Bubble watch: Wyndham Championship

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J.J. Henry gave himself a ticket to The Barclays with his bogey-free 62 on Sunday.
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Aug. 17, 2008

Editor's note: FedExCup expert Steve Dennis provided final-round updates on the last PGA TOUR Regular Season event of the year.

The PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup field is set. Click here to see the 144 players who move on to the opening tournament of the Playoffs, the Barclays. Here are the players entering the Wyndham Championship who jumped above the 144 cut line ... and the players who fell below it:

Playing their way in
Player   Playoffs position
entering Wyndham
Wyndham
result
Playoffs position
after Wyndham
Rich Beem 166 3rd (17 under)
70-67-63-63
114
Martin Laird 164 T4 (16 under)
63-74-64-63
128
J.J. Henry 177 T4 (16 under)
70-66-66-62
135
Justin Bolli 153 T15 (13 under)
68-66-68-65
141
Lee Janzen 154 T15 (13 under)
67-66-67-67
144
Playing their way out
Player   Playoffs position
entering Wyndham
Wyndham
result
Playoffs position
after Wyndham
Marco Dawson 144 DNP 150
Brett Rumford 143 MC
68-75
149
Todd Hamilton 141 MC
71-70
148
Tag Ridings 140 MC
74-64
147
Gavin Coles 138 MC
71-73
146

5:45 p.m. Sunday:: Janzen survived, and Y.E. Yang missed it by that much. Two late birdies gave Yang hope, but Janzen's fur birdies on the final six holes gave him just enough to squeak by. It will be interesting to see which of the five who played their way in this week can keep it going at The Barclays, where a missed cut will be a virtual guaranteed elimination for any of those five.

5:35 p.m. Sunday:: Here's what Rich Beem had to say on an XM Radio 146 interview afternoon:

XM Radio: Did you know the FedExCup points situation coming in?

Rich Beem: Without a doubt. I needed to have a good week just to make it into the first round of playoffs. So, I got a flight that I'm going to miss going back to Austin right now because I'm going up to New York tomorrow now and, you know, I knew exactly where I was.

I knew I had to play my butt off just to make it up there. I didn't want to have four weeks off, you know, and I'm glad at least I got into the first one. I've got a chance for the first one and second one, so on and so forth. I'm there now. You can't win it unless you get in it.

5:13 p.m. Sunday: The race for 144 is winding down as the race for the victory at Wyndham continues to heat up. Looks like there will be five guys in the Playoffs based on their play at Wyndham, up from three last year.

Justin Bolli, J.J. Henry, Martin Laird and Rich Beem are in, and either Lee Janzen or Y.E. Yang will be the fifth

Scott McCarron had to make the cut to be assured of getting into the Playoffs, but he was already in the top 144.

The five who dropped out of the playoff picture are Gavin Coles, Tag Ridings, Todd Hamilton, Brett Rumford and Marco Dawson. Coles, Ridings, Hamilton and Rumford missed the cut, and Dawson withdrew on Friday needing an eagle on No. 18 to make the cut when the rain delay occurred.

4:45 p.m. Sunday: I like Lee Janzen, but I hope his ticket to Ridgewood isn't non-refundable. He's currently projected at No. 144, but all it will take is a couple of birdies from Riegger, Jones, Sterling, Baird, Taylor and Glover. I don't think he can hang on.

4:24 p.m. Sunday: I spoke too quickly regarding Y.E. Yang. I missed Lee Janzen's possibilities, and he has come through, at least so far. Janzen has moved into a tie for 14th, which would give him just enough points to get past Yang, and drop Yang to No. 146.

4:17 p.m. Sunday: Gavin Coles, ranked 138th coming in, is currently projected at 145th. Even though he's sitting at home, he needs to root for a birdie fest over the next couple of hours. If a handful of players can pass Justin Bolli on the leaderboard, Bolli, who started 153rd on the points list, will not earn enough points to push past Coles. At this point, Bolli looks pretty safe, however.

4:08 p.m. Sunday: Y.E. Yang is now looking like a lock to get into the Playoffs... he's at the tenuous 144th (projected), but everyone behind him in the tournament has finished, so he's unlikely to move down the leaderboard.

There's justice in the fact that the guys at No. 138 through 144 who missed the cut are the ones who are knocked out of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. Of the seven players ranked 138 to 144, five missed the cut and look to be the first five who will miss the Playoffs. The two who made the cut are Glen Day, who started 142nd and will probably finish 143rd, but still safely inside the top 144, and Scott McCarron, who was 139th and will not only earn a trip to The Barclays today, but could earn one to The Mercedes Championship, The World Golf Championships-CA Championship, the Masters and a number of other invitationals, if he can get past Carl Pettersson.

3:35 p.m. Sunday: Justin Bolli has made a great run, but he's likely to see it slip away over the next couple of hours. Right now, he's got a projected 1,904 points, for a projected 138th. However, several players still have the entire back nine to play, and the course is yielding lots of low scores. If he gets passed by 3 or 4 of the people yet to finish, he doesn't pick up enough points to stay in the 144.

