The cup - Ryder Cup - is all the rage in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS (AP) -Three weeks into the PGA Tour Playoffs, and all anyone can talk about is the Cup.

The Ryder Cup, that is.

Steve Stricker was on the putting green Wednesday afternoon when Chad Campbell walked by. They looked at each other, grinned and clasped hands. They are competitors this week - even playing together the first two days of the BMW Championship - but they now see each other as partners on the U.S. team at the Ryder Cup.

They were among four captain's picks that Paul Azinger announced Tuesday morning. The other eight players who earned a spot on the team also were at Bellerive Country Club for the third playoff event. Besides hopeful of beating Europe in two weeks at Valhalla, they had one other thing in common.

None of them has a realistic chance of winning the FedEx Cup.

Vijay Singh took most of the drama out of the chase for the $10 million prize by starting the playoffs as the sixth seed, winning The Barclays in a three-man playoff, then closing with 63 to win the Deutsche Bank Championship.

Mathematically, he is assured of being atop the standings at the Tour Championship.

Potentially, he could clinch the FedEx Cup this week.

Realistically, everyone else is playing for second.

"I know I've got to go 1-1 and Vijay has got to fall off the stairs or something," said Sergio Garcia, who is No. 2 in the standings by more than 12,000 points. "The way he's playing, he's not going to finish outside the top 10 or top 15 in these two events. ... I think it's pretty much done."

What a difference for Stricker.

A year ago, he won The Barclays to move to the top of the standings and stayed in the hunt all four weeks. Two weeks into these playoffs, Stricker is looking at consolations.

"There's still a lot of money to be won," he said. "That gets your attention really quick. I'm trying to move up as much as I can every week. Second place would be nice. Obviously, I'm going to have to throw a win in there to have any shot at getting in the top two or three or four."