Golf: 2007 Year in Review (Part 3)

By Jim Brighters, Sports Network, The Sports Network

STORY OF THE YEAR - FedEx Cup Runners-up - Drug testing, Annika's woes, Tiger's fatherhood

No one quite got a firm grasp of all of the nuances.

In fact, K.J. Choi really didn't get it. Choi, a devout Christian, announced he would donate the $10 million to charity if he won the FedEx Cup playoff title.

Tiger Woods told the media that would be impossible since the money goes into the player's retirement fund.

Oops.

Aside from not knowing all of the details until right before it started, the FedEx Cup by and large worked. Once the playoffs started, problems emerged. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Scott Verplank and Padraig Harrington all skipped events.

Due respect, but the tour can survive the absences of Harrington and Verplank. When the intention was to bring the top players together at the end of the year, Woods and Mickelson skipping is bad.

What made it worse is that Woods won two of the three he teed it up in before claiming the FedEx Cup title and its $10 million retirement donation. (Thank goodness.)

Mickelson groused and alluded to the fact that commissioner Tim Finchem ignored Mickelson's requests to talk about improvements for the FedEx Cup. Players squawked about waiting until retirement to get paid.

So, the tour listened.

The top 10 finishers on the FedEx Cup Playoff list will get their loot in cash next year.

Finchem will continue to tweak here and there. Some things are impossible to change, like if Woods takes a week off and still blows through the thing, but interest was up and players participated.