LEMONT, Ill., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Webb Simpson, who has won two times in his last three events, will own the lead Thursday when the PGA Tour's playoffs begin their semifinal stage.
The 70 leading point earners in the yearlong FedEx Cup points chase will compete this week in the BMW Championship at the Cog Hill Golf and Country Club. Only 30 of them will move on to the season-ending Tour Championship next week in Atlanta.
Simpson has emerged as the tour's newest star thanks to his victories at the Wyndham Championship and the Deutsche Bank Championship. The first of those wins moved him into third place on the points list as the playoffs began and the second one vaulted him all the way to the top.
The points will be rearranged going into the Tour Championship and a victory in that event by any of the Top 5 will give that player the FedEx Cup and the $10 million that goes with it.
The first five spots on the points list at the start of the BMW Championship will be Simpson, Dustin Johnson, last year's FedEx Cup runner-up Matt Kuchar, world No. 1 Luke Donald and Brant Snedeker.
Nick Watney, who led the points race at the start of the playoffs, has fallen to seventh place.
The only players to have reached the Tour Championship in all four years the playoff system has been in place are Steve Stricker, Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan, Jim Furyk and Ernie Els.
Stricker (currently No. 8), Mickelson (10) and Mahan (18) are certain to reach the final event again this year. Furyk, the defending FedEx Cup champion and ranked 35th this year, must finish at least 11th this week to advance. Els, in 68th place, has to be among the first three at the BMW Championship to play in Atlanta.
Simpson, Johnson and Kuchar will be paired together for the first two rounds at Cog Hill and will begin play Thursday on the 10th tee at 11:53 a.m. EDT.
