Backspin: Another endorsement for long putters

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Even if the belly putter doesn't stay in Phil Mickelson's bag, it's here to stay in golf, at least until some ruling body decides otherwise.

Adam Scott. Keegan Bradley. Webb Simpson. Even Mickelson. All have had tremendous success with a piece of equipment (long or belly putters) you used to find solely on the Champions Tour, or at least in the bag of someone approaching the over-50 set.

Simpson's victory -- his second in three weeks -- and climb to the top of the FedExCup standings with two events left in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup is just the latest endorsement for something that's more trend than fad and may be the future of golf.

As the story goes for Simpson, the belly putter found its way into the bag during an inconsistent freshman year at Wake Forest in 2004. "I tried the belly putter honestly as a joke," he said. "I thought in my head I'll never use this thing."

While Simpson's teammates were busy laughing at him, he was busy making "everything" with it. Once Kyle Reifers, a junior at the time, saw Webb's success, he switched and won his first college tournament a couple weeks later.

"That was kind of how it started," said Simpson, who has used the belly putter ever since.

Even Phil Mickelson is buying in, for now. He had Callaway create a replica of the one Keegan Bradley used to win the PGA Championship, and he put it into play in Boston.

"I thought that the last couple of days especially, but throughout the whole week, from six feet on in, I felt very good with it," Mickelson said. "Because of that, I think I'm going to practice with it a little bit more from the 10- to 25-foot area where I need to make some of those.

"If I can do that, if I can get effective with that, I think I'll try to stay with it."

He won't be the only one.

Stock up

Webb Simpson: How good has the Wake Forest product been the last three months of the season? In his last 10 starts he has two wins and, aside from one missed cut, his worst finish in that stretch was a tie for 16th. FedExCup rank: 1 (4 last week) Adam Scott: He wasn't great over those final two rounds in Boston, but Scott has played his best golf over the last two months with a win and three other top-10s in his last six starts. After that chip-in on the second hole Monday, I thought he might win but there were too many mistakes on the back. Still, he's playing some high level golf right now. FedExCup rank: 16 (23 last week). Luke Donald: Mr. Consistent added his 11th top-10 of the season with a tie for third at the Deutsche Bank. As well as Donald has played, it's hard to believe he hasn't won on TOUR since February. He's never won at Cog Hill, which is a home game for the Northsider, but it's hard to think he won't play well. FedExCup rank: 4 (5 last week)

Stock down

Ian Poulter: It was a bad time for Poulter to miss his second cut in three starts -- he's out of the Playoffs as a result. Poulter had just one top-10 all year on the PGA TOUR and just four top-25s. Compare that to two years ago when he had five and 12, respectively, and Poulter took a big step back this year. FedExCup rank: 87 (78 last week). Keegan Bradley: It's hard to be down on a guy who just a few weeks ago won the PGA Championship, but Bradley is clearly worn out from all that goes with winning a major, especially with the Playoffs swinging through his native New England. If anybody needs a week off, it's Bradley, who has missed his last two cuts. Whether one is enough, I'm not so sure. FedExCup rank: 19 (14 last week). Padraig Harrington: Just two years ago, Harrington went T2, T4, T6 and T4 in the Playoffs. However after a mediocre season -- and that's being kind -- Harrington's season comes to an end after the Deutsche Bank. He had a good week at The Barclays, where he tied for 13th, to extend his Playoffs but three rounds in the 70s in Boston doomed him. FedExCup rank: 89 (80 last week)

THE BACK NINE: 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. Winning is never easy, and we've discovered that this year more than any other with more parity on the TOUR. Even Webb Simpson's victory in Boston didn't come without nerves. "I told somebody last week that or maybe even early this week that I feel like next time I was in contention it'll be a lot easier than Greensboro," he said. "It wasn't that way at all. It was just as hard. The shots and the putts were just as hard. I think it helped just calm me down a little, but it was like I had never won a golf tournament before."

2. Stat of the Week I: Simpson's victory this week was his ninth top-10 and 17th top-25 finish of the season (22 starts) -- more than his combined career totals in each category entering the season (six top-10s and 15 top-25s). He's now finished inside the top 15 in 13 of his 22 starts this season.

3. Stat of the Week II: Four. That's the total number of bogeys Dustin Johnson had on the three par-5s at TPC Boston last week. That stat is even more puzzling when you consider that Johnson led the field in driving distance and accuracy and was seventh in greens in regulation.

4. FedExCup Winner(s) of the Week: Take your pick between Ernie Els and Geoff Ogilvy. Both needed birdie on the final hole Monday to advance to the BMW Championship in two weeks and both got it. That should tell you all you need to know about the Playoffs -- there's as much fight at the bottom of the standings as there is at the top.

5. FedExCup Non-Winner(s) of the Week: The last few weeks were a microcosm of Anthony Kim's season. He missed three of his final four cuts and as a result was eliminated from the Playoffs. In all, Kim missed 11 of 25 cuts this season, which is more than he missed the last two years combined.

6. The most surprising result of the week? That Steve Stricker finished in a tie for 42nd. So much for Mr. September. He hasn't finished outside the top 10 at the Deutsche Bank Championship since 2005.

7. Rocco Mediate's comments last week in the San Francisco Chronicle about the state of Tiger Woods' swing were odd and even a little awkward. And they weren't entirely accurate, at least as far as Hank Haney was concerned. Mediate was critical of Haney, along with Woods' current coach Sean Foley. "Tiger's record while I helped him speaks for itself," Haney told me via text message. "The last three years I was with him, he won 45 percent of the time, he finished in the top 10 in 85 percent of his tournaments. The assertion that somehow my teaching somehow contributed to Tiger's decline is frankly absurd." As for Foley, he had no reaction to Mediate's critique, but he's also been with Woods for just 11 events.

8. As for Woods' decision to add the Frys.com Open to his schedule, he's talked a lot about needing more tournament reps and that's exactly what he'll get with a tournament he typically doesn't play. Of course the last couple of years have been anything but typical. He wasn't going to sit around, especially the way he's struggled at times this year, for a couple of months and not play, either.

9. Without giving away the entire story, here are a few nuggets from a day I recently spent with Luke Donald for our next Day in the Life feature, which will appear later this week: A) He hates the notion that he's a guy who only cares about cashing checks; there's a burning desire to win there; B) It took him a full year to get over his career-threatening wrist injury once he was back playing (and consequently thinks it will take Woods a similar amount of time to win again); C) He's a little like a British version of Corey Pavin -- he's short in stature and length off the tee but has some big goals and belief in himself.

Forward Spin

Unlike last year, the off week in the Playoffs moves to this upcoming week, between the Deutsche Bank Championship and the BMW Championship, rather than between the BMW and THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. It was a welcome change for the players, many of whom would have been playing for the sixth week in a row. Now it's five. It also means golf won't have to go up against the opening weekend of the NFL.

Kodak Challenge

UP NEXT: Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Open HOLE: The 560-yard par-5 16th at TPC Summerlin UPDATE: The Kodak Challenge picks up in the Fall Series when the PGA TOUR hits TPC Summerlin on Sept. 29. Take a tour | Kodak Challenge standings