ATLANTA – Rory McIlroy hit a tee shot Friday that temporarily disappeared into a spectator’s pocket.

McIlroy’s drive on the 14th hole at the Tour Championship ricocheted out of a pine tree and dropped straight down. No one knew where it was until a fan realized it was in his shorts pocket. PGA Tour rules official Robby Ware made sure the fan had not moved after the ball went into his pocket. McIlroy was given a free drop under Rule 19-a-1 and went on to make par.

McIlroy let the fan retrieve the ball. He said, “I know how sweaty my pockets are. I wasn’t going into anyone else’s.”

A year ago at the PGA Championship, Jonas Blixt hit a tee shot that landed in a fan’s back pocket.

ATLANTA – Rory McIlroy is perplexed his remarks on Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson being on the “last few holes” of their careers caused so many headlines.

McIlroy was asked on the eve of the Tour Championship whether Woods and Mickelson not being eligible for the 30-man field represented a changing of the guard. He disagreed, saying that Woods was injured most of the year and Mickelson had played well in spots but was going through a long stretch.

Noting their ages (Woods is 38, Mickelson is 44) and injuries, he said they were “getting into sort of the last few holes of their careers.”

He went on Twitter that night to explain what he was asked and what he said.

“I was going through Twitter last night and it was like, `Hold on, did I say something bad here?’ I don’t think I did,” McIlroy said Thursday after opening with a 69. “Look, I know Tiger and Phil really well. I get on really well with both guys. I’ve said much worse to Tiger before.”

McIlroy and Woods recently made the rounds on talk shows together.

McIlroy said Wednesday:

“Phil has played well in parts this year. He came really close to winning the PGA. I feel like he’s gotten a little better as the year has went on. But it’s a lot of golf for him to play in such a short space of time. So you could see he was getting a little tired the last couple of weeks. And, I mean, Tiger’s not here just because he’s been injured or he is injured. He hasn’t had the opportunity to play.

“But I think if he gets back and when he gets back to full fitness, you’ll see him back here again. So I’m not sure … they’re just getting older. Phil’s 43 or whatever he is and Tiger’s nearly 40. So they’re getting into the sort of last few holes of their career. And that’s what happens. You get injured. Phil has to deal with an arthritic condition as well. So it obviously just gets harder as you get older. I’ll be able to tell you in 20 years how it feels.”

McIlroy said he didn’t feel he had to defend himself, but that his tweets were to clarify his remarks.

“I thought I was very complimentary,” he said. “I said the only reason Tiger wasn’t here was he didn’t have the opportunity. I wasn’t writing him or Phil off at all. … I didn’t say anything out of line or wrong.”

Asked if he felt as though he needed to explain his remarks to Woods, McIlroy smiled and said, “I’ve said worse to his face.”

ATLANTA – Chris Kirk and Billy Horschel took a big step Thursday toward the biggest payoff in golf.

Both players already have won FedEx Cup playoff events to earn the top two seeds going into the Tour Championship. Playing together in the last group at East Lake, they both made late birdies and were tied for the lead at 4-under 66.

If either of them were to win the Tour Championship, they would capture the FedEx Cup and the $10 million bonus.

Masters champion Bubba Watson isn’t out of the mix just yet. He made bogey from the bunker on the last hole for a 67 and was one shot behind, along with Jim Furyk, Patrick Reed and Jason Day.

Rory McIlroy made enough par saves to grind out a 69.

CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. – The bad swing last week is a distant memory. The blown lead Sunday – that wasn’t enough to derail Billy Horschel, either.

Horschel let a three-shot lead drop to nothing early in the final round of the BMW Championship before rebounding for a two-stroke victory over Bubba Watson. Horschel shot a 1-under 69 and finished at 14-under 266 to put himself in prime position for the FedEx Cup title and its $10 million bonus at the Tour Championship next week.

Horschel heads into the final week of the playoff chase in second place in the points standings thanks to the victory and his tie for second a week ago – when he chunked a 6-iron well short on the final hole, squandering a chance to beat or force a playoff with playoff leader Chris Kirk.

