"There are so many ways the Tour could have regulated Tiger to East Lake next week, starting with the stipulation that the defending FedEx Cup champion gets the chance to defend."

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I thought Cameron Morfit was going for a tongue-in-cheek/April Fool's deal with his suggestion that the tour should have figured out a way to get Tiger to East Lake--kind of like when NBC scrambled to figure out a way to keep Charles Van Doren after he intentionally lost on Twenty One. But it appears Morfit is serious in his criticism that the FedExCup has taken a hit because the PGA Tour did not rewrite the rules to get Tiger to the Super Bowl, even though he's got a .500 record.

And now the Tour — which built the $10-million playoffs as Tiger-bait — has unintentionally excluded Tiger and sabotaged one of its supposedly premier events.

Is "sabotaged" too strong a word? I don't think so.

Defenders of the status quo will credit the Tour for adhering to a strict meritocracy, but don't try selling that to NBC, which now must televise the Tour Championship absent the reigning ratings champion of the Tour.
Getting Woods to East Lake would not only help the event, but it would also help Woods. Some have said he and his new swing will benefit from the two-week break before the Ryder Cup, but I'm not buying it.

Woods played just 12 tournaments while trying to glue his life back together in 2010. This is a guy who needs game reps.

The last thing anyone thought was that Woods, of all people, wouldn't qualify for the playoffs. But being in charge requires a modicum of clairvoyance. Just ask the guys in charge of baseball and cycling, who got behind on drugs and never caught up.

There are so many ways the Tour could have regulated Tiger to East Lake next week, starting with the stipulation that the defending FedEx Cup champion gets the chance to defend. Or, stronger still: If you win the Cup once, you're exempt into all four playoff events for life. Too strong? Fine. Win the FedEx Cup more than once, as Woods has, and you're in for life.

Hey how about a clause that just says if you are Tiger Woods, you are exempt for life to anything and everything? The Commish would love to take that to the negotiating table. But he'd also be taken away from tour headquarters in a David Leadbetter Swing Trainer if he ever tried such a stunt.