ESPN Golf

You can incite a fiery debate at the 19th hole by making this claim, golf fans: Tiger Woods hasn't had the best season of any golfer in 2007.

Sure, you'll get a few funny looks at first, then some wiseacre stat-head will sound off his accomplishments so far. Five PGA Tour victories, including the PGA Championship. Leader in money earned and scoring average, second in greens in regulation.

And finally comes the question: Who's better? Phil Mickelson? Zach Johnson? Vijay Singh? Which guy?

Here's where you sit back, smile and tell them it's not a guy at all. Her name is Lorena Ochoa. And she just happens to be dominating the LPGA Tour.

Ochoa won the Safeway Classic on Sunday for her sixth title of the season to go along with 10 other top-10 finishes. Perhaps her biggest measure of domination comes on the money list, where she's nearly tripled up on the nearest competitor.

Whether Ochoa has outdone Woods is, like we said, up for debate. But you couldn't have helped but feel a sense of deja vu, as Ochoa grabbed her third straight title this past week.

Meanwhile, the PGA Tour was hardly the same ol', same ol'. In the first-ever playoff event, Steve Stricker won for the first time in six-plus years. As the Weekly 18 suggests, maybe we should expect the unexpected over the next few weeks.

Here's what we learned in the first week of the PGA Tour's inaugural FedEx Cup playoffs: A star-filled event is better than what we've previously seen at this time of year. (At this point last season, the tour was entering its dog days to rival football season.) Players sure look like they care about these events. (Did you see Stricker sobbing for joy just minutes after clinching the victory?) And if Tiger Woods is going to win, he's going to have to come from behind. (He dropped from first to fourth in the points standings following The Barclays.)

But if there's one thing the initial postseason event proved more than anything else, it's that much like playoffs in other sports, anything can happen.

Since Woods claimed the PGA Championship two weeks ago, many experts believed it to be a foregone conclusion that the playoffs would consist of a four-week coronation for the regular-season points leader -- whether he competed in the first one or not. But if recent teams like Major League Baseball's St. Louis Cardinals in 2006 and the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers two years ago -- each of whom won a title as a major underdog -- have taught us anything, it's that conventional wisdom often takes a backseat in the postseason.

How else to account for Stricker's first victory since the 2001 Accenture Match Play Championship? Though he's enjoying a brilliant second act to his career -- he was named 2006 Comeback Player of the Year, recently made the Presidents Cup team and has risen to 14th in the World Ranking -- Stricker was hardly a favorite heading to Westchester.

Perhaps the trick, to borrow a parlance from other sports, is taking things one game at a time, not worrying about the overall race.

"I wasn't out there thinking about the FedEx Cup points," Stricker said. "I mean, obviously winning the tournament is foremost. Everything that comes after that is icing on the cake. But yeah, I'm in a great position now. There's still a long ways to go, and we all know who is coming back next week."

That you-know-who is, of course, Woods. Yes, he's still the favorite, and yes, he still may win, but if there's one thing sports fans know about the postseason, it's that anything can happen. Now the golf world may be learning that as well.

Surprise, surprise. Stricker is widely known as one of the best putters on tour, so it can hardly be considered a shock that he led the field in putting average (1.574 putts per GIR) and was T-2 in total putts (27.5 putts per round). "My putting felt really good," he said about Sunday's final round, during which he needed 29 putts. "Even though the greens here were very difficult to putt, my putting felt good. I felt like if I can just get some opportunities, I was rolling it good enough that I could make some putts."

It's coming, folks. Really. Seriously. Ernie Els will win for the first time on tour since the 2004 WGC-AmEx Championship very soon, if his recent play is any indication. After finishing in third place at Southern Hills, the Big Easy put together rounds of 65-71-68-68 to finish T-4 at Westchester, where he won back in 1996 and '97. His swing looks better and better every week, that putting stroke is back to its old form and the results are there. Don't be surprised to see Els follow his next victory with a few more shortly thereafter.

