ESPN Golf

ATLANTA -- Give Bubba Watson credit for seeing the big picture. He is thankful to be here at the Tour Championship, fully aware that a $112,000 payday awaits him for beating no one -- and a lot more if he does anything this weekend at East Lake Golf Club.

That doesn't include the $175,000 bonus he would get for finishing 30th in the FedEx Cup standings. Or the spot in the 2009 Masters. And the U.S. Open. And the WGC-CA Championship.

All because he had a couple of decent, certainly not exceptional, finishes at the right time, specifically in PGA Tour playoff events.

You can bet the folks at Augusta National and the United States Golf Association are scratching their heads, wondering if they need to rethink decisions to extend invitations to their tournaments based on making it to this 30-player tournament.

Call it yet another unintended consequence of the revamped FedEx Cup playoffs, which come to a close on Sunday. A two-time major champion this year, Padraig Harrington, is not here, but a guy ranked 96th -- Watson -- is, with a Masters invitation included.

"Hopefully, they'll tweak it a little bit because it's too much," Watson said of the points system that allowed him to jump into the top 30 and get a spot in the Tour Championship field. "I'm one that got helped and it's still not right. Or we could change the name of this tournament. ... I'm probably not in the top 30. That's just the truth. I'm not downing myself or anything. I'm happy to be here, but I don't think we should call it the Tour Championship.

"I haven't proven myself. I haven't done anything. It's kind of unfair to see Padraig Harrington has won two majors and he's not here. The fans want to see that instead of me. They don't want to see me slashing it around."

Six players who made it to East Lake fall into this somewhat dubious distinction of having qualified for the Masters and U.S. Open in 2009 despite having credentials that would have otherwise kept them out or at the least would have had them grinding through the Fall Series events to make it.

In addition to Watson, Billy Mayfair, Briny Baird, Ken Duke, Dudley Hart and Kevin Sutherland can expect an invitation with an Augusta, Ga., postmark despite being outside of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking. All except for Hart are outside of the top 30 on the money list -- the previous standard for making the Tour Championship -- and one of the other criteria used to determine Masters and U.S. Open spots at the end of the season.

"There's no question, I think there was too much movement this year. I'm the first to admit that," said Sutherland, who at least tied Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia for first at The Barclays before losing in a playoff; a victory would have gotten him that Masters invite a little sooner. "We need to do some things to adjust that. But I finished second at a tournament, I was 57th [in points] going in, and I knew if I could have one really good week I'd have a chance to be here.

"I think the system is going to be tweaked, and it should be. I was close anyway. I don't feel like I back-doored it as much as some are alluding. I had a good year and feel good about it. Certainly the system helped me out."

The PGA Tour revamped the points structure this year to create more volatility during the playoffs. It scrunched the 144 qualifiers so that anyone who made the playoff field, in theory, had a chance to win the FedEx Cup. As part of that, it created a severe penalty for missing the cut, while giving too much of a reward for simply making one.

In many ways, the tour was correct in doing this. If you're going to call it playoffs, then you have to have some movement between events. Harrington, for one, was fine with the format, even though it kept him from advancing to the Tour Championship. That's what playoffs are all about.

He started fourth in the standings, but missed two cuts and tied for 55th at the BMW Championship, dropping to 50th in the standings. And yet he remains fifth on the PGA Tour money list.

Harrington doesn't have to worry about spots in the majors, but the governing bodies who run those tournaments undoubtedly are concerned, simply because nobody really saw this coming.

When the FedEx Cup playoff format was announced before the 2007 season, both the Masters and U.S. Open elected to keep their end-of-season top 30 money list exemption. But they gave the tour a boost when they announced that they would exempt those who qualified for the Tour Championship, which uses the points system for its 30 qualifiers.

Nobody flinched, as the expectation was little difference between the money list and the points. Last year, for example, just two players who made it here to East Lake would not have qualified for the Masters otherwise.

"I feel a little better about it because I would have gotten in based on the money list [right now]," said Hart, who is 30th in money and is also close to the top 50 in the world rankings at No. 51. "But that is my issue with the playoffs, what it means for next year. In other sports, the playoffs are about this year. They don't affect next year's schedule. But in golf it can greatly affect the schedule next season. It's so volatile, and three weeks can change a lot."

Augusta National does not comment on its qualification process other than the week of the Masters and the USGA will review their qualifications at their annual meeting in November, according to USGA director of communications Dave Fanucchi.

Each group's criteria for entry is set for 2009, so any change could not occur before the 2010 tournaments.

Of course, the PGA Tour is expected to amend the points structure in some fashion sometime early in 2009, which means the majors might be best to wait and see how it all shakes out.

Not to pick on Watson, but his example really does stand out. In his third year on the PGA Tour, Watson, 29, was 56th in the points standings heading into the playoffs. He tied for 12th at the Barclays to move up to 30th, tied for 44th at the Deutsche Bank and moved up three spots to 27th and then was tied for 28th at the BMW and hung onto the 29th spot.

Watson, who had three top-10 finishes this year but none since June, had modest success in the playoffs -- never contending for a title -- and moved up 29 spots. That's fine in a playoff world, perhaps not so fine when those coveted major invitations are at stake.

"This year we went maybe too far," Watson said. "So maybe we could meet in the middle. [Or] let's change the name of this tournament, let's not call it the Tour Championship, let's call it the playoff final, or something else.

"Because it's not our top 30 on tour, because I'm not in the top 30. ... I've never won a tournament in my life, I'm 96th in the world. I'm not downing myself. I'm going to accept everything. I'm going to take the check they give me here, do everything, go to the Masters like they say I can."

Bob Harig covers golf for ESPN.com. He can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com.