- FedExCup Points: 50,000
- Purse: $7.0 million
- Winning Share: $1,260,000
- Yards: 7,415
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents
NORTON, Mass. -- John Mallinger started the final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship nine strokes off the lead. He was never in contention, but he sure played like he had a chance to win.
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Mallinger was trying desperately to play his way into the third event of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup on Monday. He went into the final round ranked 71st, one spot shy of earning a trip to Chicago for the BMW Championship.
"It felt kind of like I was in the leader group or close to the lead, (there was) that type of pressure out there," Mallinger said.
Mallinger responded to the challenge, too. He birdied three of his final four holes to shoot 68 and tie for 14th -- jumping 10 spots to safety in the FedExCup standings. So instead of hanging out at the beach, the Long Beach, Calif., resident will play Cog Hill for the first time.
Mallinger and Bo Van Pelt were the only players to play their way into the field for the BMW Championship, which features a $7 million purse and no cut. Van Pelt started the week ranked 72nd and moved up two spots Monday.
To advance to the Playoff finale, THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, players must be inside the top 30 on the FedExCup list after the BMW Championship. Jonathan Byrd is the man on the bubble now, after dropping a spot on Monday.
Arron Oberholser and Brett Wetterich made their way into the top 30, though, by tying for second with Tiger Woods, two strokes behind the winner, Phil Mickelson, who now stands No. 1 in the race for the $10 million bonus.
Oberholser came to the Deutsche Bank Championship ranked 67th and climbed 38 spots to No. 29. Wetterich was 51st when the tournament started and 21st when the final putt dropped on Sunday evening.
Mallinger, a PGA TOUR rookie who has earned more than $1.2 million this year, said he spent a lot of time looking at the projected standings and thinking about what he needed to do to advance. But on Monday, he tried to forget what he had learned.
"I was looking at it a lot all week, and then just kind of went into today and didn't look at it at all," he admitted. "I said, I know what I need to do, I need to play some solid golf. It's going to play tough, so if you get in under par today, it should do it."
Mallinger proceeded to reel off 14 straight pars, but he finally found the spark he needed when he chipped in for birdie at the 15th hole. "That kind of got me going," he admitted in understatement.
Mallinger, who felt like his lag putting Monday kept him in things early, then added a 14-footer from the fringe at No. 16 for another birdie. He two-putted from 45 feet at the 18th hole to put the finishing touches on the clutch 68.
"I figured under par would have a good shot," Mallinger said. "These things are so crazy, somebody can shoot 75 and jump up and somebody could shoot 65 and jump back. I just had to do what I was going to do. I didn't know where anybody was on the day, so it was hard to keep track of what everyone was doing, just got to go."
Van Pelt admitted he made things "interesting" with a closing round of 74. He was seemingly safe after shooting even par on the front nine, but he got on the bogey train on the back -- and came to the 18th hole 4 over.
Van Pelt, who had played with Mallinger and No. 70 Steve Flesch in the first two rounds, punched his ticket for Chicago, though, when he two-putted from 39 feet for birdie there.
"I got off to an OK start," he said. "But I struggled on the back nine all week. I knew it was going to be close. I knew Mallinger had played well. I didn't know what Steve had shot but I knew it was going to come down to the wire."
And like Mallinger, Van Pelt had done the math.
"You can make as much of it or as little as you want," he said. "I was just trying to go play, but I've be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about it because I knew I had it locked up with nine holes to go.
"I didn't want to be the guy who played bad on the back nine and didn't get to play Chicago. It's a great tournament and a great course. I grew up in Indiana so I wanted to play there. I didn't want to be the first guy who was No. 71."