Case in point - as I was writing this, Mark Wilson birdied 18 to pass Bolli. He's still in, but the grip is tenuous.

3:25 p.m. Sunday: Henry is kicking the door in, with another biridie on 17, his 4th in a row and giving him what should be a big enough cushion to get into the Playoffs, even if others behind him also make birdies.

Meanwhile, Garrett Willis may be back on track, with a birdie on No. 7 after two early bogeys. He still needs at least a couple of more strokes to have a chance at the 144. Rich Beem bogeyed on 11, but should be okay as long as he doesn't drop any more.

He's projected at 136 as of now, and even if he's passed by a couple of guys, should have enough to hang onto the top 144.

3:11 p.m. Sunday: I watched Henry make birdie as I hit the "send" button on the last note.... he looks safe now, but his fate is very dependent on how many players go past him in the last couple of hours.

3:07 p.m. Sunday: Henry is now back to -6 for the day, and that would get him in, if he can stay at T4. Y.E. Yang is back on the bubble, at -9 for the tournament, (T34) and 146th in projected points. He could move back in and drop Gavin Coles (who missed the cut) out, with another birdie.

2:47 p.m. Sunday: J.J. Henry has put himself in the mix, climbing to a tie for 6th with his 6-under through 15 holes. Tied for 6th would be good enough for Henry to get into the 144, if only there weren't 8 or 9 players also tied for 6th. Right now, he's projected 145th.

The bigger problem is that he's out of holes, and many behind him aren't. His 13 under for the tournament will be good, but not good enough. He probably needs at least another couple of strokes to stay in 6th.

2:21 p.m. Sunday: Garrett Willis bogeyed No. 2, dropping him from tied for 4th in the tournament to tied for fifth with eight others. This caused a projected 145 in the FedExCup standings to move to 172, a 27 postition drop.

2:09 p.m. Sunday: Rich Beem's birdie on No. 5 (3rd in a row) jumps him back over Garrett Willis, putting him in (projected) and Willis out.

2:06 p.m. Sunday: More on Rich Beem...While I was writing the previous note, Garrett Willis was birdieing No. 1, which moved him into the projected top 144, dropping Rich Beem back to 145.

2:05 p.m. Sunday: Rich Beem, whose excellent play in the first two playoff events in 2007 provided a prototypical example of how hard it was to move up in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, is now in a position to get into the more volatile 2008 version - his birdies on No. 3 and No. 4 have put him in a tie for 10th, which projects to 139th, if he can finish there.

For the moment, he has knocked Y.E. Yang out of the top 144. Yang needs a good back nine to get back in -- he is even through 10, which won't be good enough on a course playing below par for the leaders.

1:30 p.m. Sunday: Y.E. Yang may be the most interesting guy to follow today. He only needs about 100 points to get in (depending on what Garrett Willis, Scott Sterling and some others do), but he's one stroke away from dropping out of the 144.

If Willis can keep up his great play, he's still got to hope that a couple of others slip up. As of this writing, he's projected in 145th, but would move into the top 144 if any of Justin Bolli, Martin Laird or Yang drop a stroke or two.

Sterling has better control of his own fate, but he still needs to move up the leaderboard from his current T9. Right now, one stroke would put him T6, which would be enough.

11:54 a.m. Saturday: A bunch of guys obviously need really good tournaments to get into the playoffs, but right now, 12 players in the top 20 in the tournament are "bubble boys."

Willis, McCarron and Laird are in but need to keep up their great play. Sowards is tied for fifth but needs a third.

Beem, Hensby, Garrigus and J.J. Henry are all tied for ninth. ... Beem and Henry still need to move up a little, and Garrigus and Hensby can't afford to move down much.

Yang, Sterling and Lee Janzen are all tied for 19th -- Yang is just in, and Janzen is just out. Sterling needs to pick it up.

Marc Turnesa is one stroke out of the 144 as of right now.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here are the players between 140th and 150th on the FedExCup points list and their position so far in the Wyndham Championship:

Rank Player Rd. 1 Rd. 2 Rd. 3 Rd. 4 To par Standing Proj. Pts. Proj. rank
140. Tag Ridings 74 64 MC MC -2 MC 1,678 144
141. Todd Hamilton 71 70 MC MC 1 MC 1,647 146
142. Glen Day 66 69 69   -6 T41 1,729 142
143. Brett Rumford 68 75 MC MC 3 MC 1,624 147
144. Marco Dawson 67 WD WD WD WD WD 1,622 148
145. Kevin Stadler 70 68 MC MC E MC 1,621 149
146. Craig Kanada 70 74 MC MC 4 MC 1,604 150
147. Greg Norman DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP 1,595 151
148. Y.E. Yang 67 69 66   -8 T24 1,730 141
149. John Huston 70 WD WD WD WD WD 1,487 156
150. Davis Love III 66 70 71   -3 T63 1,509 154
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