Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
With three tournaments down and the biggest one still to go, the addition of the FedEx Cup Playoffs at the end of the regular PGA Tour season in America has done more than just swell the bank balances of the top players.
From a fan's perspective, the format keeps the excitement going right up until the back nine of the last Sunday of the final tournament ... and that is how it should be.
This weekend, after a week's break, the Playoffs regroup and conclude at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, for the Tour Championship and that's where the real fun begins.
If we've learned anything through the first three events, it's to expect the unexpected, as is so often the case in golf; anything can and will happen.
The FedExCup points have been reset following the BMW Championship in order to give each of the 30 players a chance to win the FedExCup title. While the points have been reset, however, the seeds will not. The player who ranks first in FedExCup points after the BMW Championship will still rank first after the reset.
Each of the first five seeds going into The Tour Championship will control his own destiny; if any of those five seeds wins at East Lake, he will win the FedExCup title.
Anyone in the final field of 30 can win, but those at the bottom will need more than a little help. And as we've seen in the first three weeks that's not improbable, let alone impossible. Surprises have been the signature of this Playoffs season.
One major surprise is that there is no place in the final thirty for the world number one! Given the year he has had maybe it wasn't so much of a surprise, but we're so used to seeing him pull off the improbable that it seemed possible he was going to do it again, despite his inconsistency. But it is back to the drawing board and time to regroup for the wounded Tiger.
Another surprise is the list of players in prime position going into the final showdown. At the start of the year who would have guessed that Phil Mickelson might be the man to beat. Ernie Els, after two victories has led all season long, until the first playoff week.
Nobody could have predicted Matt Kuchar, Charley Hoffman and Dustin Johnson winning the first three events; Johnson maybe after a great year, tinged with Major disappointment at Pebble Beach and Whistling Straits, but not the other two. As I said, strange things happen in golf.
Yet, here we are with Kuchar, Johnson and Hoffman running one-two-three in the standings. Mickelson and Els are going backwards, Stricker is his steady self and Adam Scott, Paul Casey and Jason Day are the ones charging.
The battle of the heavyweights is Kuchar vs Johnson. Johnson has a chance to do he didn't manage at the majors, finishing off the season as the Tour's number one, and cashing a check with a lot of zeroes.
Kuchar can top-off a solid season with a flourish and jump onto everyone's shortlists for next year's majors. The former US Amateur Champion has taken his time adjusting to the Professional game, but he goes into this week as world number 10.
One more surprise for many is that nobody knocked Tiger off the top spot in the Official World Golf Rankings. Not yet anyway. Tiger is still No.1 and, honestly, the way this season is playing out, could still be top after The Tour Championship.
Lee Westwood's chances have ended for now, thanks to his injury, but both Mickelson and Stricker have had chances to topple Tiger from the top spot during the Playoffs.
I think it would be good for golf to have a new man at the top; but I would have my money on Tiger reclaiming the top spot next season.
