What do you buy the world's No. 1 women's tennis player, who can buy anything? Rory McIlroy decided to get his girlfriend Caroline a lob wedge—with their celebrity couple name on it.

We haven’t seen a couple this cute since, well…

FedEx Cup still has too much math
While Bill Haas’s thrilling playoff victory over Hunter Mahan gave a boost to the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoff system, Ron Green Sr. of The Charlotte Observer says the playoffs are still too complicated.

There is so much arithmetic involved in that exercise, even the winner, Haas, didn’t know for sure he had claimed the fortune until his wife assured him he had.

Figuring out who was leading near the finish and then who won is not something you do on your fingers and toes. You need a mathematician and a bunch of possibilities that could give a computer a headache.

The Fed Ex Cup competition is supposed to be a big finish to the season like the World Series or Super Bowl, but it misses the mark. It’s interesting as it comes down to the wire but it’s not exciting when somebody has to tell you who won and why.

NBA’s Stephen Curry makes hole-in-one
Golden State Warrior Stephen Curry is spending the lockout the way we would if our Golf.com corporate overseers locked us out: playing golf. According to Reid Cherner of USA Today, the sharp-shooting guard hits from downtown on the course as well.

Curry, a nifty golfer growing up, got his first hole-in-one Sunday. It came on the 143-yard, Par 3 third hole at Half Moon Bay Golf Links' Ocean Course.

When he was at Davidson, Curry talked about golf helping his basketball game.

"I would say when things aren't going well, and in golf that happens a lot, you have to find your way through it and turn your game around,'' he explains. "I don't know if there is a direct comparison but when you don't have your shot going you have to stay calm and keep your composure and find other ways to be an influence on the court."

Tweet of the Day

From Steve Elling of CBS Sports...

Butch Harmon criticized his former student Tiger Woods for hiring caddie Joe LaCava away from Dustin Johnson. Harmon, who is now Johnson's swing coach and had recommended that Johnson hire LaCava, said Woods should have asked Johnson's permission to speak with LaCava about the job, which has been vacant since Woods fired his longtime caddie Steve Williams in July. On Sunday, Harmon told Sky Sports he was "shocked" by the move.

"The thing that bothered me the most was T.W. not calling Dustin and asking if he could talk to Joe. That's the way it's done. I'm a little disappointed with the way Tiger handled it. But I'm not surprised."

But Tiger’s camp has a different version of the story, stating that LaCava reached out to them. LaCava corroborated this story on Woods's website.

“I contacted Tiger and Mark [Steinberg] because this is a unique opportunity to be part of something very special. Tiger and I have been friends for a very long time, and I know what he can do. I want to thank Dustin for the opportunity to work with him, and I wish him nothing but the best.”

According to Lawrence Donegan of The Guardian UK, the Johnson-LaCava partnership wasn't a perfect fit.

This comes as no surprise to those close to LaCava, who was apparently telling friends at last month's US PGA Championship in Atlanta he had quickly become disillusioned with life on the fairways with Johnson. The caddie is a well-rounded individual, an old-school type who found it hard to come to terms with his young employer's free-wheeling style on and off the course. In short, they were a bad match.

Pace-of-play woes at Solheim Cup
While this year’s Solheim Cup might go down as the most exciting edition of the biennial event, very few people wanted it to go on any longer. The prescribed pace of play was an extremely generous 5 hours and 20 minutes. On Day One alone, three out of four afternoon matches exceeded that timeframe. John Huggan of Golf Digest Woman has the details:

“It wasn't pretty but it was definitely ponderous. A huge factor in the slowness being the much-criticized need of so many players to have their caddies line them up for both full shots and putts. It is surely time for that time-consuming and often-pointless practice to be outlawed.”

Obama and Clinton tee it up
President Obama and former President Bill Clinton played golf at Joint Base Andrews golf course in Maryland on Saturday. According to USA Today's David Jackson, Obama said that he and Clinton discussed various strategies for creating jobs as they played.

During a speech last night to the Congressional Black Caucus, Obama said he and Clinton talked about creating jobs, as well as Republican opposition to higher taxes on the wealthy to finance a new jobs plan.

"They say it kills jobs -- oh, that's going to kill jobs," Obama said. "We're not proposing anything other than returning to the tax rates for the wealthiest Americans that existed under Bill Clinton."

"I played golf with Bill Clinton today," Obama said. "I was asking him, how did that go? Well, it turns out we had a lot of jobs. The well-to-do, they did even better. So did the middle class. We lifted millions out of poverty.

In a written statement, the White House said Obama and Clinton played for about four hours and were joined by Clinton’s longtime aide Doug Band and White House Chief of Staff William Daley. No scores were disclosed.

Tweet of the Day

It's that time of year again, and now is your chance to play the popular game, "Guess Who Can Make a Mockery of the FedEx Cup!" Previous winners include Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh, who were so dominant that they wrapped up the FedEx Cup before the Tour Championship.

