News and notes on the PGA Tour's top 20

The Sports Xchange's 2011 PGA Tour rankings, based on 2010-11 performance, selected by TSX golf staff.

1. Luke Donald, England: For a while, it appeared that Donald might capture the FedExCup before heading back to the European Tour to try to nail down the Race to Dubai. Instead, he finished in a tie for third in the Tour Championship, one stroke out of the playoff in which Bill Haas defeated Hunter Mahan. Luke finished third in the FedExCup standings, rising one spot from the position he held last week and at the end of the regular season. … Having missed out on what would have been a historic double by winning the season-long chases on both major tours, Donald will turn his attention to the Euro Tour, where he leads the Race to Dubai. His victories in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, the BMW PGA Championship and the Barclays Scottish Open have put him there, in addition to giving him the No. 1 spot in the World Golf Rankings. He is playing this week in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews for the fourth time. In 2004, he held the 54-hole lead after posting three rounds of 68 or better but closed with a 71 and finished one stroke out of the playoff in which Stephen Gallacher defeated Graeme McDowell. Two years ago, he shot 65-64 in the middle rounds and tied for seventh. … Donald posted his 13th top-10 finish on the PGA Tour, the most on the circuit this season, in the finale at East Lake, but his only victory came in the Accenture. He made three birdies in the last five holes on Sunday after being 2-over through 12 holes but needed one more to get into the playoff.

• MORE: Bill Haas racks up $11.44 million

2. Phil Mickelson, United States: The Tour Championship was like many other events for Lefty this season — he gave himself a chance heading to Sunday but could manage only a closing 1-over-par 71 that left him in solo 10th. He fell to 15th in the final FedExCup standings after being sixth in the points heading into the PGA Tour playoffs. … In the past, Mickelson would pretty much shut down his golf for the year to spend time with his family after the PGA Tour season, but golf is almost a 12-month profession these days and he still has some events remaining. Of course, Captain Fred Couples will expect him to be one of the team leaders for the U.S. team in the Presidents Cup in November at Royal Melbourne. The Australian Open and Australian PGA are played before and after the team event, and both have been courting Lefty. There are no future events listed on the schedule page at philmickelson.com, but he has played the last four years in the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, winning the tournament in 2007 and 2009. That tournament is scheduled for the first week of November, two weeks before the Presidents Cup. … Mickelson gave himself a chance by posting scores of 68-70-67 in the first three rounds at East Lake but could manage only one birdie in his disappointing final round. In a way, it was the story of his season; he was averaging 70.44 on Sunday, his highest in any round. Lefty led the field by hitting 58 of 72 greens in regulation but averaged 31.8 putts per round with his belly putter.

3. Steve Stricker, United States: Stricker soldiered through the Tour Championship after having a cortisone shot in his neck because of weakness in his left arm. A week after withdrawing from the BMW Championship after two rounds because of the injury, he finished 15th in the Tour Championship, falling to 18th in the FedExCup standings after he was second in the points following the regular season. Strick has been a stalwart in the PGA Tour playoffs, with 10 finishes in the top 10 since the postseason series began in 2007, but could not manage even one this time as the injury got progressively worse. … The problem for Stricker now will be to rest in order to regain strength in the arm and still find a way for his game to be sharp heading toward the Presidents Cup on Nov. 17-20 at Royal Melbourne. He said he was planning on playing in one of the four Fall Series events, although he did not say which one, but now that seems to be up in the air. Strick could also play in the WGC-HSBC Champions and/or the Australian Open in the two weeks before the Presidents Cup, where he again is expected to form a partnership with Tiger Woods. His condition has to be a concern for U.S. captain Fred Couples. … Despite not feeling well, Stricker kept himself in the picture by shooting 68-70-69 in the first three rounds last week at East Lake, but he stumbled coming home on Sunday. He closed with a 2-over-par 72, and surprisingly it got away from him with the best club in his bag, the putter. Stricker averaged 27.3 putts per round for three days but needed 31 on Sunday.

