A real reality show

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Can you imagine eating worms and sleeping in the dirt while the camera crew eats catered meals and sleeps at the Ritz on the other side of the island? No, thanks.

Or how about standing in a room full of people of the same sex vying for the attention of one person of the opposite sex? Heck, I can do that on any random Friday night and they don't broadcast that in prime time and there are almost never roses involved. There is very little reality in reality television.

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For the next six weeks, though, the best reality on television -- and XM Radio, of course -- is taking place in golf. The PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup are over and there is no $10 million payday. For the next six weeks we step back in time and watch some familiar, and some not-so-familiar, names fight for their jobs. From now on it is all about cold, hard cash.

If you are outside the top 125 on the money list like David Duval, Davis Love III and John Daly there is work to do. Golf is a what-have-you-done-lately game in its most brutal form. If you can't come up with an answer to that question, eventually the game stops asking.

A year ago after the Playoffs, it seemed like the Fall Series was going to be little more than an afterthought. Then some interesting things happened. Steve Flesch, Mike Weir and Justin Leonard all won events. Leonard actually rode that momentum throughout this season, winning again and making the Ryder Cup team. Justin's victory last year at the Valero Texas Open was significant for a couple of other reasons, as well. He beat Jesper Parnevik, who had been well outside the top 125 on the money list when he came to Texas, in a playoff. This was an unfamiliar spot for the Swede, and although he was disappointed with the playoff loss, there was a palpable sense of relief to know that he had another year on TOUR to turn things around. Unfortunately that hasn't happened 2009 and once again Parnevik will need a good fall to remain exempt.

Jesper is in pretty good company. Duval, Love, Lee Janzen and Daly all need to play well to finish in the top 125 on the season-ending money list. For these veterans, the money is far less of an issue than the full exemption. We won't exactly be holding any telethons for these guys. For some of the other players on TOUR, though, it is all about the money. It is possible to make $700,000 and lose your job. It turns out that if you are an aging TOUR player and lose such a lucrative occupation that finding a job that pays even a small percentage of your previous earnings is nearly impossible. Who am I kidding? Finding a job that pays a 10th of that is no easy task. It turns out that a life in professional golf doesn't exactly translate into the job market. I sure hope that I never need a real job.

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OK, for some of these guys it is not as dramatic as all that. Daly has proven that you can still play a relatively full schedule as a past champion without being exempt. But for some of the younger guys, especially the rookies, these are nail-biting, hair- graying, sleepless times as they hope to trap lightning in a bottle and somehow push their way from the bottom to the middle. If there is one element of professional golf that I am intensely familiar with it is toiling in obscurity and trying keep your job. The contrast of hope that comes with being a rookie in January and being 200th on the money list at the beginning of October is staggering. It knocked players off balance when it took less than $200,000 to keep your job and it fells players now that it takes the majority of a $1 million to keep your job.

The Fall Series is aptly named for those players who have found a qualifying school application in their locker over the past month. Some will send in their entry fee only to receive a refund check in December while others will live to fight another day in the unfriendly confines of q-school. By the way, if I am familiar with struggling to keep a TOUR card I am an expert in q-school.

From the Fall Series and the last few weeks on the Nationwide Tour to the finals of q-school in December the best reality on TV and radio is a one that can only be realized through years of hard work and perseverance. TOUR players aren't chosen from a list of hopefuls. TOUR players make themselves one shot at a time. There will be quiet stories of triumph between now and mid-November. But there will be more heartbreak than joy for some of the best players of yesterday and tomorrow. Now that is worth watching, and no one has to eat an earthworm.

John Maginnes is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.