A cub put on an impromptu greenside show at the Mountainside Golf Course at the plush Fairmont Hot Springs resort in B.C.

“This is like the circus, look at him,” exclaims the awestruck golfer filming the spectacle.  After doing some rump shaking, back scratching, and playfully pawing at the flagstick, Smokey Jr. spots a ball on the green and ends his act.  He saunters over to it, promptly stuffs it in his mouth and wanders off. 

The climax of the FedEx Cup playoffs, arguably one of the game’s toughest mettle-testers, and inarguably the most lucrative gets underway Thursday.  Three events have whittled the top 125 golfers down to the 30 who will arrive at Atlanta’s East Lake for the TOUR Championship for a chance at a handsome sterling silver Tiffany & Co.-designed chalice and a handsomer eight-figure bonus: $9 million up front with another million tucked into a player’s tax-deferred retirement account for safekeeping.  There’s a bevy of first-timers in the field (nearly 30% of the field) raring for glory and a mega bank account boost-we focus in on the three golfers making their TOUR Championship debut that have a shot at it.

Chris Kirk   “Mr. Composure”

This cool customer who keeps his emotions dialed down to one whether he’s holing a twenty-foot birdy or just shanked a shot into the drink.   A native Atlantan who played college golf in Georgia, Kirk is going to have a very supportive gallery in East Lake. Leading the fray heading into the final shindig, he controls his own destiny still odds makers aren’t as convinced with his ability to not collapse under the pressure as his fans with some bookmakers giving him a 55-1 shot.