Last year, Jim Furyk was disqualified from the first playoff event after missing his pro-am tee time, but he still went on to win the $10 million bonus.

This year's top contestant is Matt Kuchar, who could win the FedEx Cup without winning a tournament all year, according to Larry Dorman of the New York Times.

Matt Kuchar, who has two second-place finishes among his nine top 10s this year and is third in the FedEx Cup points standings, could conceivably walk away with most of the money and the Tiffany-designed silver FedEx Cup by finishing second this week and next week at the Tour Championship.

Finishing second two weeks in a row is almost as difficult as winning two weeks in a row. But Kuchar’s mind-numbing consistency over the past two seasons, during which he has 20 top-10 finishes in 47 starts, makes it a possibility. And he did finish second in the FedEx Cup last year.

Breaking News: Donald Trump is Mad About Something
Trump is at it again with the Scottish government. According to the Guardian, the Donald is furious over the government's plan to build a wind farm off the coast of Trump's new golf resort.

In the letter, the US tycoon described the wind turbines, to be located a mile from his golf course, as "disastrous and environmentally irresponsible". Trump's £750m development on the Menie estate on the coast is nearing completion after work began a year ago.

Another Music Video By People Who Shouldn't Be Making Music Videos

LPGA rookie Tiffany Joh sampled Freak Nasty's "Da Dip." Enjoy.

Tweet of the Day

EDISON, N.J. -- The pros were hitting balls on the range and playing practice rounds at Plainfield Country Club on Tuesday afternoon when tents swayed and the ground shook for about 15 seconds due to the 5.8-magnitude earthquake in Virginia.

The club, about 300 miles from the quake's epicenter, is the site of this week's Barclays, the first FedEx Cup playoff tournament.

Hunter Mahan and John Wood, his caddie, both felt the ground move on the practice range. "It wasn't hard, but it was definitely noticeable," Wood said.

Heath Slocum, who won the Barclays in 2009, was hitting chip shots on the range when the earthquake happened. As the ground rumbled under his feet, he told Ping tour manager Matt Rollins, "I feel like I'm going to pass out." Rollins told Slocum he felt the same sensation, and then the two realized what was happening.

On the practice green, Charles Howell was hitting putts off a mirrored training aid. The trembling caused the balls on the mirror to slide off.

One after another, the players on the range looked around, and then started Tweeting.

Beyond giving players and fans something unique to talk about, the earthquake will have no effect on the Barclays, which is scheduled to begin Thursday morning. No signs fells, no tree limbs came down and within moments it was business as usual on the range.

Casey's Ryder Cup Plans
The pressure of the Ryder Cup will send Paul Casey to Canada. Casey, ranked among the top 10 in the world, was famously passed over for a spot on the European team this year. To get away from it all and avoid the matches, he'll spend next week biking in the Canadian wildnerness.

Casey could be going to Canada with $10 million in his bank account if he wins the FedEx Cup this weekend at the Tour Championship, and he's in great position to do that, starting from the fifth spot in the FedEx Cup points list, writes Jeff Shain in the Orlando Sentinel. If he wins the Tour Championship, he'll win the FedEx Cup title, too. Two trophies, all that cash--Canada would never look so good, would it?

Think of it: While Europe's "finest" are slugging it out, the FedEx Cup champion is making like Lance Armstrong eight time zones away.

"It's the nightmare scenario for Colin Montgomerie," opined the Irish Independent.

A little ironic, too. It was five years ago that Casey –- who has made his home in Phoenix since coming to play collegiately at Arizona State -– was savaged on these shores for saying the Euros "properly hate" their American rivals. You know, much like Ohio State properly hates Michigan. Or Alabama properly hates Auburn. Rivalry. Some fans didn't get it, and Casey paid a price.

Now plenty of Yanks have come rushing to Casey's defense. Upon seeing Casey hole a long putt at the BMW Championship, one patron joked that maybe it was a good thing Montgomerie left him off. A fan in Boston offered to help Casey expedite a green card.

Casey admits it took him two days to get over the snub, soothed eventually by a round of golf with friends at stately Pine Valley. Now he's simply focused on the FedEx Cup –- and not that it's a consolation prize.

"There's not a hole to fill," he said. "This is now a whole separate thing."

If Casey wins this week, he could laugh all the way to the bank. But from where he'll be in the wilds of Canada, it could be a long ride.

More Money, More Problems?
The real relevant question regarding the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup was asked by Andrew Both of the Australian Associated Press: Is $10 million enough to make a player choke? Aussie Geoff Ogilvy's answer was a cautious yes:

"If we get someone to whom $10 million means a lot, we might see the effect on a guy," Ogilvy said. "To Tiger, Phil and Vijay it probably doesn't matter. Pretty much everyone else is probably going to notice 10 million going into their bank account.

"It's not my motivating factor but you'd definitely be thinking about it on Sunday if you were in (contention) for it. That's a lot of money ... I don't go to the range during the year to win that 10 million. I go to the range to become a better golfer. If I do, then money will take care of itself. If you play good enough golf, you make so much money in this game it doesn't matter anyway, so that would be just a really good bonus."

