Like a golfer working on his swing, the Professional Golfers Association of America Tour has tinkered with its finish. Gone are the usual late-season snoozers—events with flimsy fields and low TV viewership. On is the FedEx Cup series, a four-tournament play-off designed to inject drama—and sponsor dollars—into the tour’s final weeks. Men’s golf, which had been the only major pro sport without a play-off system, isn’t skimping on money: The Cup winner receives $10 million, the biggest individual prize in pro sports. What few people realize is that you don’t have to be a pro—or even a member—to play the following four championship courses, which will host FedEx Cup events. You can tee off where Tiger and Phil do.

Westchester Country Club
Location: Rye, New York
FedEx Cup Event: The Barclays, August 23 to 26, on the West Course
Club Reputation: Old money, if-you-have-to-ask-you-can’t-afford-it New York. The 36 holes include the long, relentless West Course and the gentler South Course.
Members: 1,200, including American Express C.E.O. Ken I. Chenault; New York Giants co-owner John Mara; and Ralph Branca, the former all-star pitcher who surrendered the home run known as the Shot Heard ’Round the World to the Giants’ Bobby Thomson.  
Initiation Fee: $100,000
Price of a Club Sandwich (with potato chips and pickle): $12
How You Can Play: The annual Inwood House Golf Invitational, a fundraiser for the New York City charity, helps homeless, pregnant teens. This year’s event is on October 9. Call 212-861-4325 to reserve a tee time for a foursome ($3,600).

TPC Boston
Location: Norton, Massachusetts
FedEx Cup Event: Deutsche Bank Championship, August 31 to September 3
Club Reputation: This private 18-hole facility is new-money New England, heavy on corporate memberships.
Members: 320, including New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and CVS Caremark C.E.O. Thomas Ryan.
Initiation Fee: $62,500
Price of a Club Sandwich (with fries, cole slaw, and pickle): $9
How You Can Play: Cozy up to execs belonging to member firms like State Street Corp., which can send out two foursomes a day. Or pay $550 to play in the Driving 4 Life Invitational fundraiser to benefit research in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The event will be held in May 2008. Sign up at driving4life.org.

Cog Hill Golf & Country Club
Location: Lemont, Illinois
FedEx Cup Event: BMW Championship, September 6 to 9, on the Dubsdread Course—so named for the fear it instills in high handicappers, or “dubs.”
Club Reputation: Cog Hill, 30 miles southwest of Chicago, is down-to-earth Midwestern. All four of its courses are open to the public.
Notable Golfing Locals: Actor Bill Murray, ex-Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka.
Price of a Club Sandwich (with potato chips and a slice of dill pickle): $6.95
How You Can Play: Call 866-264-4455 to reserve a tee time, because the course will be closing for renovations on September 17 for at least a year. Greens fees are $138.

East Lake Golf Club
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
FedEx Cup Event: Tour Championship presented by Coca-Cola, September 13 to 16
Club Reputation: Home course of the late, great golfer Bobby Jones, East Lake attracts blue-blood Southern money and new-blood corporate types.
Members: East Lake accepts only corporate members, which include Coca-Cola and Equifax.
Initiation Fee: $350,000
Price of a “Too Much Club” Turkey Club Sandwich (with choice of fries, chips, sliced fruit, house salad, or dot’s potato salad): $10.25
How You Can Play: Buy a Tour Championship corporate-hospitality package. The Executive Club package ($18,370) gets you two spots in an East Lake golf outing, 12 tournament tickets, and access to the hospitality tent.