate in now. The designations still matter in some narrow instances, but it’s become even murkier with the arrival of NIL.

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This story on the Champions Tour is the most powerful and important one I’ve come across this week.

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.