FanHouse Paul Goydos

The four-tournament FedEx Cup might be billed as the playoffs, but Tiger Woods (along with just about everybody else in the field) are treating it with all the reverence of a practice round. Maybe it's the rain-soaked conditions, or the tricked-out, wannabe links-inspired course set-up. Or maybe the manufactured drama of the FedEx Cup isn't working.

So call the next month of golf whatever you want, but it feels a lot like the PGA Tour season officially ended with last week's Wyndham Championship. Hey, it could be worse: we could be subjected to made-for-teevee skins games.

In any event, we're three rounds into the Barclays, and 24-year-old Webb Simpson, the 36-hole leader, stumbled through moving day, dropping two shots off the lead after signing for a 1-over, 71. Meanwhile, Paul Goydos and Steve Marino each needed 68 strokes to get around Liberty National and are tied atop the leaderboard at 9-under heading to the final day.

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Not a lot of rookies have had the chance to take command of the FedEx Cup. Zero, actually. The first year Tiger Woods was in control from the get-go. Last year, Vijay Singh was the man that couldn't be beat. If Webb Simpson continues to play like he has so far at the Barclays, he might find himself in a position to win some very nice cheddar for a first-year man on tour.

Simpson is currently 8-under for the first FedEx Cup tournament of the year, two shots clear of second place after a Friday 68 settled in nicely next to his first round 66. It seems like ages ago when we were writing about Simpson, who started his rookie year with two top-10s and a 68-67 start to the FBR Open (he'd finish 77-75 at TPC Scottsdale, and go on to miss nine of his next 13 cuts).

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Paul Goydos showing up on a PGA Tour leaderboard is like finding loose change behind the sofa cushions. Both, although never expected, are always welcome.

And after one round of play in The Barclays -- the first of the four-tournament FedEx Cup playoff series -- at Liberty National Golf Course in Jersey City, N.J.. there is the man friends call "Sunshine'' with a share of the lead.

So why do they call him Sunshine?

"Because of my sunny disposition,'' Goydos will deadpan with emotion of a mounted moose head.

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Ho-hum. That was Tiger Woods' opening round of the FedEx Cup at Liberty National in New Jersey. A 1-under 70 for the current FedEx points leader was good enough to stay within shouting distance of the leaders, but it was a pretty boring day by Tiger standards.

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Frustrating. That is the only way you can describe Tiger Woods' opening round at the Buick Open. A two-time winner of the event, Woods went out at Warwick Hills on Thursday with two bogeys in his first five holes, it would have been three if not for a 20-foot par save after a plugged bunker lie on the par-4, 4th.

Four birdies over his next nine holes got Woods back in the picture on a premium scoring day, but a bogey on 15, a failed birdie chance on the par-5 16th after a perfect drive and a missed five-footer for birdie on 17 left Woods, yet again, talking about missed opportunities.

Tiger Woods is 33, has been on tour since 1996, and has 14 major victories. Save those junior tournaments where he was the youngest player in the field, I don't think he's ever been called underrated.

That changed yesterday when PGA Tour player Paul Goydos told the Boston Globe exactly that:

There is one thing in golf that is miles bigger than a major championship or the rare double-eagle. It has only been done three times in the history of golf, with the last time coming in 1999. It's the sub-60 round.

On Thursday, at the Travelers Championship, 48-year-old Kenny Perry had the rare opportunity to match that feat, and shoot a sub-60 round for only the fourth time on the PGA Tour, and the first time on a par-70 golf course. Standing over a 24-foot eagle putt on the par-4 15th hole, Perry was 8-under and looking to move to 10-under, just a shot off the mark with three holes to play.

His legacy is one of smattered popularity. One minute he's slapping an iron with his eyes closed around a tree that Paul Bunyan couldn't have figured a way through, and the next he's doing things that would make even the closest to him scratch their head in troubled wonder.

Sergio Garcia's career as a pro golfer has been confusing, not by his play, but more by his ability to always pick the worst time to do certain things, so the fact that he might have found his game again, and is overcoming some personal problems, is music to professional golf's ears. We've been waiting for this moment, we just weren't sure it would come again.

In an effort to keep our golf visitors well informed on what is going on around the Internet, Range Balls is our weekly link dump. Every Tuesday during golf season, we will toss out some of the most interesting things we came across. If you have a tip, e-mail us at fanhousegolf@gmail.com. Enjoy the links.

-- You know what happens when you let a golf blogger lose on the grounds of an LPGA event with a camera and the always entertaining Christina Kim? Magic. Pure, Incredible, magic. [Wei Under Par]

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- At least one game has integrity. Manny Ramirez, with his 50-game suspension, is just another cheater in a line of steroid users in baseball. How can you trust anyone anymore?

Well, thankfully, we have golf. Not one golfer on the PGA Tour has ever failed a steroid test.

Not ... one.

Zippo. In the power age of golf, when fitness has started to include weightlifting because muscles help to keep up with the Tigers and Phils, every ... single ... golfer is clean.