The Mercedes-Benz Championship marked the start of the PGA Tour's novel (and complex) FedEx Cup race. After a week awash in talk of points and resets and playoff scenarios, here's how it will work

	After six near misses Singh won his first Mercedes and got the jump in the FedEx Cup race. Fred Vuich/SI

By Alan Shipnuck

Following the first round of the new golf season, at last week's Mercedes-Benz Championship at Kapalua's Plantation Course in Maui, Hawaii, Vijay Singh sauntered into the press room expecting to discuss the 69 that had put him among the early leaders. Instead he was asked about the FedEx Cup, the overarching name for the PGA Tour's radically reorganized schedule.

"There's so much going on about the FedEx Cup, I'm tired of listening to it, you know," said Singh. "It's nothing else but the FedEx Cup."

Well, that didn't take long, did it? But if Singh (who would go on to shoot 14 under and win by two shots) has exhausted his patience after one day, how are the rest of us supposed to survive the next 36 weeks, during which the FedEx Cup will be relentlessly hyped as golf's greatest invention since the beer-cart girl? For those who have somehow missed the endless analysis on the Golf Channel or the blizzard of press releases from Tour headquarters or the barrage of ads during the NFL playoffs, the FedEx Cup is a seasonlong points race culminating in a four-tournament shootout to crown an overall champion, who will be rewarded with $10 million. The concept was obviously cribbed from NASCAR's Nextel Cup, though football was the primary motivator; the old Tour schedule dragged on to the point of apathy, ending on a Sunday in early November when sports fans were in the mood for Ickey Woods, not Tiger Woods.

In announcing the creation of the Cup, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said, "We're the only major sport that doesn't have a playoff ... the only sport that doesn't have a stronger finish than our regular season." Finchem has staked much of his legacy on changing that, but one week in, the FedEx Cup has raised more questions than it has answered. At the risk of further antagonizing Singh, here are the key issues in golf's new world order.

1. Will Tiger and Phil play more?

Sure doesn't look like it. In formulating the Cup, Finchem went out of his way to solicit the input and support of Woods and Mickelson, but both exercised their rights as independent contractors to blow off the Mercedes-Benz Championship, a monumental embarrassment to the Tour.

All will be forgiven if golf's biggest draws soldier through the Cup's glitzy four-tournament finish, but that's hardly a given. Mickelson has traditionally gone into hibernation following August's PGA Championship, and the Cup begins its so-called playoffs two weeks after the PGA. A week after the playoffs end is the Presidents Cup. Throw in the Bridgestone Invitational (Woods is two-time defending champ) the week before the PGA Championship, and that's seven big-time events in nine weeks.

Woods has always played some of his best golf late in the year, but this time around he will be eager to bond with his first child, reportedly due in early July, and possibly burned out from chasing a Tiger Slam or Grand Slam, or both.