Year of the super spoilers

• By Randall Mell
• Aug 30, 2009 10:54 PM ET

Add Heath Slocum to the PGA Tour’s growing list of spoilers in 2009.

When he holed his 25-foot birdie putt at the 72nd hole Sunday to win The Barclays, Slocum denied legions of golf fans on the edge of their seats the delicious prospect of seeing Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington in a playoff.

Kudos to Slocum. He deserved to win. The clutch putt he made at the 18th hole Sunday was three times longer than the putt Woods missed there, a putt that would have put Woods at 9 under, Slocum’s winning total. It was a magnificent show of nerve under pressure, but he absolutely ruined what would have been a terrific playoff lineup.

The FedEx Cup Playoffs couldn’t have started more dramatically than to feature three of the biggest names in golf in a playoff, but we should have expected as much. Fan favorites have been denied in all the big events this year. No offense to Slocum, but you know thousands of golf fans cursed when his putt went into the hole because of what they were denied.

This continues to be "The Year that Might Have Been."

It might have been the year that Kenny Perry, Phil Mickelson, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods won the majors and FedEx Cup Playoffs got off to their most spectacular start.

Instead, Slocum joins Angel Cabrera (Masters), Lucas Glover (U.S. Open), Stewart Cink (British Open) and Y.E. Yang (PGA Championship) as super spoilers.