1. Luke Donald, England: The No. 1 player in the World Golf Rankings is fourth in the FedExCup standings going into the third round of the PGA Tour playoffs this week, the BMW Championship. A few years ago, Sergio Garcia said that one of his goals was to finish on top of both major tours at the end of the year, and Donald has a chance to do that this season. Thanks to his victories in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, the Barclays Scottish Open and the BMW PGA Championship, he leads the European Tour’s Race to Dubai and will cross the pond after the Tour Championship trying to finish that one off. … Luke will be playing in the BMW Championship (the old Western Open) for the 10th time, and it is something of a home game for him since his primary residence has been in Chicago since he came to the United States to attend Northwestern. He has only two top-10 finishes in the event, coming closest to winning when he bounced back from an opening 1-over-par 72 to tie for third in 2004, three strokes behind winner Stephen Ames. Since it became the third event of the playoffs, his best finish was a tie for 10th two years ago. … Donald is enjoying the best year of his career; he has 11 finishes in the top 10 to lead the PGA Tour and three more in European Tour events. He ranks second on the U.S circuit behind Webb Simpson with winnings of $5,034,548 and leads the world money list with $7,154,694.
2. Phil Mickelson, United States: Lefty said after the Deutsche Bank Championship two weeks ago that he was unsure if he would continue with the belly putter this week in the BMW Championship, even though he tied for 10th in his first try with it at TPC Boston. He said he had trouble with judging the distance on longer putts, and NBC commentator Johnny Miller suggested that since he once used two drivers in the Masters, he might consider having two putters in the bag. … Mickelson is 10th in the FedExCup standings heading into the BMW Championship, having posted six top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour this season, including his victory in the Shell Houston Open. He has played 13 times previously on the Dubsdread Course at Cog Hill but did not finish in the top 10 until he tied for eighth last year, when he closed with a 5-under-par 67 to wind up five shots behind champion Dustin Johnson. His best finish in the tournament before that was a tie for 17th in 2008, when he was one stroke behind leader and eventual winner Camilo Villegas after opening with 68-65, but he played the weekend in 71-70. … Putting guru Dave Stockton, who has worked with Mickelson, said he had no input in Lefty’s decision to switch to the belly putter and added that he was a little surprised to see a player known as a great putter make the move. Mickelson always has been proactive, and since he ranks 64th on the PGA Tour this year with an average of 28.97 putts per round, he probably felt as if he had to try something different.
3. Steve Stricker, United States: One of the biggest surprises of the first two rounds of the PGA Tour playoffs has been that Stricker tied for 24th in the Barclays and tied for 42nd in the Deutsche Bank Championship. The guy they call Mr. September has 10 finishes in the top 10 since the FedExCup format began in 2007 and has finished outside the top 25 only twice while playing all 18 events in the series. Still, with two victories among five top-10 finishes in the PGA Tour this season, he ranks eighth in the FedExCup standings heading to round three at the BMW Championship. … A huge local favorite who attended the University of Illinois, he will be playing in the BMW Championship for the 18th consecutive year. He won the tournament in 1996, when it was known as the Motorola Western Open, by posting four rounds in the 60s to finish a whopping eight strokes ahead of Billy Andrade and Jay Don Blake. He has five other finishes in the top 10, four of them coming since the BMW became the third event of the playoffs in 2007. Stricker posted three rounds of 3-under-par 68 or better in 2007 and tied for third, four strokes behind champion Tiger Woods. He tied for 10th in 2007, when the tournament moved for one year to Bellerive in St. Louis, and tied for eighth last year. … If Stricker’s ball-striking is simply decent, he has a chance to win. He ranks third on the PGA Tour with an average of 27.86 putts per round and leads in the new strokes gained/putting statistic. But he has averaged 29.4 in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
4. Nick Watney, United States: Watney will be trying to bounce back from a closing 80, including a quintuple bogey 11, that dropped him into a tie for 61st in the Deutsche Bank Championship, when he tees it up Thursday in the BMW Championship. He led the FedExCup standings at the conclusion of the regular season but remains in good shape at seventh in the points. In the playoff opener, he tied for 10th in the Barclays. … Nick is playing in the BMW for the sixth time in seven years. The only time he missed it was in 2008, when he was eliminated after the second round of the PGA Tour playoffs. He posted his best finish on the Dubsdread Course at Cog Hill when he tied for 15th last year, shooting 2-under-par 69 in the final round. That was the first time he broke 70 in the 18 rounds he has played on the course even though he has made the cut in his last four appearances after shooting 72-73—145 to miss the weekend by three shots in 2005 at the old Cialis Western Open. … Watney hopes to finish strong in what already has been a career year — he has posted multiple victories for the first time by winning the WGC-Cadillac Championship and the AT&T National. He opened the season with five consecutive top-10 finishes, capped by his victory in the WGC event at Doral. His nine finishes in the top 10 are tied for second behind Luke Donald’s 11, and he ranks third on the PGA Tour money list with $4,614,229, trailing Webb Simpson and Donald.
