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ATLANTA — Any touring professional will contend that he plays to compete, be successful and win trophies. That’s all well and good, but let’s face facts: Ain’t nothin’ wrong with some cold hard cash.

The cash is colder and harder — figuratively, at least — at this week’s FedEx Cup finale, where the grand-prize winner will receive a $10 million bonus on top of earnings for the Tour Championship.

“The money is outrageous,” Paul Casey said. “I mean, every day I sort of have to smile at what we’re playing for, and I love the fact that we’re playing for it.”

Each of the 30 players in this field is eligible to claim that eight-figure paycheck, so here are suggestions as to how each one could spend the money.

1. Matt Kuchar: The FedEx leader was asked before the opening round what he would do with the newfound treasure. “I really don’t know,” he said. “I’d hope I could turn it into a lot more. That would probably be my thought. But there’s nothing really that I need. There’s nothing that I really want.” He did just move into a new house, but paying the mortgage is boring. For the PGA Tour’s most consistent — yet most underrated — player this year, he should buy nothing, instead opting to walk around with $10 million strapped to his body to remind everyone of his success.

2. Dustin Johnson: He might want to buy Whistling Straits and blow up some of those bunkers, but that would take a few more FedEx wins. Maybe he could pony up for a bunker-less course instead. Call it Shut Your Trap Country Club.

3. Charley Hoffman: You might think this would be hair-related, but the mop-top ‘do suits him. He should pay off a few thousand New England fans to follow him around screaming, “Chollie!” Hey, it worked at TPC Boston.

4. Steve Stricker: Get this man a fancy new mantel to hang over the fireplace. If he wins the FedEx Cup, it will be his third victory of the season, very likely meaning a Player of the Year award to go with two previous Comeback POYs.

5. Paul Casey: It would take a little bribery, but he should buy himself a spot on this year’s Ryder Cup team. Whadya say, Monty? Split the $10 million if another player “accidentally” gets injured and has to bow out of the festivities?

6. Jason Day: His wife, Ellie, recently confided that the 22-year-old has become a big-time fan of the band Journey and even wants to throw an ’80s party in the offseason. Heck, start throwing around this kind of cash and they’ll be singing “Don’t Stop Believin’” in the backyard.

7. Luke Donald: The PGA Tour’s resident artist probably could add a lesser Van Gogh or two to the living room walls with this payday.

8. Ernie Els: What do you get for the man who has everything? Or, more to the point: What does the man who has everything get for himself? The Big Easy was named to the World Golf Hall of Fame already this week. With this kind of money, he could add his own wing onto the place.

9. Martin Laird: How about a victory party? For a guy whose only U.S. win came at a Fall Finish event last year, this could be a pretty sweet celebration.

10. Phil Mickelson: Ho-hum. Just a little more pocket change. Maybe buy some jet fuel? Pay the kids’ allowance for the next few weeks? Oh, the possibilities.

11. Jim Furyk: Bet he could use the money to buy a really, really good alarm clock. Duh, that was too easy.

12. Geoff Ogilvy: Maybe the PGA Tour’s brightest and most thoughtful player could purchase space to write his own column. Because, you know, it costs $10 million to have your own column. Uh, moving on …

13. Justin Rose: See: Casey, Paul.

14. Adam Scott: Not that he needs the help, but the heartthrob could use the cash to court some pretty young lasses after his breakup with tennis star Ana Ivanovic.

15. Hunter Mahan: With an impending wedding to a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, he could afford to pull a Jerry Jones and invite some overpriced wide receivers. Or, at the very least, a supersize TV screen lingering above the festivities.

16. Ryan Palmer: He could buy status as the pre-eminent Palmer in golf history. Well, at least monetarily. Don’t believe it? The $10 million would be more than five times Arnie’s career earnings.

17. Retief Goosen: It’s not what he buys that’s important but what happens directly afterward. If stoic Goose takes the title, will he crack an elusive smile?

