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By Dave Shedloski
PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent

KAPALUA, Hawaii -- Coming off a fall finish that elevated him to a career-high 13th on the PGA TOUR money list and eager to take his rejuvenated game for a spin in the spiffy new FedExCup season, Joe Durant spent the days leading up to Christmas filled with increasing anticipation and wonder, very much like a child contemplating a visit from St. Nick.

He continued to refine his game while incorporating a new driver, an upgraded set of irons, and a new ball.

Durant, however, can be excused if he is not fully ready to embrace the new season series that he helped coordinate as a player representative on the PGA TOUR Policy Board.

His tempered enthusiasm cannot be traced to ambivalence about a new competitive format in which the best player is determined through a season-long points race and culminating in a four-tournament playoff series. "I believe it will be a very exciting year," he said. "You're going to have a lot of plots and sub-plots and I think it will be fun."

Durant was gearing up to start building his FedExCup portfolio by playing the first three events of the year, including this week's season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship at Kapalua Resort's Plantation Course, until a Christmas Eve tragedy rendered thoughts of points and extravagant purses and the idyllic scenery of Maui meaningless. Durant's sister-in-law, Francis, died suddenly minutes after she and Durant's brother, Philip, left a family gathering at Joe's Pensacola, Fla., home. A cause of death has yet to be determined. Francis, 58, was a frequent travel companion for Durant's mother at PGA TOUR events.

"I went from getting ready to play -- we were going to come over here early -- (to) we pushed everything back," Durant said. "My wife and I still lay in bed at night talking about it, just can't believe that she's gone. I literally walked her out to the car. It was raining in Pensacola that night and I put her in the car and said, 'See you tomorrow.'

"We shed a ton of tears over this because she was a special person. We didn't know where to go. Literally, you're stunned by it."

(Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

Joe Durant's Last Eight Tournaments in '06

Buick Open 3 Reno-Tahoe Open T46 Canadian Open CUT Viking Classic P2 Wyndham Championship T6 WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort Classic 1 Tampa Bay Championship T4 THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola 3

The Durants were supposed to arrive at Kapalua Resort Wednesday but waited until Saturday. "Trust me, coming over here, it was a hard trip to make," he said. "As excited as you are about going someplace, when that happens to someone that you love so much ... you want to get excited because you know your family is excited (but) it's tough."

Durant, 42, certainly had reason to peer into the not-so-distant future with confidence and unfettered enthusiasm. Five of his seven top-10 finishes came in the final five weeks of the '06 season, all sixth or better including his fourth career victory at the Walt Disney World Resort Classic. That triumph ended a drought stretching back to 2001 and helped push him past $2 million in season earnings for the first time.

"Golly, it was a great finish for me and my family," said Durant, who, at 12th in the standings, also is eyeing a berth on the U.S. Presidents Cup team. "Halfway through the year, I wanted the year to be over and by the end of the year I didn't want it to stop. I was thankful to finish the way I did and I'm nevertheless excited about what's going to take place this year."

Having been one of the architects of the FedExCup system, Durant naturally has a more vested interest in seeing how it works. But he's reserving judgment. And he's trying to get used to the concept of points determining pecking order rather than money. Both he and Will MacKenzie, who also visited the media center Monday, addressed goals for the year with reference to earnings.

"That's something we're all going to have to get used to talking about a little more is the fact that it's a year-long race and we are all going to try to accumulate points," Durant said. "There's going to be some weeks where you're probably not playing as well as you would hope, but you're still going to be grinding because you know at the end of the year it could make a huge difference.

"We've kind of had that mindset with the money list, too ... so we are taking that to a new level with the points race. It injects a neat dynamic into the TOUR, so they are going to have all this going on and raise interest."

He firmly believes that will happen, noting that several new wrinkles such as the move of THE PLAYERS Championship to May, are only going to make the TOUR a stronger sports and entertainment entity.

"Until we get two or three months into the season to see how things are going to play out, it's business as usual," Durant said. "I think it will be exciting -- especially once we get toward the middle of the year and getting toward the middle of the majors, closing the end of the year around the PGA, it will be very interesting."

You wouldn't blame Durant, given the emotional trauma of recent days, for perhaps looking ahead to the middle of the season. You also wouldn't blame him, given his late-season explosion in '06, to be looking towards the end of the year and what opportunities may present themselves.

Of course, it will take more than late-season heroics to win the FedExCup.

"I think to win the FedExCup, you're going to have to do more than I did in the fall," he said. "I don't know how the points will play out, but I just believe that if you win more than one major or a major and the PLAYERS or a World Golf Championship event, then you're going to set yourself up to win the FedExCup. I think it's going to be the culmination of a great year."

And it's time to get started, even if his heart isn't quite in it yet.