There will be 60 sets of eager eyes on an incredibly attractive prize at this week’s Nationwide Tour Championship at the Rees Jones-designed Houstonian Golf and Country Club. And we’re not talking about a bauble, a bangle or some flashy piece of etched crystal.

Not that there’s anything wrong with trophies, mind you, it’s just that the prize of special interest is a check, a first place check, one worth a Nationwide Tour-record $135,000 to the champion of the biggest cash event (total purse of $750,000) in Tour history.

The champion’s haul creates an enticing scenario with four rounds remaining in the 2006 season.

Do the math.

Any one of the entrants -- even Cameron Beckman who will enter the event in 62nd place on the money list -- can win and jump into the top 20 and grab one of the coveted PGA TOUR memberships available for 2007. That was every player’s aim when the season started way back in January in Panama. And the possibility should make for some interesting go-for-broke golf.

PGA TOUR playing cards aren’t the only things that will be at stake at the Houstonian, a course that stretches over 7,100 yards and is fraught with the lurking danger of multiple water hazards. Look at the tournament like you would multiple layers on a cake. The icing, of course, is the free pass to the Big Show, but there is so much more. For example:

The 2006 money title

Ken Duke wrested the top spot away from long-time leader Johnson Wagner a few weeks ago. Duke’s cushion is a dollar short of 13 grand and it’s hardly safe. Should any of the top 11 on the list win the tournament, each will zoom past Duke, who will need a high finish to hold off the wannabe moneybags. The money title is enhanced this season because the winner earns a spot in the field of THE PLAYERS Championship next year.

Player of the Year

It appears to be a four-way battle between two-time winners Tripp Isenhour, Brandt Snedeker and Wagner as well as Duke. But hold all bets should a player who has won once in 2006 take the Tour Championship title and blow by everyone on the money list.

As an aside, Kevin Stadler, another two-time champ who is ninth on the money list, effectively removed his name from the running by opting to play in the HSBC Champions Tournament in China this week. Australian Paul Sheehan, who is 17th, also will compete in China.

The Michael Sim and Jarrod Lyle factors

They are a pair of Australians who are not members of the Nationwide Tour. Yet each has played well enough to hold a place inside the Top 20, with Lyle at 15th and Sim at 16th. If they maintain their positions among the 20 when the final putt falls and the money is counted, two additional cards will be handed out to members.

That means Bryce Molder, 21st, and Jess Daley, 22nd, likely will be big Lyle and Sim fans for the event. It would mark only the second time that more than 20 cards have been awarded. Bubba Watson was the beneficiary of the Jason Gore Rule last year. Watson finished 21st on the list, but squeezed in because Gore earned a playing promotion to the PGA TOUR with three Nationwide victories and became a member of the PGA TOUR with a victory in the 84 LUMBER Classic.

Numbers, numbers, numbers

Again, because of Lyle and Sim, the normal numbers delineating different status perks have been skewed. The Add Two rules apply. So instead of 20 cards, it is 22. That means players who finish between 23 and 37 on the final money list will go directly to the Finals of 2007 PGA TOUR Qualifying School. It means players who finish between 38th and 72nd can bypass the first stage. It means players who finished between first and 62nd are fully exempt members of the Nationwide Tour next season and players who finish between 63rd and 102nd have conditional status regardless of what might happen in qualifying school.

Bigger prizes, more chances to improve status. .. what more could players want? All they have to do is earn the rewards with their clubs. But they also should be aware that wholesale movement on the money list would be unprecedented.

Two is the maximum number players who have been ousted from the Top 20 since the inception of the Nationwide Tour Championship. And D.J. Brigman was the most upwardly mobile player in that time span, leaping into the Top 20 from 32nd position with a runner-up finish in 2003.

Still it’s fun to crunch numbers and master the possibilities.