4. Webb Simpson, United States: After playing better than any other golfer through the first three rounds of the PGA Tour playoffs, Simpson could manage only a 22nd-place finish in the Tour Championship. He still had a chance to take home the FedExCup under certain scenarios but finished second to Bill Haas, who won the tournament and the $10 million for capturing the season-long points chase. … Putting together a career year on the strength of victories in the Wyndham Championship and the Deutsche Bank Championship has made Simpson change his plans for the rest of the year. He has played in Fall Series events each of the last two years and was committed to the Frys.com Open next week but withdrew that pledge. Webb finished fourth in the U.S. standings for the Presidents Cup and could be a key player for captain Fred Couples in November at Royal Melbourne. Coming out of Wake Forest in 2007, he played in the Walker Cup and the Palmer Cup, taking part in American victories each time. … Simpson opened with a 1-under-par 69 last week at East Lake but failed to break 70 over the last three days. After playing the middle rounds in 70-70, he struggled home with a 73, playing the first 12 holes in 5-over before a mini-rally with birdies on Nos. 13 and 14. Simpson lost his touch with the belly putter on the weekend, when he needed a total of 61 putts after taking 56 on the first two days. After finishing in the top 10 in four consecutive tournaments and 10 times this season, he might have run out of gas while playing for the sixth time in seven weeks.

5. Nick Watney, United States: Watney started the week with a reasonable chance to win the FedExCup — he was seventh in the standings — but could break the par of 70 only when he shot 67 in round two in the Tour Championship. He struggled to a tie for 26th and finished ninth in the standings, a big disappointment after he led the points at the end of the regular season and then tied for 10th in the Barclays, the opener of the PGA Tour playoffs. … Watney is another player who might have to at least reconsider his normal routine after the Tour Championship because of the Presidents Cup in November at Royal Melbourne. One thing that will not change is that he will play this week in the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open for the seventh consecutive year. Nick owns a home in Las Vegas and has done well in the tournament, tying for sixth in 2005 and again last year, when he posted four rounds in the 60s at TPC Summerlin and wound up two shots out of the playoff in which Jonathan Byrd defeated Scott Pearcy and Martin Laird. Watney has played the last two years in the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, which will be played two weeks before the Presidents Cup. … Watney spoiled what could have been at least a decent week in the Tour Championship with three big numbers. He carded double bogeys on the 14th and 17th holes while shooting 72 in the first round and then took a triple-bogey 7 on the fifth hole of another 72 in round three. Nick simply was not very good while closing with a 74 that included one birdie.

6. Bubba Watson, United States: Not only did Bubba play poorly in the PGA Tour playoffs, capped by a tie for 23rd in the Tour Championship, he played his last 12 events of the season on the U.S. circuit without a top-10 finish after claiming the Zurich Classic of New Orleans for his second victory. He dropped six more spots to 26th in the final FedExCup standings after being eighth at the close of the regular season. … Watson might play in another event or two before then, but he has committed to play in the Australian Open in November, the week before he will be a member of captain Fred Couples' team for the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne. Expect the left-hander to be on his best behavior, as he was in events in England and Sweden after stepping on more than a few sensitive French toes with some regrettable comments during a week to forget at the Alstom Open de France outside Paris in June. … Watson gave himself a chance to contend last week in the Tour Championship by shooting 6-under-par 64 in the second round but came back with a 79 the next day. It wasn't quite as bad as it looked, other than a quadruple-bogey 9 on the 17th hole, where he hit his approach into a fried-egg lie in a greenside bunker. Bubba's bunker shot rolled off the green into the water, and he hit his next shot fat, and that one also got wet. Watson carded six birdies in his fine second round but could manage only that many in his other 54 holes.

7. Dustin Johnson, United States: After winning the Barclays to open the PGA Tour playoffs, Johnson could not regain that form and wound up outside the top 20 in the last three events, including a tie for 23rd in the Tour Championship. That dropped him two positions to fourth in the final FedExCup standings after he was fifth last year, as he climbed from 19th at the end of the regular season. … DJ is trying to play in the 13 tournaments necessary to qualify as a member of the European Tour, so he has flown across the pond this week to compete in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews. He already has played in 10 events that count on the Euro Tour, including the majors and World Golf Championship events, in addition to finishing fourth in the Ballantines Championship in South Korea and tying for sixth in the Nordea Scandinavian Masters. Those results, plus runner-up finishes in the Open Championship and the WGC Cadillac Championship, would put him fourth in the race to Dubai with 1,405,979 euros. Johnson also will play in the Australian Open the week before the Ryder Cup. … DJ could not break the par of 70 last week at East Lake, posting three scores of even par and a 73 in round two, when he carded double bogeys on the seventh and 14 holes. He had a chance to go low in the final round but again carded two doubles, on the 10th and 15th holes, after playing the front nine in 3-under, and he led the field with four double bogeys for the week.

