FedExCup notes: Wachovia Championship first round

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Player: Stewart Cink
Rank: 3rd
Points: 8,474
Cink would move into seond in the FedExCup standings with a win, and could get there with a runner-up finish, depending on how Phil Mickelson finishes. Getting to seconnd (or even third) in the standings without a win this late in the season is a pretty remarkable feat; last year, after Charles Howell III won the Nissan Open in week seven of the season, no non-winner made it higher than fourth.

Player: Steve Stricker
Rank: 9th
Points: 6,677
If Steve Stricker can repeat his second-place finish from last year, he could move into third in the FedExCup Points standings. After last year's second-place finish, he was 16th.

Player: J.B. Holmes
Rank: 11th
Points: 6,210
Holmes' win at the FBR Open propelled him way up in the FedExCup Standings. He'll need to win again or play better in his non wins to stay in the top 15; however, his points per start project to about 25th seed for the Playoffs assuming he doesn't win again.

Player: Trevor Immelman
Rank: 16th
Points: 5,432
With one minor exception, Trevor Immelman was having a much better year last year up to this point in the season. He was averaging 510 points per start last year through nine starts. Other than his Masters win, he's only averaging 54 points per start this year through nine starts.

Player: Jim Furyk
Rank: 19th
Points: 5,199
Jim Furyk is well-positioned for another top-10 seed, if he can win again this year. If he wins this event, he can move to third in the standings. If Furyk maintains his current average points per start (473), he projects to the 16 seed in the Playoffs. If he can add a victory to that mix, he should be a 5th or 6th seed.

Player: Luke Donald
Rank: 21st
Points: 4,968
Luke Donald hasn't won, but in his seven starts, he's averaging over 700 points per start. If he can keep that up through the rest of the regular season, he will earn about 12,000 FedExCup points, which should be good for a top-10 seed.

Player: Rory Sabbatini
Rank: 22nd
Points: 4,891
Rory Sabbatini earned more than 90% of his FedExCup points in January, with a second, a tie for third and a 17th in three events.

Player: Anthony Kim
Rank: 31st
Points: 4,187
Anthony Kim is currently 31st in the FedExCup standings, but if he continues to average 465 points per event and plays 10 more events, he projects to a top 20 seed for the Playoffs.

Player: Jerry Kelly
Rank: 42nd
Points: 3,329
Jerry Kelly is having an "all or nothing" kind of season. He has missed 7 cuts in 12 starts prior to this week, but in the events he has made it to the weekend, he is averaging 665 points per start. For perspective, if he were averaging 665 points for all his starts, he would be sixth in the FedExCup standings.

Player: Woody Austin
Rank: 43rd
Points: 3,293
Woody Austin was the 14th seed in last year's PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, propelled by his win at the Stanford St. Jude Classic. Last year at this time, however, he was 138th in the Standings, with only 793 points. He is 2,500 points ahead of that pace this year.

Player: Hunter Mahan
Rank: 57th
Poitns: 2,733
Hunter Mahan is well ahead of his FedExCup points pace from last year when he was a 15 seed, but -- of course -- he needs a victory to match last year's Travelers Championship win. Through this point in the season last year, he had only 1,171 points and has over double that -- 2,733 points -- this year.

Player: Camilo Villegas
Rank: 85th
Points: 1,854
Camilo Villegas is a perfect example of how much difference a stroke or two can make. At the Buick Invitational, he was tied for 13th -- 442 pts, but two strokes better was tie for eighth -- 725 pts, a 283-point difference. At the Verizon Heritage, two strokes better was 272 points better. With those extra points, he'd be 20 spots higher in the FedExCup standings.

Player: Sergio Garcia
Rank: 113th
Points: 1,232
Garcia is having a difficult year. At this point last year, he was averaging over 500 FedExCup points per start, and he finished even stronger, averaging over 700 points per start for the 2007 Regular Season. This year, the average is 176.