Players on the cusp at the Northern Trust
By Bill Felber
This week’s PGA Tour stop, the Northern Trust outside New York, is also the end of the 2020-21 season for nearly half the field.
Only those ranking among the top 70 in FedEx Cup points by the conclusion of play Sunday will advance to the second stage of the playoffs, the BMW next week.
That makes this tournament especially pivotal for the players on the cusp of that 70th position cutoff point. On their performance this weekend rides the continuation, or the conclusion, of their seasons.
Who are these pivotal players? How did they get to this decisive moment? What are their prospects of actually advancing to the next round of the FedEx Cup crucible?
This is a look at the 10 players right on that cusp: those ranking between 66th and 75th on the points list entering the Northern Trust.
Some got there through steady, unspectacular season-long play. Others rode one or two moments of brilliance, generally accompanied by broader stretches of disappointment that added up to a mid-field finish.
A few are coming in relatively hot, at least by the standards of the anonymous mass of players who do not rank among the game’s elite.
Others piled up their points advantage early, and have survived recent failures to at least contend for a spot among the final 70.
https://progolfnow.com/2021/08/16/2021-northern-trust-top-10-power-rankings-liberty-national/
One thing’s for sure: These 10 have a large hill to climb if they hope to make it to the Tour Championship. In the past two seasons, only one player ranked between 66th and 75th on the points list entering the Northern Trust got to the Tour Championship. That was Abraham Ancer, who jumped from 67th to eighth in 2019 thanks to finishes of second, T28 and T21 at the final three events.
Last year only three of the 10 players in these cusp positions even made it into the top 70 and a spot in the BMW field.
So you’re saying there’s a chance? Yes…there’s a chance.