There are ten million reasons to back the underdog

True, it'll take a level of play neither has produced against loaded fields of this magnitude, but it's statistically possible, though they have plenty of ground to make up on the FedEx points leaders. But if they continue to play like they did in the opening round, it would be as magical as Boise State beating the big boys of the BCS in college football.

To encapsulate, Woods won the PGA Championship two weeks ago. Gay was the event's first alternate and spent the week in Tulsa fruitlessly waiting for somebody to withdraw and never got a spot in the field. Haves and have-nots, indeed.

Thus, there's more on the line than just riches, too. If they can play well enough to advance the Tour Championship four weeks hence, they would lock up a spot in the top 30 on the tour's points list, which will be frozen after the Atlanta event concludes. That would provide entry into multiple meaningful events next year.

"It's not so much the money," said Baird, who is ranked 214th in the world. "I have coasted along this year without really doing anything, and suddenly I can get in this four-week stretch, conceivably finish in the top 30, get into the majors next year.

"If you get hot at the right time, the system is awesome." To put the potentials into context, Gay and Baird have both been forced to return to Qualifying School over the past four years because they finished outside the top 125 in earnings. We can almost hear Carl Spackler, garden hoe in hand as he takes his hacks in a flower bed at Bushwood Country Club, doing the Cinderella story bit in Caddyshack. A few Davids mixing among the Goliaths with gigantic career stakes on the line? Gimme the little guy with a slingshot every time.

When unheralded Bob May gave Tiger Woods all he could handle at the 2000 PGA Championship, it was the greatest theater on tour in the past decade, at least.

"I think it would be great because people would start associating what is involved in winning this, what it takes to win it, what it would mean to take it away from someone like Tiger," Baird said. "They would start looking at the number, $10 million for someone like myself, whose career earnings are not even close to that.

"You add all that up, and not that it's not a lot (or money) for some of the big name players, but I think that would just be unbelievable. It would be Bob May and Tiger Woods."