18. Bubba Watson: The long-driving, pink shaft-wielding, Twitter-addicted, up-and-coming superstar should buy something nice for Jason Gore. Five years ago, Gore won three Nationwide Tour events to receive an in-season promotion to the big leagues. At year’s end, instead of just the top 20 graduating to the PGA Tour, it was extended to 21. Who was 21st? None other than Watson — and he has never looked back.

19. Zach Johnson: Maybe the movie, “Just a Normal Guy from Iowa” will finally get green-lighted. Joaquin Phoenix, you in for $10 million?

20. Kevin Na: How about a few slices of humble pie? Before the final event, he tweeted, “TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP!!! I am going to WIN!” Of course, if he does, that’s a pretty strong prediction.

21. Tim Clark: Perhaps he could put out an APB for himself. Since breaking through for his first PGA Tour victory at the Players Championship, he pulled just two more top-10s in 11 subsequent starts.

22. Ben Crane: The PGA Tour’s human rain delay could spring for some matches to light a fire under his you-know-what. OK, that was mean. But if he wins, s-l-o-o-o-w play will become all the rage.

23. K.J. Choi: For a guy who learned the game by reading books and watching videos featuring Jack Nicklaus, let’s go one better: Private lessons from the Golden Bear himself.

24. Jeff Overton: This former Indiana University standout still resides in his college town of Bloomington, Ind. Here’s guessing this kind of cash could buy a pretty sweet dorm room.

25. Camilo Villegas: In the immortal words of Peter Griffin: “I’ll take 5,000 chicken fajitas.” Or cheeseburgers. Or steaks. Something to fatten up this flat-belly a little bit.

26. Ryan Moore: Dude should just go on a $10 million shopping spree. Vests, ties, whatever. Have at it. The PGA Tour’s most individual personality would be the least affected by a big check.

27. Robert Allenby: Let’s see him spring for lots of frozen fish. Like, a few fridges’ worth. He recently injured himself while fishing on his boat — and no, it wasn’t the first time. Might need to start accruing his seafood at a safer location.

28. Nick Watney: Sunglasses. Lots of ‘em. How come? Future is really bright for this budding superstar.

29. Kevin Streelman: Perhaps he could use the money toward a little gift for the PGA of America. After all, by simply reaching the Tour Championship field, he already has clinched a spot in each of next year’s first three majors. An exemption into the PGA Championship would give him four of a kind.

30. Bo Van Pelt: The 30th and final man to reach the playoff finale should spend his winnings — should he finish first — on lottery tickets. After all, for him to clinch the prize, he needs Kuchar to finish 29th or worse, Dustin Johnson to finish seventh or worse, Hoffman to finish fifth or worse, Stricker to finish fourth or worse and Casey and Day to finish third or worse. If those things all happen, well, he has just as good a chance of hitting it big on Powerball.

http://espn.go.com/golf/blog/_/name/sobel_jason/id/5607916/some-not-sound-money-advice-pros?campaign=rss&source=GOLFHeadlines

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LEMONT, Ill. — In the four weeks that have passed since one of the biggest rules snafus in major championship history, the debate over whether that patch of sand at Whistling Straits constituted a bunker has raged among all levels of golf followers.

Dustin Johnson and his caddie, Bobby Brown, have heard it, oh, say a million times, often with some wise guy in the gallery bellowing out “it’s not a bunker” as the golfer sets up to play a shot.

The mistake Johnson made at the PGA Championship — regardless of your take on the bunker fiasco — is the type of thing that could scar a player for life.

Only a handful of players are frequent contenders at golf’s biggest tournaments, and to deny yourself a shot at victory because you grounded your club in a hazard … it still defies belief.

Johnson had to live with that, on top of his Pebble Beach implosion, where he took a 3-shot lead into the final round of the U.S. Open, triple-bogeyed the second hole and went on to shoot 82.