The outlandish payout is the main attraction of the FedEx Cup. Ten million bucks had better be enough to make the players think during their backswings. The players should be happy to be playing for it because when the FedEx deal expires in two years, the PGA Tour will be hard pressed to find another deal as lucrative.

Ryder Ramifications
Maybe the big question at next week's Ryder Cup shouldn't be, who's going to win? Maybe it should be, what happens after the victory? Philip Walton, 48, scored the crucial point for Europe's 1995 victory at Oak Hill, its second on U.S. soil. That moment, writes Liam Kelly for the Irish Independent, may have started a slide for Walton, who iced the victory with his singles win over Jay Haas on the 18th green.

Walton doesn't exactly know how or why, but somehow the 1995 Ryder Cup caused the inner rhythm of his golf game to stutter and fade; slowly, incrementally, but the demise was unstoppable.

"In some ways Oak Hill 1995 probably wasn't the best thing that ever happened me. I played okay in 1996, but the real effect began to show in 1997. Something went from me. I felt it, but it's very hard to explain. Definitely that Ryder Cup did take something from me," he says.

"Maybe it's that I'm not one for the limelight and I couldn't easily go for all that stuff. In 1997 I said to myself, 'I'd love to take a year out', but I couldn't do that, so I went on.

"The following year, 1998, I made 13 cuts, all of them in the big-money tournaments, and I made only €25,000. That was the turning point, and once you start slipping in this game, it's very hard to stop it."

Walton played on a handful of sponsors' invitations in 1999 but didn't make enough to regain his playing rights on the European Tour.

The early to mid-2000s were spent going to Tour school and in 2005, finally, he won his card back.

"In 2006 I got 15 starts, went to South Africa, China, Malaysia, but didn't make enough money. I went back to Tour School a couple of times but that's not for me at this stage.

"I'm playing the Irish Region. Mainly it's Pro-Ams, and when I'm 50 in a year and a half, I'll look at the Seniors Tour. It's something to aim at," adds Walton.

Will winning the crucial point cause a career letdown for another Ryder Cup player next week?

John Daly has had a wild ride in professional golf with two majors (the 1991 PGA Championship and the 1995 British Open) to go with his made-for-the-tabloids personal life, but one thing has always eluded him: the chance to represent the United States in the Ryder Cup.

Often called the Babe Ruth of golf for his supersized drives and appetites, Daly recently told a Canadian radio station that he feels like Ruth in another way, according to Gary Smits* of The Florida Times-Herald.

Not only does Daly feel slighted, but in a recent interview with a Canadian radio station, he equated his situation with that of New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth, who desperately wanted to manage the Yankees, yet was never given a serious interview for the job by then-owner Ed Barrow.

"I feel like I'm the Babe Ruth of golf," Daly told the station. "He always wanted to be a manager and he never got that chance. But it's not something that breaks my heart or anything. As long as we hopefully win, that's all that matters."

Daly left out part of the Ruth story. Barrow once responded to a reporter's question about why he never considered Ruth to be a manager by saying, "He couldn't manage himself."

Sound familiar?

Still, in his prime, Daly had to have been one of the top 12 American players, right? Not exactly. Over at The Waggleroom blog, Ryan Ballengee explains why Daly never qualified for the team during his prime.

Conceivably, Daly had four real opportunities to make the Ryder Cup team - the matches between 1991 and '97 in Spain - at the peak of his career. Using the money list as a proxy for those teams is not exactly a bullet in Big John's chamber, though.

In '91, even with the PGA win, Daly finished 17th on the money list and made his impression too late for Kiawah Island. Though he won the BC Open in 1992, Daly had an otherwise terrible year - 20 places lower on the money list. Winless in '93, he was secured off of the team by finishing 76th in money that year. The pattern repeats again in '94-'95 -- a win in the off year and a horrible Ryder Cup season other than the anomaly that is his Open Championship win.

*Yes, Gary Smits is the reporter who received angry phone calls from Daly fans after Daly posted Smits phone number on Twitter and asked his followers to harass him after Smits wrote a story about Daly’s numerous Tour suspensions.

Tour Championship won’t miss Tiger, director says
One of the side effects of Tiger Woods’ season-long slump is that it doesn’t matter as much when he misses a tournament. Woods is home in Orlando this weekend because he didn't qualify for the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, but his absence is not causing any hand-wringing at the tournament, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Officials at the Tour Championship expect life to go on this week at East Lake, even without the game's biggest draw.

"We're fortunate to have the No. 1 most-recognized athlete in the world in our sport," said Todd Rhinehart, tournament director for the Tour Championship.

"That draws people to the sport that might not normally be a golf fan. So from that perspective, he has impact. At the same time, we have the top 30 players for the whole season and who have played the best golf over the course of the last three weeks. It should only have a small impact for us."

Rhinehart said ticket sales are ahead of last year's pace and he expects to see the annual last-minute shopping spree that’s come to be the norm.

