Dec. 17, 2008
By Steve Dennis, PGA TOUR Staff
At the top of the standings, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and Mike Weir are clearly the players to watch. But there are some interesting stories to look out for further down the list as well.
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GROUP: Top guns | POSITIONS: 1st, 2nd, 44th
Vijay Singh can wrap up ownership of the 2008 FedExCup with a victory and could do so with a lot less than that depending on who wins in St. Louis. Now that he's the world's greatest putter, he might just close it out this week and use THE TOUR Championship as his victory lap around the Champs-Elysees. I wonder how he looks in yellow? Sergio Garcia and Mike Weir can make it interesting if either of them can win the BMW Championship. Even with that, the BMW championship winner would probably need to win THE TOUR Championship to snatch the FedExCup from Singh, but the possibility would exist. Both have been playing extremely well. Garcia has a tie for second and tie for fifth in the first two events, and Weir has a tie for seventh and a solo second. One other top gun who is out of contention for the FedExCup can still salvage his Playoffs with a good finish; Padraig Harrington, two-time major winner on the PGA TOUR this year, has missed the first two cuts and is in danger of missing THE TOUR Championship. He'll only get there if he manages a top-five finish this week.
MORE: Singh profile | Garcia profile | Weir profile | Harrington profile |
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GROUP: And then there were three | POSITIONS: 48th, 61st, 70th
Fifteen competitors played their way into the Deutsche Bank Championship by making the cut at The Barclays. Of those fifteen, only three played well enough in Boston to punch a ticket to St. Louis. They are:>br>- Tim Herron, whose tie for 24th and tie for fifth have gotten him into the St. Louis field, but he'll need another top-five finish to move on.
- Martin Laird, whose tie for seventh at The Barclays made him one of the biggest movers in the first week of the Playoffs. His tie for 50th in Boston has left him 61st in the field, needing a top-three finish to get to THE TOUR Championship.
- Angel Cabrera, who is the last person in the field at the BMW Championship, in 70th. He has played well, with ties for 19th and 15th, but he'll need to play even better this week to move on. He needs no worse than a third to get into the final Playoffs field.
MORE: Herron profile | Laird profile | Cabrera profile |
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GROUP: Ryder Cuppers | POSITIONS: 2nd, 44th, 74th, 112th, 31st, 36th, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 13th, 14th, 20th
Among the Europeans, only Garcia and Harrington remain in the Playoffs (Paul Casey and Ian Poulter were eliminated, and Justin Rose did not play. The other Europeans are not members of the PGA TOUR.) All twelve members of the American Ryder Cup team are still in the hunt, and only Boo Weekley and J.B. Holmes are in danger of missing THE TOUR Championship. Weekley needs a top-20 finish to move on, and Holmes probably needs a top 10. The other American Ryder Cup Team Members are Justin Leonard, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim, Phil Mickelson, Kenny Perry, Ben Curtis, Stewart Cink, Steve Stricker, Chad Campbell and Hunter Mahan.
MORE: Weekley profile | Holmes profile | Leonard profile | Furyk profile | Kim profile | Mickelson profile | Perry profile | Curtis profile | Cink profile | Stricker profile | Campbell profile | Mahan profile |
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GROUP: Bubble boys | POSITIONS: 28th, 29th, 30th, 26th, 27th
Getting into THE TOUR Championship means securing one's exemption status for 2009, including exemption into most invitationals and the Masters. The three players immediately on the bubble to be eliminated from the Playoffs -- Tim Clark, Brandt Snedeker and Geoff Ogilvy -- are all already exempt into the Masters based on other eligibility criteria, but the next two -- Billy Mayfair and Bubba Watson -- are not. Several players below them in the standings would have to play very well for either Mayfair or Watson to be eliminated, but they can remove all uncertainty by having good events themselves.
MORE: Clark profile | Snedeker profile | Ogilvy profile | Mayfair profile | Watson profile |
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