In Bermuda, they’re worrying about whether Tiger Woods will play in this year’s Grand Slam of Golf—the first to be held on the island. The event generally showcases the winners of the four majors. Rumor has it, though, that Tiger won’t attend. In that case, Jim Furyk would play—but Furyk has a commitment in South Korea ...

Bermuda shouldn’t worry. I hereby volunteer to tee up to take Tiger’s place.

Jeff Maggert has some suggestions for improving the FedEx Cup format:

“I’d like to see Tiger play all four tournaments,” Maggert said. “I’m sorry he’s not here. ... I’d like to see some type of criteria or rule that if you pull out of a tournament, you’re pulling out of the playoffs.

“Another thing I would like to see the last tournament, maybe everyone starting equally, because then you eliminate the fact that a guy could win the first three tournaments and the last tournament means nothing.”

Interestingly, he is pretty much saying the same thing that Sabbatini said earlier—that the Tour players are unhappy that Tiger decided to sit out the first round because he was “tired.” Maggert, however, doesn’t have a history of saying things about Tiger, so he won’t get the same kind of flack.

John Huggan in the Scotsman takes the PGA Tour behind the woodshed for a whipping. The FedEx Cup, he says, is nonsense.

Such nonsense, of course, is merely the latest attempt by commissioner Tim Finchem to set a place for himself at golf’s top table, where sit the Masters, run by the Augusta National Golf Club; the US Open (United States Golf Association), the Open (Royal & Ancient Golf Club), the USPGA (PGA of America) and the Ryder Cup (PGA of America and European Tour). The world’s biggest and richest circuit, the PGA Tour, has long been driven crazy by its almost total lack of influence over any of the game’s five most important and lucrative events.

Which is why the Presidents Cup matches, a glorified exhibition between a 12-man team from the US and another drawn from anywhere and everywhere except Europe, exists. Ticked-off Tim wants to be the centre of attention.

Sadly for his sizeable ego, however, the Fed-Ex Cup has just about the same level of (in)credibility as does the transparently tacky PC, a biennial affair that is but a pale imitation of the Ryder Cup.

Devised largely as a means of getting the too-often absent Woods to play more PGA Tour events, the Fed-Ex Cup overflowed as soon as he, citing “fatigue” (yeah, right Tiger), decided not to play in the first of the four play-off events, the Barclays Classic, that concludes today.

At a stroke, the absence of the tour’s biggest asset, a man who plays for history rather than cash, revealed the whole sordid affair as nothing more than the money-grabbing farce that it is, a fact underlined by the much-ballyhooed $10m first prize - which is payable only when the recipient decides to retire, according to the very small print.

He’s absolutely right, of course.

He’s at it again. Rory Sabbatini has taken another verbal shot at Tiger. This time, he seems miffed about Tiger’s absence from the first round of the FedEx Cup.

“It’s a disappointment because obviously the whole purpose of this new system was to try and create an atmosphere that would draw everybody to the final four events of the year,” Sabbatini said. “Obviously, it has kind of backfired by Tiger skipping the first event.”

“It leaves a lot of questions and a lot of interesting questions to what they need to do,” the 31-year-old South African said after his bogey-free, eight-birdie round. “Maybe change it so that you definitely have the incentive to play all four. Whether it be, you play three you only get 75 percent of the $10 million or you play two, you get 50 percent, make it something where, ‘You want the $10 million, you’ve got to play for it.’”

And as for Woods’ claim that he needs a break after having played two weeks in extreme heat (as did many of the golfers here), “Oh, I definitely think it’s something other than fatigue,” Sabbatini said.

On the one hand, I think Sabbatini is just saying what a lot of golfers are thinking.

On the other, he needs to remember that discretion is the better part of valor.

Tiger may not be the only name player to sit out FedEx Cup events. According to the New York Daily News

Tiger Woods may be the first, but not be the last.

Woods made news when he opted out of The Barclays, this week’s inaugural FedEx Cup playoff event at Westchester Country Club in Harrison. But as the four-week series goes on, there were hints yesterday that players may pick and choose when they play.

“I don’t think he’s going to be the only guy who skips an event,” said Jim Furyk, who sits in third place in the point standings. “I’ve already heard some names thrown around. Some of them are top 20 players, some of them are top 40 players, some of them are top 60 players. But he’s going to be in the microscope because he always is. He’s entitled to do what he wants and he’ll still be competing in the last three events trying to win.”

Earlier, fourth-seeded Phil Mickelson invited speculation about how much he’ll be playing.

“I’m not sure how it’s all going to play out,” he said.

I can see a scenario where a player makes the cut after the second week, but does the math and realizes that he can’t win the big prize. So he decides that he’s tired and sits out the rest of the series.  It wouldn’t make Tour officials very happy, though.

In fact, a lot of guys are in that position: they can play, but can’t possibly win:

Tour mathematicians have calculated that you need to start out in the Top 15 in the points standings to win the overall title, but Woods - who begins the playoffs as the No.1 seed with a 1,000-point edge on No.2 Vijay Singh - is comfortable enough spotting his pursuers first-week points, even though any of the top 59 players in the FedEx Cup standings could pass him with a win this week, and a golfer in the top 20 could do so with a second-place finish.

They may have a problem on their hands.

Is the Fedex Cup irrelevant?

Respected golf writer Ron Sirak thinks so.

So here’s the corner into which the PGA Tour has backed itself. Tiger Woods has won five tournaments, picking up along the way a major, two World Golf Championship events and $7.8 million. If Boo Weekley wins the FedEx Cup is he the Player of the Year? No way, Sparky. For all intents and purposes, the PGA Tour season ended Sunday at Southern Hills when Woods won the PGA Championship. The playoffs, which begin next week, give the term “postseason” a whole new meaning, perhaps something closer to postmortem.

That neatly sums up the problem that many are having with the FedEx Cup. The season is defined by the money list, and by four events over which the PGA Tour has no control And the latter is why the Tour created the Cup.  It has to bother them that they don’t have a stake in the four events that golfers care about most.

Tiger made that abundantly clear when he decided to sit out the first round.

Read the rest of the article. You’ll also find out why Sirak singled out Boo.

In what has to be a major blow to the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods has decided to sit out the first round of the FedEx Cup.

Woods, the No. 1 seed when the PGA TOUR Playoffs begin at The Barclays next week, said Friday he was tired from back-to-back victories in the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone and the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, which he won in 100-degree heat for his 13th major.

Woods’ people undoubtedly have figured out that he can take the week off and still have a fair chance of winning. But it sure doesn’t do the Tour any good.

It also doesn’t surprise me. I never thought that Woods would be a full participant. My thought was that he would play this year, become the first FedEx Cup winner and then not defend the title. Its interesting, too, that he will sit out the Barclays-sponsored tournament and make his first appearance in the Deutsche Bank tournament. Deutsche Bank is one of Tiger’s many sponsors. He has no affiliation with Barclays.

I’ve also never believed that other superstars—notably Mickelson—would participate more than a couple of years. Mickelson has said that he’s excited to play this time, but we’ll see how far that enthusiasm goes. Phil has never had much of a playing schedule after the PGA.

In the very near future, I see the Fedex Cup as the province of second tier stars and journeymen.