This time, the 27-year-old from Grant, Florida, smoothed his approach into the middle of the 18th green and the only drama was whether he’d have time for a quick pit stop before he had to putt. He sprinted up the fairway, ducked under the ropes and was back in plenty of time to two-putt and close out the victory.

“Obviously, after last week, a lot of people on Twitter were calling me a choker,” Horschel said. “I didn’t choke. I made one bad swing at a bad time. To start with a three-shot lead today and hold on means a lot.”

About an hour earlier, it was another chunked shot that drastically altered the course of the tournament.

Ryan Palmer erased his three-shot deficit to Horschel and was tied after six holes, then again after 11.

Palmer was one behind as the final threesome walked down the 13th fairway, with Horschel buried in the right rough and Palmer buried in the left. Horschel hit his second shot safely on the green. Palmer nearly shanked his into a small creek that runs in front of the green. He made double bogey to fall three behind.

That left Sergio Garcia, who cut a seven-shot deficit to two, as the last true threat, but his chance imploded on the par-5 17th – when he cooked his third shot over the green, then chipped back over the green and into the water. He made triple-bogey 8 – sullying a round of 3-under 67. He finished at 9 under, tied for fourth with Palmer (71), Rickie Fowler (68) and Jim Furyk (66).

Watson shot 66 to finish second, his small chance at victory essentially ending when his ball landed up against a divot on the 18th fairway that he couldn’t move, lest the ball roll downhill. He closed the day third in the standings, joining Kirk, Rory McIlroy and Hunter Mahan among the top five, all of whom control their destiny next week – meaning a win will give them the playoff title, as well.

Palmer’s fourth-place finish moved him from 37th to 23rd.

But outside of Horschel, Sunday’s biggest winner was third-place finisher Morgan Hoffman, who turned the old-school, mile-high layout at Cherry Hills into his personal pitch and putt over the weekend. He shot 7-under 63 on Sunday to go with his course-record 62 on Saturday and vaulted from 68th to 21st in the standings. He started the playoffs 124th.

Hoffman made a 16-foot putt for eagle on 17 to move into the top 30, then hit a 153-yard uphill shot from the rough to 10 feet on 18 for a stress-free par to close the weekend.

“That’s the perfect way of putting it – `nothing to lose,'” Hoffman said. “Carefree and just go out and fire at pins.”

McIlroy finished tied for eighth after a 66 that included a replay of the worst kind – a four-putt on the 12th green for the second straight day. Still, he’s comfortably in the mix for next week.

Also making it were Hideki Matsuyama, who was 28th in the standings after finishing at 4 under and Gary Woodland, who held onto the 29th spot.

In 30th place is Dustin Johnson, whose season is over. Stuart Appleby missed an 18-foot birdie try on his last hole to end up in 31st and Keegan Bradley’s decision to withdraw Saturday because of a question over a drop he took in the opening round left him in 33rd, a five-spot drop.

Graham DeLaet did not advance to the Tour Championship. A costly triple bogey on the par-3 15th hole would seal his fate, leading to a 11th place finish at 7-under 273. DeLaet – the last Canadian remaining in the PGA Tour playoffs – finished 37th in the FedEx standings to miss by seven spots.

CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. – Billy Horschel needed less than a week to give himself a second chance. If he keeps playing this well, his next shot at closing out a tournament won’t be nearly as stressful as the last one.

Horschel made a 32-foot birdie putt Saturday to wrap up his bogey-free third round at 7-under 63 and take a three-shot lead over Ryan Palmer heading into the final 18 holes of the BMW Championship.

On Monday at the Deutsche Bank Championship, Horschel had a 6-iron in hand on the 18th fairway and a chance to win or force a playoff, but he chunked the shot, made bogey and settled for a disappointing second-place tie.

“It happened,” said Horschel, who stands at 13-under 197. “It’s not a big deal. Just a bad swing at the wrong time. You can’t dwell on things like that.”

