FanHouse Jack Nicklaus

He is Tiger Woods, and sometimes, it seems we forget this. He wins six events in 2009 and we complain about his performances at the majors. He is one of the better match play golfers to ever wrap his hands around a cord grip, yet we worry about his team record.

And then he goes and does stuff like he did Saturday morning at Harding Park in San Francisco, and we remember, this guy is so good at golf it's sickening. Playing alongside Steve Stricker for the third time this week at the Presidents Cup, Woods and Stricker found themselves in trouble. Serious trouble. Needing a 22-footer for birdie on 17 just to say in the match, Tiger eyed the putt with the International team of Mike Weir and Tim Clark in tight for birdie.

Woods' putt looked like it might be short the whole way, but one more revolution lead to the biggest Woods fist pump since the 2005 chip-in at Augusta National and a breath of air to Fred Couples' A team. Weir missed the short birdie, and the match went to 18 all square.

There, Tiger did something only Tiger can do.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Anything with the name Presidents Cup sounds like it is ripe for a Golf Czar appointment.

Are you qualified to rule over this week's PGA Tour team matches between the United States and an International squad of non-Europeans that tees off Thursday at Harding Park Golf Club?

Take this test and decide for yourself.

ATLANTA -- Tiger Woods won the FedEx Cup Sunday at East Lake Golf Club, collecting a $10 million bonus, which in anybody's world ranks as serious cha-ching.

How very nice.

Now, about Phil Mickelson.

It isn't easy upstaging golf's best player winning the season's biggest award, but standing beside Woods on the 18th green for a double trophy presentation, Mickelson drew the spotlight like the lead man in a prison break.

He shot a final-round 65 and finished 9 under to win the Tour Championship, coming from four shots out of the 54-hole lead to finish three shots in front of the second-place Woods.

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Lets be honest. When Jack Nicklaus was a youngster (right), he looked more offensive lineman than star receiver. He was a hair chubby, but could hit the golf ball a mile and knew it. Lucky for Nick O'Leary, Jack's grandson who Rivals.com has as a top football recruit, he didn't get the midsection that accompanied his granddad.

O'Leary, a 6-foot-4, 215 pound junior from Dwyer High in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., is being herald as one of the top tight end prospects in the entire country, already receiving written scholarship offers from Florida, South Carolina, Miami, Tennessee, West Virginia, Boston College and Florida International.

Five players remain capable of winning the FedEx Cup playoff series as the PGA Tour prepares for the Tour Championship in two weeks.

Four of them are not Tiger Woods.

Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson and Heath Slocum, the tee box belongs to you. Any of the four will overtake Woods by winning the regular-season finale to be played at Atlanta's East Lake Golf Club.

Unlike the two previous seasons of the event's history, when Woods in 2007 and Vijay Singh in 2008 clinched the cup and $10 million bonus before the final event began, real drama is guaranteed this year after an offseason redesign of the points system.

Each Wednesday during the golf season, FanHouse will list the top five names in golf and why they're important. Did Barack play 18 with Tiger? Did a certain player do something controversial off the course? Or was just playing golf enough to get the pot stirring? Join us for a weekly feature we call Making the Cut.

5. Tom Watson -- Golf.com got it right when they printed this open letter to Fred Couples -- pick Watson for the Presidents Cup. Their reasoning is simple. Watson, who will be 60 next month, played golf near Harden Park, site of this year's cup, and obviously showed at Turnberry that he still has game that can go on for days. If you think it's crazy, look at the group Couples has to pick from. Along with that, Watson was 10-4-1 in his Ryder Cup career, third best percentage ever, and would bring an added appeal to a tournament that loses luster to Sir Ryder.

CHASKA, Minn. -- His Sunday shirt is red, of course, as in the blood he usually extracts from his rivals. But this time, the blood sprayed all over Tiger Woods, staining him in ways we'd never observed in the final round of a major championship. He missed makeable putts. He hit tee shots into bunkers, off trees, into galleries. He cursed and talked to the golf ball and, in a revealing snapshot, leaned over and placed his hands on his knees, looking as desperate and exasperated as we've seen him.

"I did everything I was supposed to do,'' he said, "except get the golf ball in the hole.''

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It wasn't his A game, or B game for that matter, but Tiger Woods marched around Hazeltine National on Saturday with a four-shot cushion, knowing that he didn't need his absolute best to maintain the lead in the PGA Championship.

On Thursday and Friday, Tiger dominated the field, and the course, hitting fairways and tossing darts at flags to rounds of 67 and 70. Saturday was more of a struggle, but a chip-in birdie on the driveable par-4 14th and a multitude of pars was good enough for a two-shot lead heading into the final round.

Tiger Woods might not have fixed his problems off the tee, and his continued struggles in that area of his game will almost certainly encourage his doubters to keep beating the "It's clear Tiger is on the downside of his career, even if we don't have any proof!" drum.

And Woods, as he's done with unimaginable frequency during his 14-year professional career, will keep winning.

The Buick Open was Tiger's first tournament since missing the cut at the British Open in mid-July. He spent last week working on his swing in Florida with coach Hank Haney, and for the fourth time this year, Woods played 72 holes better than anyone else in the field. He finished 20-under, three clear of Roland Thatcher, John Senden and Greg Chamlers, none of whom ever threatened the lead.

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Shortly after Tiger Woods missed the cut at the British Open, it began. The talk that Hank Haney, Woods' swing coach since 2004, needed to go. It happens almost every time Woods doesn't win, even though Tiger's major championship winning percentage is slightly higher with Haney (.300) than Butch Harmon (.286).

But that's part of the deal when working with the world's best golfer: instant celebrity at the expense of klieg-light scrutiny. Yesterday, as Woods prepared for a three-tournament stretch in as many weeks (culminating in the PGA Championship), Haney spoke about the expectations that come with being a part of Team Tiger. Via ESPN.com's Bob Harig: