PGA ‘playoff’ heats up this weekend

NORTON, Mass. (AP) — Bob Estes was on his way to the first tee for a practice round at the TPC Boston on Wednesday when he stopped to look at the FedEx Cup standings.

“First time I’ve seen my name atop a leaderboard in a long time,” Estes said.

That was the good news.

Not so good was that this chart only showed the 10 players — from No. 65 to No. 75 — on the bubble at the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second round of the playoffs when the paring of players starts to get serious.

Only 70 of the 100 players who made it to the TPC Boston will advance next week to Cog Hill outside Chicago.

Estes is at No. 65 for the second straight week. He can’t afford to drop much lower.

A year ago, one tournament into the PGA Tour Playoffs revealed some flaws. The points system was supposed to create volatility, yet it wound up rewarding mediocrity. Anyone who simply made the cut could count on moving up the charts. A missed cut was crippling.

The example of all that was wrong last year was Padraig Harrington. He won two majors and ultimately was voted PGA Tour player of the year, but he missed the cut in the first two playoff events and didn’t even qualify for the Tour Championship.

Harrington hasn’t won any tournaments this year after spending most of the season searching for a swing key. Only in the last month did he start to concentrate on scoring, and the results have been promising. He had a chance to win at Firestone, finishing in a tie for second. He had a chance at the PGA Championship, where he tied for 10th.

In the playoff opener last week at The Barclays, Harrington tied for second.

He started the playoffs at No. 66 and now is all the way up to No. 14, keeping him in contention for the $10 million prize.

“It is interesting that my FedEx Cup this year has improved so much with one event,” Harrington said. “Whereas maybe last year the system didn’t work for me, this year it seems to be working for me.”

It’s working for Tiger Woods. He won five times during the regular season to earn the No. 1 seed, tied for second last week after missing a 7-foot putt that would have put him in a playoff, and remains the top seed.