We’re not yet at the most nerve-wracking event of the golf season — that’d be Q School, which still lies ahead. But for 25 Nationwide Tour players, this past weekend was Christmas and their birthday all wrapped up in one. They placed among the top 25 on the Nationwide Tour’s money list, and as such won a PGA Tour card for 2012. Congrats to these fine players, starting with the gentleman pictured above:

1. J.J. Killeen
2. Ted Potter, Jr.
3. Mathew Goggin
4. Jason Kokrak
5. Jonas Blixt
6. Danny Lee
7. Ken Duke
8. Scott Brown
9. Gary Christian
10. Miguel Angel Carballo
11. Troy Kelly
12. Russell Knox
13. Erik Compton
14. John Mallinger
15. Kyle Thompson
16. Kyle Reifers
17. Gavin Coles
18. Matt Every
19. Daniel Chopra
20. Steve Wheatcroft
21. Garth Mulroy
22. Mark Anderson
23. Roberto Castro
24. Martin Flores
25. Billy Hurley III

Our Jonathan Wall has broken down five of the more significant players on that list. Each player received a Tiffany money clip with their 2012 PGA Tour card inside. (Think they have to keep up with that card all through the year? I’m sure somebody’s run theirs through the wash by mistake.)

Anyway, six players won tournaments on the Nationwide Tour but weren’t able to break into the top 25; that list was headed by James Nitties, who finished barely $5,000 behind Hurley for the 25th position. Golf is a cruel game, but for these 25 guys, it’ll pay off handsomely in 2012.

Can we just go ahead and play the damn Presidents Cup already? Please? At this point, I’d be satisfied whether Tiger runs the table in every match or sets the first tee box on fire. (Preferably both.)

But the other half of the likely marquee Presidents Cup duo, Steve Stricker, is even more of an X-factor at this point than Woods, because at least we have low expectations for Tiger. Stricker could do anything from stomp all over the International team to pull out and make way for Keegan Bradley.

Speaking to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (visor tip: Waggle Room), Stricker defended captain Fred Couples‘ pick of Woods against criticism from Greg Norman, among many others: “I think it’s a good thing,” Stricker said. “I don’t know why Greg said what he did. He did basically the same thing with Adam Scott a couple years ago when Adam wasn’t playing well. It kind of turned Adam’s game around. So I don’t know where that came from … I talk to Tiger through texting every now and then. He’s really excited. We’re looking forward to it. I think he’ll be ready, too. He’ll find a way to get it done. When you play him one on one, he’ll find a way. Just like at the Ryder Cup last year. He trounced the guy he was playing (Francesco Molinari of Italy, 4 and 3, in singles). He loves match play.”

First: Tiger still texts? Huh. Bet he’s a lot more careful with that these days. Second, Stricker is right: when Tiger can laser in on somebody, he still has the talent to take them down.

For his part, Stricker intends to play; a herniated disk in his neck has reportedly improved. The condition forced him out of the BMW Championship in September, but he’s been working with a chiropractor to get strength back. Sorry, Keegan.

Look, they can’t all be Pebble Beach, OK? Every once in awhile you get a week like we had this past weekend, without a major stateside tournament. Oh, sure, there was the Nationwide Tour Championship, and the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic, but you can be forgiven if you didn’t tune in for every minute of those. Here’s what you missed. Break out those putters, gang!

The dancing Jimenezes, out in force at the 2011 Andalucia Masters this week, may be honoring the great Miguel Angel Jimenez, but we’re using them as reason to celebrate Halloween here. Hope it’s a fun one for you and yours. And if you’ve got a favorite golf-related costume (or, hell, a favorite candy) list it right here. But no Tiger-post-hydrant. That’s so 2010, y’all.

While Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy were busy pocketing multi-million dollar checks at international events, a group of mini-tour guys were busy grinding it out on Sunday at the Nationwide Tour Championship.

The goal? To get inside the top 25 on the Nationwide Tour’s Money List and grab a coveted ticket to the PGA Tour in 2012. You’ll probably notice a couple of names on the final list, but here are five notable ones to keep an eye on next season.

Billy Hurley III (No. 25 on the Money List): Next to Erik Compton, he might be one of the best stories to come out of the Nationwide Tour. A former Naval officer who spent time on battle ships in the Persian Gulf, China and Korea, it only took him one full season on the developmental circuit to make it to the PGA Tour. You’d have to think those five years spent serving our country in hostile waters made the final round of the Tour Championship a breeze.

Erik Compton (No. 13): The two-time heart transplant recipient is finally headed to the PGA Tour after years of wondering if he’d ever play professional golf again. Compton captured the Mexico Open earlier this year to secure his card with ease. He posted a couple solid finishes on the PGA Tour this season — including a T-25 at the Northern Trust Open — so it should be fun to see what he does with a full season on golf’s biggest stage.

Danny Lee (No. 6): It was only a matter of time before the 21-year-old Lee put it all together. After becoming the youngest U.S. Amateur winner at the age of 18, Lee struggled to find his footing in the professional game. But it all seemed to come together in 2011. With a win at the WNB Golf Classic, Lee nailed down his tour card in his first full season on the Nationwide Tour. He’ll be the only full-time Kiwi on tour next season.

