No matter what you think about Tiger Woods, the one thing we can all agree on is his intmidation factor on the golf course. Just watching him on the television gets you a little out of your element.

His stare boars through walls, his fist pumps break into more senses than just sight and his build and distance almost blankets what his opponents are donig. I think it's safe to say Tiger bothers his playing partners.

Flash in the 2008 pan Greg Norman thinks even stronger about this. He thinks the opponents, especially the young lads, don't even give themselves a puncher's chance when Woods is lurking.

"This generation of golfers has just been whipped by Tiger. They go out there thinking that they can't beat him, so they don't."

Well, I think it is a little jab at the players but isn't this just fact? When people play with Woods, they're beat before they tee off, right? Who in their right mind was sitting around watching Rocco Mediate playing Tiger and thought, for a second, that Woods was defeated?

With all the majors past us and the Ryder Cup still a month away, it's nice that the PGA Tour started the FedEx Cup to give us something to keep our attention. Or is it?

The Cup seems to bring out the creative because it's such a new idea and fans tend to want to tweak the four tournament playoff system like a VCR repairman.

With Tiger Woods busy walking on water, our precious playoff picks will be wide open to a new winner. Can Phil Mickelson actually do something during the absence of his Swoosh-ness? Will Kenny Perry claim the Cup as a 48-year-old? Can Anthony Kim add a piece of tin way bigger than any of his belt buckles?

Join us at 1 p.m. EST for a chat about all things FedEx Cup. If you have any suggestions about things you'd like to see changed, let us know. We have a lot of pull with Tim Finchem.

As someone who prides himself in golf knowledge, I am not afraid to tell you this -- I had absolutely no clue how the FedEx Cup worked when it was initiated last year.

Sure, I read about it and knew it was coming up, but the whole system behind it just seemed unnecessarily complicated and a little bit ridiculous. Why can't they get the money until they retire?

Luckily for most, the PGA Tour tweaked the system a bit, making it a tad more friendly for the viewer and a lot less confusing for morons like myself. With the FedEx Cup playoffs kicking off this week at the Barclays, here is a quick guide to what exactly will happen over the next four weeks.

• Wait, How many players again? -- Last week was the final chance to get in the top-144 for this week's Barclays. Tiger Woods had the most points and Lee Janzen (no, seriously, that Lee Janzen) was the last guy in. After this week, the number will go to the top-120 at the Deutsche Bank Championship, then down to the top-70 playing the BMW Championship and will conclude with the top-30 at the Tour Championship. 144, 120, 70 and finally 30. Got it?

The best way to comfort someone that has just lost something is to be there for them. That, or tell them they just made the Ryder Cup and then talk about them like they're the second coming of Christ.

That works too.

"I've had my eye on Ben Curtis for a long time and I really believe he is going to add a lot to this team," Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger told a news conference at Oakland Hills Country Club on Monday. "I could not be more excited for him.

"I like the fact he won the British Open and came back, after having a down spell in his career, and won those two tournaments in that one year. I saw a lot of heart in Ben Curtis."

In the wake of the PGA Championship, the eight automatic spots have been filled, and the second place finish by Curtis yesterday at Oakland Hills jumped him into a spot to play at Valhalla.

"Ben has got that kind of demeanor we need on the Ryder Cup team," Azinger said. "He's a little more stoic, a little more subdued, but I like his personality. He's the type of guy that's going to just put his head down and barrel on.

"I've always had my eye on him. I was hoping he played well at some point so I could either pick him or he'd make the team, and he's done it."

The best thing to ever happen to the Detroit Lions will be accompanying Phil Mickelson, Stewart Cink, Anthony Kim, Kenny Perry, Jim Furyk, Justin Leonard and Boo Weekley with four more captains picks coming from Azinger.

Normally, the PGA Championship is the major reserved for a newbie. They call it "Glory's Last Shot" because seven of the last 14 have been first time winners. Normally the one that bucks that trend is Elderick Woods, who, unbeknownst to the golf world, has handed the title of major champion king to an Irishman with a quirky smile.

Oakland Hills gave us everything, from floods to hole-in-ones to a marathon finish that ended with a putt you almost knew had to fall. Here are the winners and losers from a great week of golf at the year's final major.

Winners

• Padraig Harrington -- Wait, didn't I just write one of these? Harrington has now won three of the last six majors championships and has truly earned the nickname "Back Nine." A 32 at the British a month ago and a 32 on the closing stretch yesterday has Padraig with as many majors as Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. Think he's taken advantage of the Woods layoff?

Some might consider that a deceptive headline. See, the point of it is to get people to think "Oh Wow, Phil Mickelson must really be struggling out on the golf course today!" when in fact, it's just a funny way of explaining Lefty's first nine holes.

Starting on number 10 today, Mickelson opened with two bogeys, made a birdies, followed that with consecutive pars (boo consistency!) and then made two bogeys and two birdies to finish up his outward nine. In a more successful way than John Daly and Michelle Wie, Lefty has a great gift of making a scorecard look like a strand of multi-colored Christmas lights and still posting a number around par. He's even par through 13 holes so far at Oakland Hills.