Captain Pavin says Americans are the underdogs at Ryder Cup
Team USA Captain Corey Pavin says his team is evenly matched with the Europeans but the homefield advantage makes Europe the favorite, according to the BBC.

"Given the advantage of playing over in Europe, I think that gives the edge to the European team," said Pavin.

The U.S. ended a run of three successive defeats with an emphatic victory at Valhalla in Kentucky two years ago.

"Traveling is always difficult and the fans will be a big part of it: 80-85% are going to be pro-European, " added the American captain. "We're competing on a golf course that is played on their tour so the European players are familiar with the venue. And Monty (European captain Colin Montgomerie) gets to set up the golf course the way he wants to as well.

"We haven't won on foreign soil since 1993 so it's going to be a challenge but I think the teams themselves are very comparable. I am looking forward to a pretty good battle."

Stray Shots
Stuff we noticed while wondering if the Golf Channel will experiment with announcing the next Nationwide Tour event entirely in pig Latin.

Harry Potter called Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin and said he wanted his Ryder Cup uniforms back.

Las Vegas lists Phil Mickelson as the favorite to win the Tour Championship. Would that mean he’d win the FedEx Cup too? We’d crunch the numbers, but we sent our Cal Tech intern out to get hoagies. (Via The Spread.com)

The Onion gets the inside scoop on Team USA’s secret Ryder Cup plan: “Drink and just keep drinking.”

Nobody asked, but a very cool book landed with a thud on my front doorstep today: “True Links” by George Peper and Malcolm Campbell. At first blush it’s your basic golf porn, with glossy centerfolds of luscious seaside courses. But this book has a unique hook: it seeks to identify and catalogue each of the world’s links courses.

The authors came up with their own idiosyncratic criteria as to what constitutes a true links course, eventually settling on 246 that have been deigned to have the correct mix of dunesy terrain and proximity to the sea, as well as appropriate weather and soil. The essays are well written and informative—Peper is a former editor of Golf Magazine and Campbell a onetime editor of Golf Monthly—and the pictures are certainly glorious. But what I like most about “True Links” is that it’s the ultimate daydream-inducer. Looking at the maps already has me planning various excursions to far-flung linksland, some of which I have only just discovered in this evocative book. Now, on to the questions.

I'm wondering how it came to be that the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup points receive automatic invitations to major championships, despite the vastly distorted points bonus for the last 4 tournaments? For example, who is Streelman? The FedEx cup seems to have carved itself a minor tour out of the PGA. —Gary, Fresno, Cal. 

There has been a lot of grumbling about the Tour Championship becoming a cheap way into the majors, and poor Kevin Streelman has become the poster boy for a broken system. (To recap, he missed 10 of his first 22 cuts and finished better than 31st only four times in the other starts, but a T3 at the Barclays propelled Streelman to the Tour Championship and thus into the first 3 majors of next year.) Golf’s ruling bodies are still figuring out how much weight to give the FedEx Cup, especially since the Tour annually tweaks the points distributions. The lords of Augusta, the blue coats of the USGA and the tweedy fossils of the R&A have tried to be supportive of the Cup by using it as a criteria to qualify for admission to their respective tourneys, but the majors don't want their fields watered down by players who have not truly earned an exemption. I expect that in the near future the Tour Championship loophole will be closed.

Alan, Matt Kuchar is getting all kinds of praise this season. Clearly he’s having a solid year, but my question is, does the media overhype/over-rate him because they want so desperately for him to be the next great American player? Kuchar seems like a prototypical nice-guy and is in stark contrast to Tiger; whereas other young Americans have a bit of an edge (AK, DJ, Hunter). And referencing all his top 10s seems like an overrated stat to me. —Andrew Thomas

Per the top-10s, I agree it’s often misleading. I’d like a new stat called the Quality Top-10, awarded to players who were in the mix all weekend and had a legitimate shot to win, rather than a dude who was a non-factor for three days, teed off early on Sunday when there was no pressure, and then shot 65 to get a backdoor top-10. (This is known in press rooms as “pulling a Luke Donald”.)

Anyway, Kooch. I don’t know any reporters who think he’s going to be a dominant force on Tour. His success is being celebrated because it’s been such a long time coming. It’s always satisfying when a guy scrapes it around for a decade and then suddenly figures out the game, at least for a while. Sure, Kuchar is a pleasant guy, but it’s his backstory that’s so interesting. Also, in a weird year defined by too much parity, he’s the one player who has really elevated himself in the playoffs and that, too, is notable.

Alan, it seems that Martin Kaymer didn't waste much time getting caught up in excessive celebrations following his win at the PGA -- he simply went out and won the next tournament he teed it up in, something that neither Graeme nor Louis was able to pull off. We always talk about players who falter down the stretch (i.e. Dustin Johnson) having to regroup, but it seems to be just as difficult for first time major winners to retain their focus. It's September 2010 -- could the best player in the world be a German? —Alexander Heinrich, Chicago

Yes, I agree that at this moment Bernhard Langer is the best player in the world.

