Players hope tweaked Cup leads to high performance

• Vijay Singh began the FedEx series last year ranked second in points and missed the cut at the opener, but fell only to No. 6. This year, he'd plummet to around 23rd.

• Rich Beem started the series last year at No. 134 and finished seventh in The Barclays to move up 24 positions, earning a spot in the 120-player DeutcheBank the following week, where his postseason run ended. This time around, the same finish in the series opener would have jumped him to No. 62, which theoretically would have landed him in both the DeutscheBank and BMW tournaments.

"If a guy misses the cut in an early one, he's going to fall," Cink said. "Where I am, I can't take my foot of the gas or I am going to drop like a lead balloon.

"I'm motivated. No one is going to take a week off that I know of -- I know I'm not. I've got to guard my position."

Protect it? What about improving on it? Heading into the 30-player series Tour Championship finale last year in Atlanta, only four players had a realistic chance of winning the $10 million bonus and a few of those scenarios involved Woods all but dropping dead at some point during the week. Given the changes, that number this year would stand at six and Woods is nowhere in sight.

While those in the rear might not have a realistic chance of winning the whole kettle of cash, they have a better chance of moving through the three rounds. Standing dead last at No. 144 is Lee Janzen, who cracked the field last week in Greensboro and was compared to a wild-card participant.

"I guess that's better than the last guy drafted, Mr. Irrelevant," Janzen cracked.

If he makes the cut this week, he'll quite likely advance -- nothing extraneous about that.

Cink, a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board, said golf's so-called playoffs now more closely resembles other sports leagues, where teams can get hot at the right time -- like the Colorado Rockies making the World Series after winning 21 of 22 down the stretch last fall -- and contend for the biggest bonus in sports.

Or, conversely, where a longtime points leader could get run over for failing to sustain his early-season momentum. On that faltering front, No. 2-seeded Kenny Perry, No. 3 Phil Mickelson, No. 5 Anthony Kim and No. 6 Cink have all cooled considerably after hot springs or summers.

"I'd hate to have a good season, and I feel like I have played pretty well this year, and then have a couple of bad tournaments in the playoffs and finish 29th," Cink said. "Which could happen -- or worse, even. I want the playoffs to be representative of the way I have played all year.

"But that's what happens in other sports. The regular-season champ goes and loses in the first round all the time. Now it can happen in golf."

Of course, while the converse isn't quite so likely, it's at least more feasible now.

"It's nice that you give everybody an opportunity that makes the playoffs to actually win, just like in every other playoff event," said Rich Beem, who shot a pair of 63s last weekend to make the FedEx series. "In the NFL or baseball, the guy that barely gets in has a chance to win, and I think that's nice."