Hunter Mahan will have better days than his final-round 76 that dropped him from T-3 to T-17. But he may not have many days better than the third-round 9-under 62 that got him into contention in the first place. Mahan put together one of the year's best rounds Saturday, hitting 15 greens in regulation and taking only 25 putts while making nine birdies and nine pars. The 25-year-old has been among the hottest players over the past two months. "I think some guys get on hot streaks and they just kind of go away," he said. "I don't think there's any reason for that. I think if you're a good player, you're a good player. Look at all of the top players, they just keep playing good and they are not on hot streaks; they are just good. I feel like my game is capable of stuff like that, so I'm just trying to do that, just play like that." Don't expect Mahan to go away anytime soon. He's been a dominating player on every level and should continue contending for big events.

If the PGA Tour needs another spokesman, it can do a lot worse than rookie Doug LaBelle II. After squeezing into the 120th position by making birdie on the final hole, LaBelle said all the right things on Sunday -- at least as far as the tour is concerned. "I'm a numbers guy. I have been following the points. I know I have to win or finish second next week to move on to Chicago," said LaBelle, who can actually advance with a two-way tie for second. "The FedEx Cup is exciting TV; it's exciting for fans and for us players. As rookies, we don't know any different. This FedEx Cup isn't confusing for us because this is what we know. We don't know any different."

All in all, it was a pretty good week for Rich Beem. He was 134th in the FedEx Cup race entering The Barclays, but finished T-7 to seal his place in the second round. Then again, the most memorable shot of Beem's week was one that he'd rather forget. Going for the green on the par-5 18th, Beem hit it long ... and left ... and nailed CBS announcer Ian Baker-Finch. "I think he'll be all right," Beem later said. "Luckily, I didn't catch him on the fly but still, to get hit by a golf ball coming that hard can't feel any good." The former British Open champ was felled and remained on the ground for a few moments before getting up and receiving a handshake and apology from the guy who struck the shot.

You can watch full rounds of golf for an awfully long time and not see two putts in the same day like the ones Zach Johnson and Beem holed on Thursday. On No. 15, Johnson had a downhill 49-foot, 7-inch putt for birdie that had about a 20-foot right-to-left break. He found the line, saw it pick up speed as it hit the hole and slammed into the bottom of the cup, later earning him the lead spot in the Top 10 Plays on "SportsCenter," beating out a bevy of walk-off home runs. Beem's putt wasn't any less remarkable. He reached the far left fringe in 2 on the par-5 18th hole, but with the cup 68 feet, 4 inches away, he simply rapped the ball across the large green and saw it snake into the cup for eagle. "My putting stroke felt horrible until about 20 minutes to go," Beem said, "and then all of a sudden I just started working on some things, tempoed the stroke a little better and started rolling it really good."

Say what you will about Woods' weary bones, his lack of commitment to the FedEx Cup or his willingness to stick it to the PGA Tour by skipping the first-ever playoff event, but if you really want to know why he eschewed The Barclays, all you needed to do was watch a few putts at Westchester Country Club. Woods has never been shy about his aversion to bumpy greens -- not only does he not enjoy putting them, but he's often said that they mess with his stroke for future events -- and the surfaces at Westchester were among the bumpier ones on tour all year.

Perhaps it's the bumpy greens, perhaps it's a membership that has long been rumored to not find much value in hosting a PGA Tour event. Whatever the case, after next year's edition of The Barclays, Westchester's consecutive 42-year reign as tournament host will come to an end, as upstart Liberty National will host The Barclays in 2009, it was reported this week. At 7,400 yards, expect Liberty National to be the anti-Westchester; rather than a ball-striker's paradise, the first playoff event will now play into the hands of big bombers. But next year won't signify a definitive end to the current host venue. Westchester will host the tournament at least once from 2010-12, reports stated, with an option for one more year as well.

Whether stimulated by the recent inclusion of native son Mike Weir on the International team or just the byproduct of a golf-hungry region, it was announced this week that tickets for the upcoming Presidents Cup have been sold out for both the Saturday and Sunday rounds at Royal Montreal Golf Club. This year will mark the first time the biennial event is played in Canada and strong ticket sales should be the first puzzle piece to bringing the tournament back to the Great White North in future years.

