Sept. 9, 2008 -- First off, the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup points system is way too complicated, so we begin this week by tackling something far more elementary: America's housing crisis and the residual effect on both the national and global economies.

The big news last week was the announcement that the U.S. government will bail out its struggling mortgage firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to the tune of up to $200 billion. The news was met with cautious optimism by leading financial experts. Homeowners, meanwhile, have reserved judgment until they get answers to their tough questions, such as:

1. Who are Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae?

2. Are they still performing with the Blue Collar Comedy Tour?

Sure, the bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae sounds like the plot synopsis of an episode of The Andy Griffith Show, but, alas, there's nothing funny about the economy, stupid. This most recent government intervention, combined with the fluctuating price of oil, has the stock market stopping and starting like Floyd the Barber trying to do play-by-play of a cockfight. And even days like Monday, when the Dow saw a Fannie/Freddie-influenced jump of nearly 300 points, don't mean much to those of us whose monthly budgets have been pick-pocketed by out-of-control fuel and food prices.

Unfortunately, the Goobers who've created this economic mess don't have the PGA Tour's built-in financial stimulus package that is Tiger Woods. Because the Tour's highly lucrative TV contracts and tournament sponsorships are negotiated in advance and based heavily on the expectation of Woods' presence, short-term setbacks such as his knee injury and subsequent summer absence don't have an immediate impact on the Tour's economy.

That's why the FedEx Cup still comes complete with that $10 million bonus for the winner instead of a year's supply of AVODART and a gift basket filled with other Official Products of the PGA Tour. Without Woods, it's the Tour that has a going problem: too many would-be viewers are going elsewhere during this year's playoffs.

But even if Woods was playing, it remains patently absurd to think enough casual sports fans would ignore the opening weekends of college and pro football -- not to mention an especially electrifying fortnight of U.S. Open tennis -- to justify the Tour's investment and more importantly satisfy its corporate sponsors, like FedEx, who've delivered the cash to fill the Cup.

For example, Latino heartthrob Camilo Villegas won his first PGA Tour event Sunday at the BMW Championship in St. Louis at various points of the second halves of the late games on the NFL's week one schedule. Villegas' well-chiseled body parts, including his Fanny, May have made a few female fans take notice. But a breakthrough victory went largely unnoticed among the other events on the national sporting landscape. The Tour caught a break in that the local professional pigskin outfit played (and rather poorly, at that) a road game in Philly, which no doubt contributed to the tournament's six-figure attendance.

However poorly conceived and scheduled, the playoffs are here to stay. That's okay. Inspired by the Feds' bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Grant Me This has two key suggestions to rescue Feddie X.

1. Remember September -- This was the first thing GMT noticed when the Tour released its first FedEx Cup season schedule a year ago. Any golf tournament - especially those without Tiger -- needs to be completed before the first full weekend of college football.

Problem: That pesky PGA Championship -- run not by the Tour but by the PGA of America -- is smack in the middle of August and isn't going anywhere. It also happens to be, unlike the playoffs, one of the four tournaments players most want to win.

Solution: Currently, the playoffs begin two weeks after the PGA and, in Ryder Cup years like this one, won't end until late September. Instead of competing against football, reduce the number of playoff events from four to three by righting the wrong of killing off the Western Open in Chicago. The BMW Championship drops out of the playoff rotation and becomes the BMW Western Open to be played sometime in the middle of the summer and always in Chicago where it belongs. The Barclay's would remain in metropolitan New York and kick off the playoffs the week before the PGA.

(The Tour's World Golf Championship event at Firestone would have to find another date. Maybe the week before the Barclay's. Hey, something has to give when you try to push seven different tournaments -- four playoffs and three WGCs -- as big-time events.)

The week after the PGA, play the Deutsche Bank in Boston, followed by the Tour Championship. You'd still have four straight weeks of meaningful golf (or five if you begin at Firestone). But with this schedule you'd be done before college football kicks off.

How would the PGA Championship factor into the playoff system? I'm glad you asked.

2. Playoffs?! You're Talkin' About Playoffs?! -- That's right, Coach Mora. Playoffs in any sport ultimately mean one thing: winners move on, losers go home.

How you've played throughout the season determines the top 100. Not the top 144. That's a weekly Tour event. The top 100 on the points list qualify for the Barclay's with the top ten earning the right to skip a week or (in playoff parlance) a bye, just like the top two seeds in each conference get in the NFL postseason. Those top ten plus the top 50 finishers at the Barclay's move on to the Deutsche Bank.

Here's where you insert the PGA proviso: one spot in the Deutsche Bank would be reserved for the winner of the PGA Championship if he hasn't already qualified. At that point, the FedEx Cup points list goes bye-bye. The top 30 and only the top 30 -- regardless of whether or not that includes Woods or anyone else the Tour wants in there -- advance from the Deutsche Bank to the Tour Championship where you hand out the Cup and the cash.

At some point, if you're going to call your series "playoffs," there has to be some consequence for not playing well. Something tells me the world's best players, including No. 1, could handle the pressure.

There you have it: GMT's bailout of Feddie X. And I did it for a lot less than the $200 billion the U.S. will invest in Freddie and Fannie. Now if you would, please forward these suggestions to PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra.

And tell 'em Goober says, "Hey."

Grant Boone is a husband, father, broadcaster, and journalist born in Tennessee and living in Texas. During his nearly 20 years in sports journalism, he's been heard on tape delay in pizza joints half-filled with fully-drunk beer league softball teams and around the world covering major sporting events for ESPN, Turner Sports, Golf Channel, and CBS Radio. To read past installments of Grant Me This, click here. You can contact Grant at mailto:pgagrant@hotmail.com