FedExCup Notes: Week 18

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• Tiger Woods' first place standing is safe for the 10th straight week, but Phil Mickelson could cut into his lead, and nine others have a chance to move into second with a victory. Eight of those nine, plus Mickelson, made the cut at Wachovia last year, including Steve Stricker, who finished second. Andres Romero was not in the Wachovia field in 2007. If Imada wins and Mickelson misses the cut, they will be tied for second behind Tiger.

• A number of players in the top 30 in the 2008 FedExCup points standings are heavily dependent on their victory to have gotten them there. The chart below lists the top 15 players in the field, ranked by average points per start. Last year, it took an average of about 500 points per start to be in the top 15, so all of these players appear to be on track to do so. However, based on their "points per start excluding wins," unless Steve Lowery, Andres Romero, J.B. Holmes and Trevor Immelman win again, they will need to dramatically pick up their pace to be in the top 15 at the end of the regular season.

• A few players are poised to make important moves. Of course, virtually any player who wins will move way up in the standings, but the list below shows players in the field who are averaging more than 300 points per start without benefit of a win. Not only are they playing well enough to be in the hunt in most weeks, but if they each play nine more regular season events after the Wachovia Championship and maintain their current average, they'll move up in the points standing significantly (based on the 2007 final points standings for the Regular Season). For example, Luke Donald is currently 21st in the FedExCup Standings, but if he continues to average 710 points per start in 10 more events, he will finish will 12,065 points, which will probably be good enough for a top 10 seed, based on how players finished last year.