Changes Needed To Mercedes-Benz Championship?

Hello. My apologies for being away the last two days. There were issues getting onto the blogger.
Mark Rolfing had an interesting column on thegolfchannel.com. He mentioned more focus should be put on the start of the season, now that the end of the year has been addressed with the Fedex Cup. Here is a summary of what Rolfing felt should be done, followed by my comments:

1. Open the Mercedes-Benz up to players winning over the past two years, instead of just the past year. Personally I don't like this one, for two reasons. First, Tiger won 8 times last year, which in theory could've cut the field by 7. There is a potential for 48 players to play every year if everyone won only one tournament. This makes the field larger than the Tour Championship. Plus earning your way in every year makes players like Ernie Els play in late-season events to try to make it.
2. Move the date of the Mercedes-Benz, as it's too close to the "Tiger Tournament" (alias the Target World Challenge) in mid-December. If you are going to move the date to later in January, I'd suggest moving the Bob Hope Classic and ATT Pebble Beach to after the Fedex Cup. Either that, or move the Tiger Tournament to early December. Then again, only 16 players play in Tiger's event, so what's the big deal?

The main thing I'd do for the entire schedule is sit down with the elite players and ask them what they'd do if they had a blank sheet. If they're only going to play in 20 events, when and where would they be, and why? The Fedex Cup was an answer to their request for a shorter season, but it didn't go far enough. Keep asking and working on changes until the main stakeholders (players, TV, fans, tournaments) are mostly satisfied.

Regards,

Steve