Has there been any player that you can remember that has gotten more hype for less actual achievement than Rickie Fowler? Lots of people are touting a Fowler/McIlroy matchup in Wales -- Mac has been playing pretty badly, but how would you rate Rickie's odds in that matchup? —Brian Sullivan 

Like everyone else, I’m bullish about Fowler’s future, but I agree that if you strip away all the hullabaloo his rookie year has been pretty disappointing. Fowler has had two good chances to win this year. In Phoenix he blew it largely because of a layup so timid Arnold Palmer felt compelled to offer a public scolding. At the Memorial, Fowler was in the thick of things until he made an awful swing on the par-3 12th hole and rinsed his tee ball, taking a fatal double bogey. These two disappointing runner-up finishes account for more than half the money and points he earned. In Fowler’s other 23 events, he has eight missed cuts and nine other times failed to finish better than 27th. The kid has swagger and presence, and I dig his style and work ethic. But he has a long way to go to reach the level of Rory Mac, who has already won some big-time events and racked up a fistful of top-10s in the majors. Still, anything can happen in an 18-hole match. Fowler is already a controversial captain’s pick, and he knows that his reputation—and Corey Pavin’s—is at stake. Which brings us to…

Why do sportswriters like to perpetuate the idea that you can play better golf with a chip on your shoulder? It seems to me that in certain sports, like basketball and football, physical fatigue is a major factor and playing angry or with a chip on your shoulder might just inspire one to get back on defense, hustle one last time, or exert themselves when physically exhausted. In my experience, golf is the opposite. The harder you "try" to make things happen, the more they will not. Success in golf is about confidence, peace of mind, and controlling your emotions to deal with the game's ups and downs. So do sportswriters just like a good story, or do they really think one can "try harder" to win at PGA level golf? —Anonymous

I’m shocked that you would imply that hyperbolic sportswriters might occasionally take liberties with the truth. For shame! You make some good points, whoever you are, but I do believe that motivation can translate into performance. Players sometimes talk about “willing the ball into the hole”; that’s not voodoo, it’s really a function of increased focus. Or, you know, trying harder.

Hi Alan. It's me again, the Quebecer who went to Ireland after reading about your long-ago Irish odyssey. Had a good time reading and viewing your Bandon marathon. Just asking: what would you choose between the four courses at Bandon and an Irish rota of, let's say, Ballybunion, Tralee, Lahinch and your beloved Doonbeg ? —Suzanne Beaumier

Jeez, that’s like having to pick between Rachel Uchitel and Jaime Grubbs—either way you’re in for a really good time! I love all the courses at Bandon, and you can’t beat the convenience of staying there, but there’s nothing like a good roadtrip in foreign lands, the sense of discovery as you screech up to an exotic, new destination day after day. Barnstorming across southwest Ireland is as good as it gets, and those four courses you mention are all amazing experiences: the grandeur of Ballybunion, the wonderful quirkiness of Lahinch, the scenery and heroic shot values at Tralee, and the wild, unforgettable terrain at Doonbeg. So I’d have to take Ireland ... and Jaime.

I have read that for this year's HSBC Champions Tournament in China the winner (if a member of the PGA Tour) will be awarded with an official PGA win. This has not been the case in previous years. Do you think that the Tour will give official win credits to past champions of this tournament? I feel that all previous champions should get credit for the win since they went over to China to promote the game. —Elaine, Windsor, Ontario

There is some historical precedent for retroactively upgrading an international victory into an official PGA Tour win – this happened about a decade ago with the British Open book-keeping. But that’s the world oldest tournament, and everyone knew that older champions had prevailed against strong fields on stellar golf courses. The first few HSBCs had a smattering of big names but otherwise the small fields were pretty thin, and no one is going to confuse Sheshan Golf Club with Carnoustie. So I think those early HSBC pioneers will have to be content with the mere glory of their victories ... and the bloated appearance fee that lured them in the first place.

I've long thought Phil to be superior to Tiger physically, with Woods clearly owning the mental game. Your thoughts please. I'd really appreciate them in this case. C'mon, be honest. —Wesley Neal

Setting aside the fact that one guys is built like an NFL safety and the other looks like a couch potato, I think that Tiger and Phil are very comparable physical talents. Both are wild with their drivers, but in recent years Mickelson has had a tighter dispersion with his misses. Woods is the better long-iron player, and Mickelson is superior from 100 yards in. Chipping and putting are basically a wash. So I guess you could give a tiny edge to Phil, for the time being.

Clearly Tiger’s mental toughness (focus, belief, etc.) is what always separated him from everybody else, including Lefty. We’ve seen this year how ordinary Woods can look when he doesn’t have that mental edge. I think 2011 will be a defining year for both players. Tiger will have a long off-season to work on his swing and find some stability in his personal life. If his play is mediocre next year we can safely say the era of his dominance is over. That doesn’t mean he won’t still win tournaments and a few majors, but he’ll never be who he was.