5. Bubba Watson, United States: Despite blowing the 54-hole lead and tying for 16th in the Deutsche Bank Championship by closing with a 3-over-par 74, Bubba remains in striking distance at 12th in the FedExCup standings heading to the third round of the PGA Tour playoffs at the BMW Championship. However, he has not finished in the top 10 of his last 10 events on the PGA Tour since winning the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in a playoff over Webb Simpson, although he did tie for sixth in the Nordea Scandinavian Masters on the European Tour. … Watson is playing this week in the BMW Championship for the sixth consecutive season and has yet to place in the top 10. His best result on the Dubsdread Course at Cog Hill was a tie for 15th two years ago, when he was right with the leaders when he opened with 69-68 but played the weekend in 70-74. He also tied for 18th in 2007, the first year of the PGA Tour playoffs, when he posted scores of 69-69-68 over the last three rounds, but last year he closed with a 6-over-par 77 and tied for 50th. … Bubba, who has blown off reporters after a bad day in the past, stuck around after he made seven bogeys in a span of 13 holes two weeks ago at the TPC Boston and was very cordial in interviews. He conceded that he simply didn’t have it in the final round after playing well for the first 54 holes and will chalk it up to experience.
6. Dustin Johnson, United States: Even though he fell back to a tie for 42nd in the Deutsche Bank Championship by closing with a 4-over-par 75 two weeks ago, Johnson remains one of the players to put your money on if you are looking for a favorite in the PGA Tour playoffs. Thanks to his victory the previous week in the playoff opener, the Barclays, he dropped only one spot to second in the FedExCup standings and will defend his title this week in round three at the BMW Championship. … Last year, DJ came from three strokes behind in the final round by posting a 2-under-par 69 to claim a one-stroke victory over Paul Casey. They were tied for the lead on the 17th hole in the final round of the Dubsdread Course at Cog Hill when Johnson hit two brilliant shots to within three feet for a go-ahead birdie before making a routine par on the closing hole. The only other time he reached the third round of the playoffs, in 2009, he could break par only with an opening 69 and wound up in a tie for 30th. … It’s been another solid year for DJ, but he could not break through for his fourth PGA Tour victory until the first round of the playoffs after finishing in the top five four times, including second at the WGC-Cadillac Championship and the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s. He ranks fourth on the PGA Tour money list with $4,150,841 and also is fourth on the world list with $4,300,902.
7. Webb Simpson, United States: It’s not as if Simpson came out of nowhere, having finished second to Gary Woodland in the Transitions Championship and lost to Bubba Watson in a playoff at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans earlier this season. However, nobody could have predicted that he would lead the FedExCup standings after two rounds of the PGA Tour playoffs. All eyes will be on him this week as he equals his deepest progression in the postseason at the BMW Championship. … When Simpson got this far two years ago, he opened with a 1-under-par 70 at Cog Hill but then stumbled home in 74-73-76 to wind up in a tie for 61st. He wound up at 62nd in the FedExCup standings, missing the top 30 that advanced to the Tour Championship by a mile, but this time he already has punched his ticket for the finale at East Lake in Atlanta next week. … Most people handicapping the PGA Tour playoffs probably didn’t give Simpson much consideration, even after he captured the Wyndham Championship to close out the regular season and climbed to third in the point standings. But looking back, it shouldn’t have been too difficult to see him coming. In his last 10 PGA Tour events, starting with a tie for seventh in the Memorial in June, he has failed to finish in the top 20 only when he missed the cut in the PGA Championship. His nine top-10 finishes on the tour are tied for second behind Luke Donald’s 11, and he leads the money list with $5,301,043. He also leads the all-around ranking, a compilation of eight major statistical categories.
