"They haven't yet hit a shot that counts in the FedEx Cup playoff series, and the whole thing is beginning to look like the kind of idea that got Ishtar, Gigli and The Adventures of Pluto Nash on the big screen."

An Ishtar reference. I think Gorant's "disaster" mention just got passed by! Does that supercede Elling's FraudEx Cup reference too? Eh...it's a toss up.

Steve Campbell calls the $10 million FedEx Cup annuity "a serious miscalculation" and really, that was the nicest thing he said in this Houston Chronicle column.

The question: Can you name a stud, a spud, a Fudd and a dud?

They haven't yet hit a shot that counts in the FedEx Cup playoff series, and the whole thing is beginning to look like the kind of idea that got Ishtar, Gigli and The Adventures of Pluto Nash on the big screen.

And Tiger?

Just like that, Woods rendered the Cup about as meaningless as Paris Hilton's views on tackling terrorism. Just like that, Woods made who isn't playing The Barclays the story instead of who is playing. Just like that, Woods set the cause of golfers as actual athletes back into the 20th century.

He is supposed to be the fittest, finest athletic specimen of a golfer on the planet. And after a week off, Woods is sitting out the first round of a playoff series designed to inject life and interest into his sport because he's too pooped to play.

His actions, in other words, speak much louder than the words he uttered the week of the PGA Championship: "I know we're trying to build a lot of excitement towards the end of the year where it's been a dull period, and this might do it."

Woods did it to the FedEx Cup, all right. He lobbied for a shorter tour season. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem delivered a points-race system that ends seven weeks earlier than last season did. Woods wanted a tour event to call his own. Finchem delivered the AT&T National, which became yet the latest benefactor to the Tiger Woods Foundation.

Meanwhile Tod Leonard in the San Diego Union Tribune is a bit kinder. A bit.

The PGA Tour convinced FedEx and other sponsors to ante up $28 million in cash prizes and another $35 million for a deferred-payment pool for this inaugural year alone. Those companies and the TV networks expect a payoff in public interest, measured by buzz and ratings.

So far, the buzz has been in a frequency only dogs and tour execs can hear, but that is expected to change this week, when the first of the four playoff events, The Barclays, is contested beginning Thursday at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y.

Woods, citing fatigue after two straight wins, essentially took a first-round bye when he decided last week not to play at Westchester, where he has never excelled. But he is expected to participate the following three weeks, when the initial field of 144 qualifiers is eventually cut to 30 for the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

The winner of the playoffs gets $10 million, which the tour is touting as the biggest prize for an individual in pro sports, but there is a huge caveat to that. It will be paid into a retirement account and the champ might not see that cash for 20 years.

Oooooooh, doesn't 401k talk just send chills up your spine, like watching that green jacket ceremony each April?

And...

Anytime the math goes beyond season records or games behind, they lose most of us. Same for dollar figures. We are numb to, and mostly resentful of, the outrageous money athletes make these days. Why emphasize it?

Thanks to the math, it's also possible the winner of the Tour Championship won't be the champion of the FedEx Cup. “Great victory Phil, now please go away so Tiger can accept the FedEx trophy!”

Weak.