Sean O'Hair in Good Standing for FedExCup, Combing Way through TOUR Championship

Golf writer Andy Reistetter is on site at The TOUR Championship Presented by Coca-Cola at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, and is providing daily reports covering the action both inside and outside the ropes.

That's: 33 weeks, four playoff Events, one champion…598 different individual golfers have teed it up in 40 PGA TOUR (including four opposite field) events to date this year.

The TOUR Championship makes it 41…

That number of golfers—598—has not changed since five new guys slipped into the Wyndham Championship five weeks ago in mid-August at the last regular season event.

It's playoff time, crunch time, "The Playoff Finale," as they say at East Lake this week in PGA TOUR country. In other words, it is elimination time on the PGA TOUR.

We are down to the last 30 golfers standing in the quest for the FedExCup. There's also the TOUR Championship tournament going on at the same time. But who cares?

Isn't that another pop-up on the screen when the main deal is who will win the $10 million Race to Memphis, Tennessee, where the Headquarters of FedEx is located? Will the same person win both of the two tournaments? Could we have two separate sudden death playoffs? Who knows, but…?

Yes, the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup and the Playoff Finale are grand and exciting!

Okay quick catch-up: 125 golfers made it to the first playoff event, The Barclays. The next-to-last golfer, Heath Slocum, scored a huge upset win at Liberty National with Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Padraig Harrington, and Ernie Els all sitting on the sidelines one stroke short waiting for a playoff.

Twenty-five were eliminated as their playoff hopes were held captive within a few drivers of Ellis Island, where freedom abounded for countless millions of immigrants. No hope for Aussies Adam Scott or Aaron Baddeley.

Steve Stricker won for the third time this year at the Deutsche Bank at TPC Boston, demonstrating his playoff prowess one more time over Jason Dufner and Scott Verplank.

Another 30 were eliminated on the way to Chicago and the BMW Championship at a renewed Cog Hill No. 4 Dubsdread golf course, including defending FedExCup Champion Vijay Singh.

Tiger Woods dominated once again, winning by eight shots over Jim Furyk and Marc Leishman.

So long to another 40 poor souls including last year's two-time playoff victor, Camilo Villegas, and the injured Paul Casey, both of whom did not make it to the Grand Finale at East Lake.

And here we are at East Lake awaiting Super Golf Course Sunday when the FedExCup and TOUR champions will be determined from a minuscule field of the 30 best golfers of the FedExCup season.

Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson, and Heath Slocum are the "Fabulous Five" who can control their own destiny in the FedExCup by winning the TOUR Championship.

If any of the remaining 25 contestants wins the TOUR Championship it will be much more complicated to determine who wins the FedExCup.

Sean O'Hair went out and shot a 4-under par 66 today to lead the TOUR Championship and the FedExCup points race. Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington shot 67 and are in a three-way tie with Stewart Cink for second place and effectively neutered their chances of winning the FedExCup if it ended today.

With a victory O'Hair would gain 2,500 points for a total of 3,700, compared to Woods' projected 3,583. Tiger would get only 1,083 points for a three-way tie for second versus an outright 1,500 for a solo second place finish. No FedExCup for Tiger because of how Harrington and Cink finished.

Stricker shot an even par 70 and is tied for ninth in the tournament and is projected to finish third in the FedExCup points race.

Furyk shot a two-over par 72 and is tied for 21st and projected fifth overall.

Zack Johnson shot even par 70 and is tied for eighth and projected sixth.

Slocum shot three-over par 73 and is tied for 26th and projected seventh.

Other than O'Hair, only Padraig Harrington moved up and is projected to finish fourth.

Cink moved up the most of anyone today rising from 26th to eighth.

Every shot for every player counts this week.

These guys are good and they know where they stand as evidenced by O'Hair's response to a question about whether he knew what he and others would have to do for him to win the Cup:

"I do. I think I need a win and Tiger and Stricker, I think, need to finish worse than second (alone)."

O'Hair is both inspired and in awe of Tiger Woods.

"I looked up to him when I was a teenager, I was in high school, and he was just winning the Amateur and turning professional. I mean, he's a phenom. I mean, he's just the man."

O'Hair is confident though realistic about his chances come Sunday afternoon.

"If you go out and play good golf, hopefully at the end of the day you're right there. But you're not going to play average golf against him and do anything worthwhile."

O'Hair was buoyed by a putting tip offered by Tiger during a practice round on Wednesday afternoon.

Why would Tiger Woods give a fellow competitor a tip that could help him play better with so much money and prestige on the line?

Only Tiger could answer that question.

"It's very simple; you always help your friends. Sean is a friend of mine, and like all my friends, you always try to make their life [sic] better somehow. That's the whole idea of having friends in your life."

A friend in time of need is a friend indeed.

"Sean has been struggling a little bit on the greens this year, and I thought I could offer a little bit of help and insight to how he could change that, and now, as I said, I'm going to go chew him out."

Or maybe beat his brains out on the golf course for the next three days?

With three playoff events done there are now three very important competitive rounds of golf remaining in "The Playoff Finale" at East Lake.

We will have to be patient and see who comes out on top as the TOUR Champion and the FedExCup Champion come Sunday afternoon.

All we know for sure is that the determination of the Champions will be strictly by the numbers.

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer. He follows the PGA TOUR volunteering and working part time for NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and The Golf Channel. Having attended the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Honda Classic, WGC-CA Championship, Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, Masters Tournament, Verizon Heritage, Zurich Classic of New Orleans, THE PLAYERS Championship, U.S. Open at Bethpage, AT&T National, British Open at Turnberry, PGA at Hazeltine, The Barclays, and The Deutsche Bank Championship; the TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola at Eastlake is Andy's 15th event of the season.

He resides in Jacksonville Beach, Florida near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach. He enjoys pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it. He can be reached through his website www.MrHickoryGolf.net or by e-mailing him to [e-mail]