Philadelphia, PA -- Here are some rantings from the world of professional golf. Sort of.

PLAYOFFS?

"Playoffs. You want to talk about playoffs?" - Jim Mora, then head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.

That is perhaps my favorite quote in sports history. Why is it in this column? Because the playoffs are coming to LPGA Tour.

As announced by outgoing LPGA Tour Commissioner Ty Votaw, the final event on the 2006 tour schedule will be the LPGA Playoffs at The ADT. The idea is to model this event as a year-end playoff, kind of like the NBA or NHL. Well not the NHL.

Here's how you get in:

First, the season is broken into two halves. Thirty-two players get into this event, which is taking the place of the Tour Championship. Fifteen from the first half, 15 from the second and two wild-cards.

Majors - If you win a major, you're in. Top finishers accumulate points, which will be doubled for majors. Basically, if you finish second in a major, you're going to get in from that half of the season.

Actually, the majority of players are supposed to come from Points Events. These are most of the full-field events where the winners do not automatically get in, but top finishers get points.

Then there's Winner Events. Win one of those events, you're in. No points. Winner take all. Loser leaves town. Inside a 15-foot high steel cage.

And where would we be without the Asian Swing. Based on the events in (duh) Asia, the top performer, based on total aggregate points, gets in.

There are the players. The top players should be the ones that get in because consistently strong performers benefit from the qualification structure.

Details are still sketchy about the format of The LPGA Playoffs, but it sounds like Sunday's final round will be a shootout with a $1 million first-place prize. Votaw hinted that the Playoffs will take place over the first three days of the tournament, so it sounds like Sunday will be the big-money day with the field chopped down.

The idea is an interesting one, but until I hear more about it, I have one question: Is this better than a Tour Championship? You qualify for the Tour Championship based on position on the money list. Now you can get in by winning one tournament, which surely makes that particular event more interesting, but means someone could get into the Playoffs without a reasonable chance of winning it.

For example, say Kelli Kuehne wins the second event of the year in February and it's one of those "Winner Events." This means she gets into the postseason (?), but could do nothing the rest of the year.

The flip side is when a consistently strong player is on the outside looking in. Laura Diaz finishes second in every "Winner Event" (say there are six), but finishes in the 12th-15th place range? She's out, but Kuehne's in. Kuehne with one win and no other top-10s gets one of the 32 spots, while Diaz posts six runner-ups, but is off for The Playoffs.

Now, Diaz could certainly be a wild-card, but who decides? Again, something that will be ironed out in the coming months.

I give Votaw and the LPGA Tour credit because they always try to shake things up. They're willing to try different things in order to make the product better.

They see the NCAA hoops tournament or a Game 7 like Monday night between the Heat and Pistons. The drama is extraordinary for both, but at the end of the day one problem faces the LPGA Tour.

Golf is an individual sport. Unless the field gets substantially cut every day of the tournament, it seems like match-play would be the way to go. Problem is, the LPGA Tour added a Match Play event to the schedule this year.

The LPGA Tour has some kinks to work out, but they have almost 16 months to do it. I have faith they can come up with a unique tournament. If not, go back to a Tour Championship and say, "Hey, we tried."

QUESTIONS

1.) What do you think of David Toms flipping someone the bird at the Memorial?

I'm of two minds on this one. First, it's highly amusing to see a pro golfer give a heckler the finger. I'm sure several have wanted to, but Toms pulled the trigger. You have to love his futile pitch at subtlety. Like he was scratching his face. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, I don't know how the tour can let this slide. Giving the finger to a paying customer, and doing it on America's most-watched network, can't stand.

2.) Jack Nicklaus said last Friday that his competitive career in the United States was over. But, he's in the field at the Champions Tour's Bayer Advantage Classic. Huh?

The Golden Bear always reserved the right to play in the Memorial or some Father/Son events. This tournament is pro-am and Nicklaus is playing with his son, Steve. Still weird to say, "Yeah, my career in America is over. Oh, except for next week."

3.) Why does Ian Woosnam have you laughing?

This is taken from the European Tour web site after Woosnam was tied for the lead during the final round, but lost:

Questioned about the fact that he hasn't won since 1997, Woosnam explained how he had been "cursed" during the Dubai Desert Classic. He said: "I saw a man in Dubai that year and he said if I didn't work with him, the jinx would be on me, and I haven't won a stroke play title since!"

After landing the PGA Championship that season, Woosnam elected not to pursue a working relationship with the mystery man. Since then, his one title came in match play when he won the World Match Play crown at Wentworth Club in 2001.

"I can't find the bloke to take the curse off again" he laughed. "I don't know who he was, other than he was working with a golf magazine and seems to have disappeared. I'll have a go at anything and let him hypnotize me but I didn't take any notice of what he said. I didn't believe it."

Okay.

4.) What are your thoughts about Michelle Wie's participation in the LPGA Championship?

I think it stinks. The Ladies PROFESSIONAL Golf Association Championship should not have participants who are not PROFESSIONALS. Michelle Wie is an AMATEUR. This is all about the LPGA Tour grabbing as much cash as they can, because like it or not, Wie is the second biggest star in women's golf behind Annika Sorenstam. Still, doesn't mean they should change the rules for her to get in.

5.) The winner of the Booz Allen Classic will be...

Ernie Els. He won his second U.S. Open there and will pick up his first PGA Tour win this season.

RANKINGS

Men

1.) Vijay Singh 2.) Tiger Woods 3.) Phil Mickelson 4.) Ernie Els 5.) Retief Goosen 6.) Adam Scott 7.) David Toms 8.) Chris DiMarco 9.) Padraig Harrington 10.) Kenny Perry

Champions

1.) Mark McNulty 2.) Craig Stadler - first a back injury at the Senior PGA. Then a wrist injury last week at the Allianz Championship. Hard to imagine such an impressive physical specimen would succumb to injury, 3.) Hale Irwin 4.) Peter Jacobsen 5.) Dana Quigley 6.) Jim Thorpe 7.) Mike Reid - third the week after winning the major. He's for real. 8.) Tom Watson 9.) Des Smyth 10.) Tom Jenkins

Women

1.) Annika Sorenstam - strongly considered taking everyone else of this list. 2.) Lorena Ochoa 3.) Cristie Kerr 4.) Grace Park 5.) Mi Hyun Kim 6.) Juli Inkster - always think she's dangerous. She'll just have to pick her spots. 7.) Jenny Rosales 8.) Carin Koch 9.) Wendy Ward 10.) Candie Kung

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Fred Couples can still win on tour, but his back needs to be in tip-top shape. He's wearing a brace for the first time, so there will need to be a grace period as he adapts to using it.

A guy named Bart won on the PGA Tour. Don't get too many "Barts" anymore.