8. Justin Rose, England: A week after winning the BMW Championship to give himself a chance to grab the FedExCup with a victory in the Tour Championship, Rose was unable to summon the same form and finished in a tie for 20th. That dropped him from third to fifth in the final standings, the best of his career and quite a move from 44th at the beginning of the PGA Tour playoffs. … Rose is not currently a member of the European Tour, so he is not part of the contingent of players that has returned to the United Kingdom this week to play in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews. He needs to play in four more events in order to reclaim that membership with the minimum of 13 and said he plans to do that, but there are no future events listed on the schedule page at justinrose.com. It's important for him to do that because 2012 is a Ryder Cup year and he wants to give himself the best chance to make the team for the matches at Medinah after being left off last year. … Rose virtually took himself out of the running in the Tour Championship, and the FedExCup, when he shot 5-over-par 75 in the second round, carding double bogeys on the fourth and 10th holes in addition to taking 35 putts. He opened with a 69 but really did not play his best golf until he posted a final-round 67 that included only one bogey, but it simply came too late to make a difference.

9. Adam Scott, Australia: Scott held a one-stroke lead in the Tour Championship after opening with 67-65 at East Lake, but he shot 4-over-par 74 in the third round and eventually wound up in a tie for sixth in the finale after a closing 68. He climbed three spots to 16th in the final FedExCup standings, having posted two top-10 finishes during the PGA Tour playoffs. … It appears that Scott is going to take a break of at least a month before playing three times before the home crowd in Australia during November. The schedule page at adamscott.com shows no events before the Australian Open, which he won in 2009 for his first professional victory Down Under. He will be a mainstay of Greg Norman's team for the Presidents Cup the following week at Royal Melbourne after being a Captain's Pick two years ago and then will close out the run at home when he tees it up in the Australian PGA. … Scott was even par through nine holes in his third round last week at East Lake but played the back in 4-over without a birdie to virtually shoot his way out of the tournament. He went the other way after slow starts in his other three rounds. He was 1-over after six holes Thursday but was 4-under the rest of the day. In round two, Scott was at 2-over through six holes before playing the last 12 holes in 7-under. Sunday, he was 1-over through seven, then played the last 11 holes in 4-under. Scott finished second in the field by hitting 56 of 72 greens in regulation but averaged 30.8 putts per round with his belly putter.

10. K.J. Choi, South Korea: Posting his second consecutive top-10 finish, Choi was in the chase in the Tour Championship until the final hole, where he needed a birdie on the final hole of regulation to get into the playoff in which Bill Haas defeated Hunter Mahan. However, he missed the 18th green and had to settle for a par that left him in a tie for third, which lifted him to 11th in the final FedExCup standings. He was seventh following the regular season. … A bounce-back year at the age of 41 put Choi on the International team for Presidents Cup for the fourth time; he finished fourth in the standings thanks to the biggest victory of his career, in a playoff at the Players Championship, and a runner-up finish in the AT&T National. Before getting to Royal Melbourne in November, he probably will play at the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai for the sixth time in the last seven years in the first week of November and the Australian Open a week later. … K.J. started 68-65 in the Tour Championship but played the weekend in 70-70 although he bounced back from a double-bogey 6 on the eighth hole in the final round by carding three birdies on the back nine. He hit only 7 of 14 fairways and 6 of 18 greens in the final round but kept himself in it all the way to the finish by taking only 23 putts after averaging 30.0 over the first three days. Choi carded six birdies in his brilliant second round but had only three more on the weekend.

11. Keegan Bradley, United States: Bradley played his best golf since his stunning victory in the PGA Championship when he opened with a 6-under-par 64 to take the first-round lead last week in the Tour Championship. However, he could not break 70 the rest of the way at East Lake and wound up in a tie for 11th. He finished 20th in the final FedExCup standings, after he started his first run through the PGA Tour playoffs at fifth in the points. … Bradley was the hot choice to be Fred Couples' second Captain's Pick, behind Tiger Woods, for the U.S. team for the Presidents Cup. He even had Phil Mickelson and Hunter Mahan publicly lobbying Couples to take him. However, now it is expected that Bill Haas will get the nod on Tuesday after winning the Tour Championship and the FedExCup. Bradley has played 28 events in his rookie season and probably needs a break but could play in the Fall Series. He will play at least once more, in the two-day PGA Grand Slam of Golf next month in Bermuda against Rory McIroy, Darren Clarke and Keegan Bradley, the other 2011 major champions. … Keegan's brilliant first round last week at East Lake included only one bogey, and he carded four birdies in a span of six holes through No. 16. He had 28 putts in that opening round with his belly putter but lost his way on the greens the rest of the way. He averaged 32.5 putts per round over the last 54 holes, including 32 in the second round.

12. Bill Haas, United States: After losing in playoffs this season at the Bob Hope Classic and the Greenbrier Classic, Haas really made his third victory on the PGA Tour count. He beat Hunter Mahan with a par on the third playoff hole to win the Tour Championship and the FedExCup, taking home the $10 million prize for winning the season-long points race. In addition, he could join Tiger Woods as one of Fred Couples' two Captain's Picks for the Presidents Cup when they are announced Tuesday. … Haas barely missed qualifying for the United States team for the Presidents Cup on his own, winding up two spots out of 10th last week. His father, Jay, is one of Couples' vice captains. The younger Haas will stay busy during the Fall Series, having committed to play this week in the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Classic for the fifth consecutive year. He also could play in two weeks at the McGladrey Classic, where he posted four rounds in the 60s last year and finished one stroke behind champion Heath Slocum in the inaugural event. … Haas posted four rounds in the 60s in the Tour Championship but seemed doomed when his approach from a fairway bunker went over the green on the second playoff hole and stopped on the edge of a water hazard. But he flopped a recovery shot to within tap-in range for a par that kept him alive. Haas held a three-stroke lead at one stage on the back nine Sunday but made bogeys on two of his last three holes to close out a 2-under-par 68 before finally figuring out a way to win in a playoff.

13. Jason Day, Australia: The 23-year-old Aussie was in the hunt in the Tour Championship and the FedExCup chase until the final holes last week. Day was tied for the lead until he carded bogeys on the last two holes to close with a 1-over-par 71 and tie for sixth in the finale at East Lake. He slipped two spots to 12th in the FedExCup standings but was solid throughout the playoffs, with two finishes in the top 10 after starting at 14th in the points. … After a big year on the PGA Tour, including runner-up finishes in the Masters and the U.S. Open, Day is going home to play before the home fans in Australia. Those finishes and his victory last year in the HP Byron Nelson Championship helped him lead the two-year point standings for captain Greg Norman's International team for the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne. He is planning to tee it up three times Down Under, also having committed to the Australian Open the week before the team matches and the Australian PGA the week after. … Day was right with the leaders all the way in the Tour Championship, posting rounds of 67-67-69, before faltering. He hit errant shots down the stretch to make those two bogeys, but might have been in the lead at that stage had he managed to make a few more putts in his first 16 holes. After averaging 27.0 putts per rounds the first three rounds, he took 32 strokes in the greens on Sunday. Day tied for the lead with a three-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole before stumbling on the last two holes.

14. Matt Kuchar, United States: For the second consecutive season, Kuchar had a chance to take home the FedExCup before friends and family in the Tour Championship, but he could break the par of 70 only when he opened with a 3-under-par 67. He finished in a tie for 20th. That dropped him one spot to sixth in the final FedExCup standings, a year after he finished second to Jim Furyk, when he could manage only a tie for 25th in Atlanta. … Kooch is going to take a break before the Presidents Cup but will play in at least one Fall Series event, the McGladrey Classic at Sea Island, Ga., on Oct. 13-16. He owns a home on the island and finished in a tie for 25th in the tournament last year and will use the event to keep sharp for Royal Melbourne after leading the point standings for captain Fred Couples' United States team. Kuchar jump-started the resurgence in his career when he won the Turning Stone Resort Championship during the Fall Series two years ago. … Kuchar had five birdies in his first round last week at East Lake but could manage only six more the rest of the way, including three while playing the weekend in 71-73. He lost his touch with the putter — after taking only 26 strokes on the greens in the first round, he averaged 31.7 over the last three days. Kooch seemed to be headed for another solid round on Saturday before he made bogeys on the 16th and 17th holes, and on a Sunday to forget carded his only birdie on the sixth hole.