8. Adam Scott, Australia: Scott’s partnership with caddie Steve Williams is working out quite well. The Aussie has finished in the top 25 in five of his last six tournaments, including a victory in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational that was one of his four top-10s during that stretch. After a tie for eighth in the Deutsche Bank Championship, he heads to the BMW Championship and the third round of the PGA Tour playoffs at 16th in the FedExCup rankings and definitely is on the rise. … Scott will be making his fifth appearance in the BMW and recorded his best result on the Dubsdread Course at Cog Hill when he posted four rounds in the 60s, including a closing 65, to tie for fourth in 2007. However, he wound up eight shots behind winner Tiger Woods, Williams’ former boss. Scott has finished in the top 25 in all three of his appearances at the Chicago venue, including a tie for 15th last year, but tied for 50th when the BMW was held at Bellerive in St. Louis in 2008. … Scott is playing his best golf since he started coming out of a two-year funk late in 2009, when Greg Norman made him a Captain’s Pick for the Presidents Cup at Harding Park in San Francisco despite the run of bad form. The Great White Shark took a load of criticism for the selection, but Scott played better than his 1-4 record might indicate. Norman doesn’t have to worry about it this time for the matches in November at Royal Melborune, because Scott is second in the International team standings.
9. Matt Kuchar, United States: A year after finishing second to Jim Furyk in the FedExCup standings, Kuchar is making another strong run in the PGA Tour playoffs, finishing second in the Barclays and tying for 25th in the Deutsche Bank Championship. He has risen nine spots in the standings to third going into round three of the playoffs this week at the BMW Championship. … Kooch has finished in the top 10 at the BMW in each of the last two years after tying for 60th in his only other appearance at Cog Hill, in the 100th Western Open in 2003. Last year, he surged into the lead when he opened with a 7-under-par 64, but he could not break 70 the rest of the way and tied for third, three strokes behind winner Dustin Johnson. In 2009, he was among the leaders after playing the middle rounds in 68-66, but he struggled to a 75 in the final round and slid to a tie for 10th. … Kuchar has 20 finishes in the top 10 on the PGA Tour in the last two years, the most on the circuit during that time, including nine this season to tie for second behind Luke Donald’s 11. He had six of those this season by May, and after a bit of a dry spell, he seems to be regaining his form with four consecutive top-25 finishes after missing the cut in consecutive events, the Open Championship and the RBC Canadian Open. Kuchar has not won since the 2010 Barclays, and if he is to claim the FedExCup, he probably needs to win the BMW or the Tour Championship on his home turf in Atlanta.
10. Keegan Bradley, United States: So far, Bradley’s biggest contribution to the PGA Tour playoffs has been playing a role in Phil Mickelson’s switch to the belly putter before the Deutsche Bank Championship. Lefty ordered an exact replica of Bradley’s, except for the insert on the face, but left-handed, of course. Mickelson also picked Bradley’s brain on the nuances of the belly putter and then used it to finish in a tie for 10th in the second round of the playoffs while the 25-year-old rookie missed the cut for the second consecutive week. … Bradley has not played terribly since shocking the golf world by winning the PGA Championship last month, but his two postseason events have been very similar. He opened the Barclays with a 2-under-par 69 but then shot 74 in round two and missed the cut by five strokes. In the Deutsche Bank, the New England native started with a 3-under 68 but stumbled home with a 76 and missed the cut by one shot in front of the home fans at TPC Boston. … After climbing to fifth in the final regular-season FedExCup standings by becoming the first player to claim a major title with a long putter, he has slipped to 12th but will make it to the Tour Championship next week in Atlanta no matter what he does this week. Bradley is one of six players to win twice this season on the PGA Tour; he also captured the HP Byron Nelson Championship in May. Not bad for a guy whose only previous pro victories came on the Hooters Tour and who finished 14th in the Nationwide Tour money list last season.
11. Justin Rose, England: A year after claiming his first two PGA Tour victories and finishin…
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