What a great weekend for the PGA at the Tour Championship. In the mix on the final day was a great collection of both talented, marketable and exciting players in Camilo Villegas, Sergio Garcia, Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson.

Remarkably, Villegas came from behind to win his second straight huge tournament (he also won the BMW Championship, the third leg of the FedExCup playoffs) after having never won before in 85 starts on Tour. Once again, golf is a crazy game.

However, he didn’t win the FedExCup trophy or the 10 million dollars in bonus money that went to the winner of that title. No, that honor went to Vijay Singh, who finished tied for 22nd place … out of 30 players.

You see, Singh had won two tournaments of the four-tournament playoffs as well. Just the first two, which clinched the cup early on and took out a lot of the drama the PGA Tour had hoped to produce.

You can’t blame the PGA for trying, but golf just doesn’t lend itself to a playoff like the other sports. Still, the four end-of-the-year tournaments produced great fields and great golf so all in all it was a success.

The continued emergence of some of the younger stars like Villegas, Kim and Garcia was also just what golf needed with Tiger still on the sidelines. Before this past month I wouldn’t have thrown Villegas into this level, but now you can’t keep him out of the upper echelon.

In terms of pure star power, though, Kim has clearly emerged as the next big thing following his Ryder Cup heroics. He was constantly fist-pumping, waving his arms to get the crowd pumped and running around high-fiving teammates. He was America’s answer to the jolt of energy Sergio Garcia has provided the European team the past decade and he was also the team’s best player. And to think, he’s only 23.

And thus ends the last meaningful weekend in golf. Sure, the Fall Finish is still to come, but don’t expect to see players like Kim or Villegas making there way to the Frys.com or the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (I’m not making that up).

There will be some drama, though, with players like my Wake Forest classmate Bill Haas trying to earn their PGA Tour card for next year, so yours truly will probably stay tuned.

Also, congrats to Metropolis Country Club assistant Colin Amaral on his win at the Met PGA Championship. I was at Glen Oaks Club the final two days and the 35-year-old played remarkably in winning by a staggering six shots. He also picked up a check for $15,000. Not bad for three days work.

The International Junior Golf Tour recently made a stop in Long Island with a tournament at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow.

Several local players participated and did well, led by Brewster junior Mike Miller, who finished in second place in the boys 16-19 division. Miller fired rounds of 69 and 70 to finish at 5-under-par and three shots behind Jim Liu of Smithtown. Miller finished three shots clear of Dillon Corbo (Montville, N.J.) in third place.

Scarsdale’s Robert Gelber finished in a tie for fourth at 1-under with scores of 71 and 72.

White Plains’ Aaron Klimchuk, who plays at Rye Country Day, finished 12th.

In the 13-15 division, Max Christiana, a sophomore at Fox Lane, came in 3rd with rounds of 75-70. That final round included a 3-under 33 on the back nine. John Morrissey (White Plains) came in 7th and Mike DiTursi (Harrison) came in 9th.

Sorry for the late update, but Brewster rising junior Mike Miller captured the Met PGA’s Tournament of Champions at Ardsley Country Club … by seven shots. Miller fired a 4-under-67 in round one and followed that up with a 72 in round two to finish at 3-under and defeat runners-up Luke Feehan (Mahopac) and Sam Bernstein (Bronx).  Cortlandt Manor’s Jon Renza and Briarcliff’s John Hough, teammates on Fordham Prep’s varsity team, finished tied for seventh. We’re winding down on a very busy summer of Junior Golf, but let me know if there’s anything else I should be aware of. I’m about to dive into a season of high school volleyball, but I will still be around to talk golf. And as long as this weather keeps up, I’ll continue to play at a torrid pace as well… 

I maintain that the reason the golf world works itself into such a tizzy “over the selection of the Ryder Cup team”:http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080903/SPORTS01/809030392/1108/SPORTS01 is because it’s closest the game gets to other sports.

Think about it. In the other sport I cover, hockey, the two most anxiously-anticipated days are the day of the trade deadline and the first day of free agency—fueling my theory that as much as fans like hockey, they actually like playing amateur general manager more.

With golf’s disparate collection of independent contractors, you can’t do that. When Phil Mickelson tees off in the BMW Championship this week, what are fans going to say? “Oh man, Phil Mickelson is starting Phil Mickelson again! What a mistake!”

The exception is the Ryder Cup and to a lesser extent, the Presidents Cup. Only here can you mull topics like chemistry, complementary pairings, and of course, speculate endlessly on the behind-the-scenes activities in “the team room” (the popular notion is 12 guys guffawing around a ping-pong table, but who’s to say it’s not 12 guys scrolling mindlessly through their Blackberrys?).

I admit, I get caught up in it, too, to the extent that when “Azinger announced Steve Stricker, J.B. Holmes, Hunter Mahan, and Chad Campbell at the press conference in the city today”:http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080903/SPORTS01/809030392/1108/SPORTS01, I immediately turned to a buddy to my left and practically screamed, “Campbell?” This would have been fine if Azinger’s assistant captain Olin Browne and his wife weren’t sitting right in front of me.

But even then, they barely flinched. That’s what this whole process is all about, after all. You can’t have the Ryder Cup without the requisite mentions of sportsmanship and camaraderie. And you can’t have it without fans and media second-guessing every move.

And that’s even before Captain Azinger rolls out his selection in uniforms…