Meanwhile, if Phil is ever going to truly emerge as the game’s best player, it has to be next year, when he’ll be 41. Had he taken over No. 1 this year, it would have felt a little funny because of Woods’s abbreviated season and myriad other issues. (I think Phil felt some of this ambivalence, which may or may not explain his inability to get it done.) Next year there’s no asterisk. It feels like it’s now or never for both of them.

(Photos: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

One thing usually missing from the whole FedEx Cup extravaganza is Cinderella stories. It's all about the rich getting richer and a player whose net worth is already more than $100 million scoring a $10 million bonus.

Not this year. The FedEx Cup actually has an honest-to-goodness Cinderella fella, and the media discovered him this week at Cog Hill. His name is Tom Gillis, a 41-year-old journeyman who has finally made it onto a big and hopefully lucrative stage. Larry Dorman sized him up for The New York Times and used Gillis to illustrate the little-noticed issue that this warped FedEx Cup point system actually affects major championships.

The top 30 who advance to the Tour Championship earn exemptions into the first three majors of 2011. The problem is, the FedEx Cup points awarded during the playoffs are five times greater than those awarded during the regular season.

"You could have someone getting into major championships just because they got hot for a couple weeks in the playoffs," said Gillis, who has qualified for three United States Opens and two British opens during his 20-year pro career. "I think that's too high for the value received. I think it should still be based on the money list.

That provides a glimpse into the work ethic of Gillis, a solidly-built man who is the embodiment of a journeyman. Until last week, few beyond the golf world knew who he was. Even after he finished fifth at the Deutsche Bank Championship, his highest finish on the PGA Tour, one writer who regularly covers the tour said, "I could not pick Tom Gillis out of a lineup of guys named Tom Gillis."

The Gillis story is the kind of thing that doesn't happen often enough in the FedEx Cup series or in the World Golf Championships, which also have limited fields (around 70 or so):

Now Gillis is at 48th on the points list, one spot ahead of Angel Cabrera and three ahead of Woods, who is in a battle of his own to get to the Tour Championship in Atlanta. Woods has none of the eligibility concerns that Gillis has for next season, but both have an intense desire to win and a belief that they can.

"To be quite honest with you, I would say I'm disappointed right now," Gillis said. "I would have thought I'd have had more chances to win. I think some of it is probably just a little inexperience for being in those situations and on that stage. There's a lot going on on Sunday, and I think you learn to deal with it, and I believe I dealt with it much better last week.

"Has it taken a little longer than I thought to be in contention?" he said. "I'd say, ‘Yeah, it has.' I really, in my heart ... I think as a player you've got to think, why would you play if you didn't think you could win? And I thought I could, and I still think I can."

Gillis was the flavor of the day at Cog Hill. Golfweek's Jeff Rude wrote about him, too:

Tom Gillis is perhaps the best story this week at the BMW Championship. He's a career journeyman who thought about quitting competitive golf less than four years ago. Now he's playing the best golf of his life, at an age when many show signs of decline, and finds himself 48th in FedEx Cup points on the PGA Tour.

"If we talk about the journey, we'll be here a long time," said the man who didn't finish better than 139th in earnings in two previous full Tour seasons.

Gillis has earned $1.07 million officially this year, more than his combined total of the past on Tour. His swing, putting stroke and commitment revamped, he thinks he can win a Tour event. Now he has a chance to make the top 30 and get to next week's Tour Championship. That would mean more potential riches ...

Mrs. Pavin speaks up
The talk of the Ryder Cup this week was the captain's picks, but the long-term Ryder Cup talk may take a different path. Outspoken Lisa Pavin, wife of U.S. captain Corey, is getting attention. Since her husband is a little on the quiet side, she could take on a larger role with the media during the Ryder Cup, and in fact is already sort of a "Captainess," as Robert Rodriguez wrote in a lengthy profile for Dallas Avid Golfer.

From designing team clothing, to planning gala events, to just taking care of things at home, Lisa has done a tremendous amount of work leading up the the biennial tussle between the U.S. and Europe.

"I want to win the Cup more than anything," Lisa said. "That's all life has been about lately, the Ryder Cup."

So much so that Lisa has earned the nickname, Captainess, which actually appears on one of her e-mail accounts ... To truly understand Lisa Pavin, you must understand the hardships of her childhood. Leaving for the United States during the fall of Saigon in 1974 as an infant with her family. Growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, a city not known for Asian-American influences. Losing a mother at age 11. Helping her dad, a former South Vietnamese naval officer, raise her two younger sisters and younger brother.

Lisa Pavin may prove to be on the most interesting personalities at the Ryder Cup. You heard it here first. OK, second.

Playoff Fever?
Meanwhile, there's a FedEx Cup to bash. Wait -- what? The FedEx Cup is starting to get a little respect? Say it isn't so. Teddy Greenstein says just that in the Chicago Tribune, but come on, man, that's going to be a tough sell.

