Winners of the four FedExCup Playoffs events (l-r): Nick Watney at The Barclays; Rory McIlroy at the Deutsche Bank Championship and the BMW Championship; Brandt Snedeker at the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola.
With the FedExCup Playoffs now over, here's a look at some of the best odds and ends during the terrific four-tournament stretch:
BEST USE OF A FRIEND: Dustin Johnson's caddy Bobby Brown tweaked his back putting on his socks on Friday morning. The pain got so bad that Johnson called his former Coastal Carolina teammate, Cameron Hooper, out of the crowd at the 11th hole and sent Brown home to rest. Hooper, who roomed with Johnson and now works in the Atlanta area as a financial planner, said his duties were simple: "I just tried to catch the ball when he threw it to me." Hooper, who was wearing loafers -- with no socks -- on Friday, made sure he had tennis shoes on the rest of the week as he continued to help his friend. Brown is expected back for the Ryder Cup, and Hooper goes back to crunching numbers, not yardages.
BEST USE OF A FRIEND OF A FRIEND: During the week of The Barclays, a friend of Nick Watney set up a lesson for the pro with Darrell Kestner, a club pro at Deepdale, a course near Bethpage State Park. The two worked on Watney's setup ... and it paid off, as Watney won the Playoffs opener, ranking 17th in the field in strokes gained-putting. He had entered the week tied for 135th in that category for the season.
BEST BREWING FRIENDSHIP/PLAYING PARTNERS: Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy had never been paired at an official PGA TOUR event until they were grouped together for the first two rounds of The Barclays due to their ranking on the FedExCup points list. They would go on to play five of the 16 Playoffs rounds in the same group. Also, they seemed to enjoy each other's company, the friendship between the former No. 1 and current No. 1 developing in front of our eyes. They even shared an interview together with the Golf Channel at the BMW Championship. "A great kid," Tiger said of Rory. "Every time that we get paired up, I'm obviously very excited for it," Rory said.
BEST MOMENTUM RIDE: With a quick turnaround after his win on Labor Day at the Deutsche Bank Championship, Rory McIlroy kept the hot hand going by winning the BMW Championship. Both wins, of course, followed his win at the PGA Championship just two weeks before the Playoffs started. Honorable mention goes to Sergio Garcia, who won the final Regular Season event, the Wyndham Championship, then took the 54-hole lead the next week at The Barclays before fading on the final day.
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A NON-WINNER: Dustin Johnson became just the third player in FedExCup Playoffs history to produce a top-10 finish in each of the four tournaments -- T-3 at The Barclays, T-4 at the Deutsche Bank Championship, T-6 at the BMW Championship and T-10 at the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola. The other two players to do it: Rory Sabbatini in 2007 and Padraig Harrington in 2009. Johnson finished eighth in the final standings after starting the Playoffs at No. 26.
BEST RETURN AFTER A LENGTHY ABSENCE: Golf fans in Indianapolis had not seen a PGA TOUR event since the 1991 PGA Championship until this year when the BMW Championship was held at Crooked Stick. Despite some dicey weather, the fans came out in droves, huge galleries lining the fairways. "The whole week was incredible," Tiger Woods said after his final round at Crooked Stick. "The fans are just absolutely fantastic."
BEST ADDITION OF A WORLD-CLASS PLAYER: Lee Westwood was not involved in the FedExCup Playoffs during the first five years. But he watched them on TV and "saw that I was missing out on big tournaments." In his first go-round, he produced finishes of T-5, T-13, T-2 before finishing a disappointing 30th at the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola. "It's certainly not just another golf tournament," Westwood said. "I would say that the FedExCup events are higher profile, aren't they?"
BEST PROOF THAT THESE GUYS REALLY ARE GOOD: With ideal scoring conditions in the first round at the Black Course at Bethpage Start Park, 34 players shot rounds in the 60s. Compare that to the 2002 U.S. Open at the Black Course, in which just 26 rounds in the 60s were shot in all four days that week. "I didn't think it was playing that easy," Sergio Garcia said after shooting a 66, "but obviously there were a lot of good scores." Honorable mention: Lift, clean and place rules were in effect for all four days of the BMW Championship, allowing players to blister Pete Dye's course. Rory McIlroy won with a score of 20 under, and 22 other players finished in double-digits below par. "We're always going to shoot low numbers if you have ball in hand," Tiger Woods said.
BEST LEADERBOARD ... EVER? After 54 holes of the BMW Championship, the top of the leaderboard included most of golf's biggest names. Half of the top 16 players on the leaderboard had won a combined 29 majors, and four had spent time as world No. 1 -- Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood and Vijay Singh. "An incredible leaderboard," said Adam Scott.
BEST ROUNDS: So many great rounds to choose from during the Playoffs. These aren't necessarily all of the lowest rounds but they were certainly impressive: