Courtesy: AP

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem doesn't know whether to reach for the champagne or the Excedrin.

After enduring Tiger's absence in round one of the much-vaunted FedEx Cup playoff series, Finchem was over the moon that Woods went head-to-head with Phil Mickelson in round two, especially on Monday when the two of them were paired together and fighting for the lead.

Phil wins; Tiger is T2. And Finchem began to believe his own rhetoric: the FedEx Cup WAS creating excitement and it WAS going to be successful, after all.

On Tuesday, Mickelson confirmed the hints he'd given while holding the Deutsche Bank trophy Monday.

He's dropping out of number 3, the BMW Championship.

Now Finchem is again faced with the loss of one of the stars of his star-crossed movie, The Flight of the FedEx Cup.

But the reasons can come as no surprise. Mickelson says quite simply: I'm tired and I want time away from all this.

Actually, he said

"I want to have a balance in my life. It's been the last three months having no more than two days off at a time and working to do corporate outings in between.
Our time [with his family] together has struggled and I want to have a balance there. I'm not really sure how it's going to play out."

Bingo. There is too much golf being played during the season and far too much expectation on the part of Finchem and the PGA Tour that these players will suck that up and really start to play golf over a four-round, don't-miss-a-single-event playoff.

Mickelson is pulling out of number 3 for the same reasons that Tiger skipped the first one and Ernie Else gave the Deutsche Bank a miss: a life off the course.

The pursuit of a 10 million dollar first prize, payable only at the end of a career, isn't the juice that the PGA Tour thought it would be.

The old TV commercial campaign needs to be re-worked. Yes, these guys are good. But these guys are human, too.

Finchem is on record saying that he will assess the FedEx Cup after the season is over.

You can take that to the bank.