Mickelson Won't Play In BMW Championship

Mickelson was playing a corporate outing with sponsor BearingPoint in the Chicago area and could not immediately be reached for comment.

If all the best players are going to compete together in these PGA Tour playoffs, it looks as though it won't happen until the fourth and final event next week at the Tour Championship.

Tiger Woods skipped the first playoff event at the Barclays, saying his body and mind needed a break after back-to-back victories at the Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship. Ernie Els and Scott Verplank skipped the Deutsche Bank Championship, which ended Monday.

Mickelson had planned to miss the third event, and winning the Deutsche Bank Championship while paired with Woods gave him a platform to air some of his complaints. Without prompting, he mentioned on NBC Sports after his two-shot victory that he had made several suggestions to Finchem that were not acted upon.

He refused to elaborate what those suggestions were.

Mickelson wasn't the only player to withdraw. British Open champion Padraig Harrington also announced he was taking this week off, citing fatigue. Also missing among the top 70 eligible for the BMW Championship are Paul Goydos and Bernhard Langer, who has said he would not take part in the FedEx Cup, instead playing on the Champions Tour and in Europe.

Goydos was No. 53 and would have needed at least a fifth-place finish to have any chance of moving into the top 30 and qualifying for the Tour Championship next week at East Lake in Atlanta.

-- From News Services