Five days later, he gave himself a cushion at the third of the four FedEx Cup playoff events, rolling in a 22 footer for birdie on 14, then an 8-foot birdie on 15 to vault into the lead. He closed it out with the long one on 18 – the uphill, par-4 477-yard closing hole that is the third toughest on the course and has surrendered only 18 birdies all week.

Horschel had one of 14 rounds of 67 or better at mile-high Cherry Hills, where soaking rains and cool weather over the last two days have softened the course and chipped away at some of its defences. There were 15 67s or better through the first two days. The course played 1.7 shots easier Saturday than it did Thursday.

“The greens are so much more soft than the first day,” said Morgan Hoffman, who briefly flirted with 59 but had to settle for an 8-under 62. “You can really throw it at the flags and keep it there.”

Masters champion Bubba Watson shot 66 to draw into a third-place tie at 8 under with U.S. Open champion Martin Kaymer, who made seven birdies over the last 12 holes to shoot 64.

“Should have been eight,” said Kaymer, who three-putted from inside 20 feet on the par-5 17th and settled for par.

Wasn’t the worst display on the greens, though.

Rory McIlroy made a 60-footer on the fourth to get into a brief tie for the lead but gave all that back and more with a four-putt from inside of 5 feet on No. 12 – bringing gasps from the crowd. It was McIlory’s first triple-bogey or worse since the first hole of last year’s BMW Championship.

“I completely misread the first one,” he said. “Then, just hit a bad put the second, and then the third one, I was just going for a tap-in and just lost concentration.”

The world’s top-ranked player shot 2-over 72 and goes into Sunday nine shots off the lead.

Second-round leader Sergio Garcia also struggled. He lipped out a 4-foot par putt on No. 7 – the hole he eagled on Friday – and closed out his round with an approach shot that struck a fan in the grandstand. His 2-over 72 left him seven off the lead.

Playing in the same group with those two stars was Palmer, who shrugged it off and shot 3 under, closing with a 30-foot birdie on 18 to pull within three of Horschel.

“Rory, he’s No. 1 in the world, and Sergio has been up there for years,” Palmer said. “So, for me to come out and hang in there and play well, I’m taking the next step in my career, I think.”

Palmer came into the week at 37th in the FedEx Cup standings and a good finish will put him in the 30-man field for next week’s Tour Championship, where a $10 million bonus is at stake.

He had a share of the lead most of the day, until Horschel started going off during the last 90 minutes.

“I was watching (the scoreboard) and yelling at him from the fairway to stop, but it didn’t work,” Palmer said.

They’ll play together Sunday, in the final group along with Kaymer.

On the sideline Sunday will be Phil Mickelson, who withdrew after finishing the second round 14 shots off the lead, and Keegan Bradley, who made the difficult decision to withdraw because he didn’t feel right about a drop he made near the 18th green on Thursday.

“It’s eating me alive,” Bradley said.

The decision could be costly. Bradley came into the week ranked 28th, and depending on how Sunday goes, he could lose his spot in the top 30 and a chance at the $10 million.

Right now, Horschel looks like as good a bet as any to win it. He came into the week ranked 20th.

“There were a lot more positives from last week to take than just one bad swing on the last hole,” Horschel said. “So, I knew coming in that I was going to play well.”

Canada’s Graham DeLaet is tied for seventh at 5-under 205. The Weyburn, Sask. native carded a 69 Saturday and will need to climb a few spots Sunday in order to qualify for the TOUR Championship. He’s currently projected to finish the week 32nd on the FedEx Cup standings.

Horschel, qui a réalisé un coup roulé de 32 pieds, a remis une carte de 63, soit sept coups sous la normale, et détient présentement trois coups d’avance sur Ryan Palmer, qui pointe au second échelon à -10.

Le meneur a notamment effectué des oiselets aux 14e et au 15e trous, avant de remettre ça au 18e.

Martin Kaymer et Bubba Watson, de leur côté, se partagent le troisième rang à -8, un coup devant Rickie Fowler et deux devant Sergio Garcia.

Jim Furyk, Jordan Spieth et le Canadien Graham DeLaet se situent quant à eux à égalité en septième position, devant Chesson Hadley, Morgan Hoffmann, J.B. Holmes, Rory McIlroy et Adam Scott.

CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. – Sergio Garcia hit great shots that led to eagle, birdie and par Friday. They carried him to a 6-under 64, giving him a one-shot lead going into the weekend at the BMW Championship on ever-changing Cherry Hills.

Garcia holed out from a greenside bunker for birdie on the second hole. He holed a lob wedge for eagle on the short, par-4 seventh hole. And after hitting into the water going for the green on the par-5 17th hole, he escaped with par by getting up-and-down with a wedge to a foot.

He needed them all.

Ryan Palmer also made eagle with a short wedge on the seventh hole, and he finished birdie-birdie for a 64 to end up a shot behind.

Rory McIlroy made three straight birdies late in his round and left his last putt on the edge of the cup. The late surge gave the world’s No. 1 player another 67 and put him two shots behind. Billy Horschel, a runner-up last week at the TPC Boston, had a 66 and was tied with McIlroy.

Garcia was at 8-under 132.

Barring a charge that would make even Arnold Palmer proud, Phil Mickelson is playing his last PGA Tour event of the season. He twice hit into the water – making a triple bogey on the par-3 12th and a bogey on the 17th – and shot a 76. Mickelson, who needs to finish about fourth to qualify for the Tour Championship, was 14 shots behind and in a tie for 63rd in the 68-man field.

Jason Day withdrew on the ninth hole with a back injury and said he would try to be ready for the Tour Championship.

The only peculiar part of Garcia’s day was his left ear. He was on the sixth green when he felt a series of beeps, followed by a “pop” that made him feel uncomfortable for about the next hour before it finally went away. He’s not sure what it was. He’s not sure there’s a word for it in Spanish.

“It’s happened before, but usually I kind of blow it and it gets back,” Garcia said. “But for some reason, it just didn’t feel quite the same. And it still doesn’t, but it’s definitely better. It shouldn’t be too big of a deal.”

But it clearly didn’t affect his golf.

“Obviously, it helped, because then I made 2 on the next hole,” he said with a laugh.

The turnaround came at the end of his round. He went for the green in two on the 17th and came up well short. With the tough 18th ahead of him, it looked as though he would lose his lead and perhaps even more ground. But he hit wedge to tap-in range for his par, and then made one only six birdies on the closing hole at Cherry Hills.

“It’s only Friday, so we still have two days to go,” he said. “But it definitely helped my frame of mind going into the 18th tee, which today was playing quite hard. So it was nice to be able to get that up-and-down and then play 18 really well.”

Masters champion Bubba Watson had no trouble with the water on the 17th. He has taken on the cross bunkers both days with his driver, leaving him only an 8-iron Thursday and a 9-iron Friday. He made eagle the second time, shot 66 and was in the group at 4-under 136 that included Graham DeLaet of Canada and Hideki Matsuyama, who came into the week at No. 30 in the FedEx Cup.

The top 30 advance to the Tour Championship for a shot at the $10 million bonus.

Palmer has been showing up on leaderboards over the last month – share of the first-round lead at the PGA Championship and an opening 63 last week in Boston. He thought the greens might be softer because of the rain, and he was right. Palmer saw a few approach shots on No. 1 and told his caddie the course would be there for the taking.

He waited until the end to grab it with four birdies in his last five holes.

“It was a great way to finish,” he said. “I was glad I was one of the ones that shot low.”

McIlroy also made a late surge after starting with one birdie, one bogey and 12 pars. He began to turn it around with a 30-foot birdie putt on the 15th, a 35-foot birdie putt on the 16th and a long two-putt birdie at the 17th.

He shot the same score and felt entirely different – finishing with two late bogeys one day, three late birdies the next.

“I feel much better coming off the golf course because I birdied three of the last four holes,” McIlroy said. “I sort of struggled to get anything going today. It was a little cooler, so the ball wasn’t going quite as far, a little bit of wind … even though the course was softer, it still played pretty tough.”

CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. – Sergio Garcia hit great shots that led to eagle, birdie and par Friday. They carried him to a 6-under 64, giving him a one-shot lead going into the weekend at the BMW Championship on ever-changing Cherry Hills.

Garcia holed out from a greenside bunker for birdie on the second hole. He holed a lob wedge for eagle on the short, par-4 seventh hole. And after hitting into the water going for the green on the par-5 17th hole, he escaped with par by getting up-and-down with a wedge to a foot.

He needed them all.

Ryan Palmer also made eagle with a short wedge on the seventh hole, and he finished birdie-birdie for a 64 to end up a shot behind.

Rory McIlroy made three straight birdies late in his round and left his last putt on the edge of the cup. The late surge gave the world’s No. 1 player another 67 and put him two shots behind. Billy Horschel, a runner-up last week at the TPC Boston, had a 66 and was tied with McIlroy.

Garcia was at 8-under 132.

Barring a charge that would make even Arnold Palmer proud, Phil Mickelson is playing his last PGA Tour event of the season. He twice hit into the water – making a triple bogey on the par-3 12th and a bogey on the 17th – and shot a 76. Mickelson, who needs to finish about fourth to qualify for the Tour Championship, was 14 shots behind and in a tie for 63rd in the 68-man field.

Jason Day withdrew on the ninth hole with a back injury and said he would try to be ready for the Tour Championship.

The only peculiar part of Garcia’s day was his left ear. He was on the sixth green when he felt a series of beeps, followed by a “pop” that made him feel uncomfortable for about the next hour before it finally went away. He’s not sure what it was. He’s not sure there’s a word for it in Spanish.

“It’s happened before, but usually I kind of blow it and it gets back,” Garcia said. “But for some reason, it just didn’t feel quite the same. And it still doesn’t, but it’s definitely better. It shouldn’t be too big of a deal.”

But it clearly didn’t affect his golf.

“Obviously, it helped, because then I made 2 on the next hole,” he said with a laugh.

The turnaround came at the end of his round. He went for the green in two on the 17th and came up well short. With the tough 18th ahead of him, it looked as though he would lose his lead and perhaps even more ground. But he hit wedge to tap-in range for his par, and then made one only six birdies on the closing hole at Cherry Hills.

“It’s only Friday, so we still have two days to go,” he said. “But it definitely helped my frame of mind going into the 18th tee, which today was playing quite hard. So it was nice to be able to get that up-and-down and then play 18 really well.”

Masters champion Bubba Watson had no trouble with the water on the 17th. He has taken on the cross bunkers both days with his driver, leaving him only an 8-iron Thursday and a 9-iron Friday. He made eagle the second time, shot 66 and was in the group at 4-under 136 that included Graham DeLaet of Canada and Hideki Matsuyama, who came into the week at No. 30 in the FedEx Cup.

The top 30 advance to the Tour Championship for a shot at the $10 million bonus.

Palmer has been showing up on leaderboards over the last month – share of the first-round lead at the PGA Championship and an opening 63 last week in Boston. He thought the greens might be softer because of the rain, and he was right. Palmer saw a few approach shots on No. 1 and told his caddie the course would be there for the taking.

He waited until the end to grab it with four birdies in his last five holes.

“It was a great way to finish,” he said. “I was glad I was one of the ones that shot low.”

McIlroy also made a late surge after starting with one birdie, one bogey and 12 pars. He began to turn it around with a 30-foot birdie putt on the 15th, a 35-foot birdie putt on the 16th and a long two-putt birdie at the 17th.

He shot the same score and felt entirely different – finishing with two late bogeys one day, three late birdies the next.

“I feel much better coming off the golf course because I birdied three of the last four holes,” McIlroy said. “I sort of struggled to get anything going today. It was a little cooler, so the ball wasn’t going quite as far, a little bit of wind … even though the course was softer, it still played pretty tough.”

CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. – Rory McIlroy felt anything under par was a good score Thursday at Cherry Hills, even if he had reason to expect much better.

