The FedExCup Playoffs begins this week at The Barclays at Liberty National Golf Course in Jersey City, N.J.

There’s talk that two-time FedExCup champion Tiger Woods will leverage his 766-point lead to another title, but Tiger’s dominance was the talk before the PGA Championship as well — that he would leverage his seven-shot win at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational into a major victory. Instead, a rather quiet guy quietly won the last major.

Is there a Jason Dufner in The Barclay’s field of 125, someone who could sneak up on the usual suspects and capture the $10 million payout?

The last previous three winners — Brandt Snedeker, Jim Furyk, and Bill Haas — are known commodities in the golf world, but they are not household names. So it’s not too far-fetched for someone to sneak up on the big names and surprise the golf world. And let’s face it, America loves underdogs. Here are a few non-superstars who could do some damage in The Playoffs.

Harris English: No. 19*

Perhaps the most balanced guy on the list, 2013 FedEx St. Jude Classic winner Harris English is as solid statistically as anyone on the PGA Tour.

The two stats that stand out for English are his par-5 performance and putting from 15 to 20 feet, where English is ranked sixth on Tour. His driving average isn’t something to look past either — he’s is averaging a little more than 295 yards off the tee.

It’s the par fives that tour players need to turn a good round into and great one, and English is one of the best at it. His win as an amatuer at the Web.com Tour’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship also proves that he’s not afraid to win a tournament he’s not supposed to.

Jonas Blixt: No. 29

Jonas Blixt has a long way to go before he is mentioned in the same sentence as another other famous Swede, Annika Sorenstam. But he’s played fantastic golf in the last 14 months, winning the Frys.com Open in October, the Greenbrier Classic in July and finishing fourth in this year’s PGA Championship.

Blixt is difficult to explain statistically, however. He generally ranks in the mid-100s in all important categories, but he finds a way to play well when it matters.

How else do you explain his FedExCup ranking (No. 29) and money-list ranking (No. 25)? Guess who is below him? Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia and Bubba Watson.

Sang Moon Bae: No. 36

Sang-Moon Bae is one of the several young Koreans who have earned a spot in the FedExCup Playoffs this year. But unlike the others — John Huh, James Hahn and D.H. Lee — he has won on the PGA Tour this year.

The HP Byron Nelson Classic champion has solid numbers in strokes gained in putting (No. 16), birdie average (No. 10) and par breakers (No. 14). While he has had an up-and-down season (he’s missed seven cuts in 23 events), his solid putting, especially in the mid-range lengths, might keep him in contention throughout the playoffs.

Maybe he can come out of nowhere, like his compatriot Y.E. Yang at the 2009 PGA Championship, and make a dramatic move up the FedExCup standings.

Gary Woodland: No. 60

It’s no surprise that Gary Woodland is ranked No. 3 on the PGA Tour in driving distance, but what many golf fans might have missed is that he ran away with the Reno-Tahoe Open, an opposite field event that got little coverage thanks to Tiger Woods’ dominating victory the same week at the WGC-Bridgestone invitational. While the WGC event claimed most of the world’s top-ranked golfers that week, Woodland’s forward momentum shouldn’t be ignored heading into The Playoffs.

He hasn’t missed a cut since the Travelers Championship in mid June, and he’s been one of the Tour’s best putters from inside 5 feet this year (ranked No. 23). He’s also ranked second on Tour on approaches from outside 200 yards, but what continues to plague Woodland is his ability to hit it as close as other players with his short irons and wedges.

If Woodland can find a way to hit it as close during the Playoffs as he did in Reno, he could do some serious damage.

Brian Gay: No. 52

It’s been seven months since Brian Gay won the Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation, but he has the one skill that can’t be discounted come Playoff time — Gay is one of the best putters on the PGA Tour. Some golf fans may argue that Gay is not the putter that he once was, but one hot stretch is all it takes for that to change.

Last year, FedExCup Champion Brandt Snedeker followed a similar trajectory as Gay, winning in late January at the Farmers Insurance Open. While Snedeker had plenty of things Gay doesn’t have in his FedExCup winning season — top finishes in a WGC and a major championship, Gay has had strong finishes in Playoffs events before, particularly in 2009 when he made it all the way to the Tour Championship.

I know that it’s a long shot for any of these players to win the FedExCup. But not too long ago, Matt Kuchar and Brandt Snedeker might have been on this list. Look where they are now — on the short list of favorites to take the FedExCup. And golf is perhaps the most difficult sport to handicap, so pretty much anyone can pull off a miracle. Just ask Bill Haas.

*current ranking in the FedExCup points list