He had a chance two weeks ago at the Barclays, playing in the final group with Matt Kuchar, and shot 72 to tie for ninth.

So, yeah, Sunday’s birdie-par finish at Cog Hill and a final-round 69 to win the BMW Championship by a stroke over Paul Casey was bigger than one of Johnson’s mammoth tee shots.

“Everybody around here knows exactly what we’re dealing with since that Sunday at Pebble, and this one is special, you know what I mean?” Brown said. “I’m not saying he’s going to be the best player in the world, we’ve got a long way to go for stuff like that. But I don’t think I’d switch bags with anybody.”

Johnson put it more simply.

“To finally get it done, especially after all the things I’ve gone through this summer … to finally get it done on Sunday, it can’t feel any better.”

The long-hitting player from South Carolina actually has gotten it done on several occasions. This was his fourth PGA Tour victory, but easily the biggest of his career.

He earned $1.35 million and moved to second in the FedEx Cup standings, which means the 26-year-old Johnson — along with Kuchar, Charley Hoffman, Steve Stricker and Casey — controls his own destiny at East Lake.

If any of those five players wins the tournament, he would capture the FedEx Cup and its $10 million bonus.

“That would look nice in the bank account,” Johnson said, smiling.

As big as all these paydays are — Johnson is now second on the PGA Tour money list to Kuchar with more than $4.3 million this year — what the victory signifies is probably worth more.

The questions about Pebble Beach and Whistling Straits are not likely to subside — with comparisons to Roberto De Vicenzo surely to be part of golf lore — but at least the sharpness to them will have dulled with such a nice, satisfying victory to follow.

“Pebble taught me a lot,” he said. “That’s where I learned the most I think after getting off to such a rough start. I kind of maybe got a little fast. Everything starts moving fast in a situation like that. So I really learned to be patient and not rush things.

“I didn’t rush any shot today. I took my time, took practice swings. Even when I felt myself trying to rush a little bit, I would stop, put my club back in the bag and come back and go through my routine and just take things slow.”

A bit of help from Casey didn’t hurt, either. Ranked ninth in the world, the Englishman was looking for his bit of redemption, too. Having been spurned by European Ryder Cup team captain Colin Montgomerie two weeks ago for one of the at-large picks, Casey was in a great position to post a satisfying “take that” victory.

After birdies at the 11th and 12th holes, Casey had a 3-shot lead. But then he made three straight bogeys to fall back into a tie with Johnson, whose 54-degree wedge shot to a few feet at the 17th hole set up the birdie that got it done.

“Congratulations to Dustin Johnson,” Casey said. “He’s gone through a lot the last month or so and he obviously played wonderful golf.”

If it was big for Johnson, it was huge for Brown, too.

In the aftermath of Whistling Straits, his caddie acumen was called into question because he, too, failed to recognize that the 18th-hole bunker was just that, leading to a 2-stroke penalty that knocked Johnson out of a playoff with eventual winner Martin Kaymer (who won again Sunday in Amsterdam) and Bubba Watson.

“I’ll be the first one to tell you that I think we were in a wash-out area left of that bunker on 18 at Whistling Straits,” Brown said. “They probably should have put him in a golf cart and taken him back up there to look at the situation instead of going by TV.

“Hell, yeah, I read some stuff that wasn’t cool. That wasn’t cool at all. But the only thing that matters to me is that big dude right there. And he was fine with it. We had a brief discussion about it.

“I’ve walked by bunkers for so many years and so has he. We’re firm believers in things happen for a reason. And good things happen to good people. And he’s one of them right there.”

Now it’s on to the Tour Championship, where Johnson hopes to add those zeroes to his bank account, and then to Wales, where he is already proving to be a popular potential partner for his U.S. Ryder Cup teammates.

And the focus now changes. Instead of doubts about closing, there is the good vibe that comes from winning.

“You know,” Johnson said, “it makes things a lot easier.”

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