PGA playoffs enter second half

LEMONT, Ill., Sept. 8 (UPI) -- The PGA Tour playoffs enter their third quarter Thursday with an unexpected twosome at the top of the standings in the battle for the $10 million top prize.

A field of 70 players, whittled down from an original group of 125, will compete in the BMW Championship at the Cog Hill Golf and Country Club.

Halfway through the four-week grind, the top two on the FedEx Cup points list -- the winners of the opening two playoff events, Matt Kuchar and Charley Hoffman -- are paired together for the first two rounds this week.

The rest of the top five on the points list are Steve Stricker, Jason Day and Luke Donald. If a player is among the top five going into the playoff-ending Tour Championship, a victory in that event will give him the FedEx Cup and its $10 million first prize no matter what anybody else does in the tournament.

Only the top 30 point earners at the end of the BMW Championship qualify for the Tour Championship in Atlanta and it would be mathematically possible for any of those 30 to win the $10 million.

Tiger Woods, who for the first time this year played three rounds in the 60s -- he did it last week at the Deutsch Bank Championship in suburban Boston -- begins this week in 51st place and needs a high finish to move into the top 30. Woods was one of the four players selected this week by captain Corey Pavin to play on his Ryder Cup squad next month in Wales.

Phil Mickelson, who began the playoffs in fourth place, has slipped to No. 14 heading into this week's event. Ernie Els was on top of the standings at the beginning of the four-event stretch and he has dropped to seventh.