McIlroy ran out of par saves late in the opening round at the BMW Championship and had to settle for a 3-under 67, still enough for the world’s No. 1 player to share the lead with Jordan Spieth and Gary Woodland.

Cherry Hills, one of the shortest courses on the PGA Tour when factoring in the mile-high air, held up just fine.

“It’s tricky. It really is,” McIlroy said. “The altitude, we’ve had a couple of days to adjust to that. It’s fine. But these greens have gotten so much firmer over the last 24 hours. I think that’s what is giving the guys just a little trouble out there.”

U.S. Open champion Martin Kaymer, Canada’s Graham DeLaet and Sergio Garcia were among those at 68, while Justin Rose wasted a fast start and was at 69. Phil Mickelson, who won the U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills in 1990, opened with a 70.

“It reminds me of Augusta in the early `90s, where the course played very short but the greens were the defense,” Mickelson said. “And the greens were very fast, and very firm, and it was very difficult to get the ball close.”

McIlroy ran off four birdies in a five-hole stretch around the turn to reach 5-under par. He appeared to escape trouble with one of his best par saves of the year, hitting a lofted pitch from the side of a mound that landed just on the green and rode the slope to about 8 feet. He avoided a three-putt on the next hole by making a 7-foot par save.

But that was the end of that.

McIlroy failed to save par from the bunker on the next two holes.

Spieth also ran into his share of trouble, though he countered with six birdies and figured out the nasty combination of soft turf in front of the greens and putting surfaces that felt like they had been mixed with cement.

He blasted driver through the fairway on the 382-yard seventh hole because it offered the best angle into the green. The trick was playing the wedge. It came out low and running, something one would expect to see more in links golf, and it had just enough speed to crawl onto the green and settle a few feet away.

“Today, I had a good short game,” Spieth said with a smile, a strong comment from a guy with one of the best short games in golf.

Woodland made only one mistake when he three-putted from about 50 feet on the fourth hole. He birdied both the par 5s, missing an 8-foot eagle attempt on No. 11, and was equally pleased with a par on the 18th hole, which features a severely canted fairway toward the lake and an uphill approach. Woodland hit 2-iron off the tee and a 6-iron onto the green.

“Probably the firmest golf course we have ever seen,” Woodland said. “The greens, they’re concrete out there. So if we don’t get any rain, it can be pretty interesting by the weekend.”

Just his luck, rain arrived late in the day and suspended the first round with nine players still on the course. They will return Friday morning before starting the second round. The field is only 69 players and there is no cut.

Among those who did not finish was Henrik Stenson, who missed a 4-foot par save on his 17th hole – the par-3 eighth – and fell to 2 under. Jerry Kelly, whose eagle on the final hole at the TPC Boston on Monday enabled him to be the last of the top 70 qualifiers for the BMW Championship, was at 1 under with two holes to play.

The top 30 in the FedEx Cup after this week advance to the Tour Championship in Atlanta, where everyone will have a mathematical shot at the $10 million bonus.

McIlroy has proven himself plenty this year, winning the British Open and the PGA Championship, with a World Golf Championship in between. He is No. 2 in the FedEx Cup standings behind Deutsche Bank Championship winner Chris Kirk, though he is assured a clear shot at winning the cup.

Boy Wonder has been saying during these FedEx Cup playoffs that his big year deserves a big finish.

He was hoping for a big round, and almost had one.

“The scoring isn’t that good out there,” he said. “Not that it’s not good, it’s just not that low. It’s tricky. It’s playing a little bit like a U.S. Open. I wouldn’t say it’s quite as difficult as that, but it’s thick rough, especially around the greens, and firm greens. That’s what they need to keep the scoring the way it is.”

McIlroy wasn’t the only player to reference a major championship.

“It felt close to it,” Garcia said. “Obviously, it’s not a long course with the altitude and everything, but a lot of the shots had to be hit perfectly to be able to hit it close to the pin.”

CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. – Phil Mickelson and Geoff Ogilvy were eager to get to Cherry Hills for the BMW Championship, for reasons more than just advancing to the third FedEx Cup playoff event.

Mickelson is part of the history at the fabled club in the Denver suburbs.

Ogilvy had only read about it. He took a day off from golf and spent more time with his nose in a book than with a club in his hand.

“I did a little more research on Cherry Hills. It’s supposed to be pretty good,” he said Tuesday night. “Hogan hit 34 greens in a row on Saturday playing with Nicklaus, and then he spins it off 17 with what was nearly a perfect shot. I just want to see how impressive that was, to be honest with you.”

He was talking about the 1960 U.S. Open, the great convergence of three generations – Ben Hogan and his last good shot at a fifth U.S. Open title, Arnold Palmer’s most celebrated charge that began with a driver onto the first green, and the debut of Jack Nicklaus, a 20-year-old amateur who easily could have won that day.

“Not many courses have the history of Arnold Palmer driving a par 4,” Ogilvy said. “I just want to see it.”

Mickelson has experienced it.

Of the 69 players who advanced to the BMW Championship, no one knows Cherry Hills better than Mickelson. He played six matches in 1990 on his way to winning the U.S. Amateur when he was a college kid with his collar turned up and even more bravado than he has now.

On the first hole in one of his matches, it was taking so long because of rulings that Mickelson conceded his opponent a 35-foot par putt, and then rolled in a short birdie. He could only recall four of the six players he beat that week, though he remembers trying to drive the first green every day because that’s what Arnie did.

“I’m pretty excited to get back to Cherry Hills,” Mickelson said. “There’s an emotional tie there for me.”

And for all of them, there is work to be done.

The BMW Championship, which starts Thursday after a Labor Day finish outside Boston, is the final chance for 30 players to advance to the Tour Championship with all its perks, from a mathematical shot at the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus to a spot in the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open next year.

Chris Kirk went to No. 1 in the FedEx Cup with his victory in the Deutsche Bank Championship, which assured him a clear shot at the $10 million even if it wasn’t good enough for U.S. captain Tom Watson to select him for the Ryder Cup.

The more compelling stories are those on the bubble, and no one feels more at home there than Ogilvy.

He missed the cut in The Barclays and was certain he would not be among the top 100 who reached the second playoff event. But he made it to Boston – by two points – when Troy Merritt missed a 10-foot par putt on the final hole at Ridgewood, and hours later, Brendon Todd made a 15-foot par putt on the same hole.

“I thought I was going to be a week-and-a-half into my drinking season at this point,” Ogilvy said.

He thought the same thing at the TPC Boston until he started making just about every putt he looked at over the last 27 holes. Ogilvy briefly was tied for the lead, and his 65-65 finish gave him a tie for second. But even that contained some drama.

Ogilvy was alone in third until Russell Henley made a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to tie him. Then, Billy Horschel missed a par putt after hitting into the hazard, and Ogilvy wound up in a three-way tie for second.

Because of the points distribution, Ogilvy went from No. 30 after Henley made his putt to No. 24 after Horschel missed his putt.

“I found myself quite interested in Billy and Russell,” he said. “Normally, I wouldn’t. At a normal tournament, you would finish and say, `OK, this was a good week and move on.’ But the FedEx Cup makes you think about that stuff. In a 20-second period, I go from third on my own to tied for third and then tied for second.”

And with that good fortune comes more pressure.

Given the breaks he required to get to Boston, much less Denver, Ogilvy felt he was playing with house money. Now, he is close enough to East Lake – and a return to the Masters for the first time in three years – that it has his full attention.

“Not only is it a realistic proposition, I kind of have to mess up not to get there,” he said. “Before I said it was house money. Anything I did last week was a bonus. Now I’m back in the mix for the whole thing.”

Another guy on the bubble is Canada’s Graham DeLaet. The Weyburn, Sask. is the lone Canuck left in the PGA Tour’s playoffs. He’s currently 43rd on the FedEx Cup standings and will need a good finish to climb into the top 30 and advance to the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola.