Pointed toward advancing in FedEx Cup

Here's how this week will go:

Of the 120 players who earned spots into the Deutsche Bank Championship, only 115 will tee it up, as Ernie Els, Scott Verplank, Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman, and Jose Maria Olazabal withdrew for various reasons. Since only the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings will advance to Chicago and next week's BMW Championship, Lehman (87th) and Olazabal (98) are eliminated. In theory, so, too, is Langer (59th), who never expressed an interest in the playoff.

Els (10th) and Verplank (15th) are high enough in the standings that they're assured of spots in the BMW and the Tour Championship in Atlanta (Sept. 13-16), even by skipping this week.

Come late Monday, when a fifth Deutsche Bank Championship is complete, FedEx Cup points will be distributed based on a player's standing. First place will earn 9,000 points; second 5,400; third 3,400, all the way to 70th, which gets 100. Those who miss the cut at the DBC (it will be low 70 and ties) don't receive any points.

After the points are distributed, the top 70 will advance to Chicago and while crazy things could happen, it's safe to consider the top 60 in the standings safe for another week. You could hazard a guess that the top 20 right now are OK to add the Tour Championship to their schedules (the top 30 after the BMW Championship will advance).

Steve Stricker leads the FedEx Cup standings with 104,950 points, followed by K.J. Choi (102,900), Rory Sabbatini (100,650), and Tiger Woods (100,000), the runaway winner in the regular season who skipped the playoff opener last weekend.

Those names will surely remain near the top, regardless of what happens at TPC Boston. That means the real interest sits between positions 60 and 80, where those who are inside No. 70 are trying to keep their spots and those 71-90 need strong pushes to make it to Chicago.

Notables names inside (60th to 70th):
Vaughn Taylor, 61st - Has struggled mightily since early May, making just five cuts in 12 starts to plunge down the standings.

Stephen Ames, 66th - He didn't help his cause by sitting out the Barclays, though he cited a cranky back. Has he recovered from that fourth-round free fall at the PGA Championship?

Sean O'Hair, 68th - Smooth-swinging 25-year-old has made the cut in nine of his last 10 events, but only once has he finished inside the top 10. In other words, he's been playing well, but not scoring.

Notables names outside (71st to 90th):

Fred Funk, 75th - Prefers the PGA Tour, even though he qualifies for the Champions Tour. His chances of advancing wouldn't seem ideal given a TPC Boston layout that doesn't favor his style of play. Then again, he's never played the DBC, so who knows?

Davis Love, 81st - Another solid player who's struggling, he ended the regular season by missing the cut in five of six starts, then he wound up T-41 in the playoff opener at Barclays. Needs to turn it up quickly if he hopes for a third playoff start.

Justin Leonard, 85th - Opened the season by missing six straight cuts, then got into a stretch during which he played beautifully. Still, he was hurt by three missed-cuts in the only majors in which he played.

Retief Goosen, 86th - Strange year for the quiet South African, because at times he's been in good form (T-2 at the Masters thanks to a brilliant weekend) and has only missed one cut in 13 starts. Yet he has only two finishes inside the top 20 in stroke-play events.

Mike Weir, 88th - A big sigh of relief was exercised when the Canadian hero got picked to play in the upcoming Presidents Cup in Montreal. Now the challenge is to get his game back to a level that earned him a Masters and six other PGA Tour wins. Seemed to be turning the corner with a T-20 (US Open), T-8 (AT & T National), T-8 (British Open) stretch before going into a T-34 (Canadian Open), WD (Bridgestone), MC (PGA Championship) funk.