This year's FedEx Cup has featured something unexpected — Tiger Woods in a week-to-week struggle to qualify for events.

"Now he knows how we feel," Charley Hoffman said with a chuckle.

A staple of the FedEx Cup, though, has been criticism. But in its fourth year, the shouting seems to be muted, with a few rip jobs centering on the fact three of the four 2010 major winners could not compete and that a player such as Martin Laird could rise so dramatically without winning a tournament.

Kevin Streelman certainly won't complain. The Wheaton Warrenville South alum was 102nd in points, having registered no top-25s from April to July. Then he tied for third at The Barclays, the first of the four FedEx Cup events, and shot up to 18th.

"This is what the playoffs are for," he said. "If the Cubbies have a great year and then lose the first three games of the division series, they're done. It's just like the playoffs for us.

"They're designed to reward players who are playing well at right time. The movement makes for momentum swings and a lot of excitement. I feel like the fans have gotten into it."

It does seem that way, even with some evidence to the contrary: Last week's ratings for the NBC-televised Deutsche Bank Championship, the second playoff event, fell to 2.1 from 2.4 in 2009.

Forget the TV ratings. Golf ratings are always low. That's a given. If FedEx Cup criticism is fading, it may be because interest in the FedEx Cup is fading. The confusing points system, debated and critiqued at length, is now such old news that it's no longer worth debating. The FedEx Cup has been a success, however, in luring the top players to play late in the season, a clear improvement over the PGA Tour's previous system. With more star quality in the fields, the FedEx events have had more opportunities for better finishes.

But the FedEx Cup on the rise? We'll believe it, Yogi, when we believe it.

Sean Foley isn't yet officially Tiger Woods's new swing coach — even if the two have done everything together short of trading Claddagh rings — but this much is obvious if and when Foley does get the nod: he won't be shy telling Tiger, and just about everybody else, exactly what's on his mind.

In a juicy interview with Fox Sports Robert Lusetich, Foley sounded off on a variety of topics, including the notion that Tiger should revert to his Butch Harmon-molded swing ("trying to go back to that would be a huge mistake"), Woods's recent form under Hank Haney's watch ("let’s be honest about this, it’s not like he was flushing it with Hank"); and why, as some have suggested, Foley is more than just a "flavor of the month" in teaching circles.    

“If I’m flavor of the month then I’ve been flavor of the month for 10 years,” he said. “I’m doing what I was supposed to do, I really believe that.

“There’s a sense that this was what I was meant to do, and here I am. But this is not fixing world hunger, this is getting people who are already very good to hit a golf ball better.

“I suppose my point is that I’m not a guru, and I’m not some guy who (BS'd) his way to the top. I’m just who I am.”

He can say that again.

As clock ticks, Pavin mulls picks
In five days U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin will announce his four wildcard picks at the bastion of American capitalism, the New York Stock Exchange. Captain's picks are golf's version of an IPO — and it's uncertain how fans will receive Pavin's. Will they buy his selections? Or, as many Europeans have done with Monty's surprising picks, submit a rush of sell orders? Jeff Babineau of Golfweek considers the sure things:

The consensus is that Tiger Woods, he being the No. 1 player in the world, and Zach Johnson, he being a guy with a red-hot putter who seems to be rounding into good form, are pretty much locks.

And the outliers:

Nick Watney? Sean O’Hair? Bo Van Pelt? Ricky Barnes? Ryan Palmer? J.B. Holmes? A few hot days, a victory at Deutsche Bank, and who knows? Winning in the playoffs certainly can upgrade a guy from “watch” to “hot” in a hurry.

“Depending on who it is, it would give me pause, yes,” Pavin said Thursday.

No matter who Pavin picks, it will give golf fans and writers pause. (Rickie Fowler? C'mon! Dude hasn't won a single Tour event!!! Tiger Woods? You mean the guy who's 65th in FedEx points? Bo Van Pelt? Bo Van Who??? ) Earlier this week, my colleague Gary Van Sickle suggested that Pavin psych out the Euros by using only one of his picks. ("We don't need 12 men!" Pavin could bellow. "We'll beat 'em with nine!") Personally, I hope the U.S. captain does something even nuttier, like taking Jack Nicklaus or Michelle Wie or someone who plays more golf than both of them, President Obama. Then again, if Pavin wants a clutch putter, it'll be hard to overlook this stud.

Tiger could face an awkward first: a big tournament, but no invite
Should Tiger Woods play lackluster golf at this week's Deutsche Bank Championship and fail to advance to the third round of the FedEx Cup playoffs, he will face yet another uncomfortable quandary in a year full of them. For the first time in his illustrious career, he will be on the outside of a Tour event looking in, notes the Boston Globe's Bob Ryan:   

The question was asked: Has he ever been healthy, ready to go, eager to participate, and yet denied an opportunity to play in a golf tournament?

“Not that I can recall, no,’’ he replied. “You’d have to do your research on that one.’’

Even as an amateur?

“Do your research,’’ he said. “I don’t know.’’

