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By Helen Ross
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

Video: Immelman's pre-tournament press conference | Donald at Churchill Downs

LEMONT, Ill. --- One is essentially the tournament's unofficial host; the other, its defending champion.

Luke Donald has won twice on the PGA TOUR. (WireImage)

Aside from those obvious ties to this week's BMW Championship, though, Chicago's Luke Donald and Trevor Immelman find themselves in similar situations entering the third event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

Two of the TOUR's most talented twentysomethings, Donald and Immelman rank 28th and 38th, respectively, in the race for the $10 million bonus. But both need to play well in order to advance to the finale at THE TOUR Championship presented Coca-Cola next week.

Immelman has the toughest task, since only the top 30 players in the standings advance to East Lake. He trails the man on the bubble, Jonathan Byrd, by 1,165 points, and needs a good week to advance.

Donald, on the other hand, is just 137 points ahead of Byrd. And after each of the first two Playoff events, two players in the "safe" zone have been eliminated by strong performances from someone on the outside looking in.

"Obviously, it's a big week for me," said Donald, an Englishman who earned All-America honors at Northwestern and settled in Chicago after he graduated. "I need to step up and play well this week and assure my place next week. So (I'm) just looking to gain some confidence and hopefully have a chance to win come Sunday."

Donald started the season playing extremely well, posting five top-10s in his first 10 starts, including a tie for second at the Sony Open in Hawaii and runner-up alone at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship. He's only finished in the top 20 once since, though.

Donald doesn't know exactly what happened. He's trying to stay positive, though, and the 29-year-old definitely was encouraged by the 18 birdies he made last week in the Deutsche Bank Championship despite the tie for 60th that ensued.

"I do think I'm very close," said Donald, who married his long-time girlfriend in June. "I think mostly I've got to do a good job of mentally staying on top of my game. I think when you have some poor results, and don't hit the ball, as well as you'd like to, then it can get you down.

"It's not really been one part of my game. Last week was a good example. One day I didn't putt every well; one day I didn't drive it very well. It's hard to pinpoint. But I'm working very, very hard. I feel like I'm working on the right things with my coach.

"It's a matter of staying patient as much as you can and just waiting for that one little spark -- one little bit of momentum -- to get you going."

The world ranking points available at a tournament featuring eight of the top 10 players in the world and 16 of the top 20 are an added attraction for Donald. He realized Tuesday that the qualification process for the European Ryder Cup team begins this week.

"That's an added incentive to try and play well this week, and next week, obviously," the two-time Ryder Cupper said.

Trevor Immelman lost 20 pounds from an illness in early '07. (WireImage)

Immelman thinks he may have found that spark at the PGA Championship, where he tied for sixth. He had a similar start to Donald -- posting three top-10s in his first seven starts -- but was hit by a mysterious stomach ailment at the Masters.

The 5-foot-9 Immelman dropped 20 pounds as he battled what doctors later determined was an intestinal parasite, and he's just recently gotten back up to 170. His tie for sixth at the PGA is his only top 10 in his last 13 starts.

"I would definitely say that's all behind me," Immelman said. "As far as my game is concerned, obviously, I had a little bit of a dip there at the middle of the season. Whether that was related to the illness or not, maybe I'll never know, but I've just got to do what it takes to get my game back to where I think it should be.

"I've been seeing signs of that in the last couple of months. ... I think my confidence is on the up, and I'm hoping to finish the out the year strong, and then come back next year and really get at things."

The tournament has a new sponsor and a new date since Immelman birdied the 72nd hole to beat Tiger Woods and Mathew Goggin by two strokes and win for the first time on TOUR. The young South African says he still feels like the defending champ, though.

"It's always exciting to come back to a venue that you've played well at," Immelman said. "I'm really looking forward to playing here this week. It's always been a golf course I've enjoyed.

"With the elevated stature of this tournament now being basically the second-to-last tournament in the FedExCup Playoffs, you know, it's going to be a lot of excitement, and it's going to be great to be a part of that."

Donald agreed.

"I think it's bringing a little bit more excitement to the end of the season, to the end of THE TOUR Championship, anyway," he said. "I haven't played like I would have liked to, but I've enjoyed something different. ...

"It's a big deal for these Playoff events. Obviously, it's great to have one of them in Chicago, which is a great sporting community, and I think it deserves to have a great event this week."