Ted Potter Jr. (No. 2): Hard as it is to believe, Potter wasn’t even a full-time Nationwide Tour member at the beginning of the season. But after Monday qualifying for the South Georgia Classic and winning the tournament, he secured his status for the rest of the season. In just six months he managed to make enough to finish runner-up on the Nationwide Money List. Imagine what the guy could’ve done with a full season.

John Mallinger (No. 14): Mallinger, who had conditional status on the PGA Tour this season, needed only 9 Nationwide events to secure his tour card for 2012. After spending this year bouncing back and forth between both tours, you can bet he’ll come back in 2012 with the goal of making sure he doesn’t have to do the same thing again in the near future.

While Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy were busy pocketing multi-million dollar checks at international events, a group of mini-tour guys were busy grinding it out on Sunday at the Nationwide Tour Championship.

The goal? To get inside the top 25 on the Nationwide Tour’s Money List and grab a coveted ticket to the PGA Tour in 2012. You’ll probably notice a couple of names on the final list, but here are five notable to keep an eye on next season.

Billy Hurley III (No. 25 on the Money List): Next to Erik Compton, he might be one of the best stories to come out of the Nationwide Tour. A former Naval officer who spent time on battle ships in the Persian Gulf, China and Korea, it only took him one full season on the developmental circuit to make it to the PGA Tour. You’d have to think those five years spent serving our country in hostile waters made the final round of the Tour Championship a breeze.

Erik Compton (No. 13): The two-time heart transplant recipient is finally headed to the PGA Tour after years of wondering if he’d ever play professional golf again. Compton captured the Mexico Open earlier this year to secure his card with ease. He posted a couple solid finished on the PGA Tour this season — including a T-25 at the Northern Trust Open — so it should be fun to see what he does with a full season on golf’s biggest stage.

Danny Lee (No. 6): It was only a matter of time before the 21-year-old Lee put it all together. After becoming the youngest U.S. Amateur winner at the age of 18, Lee struggled to find his footing in the professional game. But it all seemed to come together in 2011. With a win at the WNB Golf Classic, Lee nailed down his tour card in his first full season on the Nationwide Tour. He’ll be the only full-time Kiwi on tour next season.

Ted Potter Jr. (No. 2): Hard as it is to believe, Potter wasn’t even a full-time Nationwide Tour member at the beginning of the season. But after Monday qualifying for the South Georgia Classic and winning the tournament, he secured status for the rest of the season. In just six months he managed to make enough to finish runner-up on the Nationwide Money List. Imagine what the guy could’ve done with a full season.

John Mallinger (No. 14): Mallinger, who had conditional status on the PGA Tour this season, needed only 9 Nationwide events to secure his tour card for 2012. After spending this year bouncing back-and-forth between both tours, you can bet he’ll come back in 2012 with the goal of making sure he doesn’t have to do the same thing again in the near future.

Momentum on the golf course is a strange thing. One minute you’re tearing up the front nine, only to fall apart on the back. Guys can have years of incredible success only to find themselves struggling to even make cuts. And a little confidence in a familiar setting can do wonders for your golf game.

Nobody understands that better than Sergio Garcia right now, who won his second straight European Tour event on Sunday in his home country of Spain, holding off Miguel Angel Jimenez by a shot. Before last week, Sergio hadn’t won an event on the PGA or European Tours since 2008, but his game has come around, and it seems he’s as comfortable over the ball as he’s been in five years.

How good was Garcia? Good enough in the final round. Jimenez charged hard on Sunday, but Sergio steadied himself on the back nine, and after a magnificent chip on the 18th, was able to save par and snag the Andalucia Masters by a shot.

What does all this mean for Garcia? Well, for one, he’s in the debate right now for best playing golfer in the game. Two wins in a row against stiff competition has him in the same breath as Webb Simpson and Luke Donald right now, and along with that, has him atop the European Ryder Cup points, something that Sergio always hold close to his heart.

Golf could use a Garcia comeback, and it appears we’re getting one right when the game seemed to be taking its winter break. If Sergio can continue this success, a major victory in 2012 doesn’t just seem possible, it seems likely.

If there was one thing Rory McIlroy desperately needed when he teed it up at the Shanghai Masters, it was a win. That’s not to say his game wasn’t in superb shape coming into the Far East tournament. His worst finish in his four previous events was a T-3, so he wasn’t mired in a slump by any means.

But ever since McIlroy captured his historic U.S. Open win at Congressional, the talk has slowly shifted from his on-course success to recent off-course drama that’s all but overshadowed the kid’s impressive season.

In the months following the win, golf scribes have spent time talking about everything from his relationship status and Twitter battles to his split from manager Chubby Chandler. No matter where McIlroy goes these days, he seems to be in the news. However, none of the headlines are the kind he’d like to be making.

That all changed on Sunday, though, as McIlroy held off Anthony Kim in a playoff to take the $2 million first-place check at the Shanghai Masters. While the money was certainly a big deal — it was the biggest payday of his career — you have to believe the victory meant a bit more to McIlroy because it finally had people focusing on the one thing that made him a superstar in the first place — that, of course, being his incredible game.

No matter what McIlroy does for the rest of his career, he’s going to be scrutinized and questioned for every move he makes. Winning will certainly make people focus on your on-course success, but sooner or later, he’s going to need to find a perfect balance between the the two. It won’t be easy, but as he continues to mature, you have to believe he’ll figure it out.