Robert Karlsson, Jeev Milkha Singh and Sean O'Hair are all tied for the lead at two-under with Anthony Kim and Sergio Garcia both lurking (and playing together) at one-under.

"Glory's Last Shot" is upon us, and with He Who Should Not Be Named out for the second consecutive major, we in the golf world have to type and make up things as we pick "favorites" when we really have just as good an idea of who will win as you.

If that doesn't entice you, this might -- only one golfer not named Tiger Woods in the top 10 of the Official World Ranking has won a major championship since the Masters in 2006. Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia, Geoff Ogilvy, Stewart Cink, Steve Stricker and Adam Scott have all gone a very long time without winning a major (if ever) and it seems these top-10 golfers might be due.

Here are my favorites, their best finish in a PGA Championship, and why they made the list.

• Phil Mickelson -- WON -- My least favorite person ever to pick in majors, but he did play good for three rounds (or four if you ask him) last week and had himself in a extremely good position even with a balky putter and his obviously struggle with weight choking. If he can somehow find a way to hit the fairway this week, he'll be near the top come Sunday (and on cue probably find a way to drop the ball in dramatic fashion).

Unlike most sports, being a professional golfer just takes a check of a box.

Once you mark "professional" you're set to make money, even if you never make any. Today, at the Canadian Open, an Arizona State alumni that most people outside of the golf dweeb network had never heard of won his first PGA Tour event and made himself more than a professional golfer.

Chez Reavie, al 5'9" of him, is a winner on the big boys tour.

"Oh, man. I'm just so excited," Reavie said. "I don't think a lot of people understand when you're growing up and you're practicing and you're working so hard, this is, obviously, your goal. But there are no guarantees."

The "no guarantees" clause comes from hundreds of golfers to earn their PGA Tour card only to miss cut after cut and find themselves teaching kids how to hook a seven-iron or selling mechandise in the local Golfsmith. Reavie, a Nationwide Tour graduate from 2007, landed a two year exemption on the PGA Tour today and emerged as another youthful talent that could make waves in a tournament that relies on ballstriking.

"It was crucial to hit fairways so you could lift and clean your ball and place it in a good lie, especially when you don't hit it as far as some of the other guys do," Reavie said. "So, it really played into my hands.

"It was like the U.S. Open out there. The rough was long and the greens were tough. I guess that's a good, style of golf for me, putting a premium on hitting fairways."

After the news broke that Tiger Woods was done for the rest of the season, golf fans sat, jaw open, wondering what was going to happen to their beloved sport.

From a story that nobody could realistically write, 53-year-old Greg Norman has hovered over the links at Royal Birkdale in a fashion that makes you think it's 1993, not 2008, leading after 54 holes at the British Open.

A round of two-over 72 today, with a chip on the last that nearly disappeared for a closing birdie, has to be one of the most impressive rounds of his illustrious career in winds that were knocking golf balls around like a golfer tossing up blades of grass.

"I put it in the top three toughest rounds I've ever played," Norman said after the round. "My play has been reflective of my mindset which is good. I'm enjoying it and as long as I keep enjoying what I'm doing, a happy mind brings a lot of happiness."

Norman bounced back from a double-bogey on the 10th hole with birdies on the 14th and 17th, closing his last nine at even par while everyone else struggled.

He hasn't won a PGA Tour event since 1997 and he hasn't led a major since the infamous collapse at Augusta in 1996, but Norman has that rare chance to completely rewrite his legacy. In 18 simple, links golf holes Norman could go from notorious choke artist to living legend, Jack Nicklaus at the Masters in 1986 be damned.

The Shark has defending champion Padraig Harrington, steady K.J. Choi and young gun Anthony Kim biting at his heels, but it hasn't seemed to bother him thus far.

If you're not excited about the possibility of this story unfolding tomorrow, you just don't love sports. Greg Norman is slowly making this Open Championship the most exciting we've seen in years.

Most of the time viewers watch golfers on the PGA Tour and are more jealous than the buddy of a powerball winner.

Today isn't one of those times.

The leaders at the Open Championship are battling their way around the links of Royal Birkdale in winds that are gusting to 40 miles-per-hour, hitting balls in places you'd never expect pros to be.

Nobody has broke par today and an Englishman named Simon Wakefield, who even the best of golf fans couldn't pick out of a lineup, fired an even-par round of 70 to post five-over, a number that is slowly becoming the mark to beat.

Justin Rose shot an 82, Jean Van de Velde fired an 80 and Adam Scott posted a 77 in winds on a day where the scoring average is 75.75, nearly six-over.

It appears nobody told Greg Norman that he's supposed to be struggling in these conditions. The Shark just made a birdie on the 14th hole to move in the lead at three-over, tied with K.J. Choi as they attempt to take advantage of the par-5 15th.

The weather has brought a lot of golfers back into the picture, including early favorite Anthony Kim, who made an eagle on the 17th hole to post 71. Kim stands at seven-over and as close as he's ever been to winning a major championship.

Bundle up, throw down another glass of coffee and remember how important a par is today. Our final pairing tomorrow could very easily be Simon Wakefield and Greg Norman. My how the world of golf is different without a certain Tiger Woods around.