Here are the odds for the Barclays—the first leg of the 2009 FedEx Cup playoffs. Not surprisingly, Tiger Woods is the odds on favorite at 13/8 After that, it falls off precipitously. Padraig Harrington is alone at 20/1; Phil Mickelson is third at 25/1. Then, it’s Steve Sticker, Sergio Garcia, Hunter Mahan and Ernie Els at 33/1.

A note for the non betting crowd: Odds are read by looking at the second number first. So, a bet of 1 on Sergio pays 25.

Read the rest of the post to see the complete odds for the Barclays Championship, provided courtesy of Bodoglife.Com, the world’s largest online sports betting destination.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of interest among golf fans for the FedEx Cup. The format and point values keep changing, the venues are largely uninspiring, and the the whole thing feels more than a bit artificial.

So how does the tour fix it? A wholesale overhaul, isn’t in the cards, so whatever is suggested has to be incremental. I’d liek to see a four week match play tournament, but that just isn’t going to happen.

My realistic suggestion is to make it more meaningful by using FedEx Cup points, not the money list, as the determining factor in keeping a Tour Card.  Then, include the Fall series in the final calculation, with each being worth the same as a concurrent event (a Tour event opposite a Major). At the end of the season, the Top 120 and ties in FedEx points keep their cards. As it is now, the money list is more important than the points. This would help to change that equation and give the whole points system a focus.

Any other suggestions?

So now we move into the Tour’s post season. Although I’m as big a golf fan as there is, I’m having a hard time generating any internal enthusiasm for the FedEx Cup Series. In spite of the huge purse, and the strong fields, it really doesn’t feel to me like anything special.

Perhaps it’s the lack of history. Part of the fun of the Majors is appreciating the relationship between past and present. Tom Watson won at Turnberry in 1977; his 2009 run at the title on the same course had unmatched resonance. The last time the PGA was played at Hazeltine, Rich Beem held off Tiger to become a surprise winner; this year Y.E. Yang also produced a surprise. And so it goes.

Of course, it could be argued that the FedEx Cup will develop that sort of history over time. But I doubt it. I have no faith that the FedEx Cup will have any permanence. I certainly don’t expect it to outlast the current deal—even if another title sponsor were to be found (the Google Cup? the Chase Manhattan Cup?). The PGA Tour has shown no commitment to its own history, tossing aside old friends in favor of newer, more glamorous ones. As soon as someone offers a bigger purse for a different format, the Tour will drop it just as it dropped the Western Open and other old friends.

I also suspect that I’m blasé because the whole concept of a playoff series in golf just doesn’t feel right. Perhaps it’s because there’s no immediacy—an impression given by top players who have taken a week off in the middle of the series. It’s impossible to imagine the Dallas Cowboys taking a week off in December because they’re tired (The Lions, on the other hand, take weeks off starting in September).

And the Tour has so manipulated the playoff formula that it doesn’t really have the feel of a playoff anyway. They seem to have the points fixed so that a player can’t cruise into the title by avoiding the cut line—as Vijay did— but the imperative still is to keep the marquee players in it until the end. In real playoffs—seeding and byes aside—each team has an equal chance at the title. Imagine a league setting things up so that one or two teams would cruise into the semifinals regardless of how they did in the games leading up to the quarters.

I’m hoping that this is the year the Tour finally gets it right—that it comes down to the wire with four or five players needing to win on Sunday to take it all; and with no one merely needing to make the cut, leaving everyone else playing for second. I’d really like to see some golf excitement after the Majors.

So what about you? Do you have any enthusiasm or hope for the FedEx Cup?

The PGA Tour has tweaked the playoff format yet again—and this time it looks to me as though they’re getting closer to the mark.

With Fedex Cup 3.0, the points will be reset once the 30 player Tour Championship field is determined. The leader gets 2,500 points and the 30th has 205. That ensures that every player in the final 30 man field has a chance to win the $10 million prize. That doesn’t mean it’s likely—just possible. Anyone outside top ten who wants to get the big check is going to need both a win, and the collapse of several leaders.

Still,  it’s getting better.

In an attempt to make the FedEx Cup more important, Tim Finchem has asked the US and British Opens to use FedEx Cup Points for exemptions.

If the USGA and R&A have any integrity at all, they’ll turn it down. The USGA should remember that it’s motto is “For The Good of the Game”, not “For the Glorification of the PGA Tour.”

I just read the most amazing stat on ESPN’s website. Apparently, given the way the other players finished, Tiger would have won the FedEx Cup EVEN IF HE HAD NOT PLAYED AT EAST LAKE.

The guy could have taken two weeks off, including the finals and still won the “playoffs.”

Now tell me there’s not something wrong with the points system.

My predictions came true: If Tiger was leading on Friday, the tournament was over.

It was. The striped one finished at 23 under—two better than his previous record, set at the 2000 NEC Invitational.

Notably, Masters winner Zach Johnson finished second in the tournament—although not in the final FedEx Cup standings. That “honor” went to Steve Stricker, who along with Phil Mickelson was the only one with a realistic chance to keep Tiger from signing the $10 million annuity paperwork.

I’m glad that’s over. Now we can go onto the fall season, which for my money will be somewhat more interesting than the FedEx Playoffs. In the Fall series, the second tier of players will be fighting it out for their tour cards. No pampered quitters here. These guys have to finish in the top 125 to keep their privileges.

It would be nice if the Tour would keep an updated list kept a running score of who needed to finish were in order to keep their cards—just as they kept a running appraisal of possibilities in FedEx Cup Points.