The third year of the PGA “playoffs” — better known as the FedExCup — has teed off at The Barclays at Liberty National in Jersey City.

Although the rules of the four-tournament playoff-formula have changed each year, one aspect of the FedExCup has remained constant. There are high stakes involved — with a $7.5 million total purse and $1.35 million winner’s share this week, along with a grand total of $35 million in bonus money at the end of the playoffs, including a $10 million check for the FedExCup Champion. Still, no one, including the players, is quite sure how to add up the points over four weeks.

“I haven’t looked at the points,” said Phil Mickelson, one of the sharpest and most business-savvy players on Tour. “I just know if you play well, you do well.”

Last year, Vijay Singh claimed the FedExCup title by getting off to a quick start, winning The Barclays on the second hole of a playoff with Sergio Garcia before taking the Deutsche Bank Championship outright with a blistering 22-under 262 the following week. After that, the Big Fijian was able to cruise to a T-44 at the BMW Championship and a T-22 at season-ending THE TOUR Championship before cashing his $10 million FedExCup Champion’s check.

The inaugural FedExCup fittingly was won by Tiger Woods, who skipped The Barclays before dominating the final three events of the playoffs — with a runner-up at the Deutsche Bank Championship followed by impressive back-to-back wins at the BMW Championship and THE TOUR Championship.

This season, Tiger enters the FedExCup playoffs as the man to beat once again, leading the PGA Tour in both money earned ($7,688,163) and victories (5). And although Tiger’s wins have come in prestigious events — the Arnold Palmer Invitational (March 29), Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament (June 7), his own AT&T National (July 5), the Buick Open (August 2) and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational (August 9) — none of his victories were major championships.

For the first time since 2004, Woods failed to win any of the four major championships, finishing with a T-6 at The Masters, a T-6 at the U.S. Open, only his second career missed cut at the British Open Championship and a painful runner-up finish to unknown South Korean underdog Y.E. Yang at the PGA Championship just two weeks ago.

“That (Sunday) night was tough, no doubt,” said Tiger, who was carried a perfect 14-0 record when entering the final round of a major with the lead, before falling to Yang.

“It was disappointing that I didn’t win, especially since I was hitting it so well on Sunday. But it’s just like golf, you move on to the very next week, and went home and took a few days off away from golf and didn’t touch the clubs after three straight weeks of playing golf just about every day. I was a little tired of it and started working for it this week.”

With the major championship season over for 2009, Tiger is just one of the 125 players who had enough points to qualify for the FedExCup — hoping to etch his name on the trophy and earn a $10 million bonus, which is no small number even for the highest earning athlete on the planet.

Entering the weekend at The Barclays, however, everyone is chasing PGA Tour rookie and Q-School graduate Webb Simpson. The 24-year-old Wake Forest grad shot 66-68 for a score of 8-under and a two-shot lead heading into Saturday’s round. Even more impressive, the young gun kept his composure in windy, rainy New Jersey conditions on the 7,400-yard, Par-71 course.

“It was a crazy-long day,” said Simpson. “It was just one of those long, tough days. But I feel good with where I’m at and stayed patient until the end. I’m glad to be done and get out of the rain.”

Meanwhile, Tiger continues to lurk at Even-par after two rounds, along with major winners such as Padraig Harrington (Even), Jim Furyk (Even) and Mike Weir (Even). Other big names like Sergio Garcia (-1), Ernie Els (-2), Steve Stricker (-3) and Ian Poulter (-3) headline a star-studded leaderboard with an unlikely leader, adding another element of intrigue to the first round of the FedExCup Playoffs.

Weather permitting, the third and fourth rounds of The Barclays will be televised by CBS on Saturday (3:00-6:00 p.m. ET) and Sunday (2:00-6:00 p.m. ET).