15. Mark Wilson, United States: Completing a disappointing run through the PGA Tour playoffs, Wilson finished in a tie for 26th in his first Tour Championship, failing to finish in the top 20 in any of the four events. He fell seven spots to 22nd in the final FedExCup standings after being 11th at the end of the regular season. Still, it was better than his previous best finish of 32nd in the standings two years ago, and he did it on the strength of his victories at the Sony Open in Hawaii and the Waste Management Phoenix Open in the first five weeks of the season. … Wilson has played 25 times in his breakthrough season on the PGA Tour at the age of 36, and in the past he has usually competed close to 30 times, so he can be expected to tee it up in the Fall Series. Last season, he played in all four tournaments after the Tour Championship, but that came after he missed the PGA Tour playoffs for the first time since their inception in 2007. Wilson is skipping the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open this week but probably will at least play in the finale, the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic at Disney World, where he tied for sixth last year. … Last week in his first appearance at East Lake, Wilson could not break 70 until he closed with a 1-under-par 69. He gave himself some chances by hitting 53 of 72 greens in regulation but averaged 32 putts per round, including 34 on Thursday and 32 on Sunday.

16. David Toms, United States: Toms completed a bounce-back season on the PGA Tour with a tie for 16th in the Tour Championship, falling four spots to 20th in the final FedExCup standings after starting the playoffs in ninth place. He'll take it after making it to the finale for only the second time since the postseason format was put into play in 2007. He missed the playoffs entirely in 2008. … Toms showed this season that he can still compete, and win, on the PGA Tour at the age of 44, losing in a playoff to K.J. Choi at the Players Championship and winning the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. That helped him land a spot on the U.S. team for the Presidents Cup for the fifth time as he finished eighth in the point standings. Toms will try to keep his game sharp when he plays in two weeks in the McGladrey Classic during the Fall Series; he tied for third in the inaugural event last year. He held a one-stroke lead after opening with 64-66 but played the weekend in 70-68 to tie for third, two strokes behind winner Heath Slocum. … Toms played his best golf last week at East Lake only when he shot a bogey-free 5-under-par 65 in the second round. He also had five birdies in the final round, but a double-bogey 10 on the 10th hole marred his closing 69. He hit in the neighborhood of two-thirds of the fairways and greens but was Jekyll and Hyde with the putter. He needed a total of 67 putts in the first and third rounds but totaled 51 in the other two.

17. Geoff Ogilvy, Australia: Coming off his third-place finish in the BMW Championship, which landed him on the International team for the Presidents Cup matches and in the Tour Championship, Ogilvy posted a solid tie for 11th in the finale at East Lake. He wound up 24th in the FedExCup standings, coming all the way from 79th at the end of an injury-plagued regular season. He played without as much pressure as some of the players in the field in Atlanta, having said last week that making the International team meant more to him than reaching the Tour Championship since the Presidents Cup will be played at Royal Melbourne in November. … Ogilvy finished 10th, the last automatic qualifying spot, in the International team standings for the Presidents Cup with a clutch performance in the BMW Championship. A week before the team event, he will defend his title in the Australian Open, which he won last year by four strokes over Alistair Presnell and Matt Jones. The week after the Presidents Cup, he will play in the Australian PGA, which he won in 2008 before losing last year to Peter Senior on the second hole of a playoff. … Ogilvy might have been factor down the stretch in the Tour Championship last week if he hadn't played a five-hole stretch through No. 17 in 5-over-par during a third-round 72. He opened with 69-68 and closed with another 68, and the difference could be traced to his putter. He needed 33 putts to get through the third round but averaged only 27.0 over the other three days.

18. Charl Schwartzel, South Africa: Although he did not make it to the Tour Championship, falling two spots short of the 30-player field, it was a very successful first season on the PGA Tour for Schwartzel. Of course, he didn't have to do anything after winning the Masters to make it a career year, but he finished in the top 10 three times and in the top 25 on 10 occasions while making the cut in all 15 tournaments he entered. No small feat, considering he was playing unfamiliar courses almost every week. He ranked 24th on the money list with $2,604,558 and fared much better than his friend and traveling companion, Louis Oosthuizen, who failed to make the playoffs and whose tie for ninth in the U.S. was his only top-10 finish. … Schwartzel will be busy in the next couple of months — he ranks third in the European Tour's Race to Dubai behind leader Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy. His victories in the Masters and the Joburg Open in South Africa, co-sanctioned by the Euro Tour and the Sunshine Tour, both count in those standings. This week, he is playing in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship for the eighth time and is hoping for better luck. He has missed the cut five times in the event, and his best finish was a tie for 13th two years ago. … Schwartzel is expected to be one of the main men in captain Greg Norman's lineup for the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne after finishing third in the International team point standings. He also has the South African Open later in the month and will play in the PGA Grand Slam of Golf next month in Bermuda.

