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By Dave Lagarde
PGATOUR.COM Correspondent

There is no worse place to be than on the financial bubble, resting uneasily as the Nationwide Tour heads into its final event of the 2007 season.

Brendan Pappas has piled up 12 straight cuts on the Nationwide Tour. (WireImage)

It is a place that creates undue anxiety and stress, tons of worry and woe. It can cause a scattered mind, restlessness at bedtime and overwhelming uncertainty throughout every waking hour.

To dwell there with only the Nationwide Tour Championship remaining on the schedule is this level of professional golf's version of cruel and unusual punishment. Good gracious, it is a tough spot, even for a week early in any season. So imagine what the bubble feels like for, say, an excruciating month down the stretch.

Welcome to Brenden Pappas's me-and-my-shadow world. He's been on "THE 25" bubble so long that the pair is well passed the introductory stage of their relationship. Intimacy could be right around the corner.

Only the top 25 players on the season-ending money list receive PGA TOUR cards for 2008, and Pappas has held the deed to that bubble longer than any man should. It is something to be passed around, the nervous stomach shared.

Pappas has stubbornly has refused to let go since Oct. 7, though, when he tied for 13th at the Mark Christopher Charity Classic presented by the County of San Bernadino. He tied for 15th at the WNB Golf Classic the following week and remained 25th. He tied for 17th at the Chattanooga Classic presented by Black Creek. And he remained 25th. Sure enough, he tied for 27th at last week's Miccosukee Championship and ... well, you know.

Here's the irony.

In a be-careful-what-you-wish-for moment in late September, Pappas asked a fateful question after firing a second-round 63 in the Albertson's Boise Open presented by First Health. He playfully inquired if members of the media were aware of his nickname.

"It's Bubble Boy,'' he said, poking fun at his station in professional life, not the classic episode of Seinfeld.

Turns out no truer words have ever been spoken. Pappas finished 10th in Boise, his paycheck bumping him to 26th on the Nationwide Tour money list, a notch below "THE 25'' bubble. Then he assumed the position in the next event.

It didn't take long for the media to pick up on "Bubble Boy's'' painful plight.

"I've had plenty of experience being on the bubble,'' he said. "I've gotten too wrapped up in the whole thing in the past. I'm just concentrating on what I'm doing right now. I'm focusing on every shot and on being aggressive on every shot. That helps you forget the bad ones and the missed putts.''

Oh, and one other thing.

"I'm trying to work on my mind,'' he said. "I've been reading a lot of books . . . reading Bob Rotella.''

Pappas has toiled on the Nationwide Tour through 92 starts. (WireImage)

And Pappas is just the guy Rotella, one of America's most renowned sports psychologists, could write a book about.

He earned his nickname in 2004 when he was chasing money down the stretch on the PGA TOUR in an attempt to keep his playing privileges. It's one he kept in 2005 when he was chasing the almighty PGA TOUR dollar again as the season wound down. Darn if he didn't find himself in the same on-the-outside-looking-in situation on the Nationwide Tour in 2006.

So why would 2007 be any different? The bubble has turned into Pappas's Heartbreak Hotel. It's seemingly his permanent place to dwell.

The idea for Pappas in this week's $775,000 Nationwide Tour Championship at Barona is to protect his place on the bubble at all costs. With $183,002 in official earnings, Pappas, 37, an affable South African veteran of four seasons on the PGA TOUR and three on the Nationwide Tour, holds a $2,754 lead on No. 26 Michael Letzig.

Lots of others are nipping at his heels and, with a first prize of $139,500 awaiting Sunday's winner, every man in the elite 60-player field figures into the PGA TOUR privileges mix.

Naturally, Pappas can stick a fork into this bubble business with a solid performance this week. But there is a history of players being bumped off the bubble in the 14 years the Nationwide Tour Championship has been held. Eighteen players who entered the event inside the number have lost out.

Jess Daley was the odd man out in 2006, losing his PGA TOUR card when Craig Kanada won the tournament and leapt passed him on the money ladder. He was left to deal with those empty feelings during the offseason.

But only one player, Kyle Thompson, has ever had to deal with the stinging disappointment twice -- in 2003 and 2004 -- a fact that qualifies Thompson to wax on that sinking sensation.

"Guess I have more experience than anyone else,'' Thompson said, laughing.

Thompson can afford to laugh. He is a two-time winner who ranks 14th on the Nationwide Tour money list with $234,748. He could shoot four rounds in triple digits this week and still play on the PGA TOUR in 2008. But that doesn't mean he has forgotten what it feels like to see your dreams shattered in the last week of a season.

"Ohhhhhh, those feelings,'' he said. "To be honest, I've tried to forget about them because you need to have positive thoughts.''

Tried is the key word. Failed also plays in here.

"The first time was tough,'' he said. "The second time was really, really tough. I have no words to describe that feeling.''

That's what happens when you three-putt the 72nd hole in the Nationwide Tour Championship to let your PGA TOUR membership slipped from your grasp. That's what Thompson did. And it led to an offseason of reflection on what might have been.

"You think about a missed shot, or a missed putt or 10 missed shots and the bad break you got on the 15th hole in Omaha,'' he said.

In other words, the disappointment is smothering. And playing in the crucible this week is just as daunting when a player understands what is at stake.

"That pressure, that stress,'' Thompson said. "You can't believe it. Then you start thinking about going to q-school again.''

Any more questions about being on the bubble?