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By Helen Ross
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

HARRISON, N.Y. -- Briny Baird already has made reservations for a family vacation next month at La Siesta Resort on Islamorada in the Florida Keys.

He's due to check in on Thursday, Sept. 6. Of course, that also happens to be the same day the BMW Championship, the third event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, begins.

Briney Baird has played in 250 TOUR events without a win. (WireImage)

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Not surprisingly, Baird wouldn't mind postponing his trip to the Purple Island for a week or so. First, though, he needs to improve his standing in the FedExCup -- and Thursday's first-round 66 at The Barclays was definitely a move in the right direction.

Baird's round of 5 under, shot in cool, damp conditions at Westchester Country Club, leaves him a stroke behind Brian Gay. With 50,000 points available -- and 9,000 to the winner -- Baird could make a big jump in the standings on Sunday.

Baird started the Playoffs ranked 102nd, which gives him a good chance of getting into the second event, the Deutsche Bank Championship, next week. Only the top 70 at the end of that event will play in Chicago, though, so Baird has some work to do.

"I would be lying to say I didn't know where I stood," Baird said. "And I know that 120 gets in next week and that 25 guys have to pass me for me to not get in there. And those guys are all coming from behind."

And as far as the BMW Championship is concerned, Baird is still hopeful of making the field, even though he went ahead and booked that extremely south Florida vacation.

"Does that mean I think I'm not going to make it? No," he said. "But the way things had been going, that's my two week break in the Keys. I'd love to break those reservations."

The double FedExCup points available at each Playoff event make big gains easier than during the regular season. Plus, the reset at the end of the regular season evened the gap between all the players who made the Playoffs and now get to play for the $10 million bonus.

Case in point: Tiger Woods led Vijay Singh by more than 11,000 points prior to the reset. Entering The Barclays, though, the lead was just 1,000.

Baird's own situation improved dramatically, as well. He was 27,505 points behind the No. 1 seed at the end of the regular season but is just 12,150 back after the reset.

"The way I look at it, it works out awesome for someone like myself," Baird said. "Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh, they had such a huge lead. They were never even close to being catchable before. They are catchable now. Tiger's huge lead's gone.

"It doesn't work out great for Tiger Woods and the big name players. It works out great for guys that are coming from behind and overtaking them. You have to play better than you ever have in a four-week stretch or hopefully a three-week stretch to get into the fourth, but those are the guys, I think they got sandwiched towards us."

Baird's trying not to focus on the points, though. He knows he simply needs to play well in each tournament he gets into -- however many that may be -- and the rest will take care of itself.

Baird played solidly on Thursday, twice turning good lies in the damp rough on one of the five fairways he missed into birdies. He hit 14 of 18 greens, as well, and followed his lone bogey of the day with a birdie on No. 9 to finish off the round of 65.

"How do I look at this tournament now being where I'm at?" Baird said. "No different than any. It's only 18 holes, still 54 holes to play; it's still a long ways away. If this is my first year, I would probably be a little more deer in the headlights look. I've done this before, but I've just never sat here at the conclusion of a tournament on Sunday, thank you very much."

Baird has played in 250 TOUR events, and he's still looking for his first victory. He's had a trio of runner-up finishes, though, and he's more than comfortable with the possibility of becoming the Cinderella story of the first Playoffs.

"Without a doubt, I think that would be incredible for me," Baird said. "I think it would be great because people would start associating possibly what is involved in winning this, what it takes to win it, what it would be to take it away from someone like Tiger, and then they would also start looking at the number, $10 million, for someone like myself whose career earnings are not even close to that.

"So I think that you add all that up, and not that it's not a lot for some of the big name players, but I think that would just be unbelievable."