Crowded leaderboard sets up Monday mayhem

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Vijay Singh is gunning for his third win in less than a month.

NORTON, Mass. -- Take the top 10 guys on the leaderboard going into Monday's final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship. Now see if you can divide them into three distinct categories.

It's actually pretty easy.

Major winners: Mike Weir, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Jim Furyk. Combined, they've won two Masters, three U.S. Opens, one Open Championship and two PGA Championships. That's a Grand Slam for that foursome.

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Briny Baird is one of the best ballstrikers on TOUR -- and looking for his first PGA TOUR win.

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Multiple PGA TOUR winners: Sergio Garcia, Heath Slocum and Ben Crane. Combined, they've won 11 TOUR events, the last one being Garcia's win in May at THE PLAYERS Championship.

Still searching for first TOUR win: Camilo Villegas, Briny Baird and Tim Clark. Combined, they've won $25,844,751 on TOUR ... but no trophies.

If there's ever a case of the haves vs. the have-nots going into a final round, this would be it.

"I've got my hands full," said Weir, who'll enter the final round with a one-shot lead over Villegas. "There's great players on the leaderboard. Some guys that are hungry to win for the first time, guys that haven't won many times, and I'm trying to do the same thing."

In other words, each of those 10 players are loaded with incentive to win ... not the least of which will be a contending spot in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup going into next week's third stage at the BMW Championship.

Should Singh win, he'll obviously be firmly planted in the driver's seat, having already won last week's first Playoffs event, The Barclays. Not only is he on a hot streak, having also won the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational three weeks ago, he likes being in the chase position -- 14 of his 33 wins on TOUR have come when he's trailed entering the final round.

Garcia would obviously be feeling good, too, about his FedExCup chances after coming off a playoff loss to Singh last week. Winning the FedExCup would take some of the sting off all those close calls he has suffered lately (last week and the PGA Championship).

Meanwhile, for a player such as Villegas, a win would not only get the monkey off his back, but allow him to relax entering St. Louis, knowing he doesn't have to fight just to advance to the next event.

Crane, although he has two TOUR wins, is in the same boat in terms of his Playoffs life. He entered the tournament ranked 92nd in FedExCup points and on the outside looking in when the Playoffs field is reduced to 70 for the BMW Championship. But that 63 on Sunday puts him in a favorable spot. He's now 46th in the projected standings.

"With this crazy points system, anything can happen," said Villegas, who is playing in his 85th TOUR event.

Actually, anything could happen on Monday, thanks to breezy conditions that made an impact in Sunday's third round and are expected to do likewise in the final round.

The wind, which reached up to 20 mph on Sunday, made it difficult for the players to read the course, although not so much to prevent them from scoring. Certainly, it didn't stop Villegas or Crane from shooting 8-under 63s to move themselves into contention.

So no one's really sure what to expect. Will the wind force players to play conservatively and eliminate the possibility of someone going low? Or will it allow someone to post a low score if they can figure out how to attack the pins?

"If we can have conditions the same tomorrow as today, I think we can have guys like myself trying to chase," Els said. "I mean, Villegas on a very tough day today got himself right back in the tournament with a low round. You've got to play quality golf.

"But you know, it'll help if the wind gets up. It'll make the leaders protect the score a little bit more."

Added Garcia: "Obviously, if the wind goes like this, it's going to be harder for all of us, and you've got to be patient out there. You've got to pick your spots, like I did today (in shooting a 3-under 68)."

Furyk, on the other hand, heard that the winds won't be as strong on Monday as they were Sunday. And if that happens ...

"It's going to be a shootout tomorrow," he said.

And if it turns into a shootout ...

Well, no matter what category you fall into -- major winner, multiple winner, no winner -- it'll be a sweet victory. And then you get to try it again in a short turnaround a few days later at Bellerive.