19. Jim Furyk, United States: Even though he missed out on defending his title at the Tour Championship, Furyk still has some golf to be played this year: He qualified to play for the U.S. team in the Presidents Cup for the seventh time, posting a 10-6-2 record. Like Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, he will be playing in the Fall Series and hopes to maintain his improved play. He has committed to play in two weeks in the McGladrey Classic in Sea Island, Ga., not far from his home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. He passed on the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open this week even though he has played in the event 14 times previously, the last when he tied for fourth two years ago. Furyk, who once owned a home in Las Vegas, won the tournament in 1995, 1998 and 1999 and has three other finishes in the top five. … The 41-year-old Furyk suffered through probably the worst season of his career a year after he won three tournaments, including the Tour Championship, took home the FedExCup and was selected PGA Tour Player of the Year. He recorded only four top-10 finishes, two in his last four tournaments, when he made a belated run for the Tour Championship by tying for ninth in the Wyndham Championship and finishing sixth in the Deutsche Bank Championship. … Captain Fred Couples wanted Woods to get in some extra work before the Presidents Cup, and he probably would like to see Furyk do the same. The WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai at the beginning of November and the Australian Open a week later and a week ahead of the Presidents Cup are possibilities.

T20. Brandt Snedeker, United States: Even though he could only manage a tie for 16th in the Tour Championship, it capped a nice charge in the PGA Tour playoffs for Snedeker. He slipped two spots to eighth in the FedExCup standings but moved up from 18th at the end of the regular season by tying for third in the Barclays and the Deutsche Bank Championship, the first two playoff events, before he tied for 22nd in the BMW Championship. … Despite his strong play in the playoffs, Snedeker missed the 10th and final automatic qualifying spot for the United States team in the Presidents Cup by one position and hopes to get the nod from Fred Couples on Tuesday for one of two Captain's Picks. That could mean that his season is over after playing in 25 events because he did not play in any of the four Fall Series events last year, although he played in the Turning Stone Resort Championship and the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in 2009. … Snedeker gave himself a chance to hoist the FedExCup on Sunday night when he opened with 68-69 at East Lake, but he could manage only a single birdie while posting a 4-over-par 74 in the third round. He closed with another 69, despite a double-bogey 6 on the 17th hole, and had to be wondering what might have been had he been able to record four rounds in the 60s. Sneds could have done it with better work on the greens, but he averaged 31.3 putts per round before taking 26 on Sunday.

T20. Hunter Mahan, United States: Mahan was tied for the lead entering the final round of the Tour Championship but seemed to give away his chances to win the title and the FedExCup when he made only one birdie while closing with a 1-over-par 71. However, that was enough to get him into a playoff with Bill Haas, who won with a par on the third extra hole when Mahan hit into a greenside bunker and failed to get up-and-down for par. Mahan's ninth top-10 finish of the season and second of the PGA Tour playoffs left him seventh in the point standings, up from 20th at the end of the regular season. … Mahan finished ninth in the United States team standings for the Presidents Cup and will play in the event for the third time in November at Royal Melbourne. He is skipping the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open this week for the first time in the last four years but could play in another of the Fall Series event to keep his game in shape. There also is a chance he could play in the Australian Open the week before the Presidents Cup. … Mahan played brilliantly in the first three rounds last week at East Lake, shooting 67-68-66 to share the lead with Aaron Baddeley. However, after averaging 28.7 putts per round over the first three days, he needed 33 putts in the final round or he might have won the title in regulation. His 66 on Saturday could have been better, but he mixed in three bogeys with five birdies and an eagle.

Others receiving consideration: Tiger Woods, United States; Ernie Els, South Africa; Aaron Baddeley, Australia; Jonathan Byrd, United States; Gary Woodland, United States; Lucas Glover, United States; Fredrik Jacobson, Sweden; Jason Dufner, United States; Vijay Singh, Fiji; Y.E. Yang, South Korea; Graeme McDowell, Northern Ireland; Martin Laird, Scotland; Chez Reavie, United States.

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