The PGA Tour knew it had a problem.

For years, the PGA Championship virtually marked an end to the golf season, from both a star player perspective and the fans'.

Players like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson virtually ended their schedules with the PGA and looked forward to the November-December lucrative silly season where they could bag big money for short, non-PGA Tour events.

In an effort to make September relevant, the PGA Tour came up with the FedEx Cup playoffs. The irony this year is the man they were designed to attract -- Tiger Woods -- did not even qualify.

The four-tournament package begins this week with the Barclays at the Plainfield Country Club where the top 125 players gather and try to play well enough to advance to next week's Deutsche Bank Championship at the TPC Boston.

This year's top dog is Nick Watney, the points leader going into the four-event series. Last man in at no. 125 is William McGirt.

After this week, only the top 100 get to Boston.

After a one-week break in the action, it's down to 70 players at the BMW Champion Sept. 15-18 at Cog Hill where there's no cut and it's a mad rush to try and make it to the top 30 for the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta on Sept. 22-25.

The jackpot at that end of this four-event rainbow is a $10 million payoff. Jim Furyk won it last year and there's no clear-cut favorite over the next five weeks.

With all the first-time winners on the tour this season, virtually any player from that top 125 could end up with the $10 million. But the farther down the list you are, the better you will have to play the next two weeks just to have a chance.

And for the first time in the history of this event, there's one man with no chance -- Tiger Woods.

Woods has given no indication as to when he might play again. He's committed to play in Australia prior to the President's Cup but there's no guarantee he'll be on the team.

But that's another story for another day.

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