Mark Rolfing - August 31, 2012

• By Golf Channel Digital
• Aug 31, 2012 8:21 AM ET

Rolfing is supportive of the idea of Monday finishes as both the Deutsche Bank Championship and the Hyundai Tournament of Champions have had success with that schedule. The Monday finish this week is perfect for Labor Day weekend and the Monday finish for the Hyundai Tournament of Champions is Hawaii is perfect because it is no longer overshadowed by the NFL. He is supportive of any scheduling that allows golf to get out of the way of the NFL.

When asked about the issue of notable players skipping Playoff events, he said that he supports the idea of having some penalty levied on players who skip events. The Playoff events are important and it hurts the system if players skip events. The number that is being discussed the most this week is not 1 or 30 or 70, but 5. Players know that if they are in the top 5 in the FedExCup Standings after the BMW Championship, they will win the FedExCup with a win at East Lake in the TOUR Championship.

The Ryder Cup combined with the FedExCup creates a palpable atmosphere of pressure that can be very distracting to players who are not eligible for the Ryder Cup. He spoke with Australian Jason Day who is not eligible for the Ryder Cup and Day said that the pressure of the FedExCup is hard enough to deal with without having to hear conversations about the Ryder Cup. The prospect of being eliminated definitely changes the atmosphere.

When it comes to the U.S. Captain’s Picks, he feels that there were 3 locks a couple of weeks ago but now he thinks that there is just one and that is Steve Stricker. He thinks that Brandt Snedeker will get a pick and then it will be down to two pairs: Watney & D. Johnson and Furyk & Fowler. Rolfing thinks that Love III will pick one from each of those pairs.