I’m not buying that, and neither should you. Tiger knows. He is his own personal historian. Go ahead. Ask him what club he used for his second shot on the third hole of the 1999 PGA at Medinah, or how long the lag putt was on the first hole in the 2005 Open at St. Andrews. He’ll know.

So the answer to the question is n-o, no. Playing for his competitive life on a week-to-week basis is an entirely new experience.

 I was dreaming of Pebble when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray. Got a text message from a buddy tonight. It read: "We need a fourth tomorrow, Cypress Point and Pebble. Any chance?" I told him I needed some time to think about it. Like two seconds. So today, Friday, my putts will be tracking through the dew at the Point. I would rather have skipped the golf to stay home and do house projects, but I figured I'd go play because the readers have a right to know. Stay tuned for some excruciating play-by-play ...

Are all the other guys nuts who don't ask questions that just deal with the Masters? How can you have anything else on your mind? Don't they know what time of year this is? — Steven Hartung

Hallelujah to that! Houston's a nice little tournament, but I've definitely got Augusta on the brain. This is actually the hardest week of the year, as the anticipation builds and the days crawl by. Every Masters is a treat, but with Tiger's return this one should be epic. At least until Brandt Snedeker wins.

I like Couples as much as the next golf fan — I grew up playing Jefferson Park in Seattle, just like Freddie — but for the love-o-pete can people stop using his 3 wins on the geriatric tour as evidence that he's going to contend at the Masters! I've read several articles explaining how razor-sharp his game is, but not-surprisingly all of them seemed to overlook the fact that his toughest competitor on the old-guys tour has been Corey Pavin! I suspect Tiger, Phil, Ernie and company will prove a bit a bit tougher. — Robert Anderson

I agree that Senior wins are overrated, but the fact is Couples has not only been playing error-free golf but he's oozing confidence. Winning breeds winning, and in the last decade on the PGA Tour Couples only had a few chances to win a year, and he rarely converted. Now, suddenly, he believes again. His ballstriking remains top-shelf, and no one knows Augusta National better. With Freddy it's all about how many 5-footers he can coax in. If his putting holds up, I think he'll hang around the bottom of the leaderboard. But that's a long way from actually winning.

Did the PGA tour make the Florida swing courses too easy by chopping the rough down? The thinking was that the rough should be shortened as a compensation for the grooves changes. However, we saw players go lower at the Transitions and Bay Hill than they did the previous year by a significant margin. I thought the entire purpose of the grooves change was to see the players struggle a bit more out of the rough, to have an actually penalty for not hitting in the fairway - a preventative measure to stop the bomb & gouge game the younger players have used to maximum advantage over the last decade of tour play. To my eye, with the reduction in rough length I don't see the purpose in changing the grooves. — Kevin Barton

Ah, the groove change. That's such a quaint stroll down memory lane, circa February. In my mind, the purpose of the rule change wasn't to protect par, it was to encourage shotmaking. I commend the Tour for chopping down the monotonous rough and letting the players play. Does anyone besides Kevin really care what the winning score is at Transitions or Bay Hill? It's nice to see guys hitting shots again. Since the beginning of the year, various players have pointed to the Masters as the ultimate test of the new grooves. If the National is firm and fast, every RPM will be precious. I'm definitely curious to hear what guys have to say next week about the new grooves…in part because then we don't have to talk about it ever again. Or at least until the USGA changes the rules again.

For 11 months of the year, the Fed Ex standings are ignored. I don't think the current system is giving the sponsor the payback they were hoping for. What can the PGA tour do to keep the sponsor interested or attract a new one? I think they have to acknowledge there are two tiers of events, those with Tiger and those without, and come up with a system around that. — Donald Spry

Wow, this is like oldies night – a FedEx Cup question! It's true no one cares about the points standings; I get paid to follow this stuff and I haven't glanced at the list all year. The problem with the Cup is really one of hype and expectations. It was so overblown in the beginning it was destined to be a letdown. Bottom line: it's created good tourneys at the end of the year, compelled Phil and Tiger to play more and given all of us something to bitch about. What more could you want?

I'd like to see Adam Scott win again. Swing is still perfect, and his personal life seems OK now. Any chance this year? —"Pigstuy," via Twitter

He's certainly off to a good start in Houston, but we'll see how long it lasts. As is noted here, Scott still looks so pleasing with a club in his hand that it can fool you into thinking all is well. Though he's had some injury and swing problems, Scott's issues all seem to be mental. I'm just not sure how much he loves golf. He's good at it, it provides a tremendous lifestyle, but watching Scott I'm often left with the feeling that he's just punching the clock. It's a chicken-and-egg question: a few victories would probably do wonders for his attitude, but until he improves his attitude he probably won't win again.

Who will be the first "team Tiger" staffer to leave for "other opportunities" —Mike O'Bryon, via Twitter

Depends on whether or not Elin reads Vanity Fair!

Have a question for next week? Leave it in the comments section below.

Photo: Darren Carroll/SI