Winners & Losers

WINNERS

PGA Tour Rank and File
The Tour's bottom-feeders, desperate to finish exempt in the top 125 or conditionally exempt in the top 150, feasted on the Fall Series. In the end, a record 99 players won more than $1 million.

Phil Mickelson
In May he ended any controversy over his split with coach and crony Rick Smith by winning the players Championship. But that wasn't as sweet as his Labor Day stare down of Tiger Woods at the Deutsche Bank Championship, which validated the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Canadians
The spirited yet gracious north-of-the-border fans were the definition of sportsmanship during the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal. even U.S. partisans secretly cheered when Mike Weir saved face for the host country with his fine play, especially his singles win over Woods.

FedEx Cup Playoffs
A million things could've gone wrong with the inaugural series, but nothing did. There were four fantastic winners: Steve Stricker's Cinderella story at Westchester, Mickelson's squeaker over Tiger in Boston, Woods turning on the jets with a closing 63 in Chicago and then Tiger crushing the field in Atlanta. Most important: The first FedEx Cup has Woods's name on it.

Woody Austin
The Woodman blistered the field in Memphis and finished second to Tiger at the PGA. But it was his pratfall into the drink during the Presidents Cup that could've been a winner on America's Funniest Home Videos.

The Memory of an Immortal
The feel-good victory of the year belonged to EDS Byron Nelson Championship winner Scott Verplank, a native of Dallas who, while growing up and then later in his career, had been mentored by the legendary Lord Byron.

Players Championship
The so-called fifth major was moved from March to May, and while the weather wasn't much better, the conditions at TPC Sawgrass were. The Stadium course played firmer and faster.

Boo Weekley
The Jethro Bodine of the Tour was a first-time winner (Harbour Town) and smart enough to stay in character. Asked if he'd spent time in the U.K. this year, Boo replied, "No, sir, I was in Scotland."

Tiger's 2007
Woods won six times (for a career total of 61), including a major ( PGA, 13 overall), and brilliantly bookended '07, starting the year by stretching his Tour winning streak to seven and ending it with wins in Akron, at the PGA and twice in the playoffs.

LOSERS

Fall Series
The seven stops after the FedEx Cup playoffs had some name winners, but sponsors couldn't have been happy after their investments induced one top 10 player ( Phil Mickelson) to tee it up. Equally alarming was the dearth of spectators and Golf Channel viewers (average rating for the first five events: 0.30), who must've thought they were watching the Nationwide tour.