FedExCup Notes: Round 2, Shell Houston Open

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Player: Adam Scott
Rank: 85th
Points: 1,385
If Scott can successfully defend his Shell Houston Open title, he could move into the top 10 in FedExCup points, but he would still be 1,500 points behind the fast start he got last year.

Player: Steve Stricker
Rank: Seventh
Points: 6,102
Stricker's four top-10s, including a 2nd at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, have enabled him to more than double last year's total to this point, despite having had 3 top 10s through 13 weeks last year.

Player: Briny Baird
Rank: 62nd
Points: 1,940 pts
With four top-25 finishes, including a T-4 in Puerto Rico, Baird is almost two-thirds to his 2007 regular season points total At no point in 2007 did Baird rank better than T-73rd in the FedExCup standings

Player: Geoff Ogilvy
Rank: 10th
Points: 5,861 pts
Last year at this time, Geoff Ogilvy was 10th in the FedExCup standings with 5,772 points. However, in 2007, he earned less than 3,000 points the rest of the year, and finished the Regular Season as the No. 24 seed. Over half of Ogilvy's FedExCup points in the last two years have come from the Accenture Match Play Championship, where he has a second and a first in 2007 and 2008.

Player: Dean Wilson
Rank: 164th
Points: 346
In nine starts in 2007, Wilson is only averaging 38 FedExCup points per start. His problems may be in the second round, where Wilson's scoring average is 3 strokes higher than it is in the first round (69.89 vs. 72.89)

Player: Brett Quiqley
Rank: 136th
Points: 525
Playing on a major medical exemption, Quigley has only picked up points at one of his prior six starts this season. His tie for 12th at the Honda Classic was enough to earn him status for the remainder of the 2008 season.

Player: Justin Leonard
Rank: Sixth
Points: 6,148
Justin Leonard's already has three top-five finishes this year -- one more would virtually guarantee him a spot in the top 30 going into the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. Last year, Leonard was one of only seven players to make the cut in all three Regular Season events in Texas, picking up 490 FedExCup points in the state. Of course, he won the fourth event in the state -- the Valero Texas Open.

Player: Jesper Parnevik
Rank: 133rd
Points: 568 pts
Parnevik actually has a few more points entering this year's Shell Houston Open than he did last year, but his ranking is only five places better than it was last year at this time.

Player: Ben Curtis
Rank: 163rd
Points: 350
At this point last season, Curtis had already earned more than half of his points for the season. Hopefully that is not the case in 2008.

Player: Dudley Hart
Rank: 50th
Points: 2,223
Playing on a major medical extension, Hart is averaging about 370 FedExCup points per start in 2008 and has earned enough to keep competing in the remainder of the 2008 FedExCup season.

Player: Nicholas Thompson
Rank: 42nd
Points: 2,632
His first season competing in the FedExCup, Thompson could make a big move this week and position himself well for a good seed in the playoffs. A solo second would move him inside the top 20.

Player: Stuart Appleby
Rank: 21st
Points: 3,741
Last year, Stuart Appleby finished T2 at the Shell Houston Open. With a 2nd place finish this year, he could move into the top 5 in the FedExCup points standings. With a win, he could move to third.

Player: Carl Pettersson
Rank: 67th
Points: 1,807 pts
With 584 more points than he had this time last year, Pettersson is slightly ahead of last year's pace when he ranked 89th.

Player: Steve Marino
Rank: 22nd
Points: 3,693
Steve Marino was the No. 63 seed in the Playoffs last year, but he is well ahead of that pace this year. A top-five finish this week would give him more points already than he earned all of last year.

Player: Charles Howell III
Rank: 65th
Points: 1,866
Howell had a great year going to this point in the season last year, having already earned over 11,000 points with a win and 5 top 10s, but he earned less than 1,000 the rest of the way.

Player: Padraig Harrington
Rank: 28th
Points: 3,109
Harrington could move into the top five in the FedExCup standings if he wins the Shell Houston Open. He finished T24 here last year.

Player: Aaron Baddeley
Rank: 59th
Points: 2,039
One of the stories from last year's playoffs, Baddeley is well behind his pace from last year when he was seventth in the standings on the strength of his win in Phoenix.

Player: Hunter Mahan
Rank: 41st
Points: 2,645
Mahan was the No. 15 seed in the Playoffs last year, but earned most of his points late in the season -- compiling nearly 8,000 points in six events in June and July. Right now, he is actually more than 1,000 points ahead of where he was at this time last year.