"Essentially, the FedEx Cup turned this into a lame-duck year"

Tim Rosaforte reporting from dreary (but oh so blinding white bunkered) East Lake:

...there were player meetings last week in Tampa and high-level discussions this week at East Lake among Tour officials and the FedEx sponsors, which indicate the format for this competition is not yet locked down. "We're still very fluid," said a source involved in the talks. In other words, the 144-man fields that make this anything but a playoff system are still being debated as the middle-class lobbies not to be excluded from the exercise.

What we do know is the rollout date is fast approaching, the tour has appointed a former Washington lobbyist and tournament chairman for the Presidents Cup (George Burger) to oversee the FedEx Cup, and that nobody quite knows how it's going to work.

Now this is absolutely priceless... 

One thing it has done: create buzz. "I think it's going to work out great because when you think about it, we've been talking about it for a year, so that's what we want," said policy shaper Davis Love III.

I guess Davis is going with the all publicity is good publicity thinking there, because everyone else is talking about the lack of sizzle and substance in something that kicks off in, yes just 60 days.

This is beautiful too...

Tying next year in to this week's proceedings, where Woods and Phil Mickelson are noticeably absent, has everybody at Tour headquarters uncomfortable. Even if they had nothing to play for, it doesn't look right that the Nos. 1 and 3 players in the world decided to use this as a bye week. "Essentially, the FedEx Cup turned this into a lame-duck year," said a representative for one of the FedEx sponsors.

Riiiiiiggggggghhhhhhhhttttttt! That's probably coming from the guy who convinced his bosses to pony up $40 million a year.