The chase for the FedExCup is making dollars for the PGA TOUR, but is it making sense? Columnist Grant Boone doesn't think so. But other than the advertising, rules and format of the playoffs, he is keeping an open mind.

By Grant Boone, Special to PGA.com

First off, it was a big week for apologies, beginning in Richmond, Va., where Michael Vick acknowledged he used bad judgment in quarterbacking a dogfighting ring. Saying it's bad judgment to train dogs to rip each other's flesh off is like saying Miss South Carolina had trouble collecting her thoughts during last week's Miss Teen USA pageant. (If you haven't seen it, click here. WARNING: Contains graphic confusion.)

If that video is any indication, the best Miss SC can hope for in life is making jillions of dollars trading on her looks in a society that worships at the altar of physical beauty. Sad.

Then there's Larry Craig, the United States senator from Idaho who one-upped Vick on Tuesday. Rather than apologizing and pleading guilty, Craig apologized for pleading guilty to charges of disorderly conduct stemming from an incident in a Minneapolis airport restroom on June 11. Said he did nothing "inappropriate" but thought it would quell rumors if he went ahead and admitted guilt. The only thing he quelled was his likelihood of being reelected. Without going into the embarrassing details, let's just say it's usually not high-percentage campaign strategy to have your name lumped into the same national headlines with the words "restroom" and "incident." Based on the testimony of the undercover cop -- he was off-doody -- in the stall next to Craig, it would appear the senator doesn't have legs on which to stand or sit, depending on the business at hand. Perhaps he should try to claim squatter's rights.

I have no idea where PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem was when he came up with the idea of these playoffs. And despite spending last week in the crapper of public opinion, the Commish still hasn't apologized for foisting this bogusness on an unsuspecting golf world. On the contrary, the TOUR's PR machine keeps pumping out ads like this full-pager in Tuesday's USA Today:

Every drive. Every wood. Every iron. Every bunker. Every chip. Every putt. Every shot counts.

It appears Miss South Carolina has found work writing ad copy. It's repetitive at best, inaccurate at its worst, and repetitive at best. Every shot counts? What, as opposed to regular TOUR events where players buy mulligans before each round?

When I see how vigorously the TOUR is promoting the playoffs, I feel like I'm watching that old Saturday Night Live commercial for First Citiwide, the change bank (click here for the original)

"We had a customer come in the other day, a Mr. Singh. He had just played The Barclays but didn't do very well. He asked if he could play this week at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, even though he missed the cut at Westchester. We had no choice but to tell him, 'Mr. Singh, these are the PGA TOUR Playoffs. Of course, you can play. It's what we do.'"

The TOUR would be better off taking SNL's MetroCard approach.

Player: "It was raining pretty hard when I got into Boston. I was in the taxi when I realized I'd missed the cut at The Barclays. That's when the manager of the hotel suggested I call the PGA TOUR Playoffs 24-hour help line. Because I wouldn't be talking to a recording. I'd be in touch with a real person."

TOUR: "Okay, so I'm sitting here at, like, 3 in the morning. I haven't had a break in two hours. And the phone rings, and there's some guy on the other end with this big hard-luck story about missing the cut, so I ask him, 'What do you want me to do about it? Bust out crying?' Like I've got nothing better to do."

Player: "She got right to the point and wanted to know what she could do about it. So I told her I'd like to play the Deutsche Bank."

TOUR: "Now this is the part that gets me. He's telling me how he missed the cut at Westchester but still wants to play this week! You know, like I'm the playoff fairy or somethin'. Like I've got some magic wand and all I've got to do is wave it around and fix everything for him. So I ask him, 'Hey, if I've got that kind of power, what am I doing here talking to a loser like you at 3 in the morning?' Of course, he didn't have an answer for that."

Player: "I didn't have the information she needed."

History will show Steve Stricker won the first PGA TOUR playoff event. And his is a great story of career redemption, as evidenced by his emotional outburst after winning for the first time in six years. But Stricker won't get full credit for his victory in the same way he didn't for his last win -- the 2001 Accenture Match Play Championship -- because Tiger Woods wasn't there. It ought to be enough that Stricker birdied four of the last five holes to beat a solid field at a storied course like Westchester without the TOUR trying to artificially inflate the TOURnament's prestige.

Maybe I'll feel differently about the playoffs after Tiger tees it up the next couple of weekends. Maybe the FedExCup will overshadow the beginning of the college and pro football seasons and the end of baseball's pennant races. Maybe the TOUR's right about these playoffs, and I'm wrong. If so, I'll be the first to apologize. In fact, I'll even offer a money-back guarantee. You can redeem it at any First Citiwide branch worldwide.

Grant Boone is a husband, father, golf broadcaster, and sports journalist based in Abilene, Texas. His column appears on PGA.com each Wednesday and every day during major championships and other big events. He can be contacted at pgagrant@hotmail.com.

The views and opinions expressed here do not reflect those of PGA.com or The PGA of America.