The Weekly 18 has received plenty of questions about next year's Ryder Cup recently and they all have the same general theme: "How the heck is Mickelson 51st on the U.S. points list?" As you may recall, the PGA of America -- on the recommendation of captain Paul Azinger -- changed the way points are distributed, especially in off years. During those seasons, points can only be accumulated during major championships, rather than all events as was the previous format. Mickelson's major results -- T-24 at the Masters, MCs at the U.S. Open and British Open, and T-32 at the PGA Championship -- leave him trailing the likes of Ken Duke, Paul Goydos, Jason Bohn, D.J. Trahan and Jeff Brehaut entering next year.

Just a friendly reminder: Do not -- we repeat -- do not tune into the Deutsche Bank Championship this Thursday. You won't find it anyway. The tour's annual Labor Day extravaganza remains the lone Friday-Monday tournament, giving players an extra day of rest entering the opening round, while capitalizing on holiday TV ratings for the final day.

Bernhard Langer was one of six players who qualified for The Barclays, but didn't show. Instead, Langer played in the European Tour's KLM Open in advance of his 50th birthday on Monday, finishing T-3 before heading for what's likely to be "greener" pastures on the senior circuit. Langer was joined by his 17-year-old son, Stefan, in the Netherlands, but the tourney wasn't quite as profitable for the amateur. One half of the two-time defending champion duo of the Del Webb Father/Son Challenge, Stefan shot 98-91 to finish the opening two rounds 28 strokes behind the nearest competitor.

Nick Flanagan's performance at the Nationwide Tour's Pete Dye Classic -- he shot 71-74 to miss the cut by 2 strokes -- wasn't all that impressive. But the fact that he actually performed at all really deserves credit. Last week Flanagan won the Xerox Classic for his third victory this season and an automatic promotion to the PGA Tour. But as we detailed in this space a week ago, his timing wasn't great; the promotion didn't allow for inclusion into any of the next four events. But instead of high-tailing it back to his native Australia or spending the week on a beach somewhere, Flanagan chose to compete in West Virginia. "I'm just honoring my commitment to play here and then I'll go back to Australia for a couple of weeks to relax," he said prior to the opening round. "This is a great tournament and I'm happy to be here. I'm not going to stress myself out on the golf course this week. I may not get as angry at myself as I normally do on the course. I'll still be trying to win though because it means so much for next year. The only difference is I'll be a little less stressed upstairs."

As a team, the University of Georgia was loaded with individual talent the past few years, with Chris Kirk, Brian Harman, Adam Mitchell and Richard Scott among the squad's highly-decorated players. But none is hotter right now than Brendon Todd, who won first-team All-America honors as a senior this past season. Since turning pro after graduation, Todd has earned victories on the Tarheel Tour and the Hooters Tour, the latter coming at The Dothan Classic on Sunday. "Coming out of college, I felt like I was going to play well because I had a really solid senior season at Georgia," he said. "But to come out here and win twice in a matter of three weeks is just great." Todd shot 68-65-68-72 to win by 5 strokes.

The coolest new junior golf event will take place this week, as the best young players take a page from the pros. The inaugural Junior Players Championship hits TPC-Sawgrass' Stadium Course, with 78 top teens in the field, including 13 Rolex Junior All-Americans. Competing players will represent 20 different states and 13 different countries, as each tries to do his best Mickelson impersonation, following up Lefty's victory at the venue three months ago.

If Sunday was any early indication, Boston Celtics fans might be in for a season full of victories. New shooting guard Ray Allen teamed with Celtics announcer -- and former UConn teammate -- Donny Marshall to win the Ahmad Rashad Celebrity Classic at the Mohegan Sun Casino at Pautipaug on Sunday. The duo shot a blazing 11-under 61 in the morning two-man scramble, then cruised to victory in the nine-hole afternoon best ball, beating a field that included A-listers Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, plus celebrity golf circuit stalwarts such as Billy Joe Tolliver, Pierre Larouche and Tommy Maddox.

"If I ever had to go to a golf tournament and be a spectator, he's the only guy to watch. I want to watch him go play golf. If he wasn't in the field, I would be sitting in the skyboxes just getting smashed, watching it on TV. He's the only guy I would literally go out and watch because it's so much fun to watch him play golf."
-- Rich Beem on Tiger Woods.

Jason Sobel is ESPN.com's golf editor. He can be reached at Jason.Sobel@espn3.com