Each player in top five has strong shot at FedExCup

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ATLANTA -- Three have won tournaments this year; a total of six, to be exact, although one admittedly came out of the blue. The fourth would like nothing better than to join them, and he's playing well enough to make it happen.

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Oh, and then there's that guy named Tiger Woods.

The PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup end on Sunday at East Lake, and someone will take home a $10 million bonus -- in addition to their winnings from THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola.

Five men -- the aforementioned Woods, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson and Heath Slocum -- have the best chance of winning the third FedExCup. A win at East Lake and the silver Tiffany and Co. trophy is theirs, along with a financial windfall that's the largest competitive bonus in sports.

Of course, there are plenty of scenarios that could turn any one of the 30 players who advanced to the Playoffs finale into the FedExCup champion. We're not mathematicians here at PGATOUR.COM, though.

So who among those top five players has the best chance to follow in the footsteps of Woods and Vijay Singh? Let's take a look.

TIGER WOODS: Anyone who doesn't think Tiger Woods is the odds-on favorite at East Lake probably still thinks Dewey defeated Truman. He's won six times already this season, most recently two weeks ago by a dominating eight strokes at the BMW Championship. And the last time he won at Cog Hill? Woods went on to win THE TOUR Championship and the inaugural FedExCup in 2007. That's not all, either. Woods has two wins and three runner-up finishes in THE TOUR Championship and he's a collective 47 under at East Lake. Shut out in the majors, the man with the surgically-repaired left knee could end his "comeback" season on a positive note by winning the FedExCup.

STEVE STRICKER: Yes, he had a letdown two weeks ago at Cog Hill. But Stricker had tied for second at The Barclays and won the Deutsche Bank Championship. Was it realistic to expect another virtuoso performance? No, the tie for 53rd was an anomaly for Stricker, who has won three times in 2009 -- second on TOUR only to Woods -- and posted 10 top-10s. He ranks second in scoring average and fourth in birdies, too. Granted, Stricker's record at East Lake isn't stellar. He tied for fifth in 1998 but hasn't finished higher than a tie for 17th in his other two starts, both coming in the Playoffs, where he has excelled with six top-10s otherwise.

JIM FURYK: He's had nine top-10 finishes this year and two of those have come in the last two Playoffs events. That tie for second at the BMW Championship boosted Furyk 15 spots into third in the FedExCup race. He could certainly end a two-year victory drought with a bang on Sunday at East Lake -- and win the FedExCup in the process. Furyk has broken par in 10 of his last 12 rounds and he's 27 under during that stretch. Small wonder he's third in scoring average behind Woods and Stricker. He's never finished lower than 18th at East Lake, including a tie for sixth last year.

ZACH JOHNSON: He may not have won at East Lake, but Zach Johnson should come to Bobby Jones' private playground with confidence after shooting a third-round 60 in 2007 on the way to a tie for second. His tie for fifth at Cog Hill two weeks ago was Johnson's eighth top-10 of the season and kept him among the all-important top five in the FedExCup standings. He ranks ninth in driving accuracy, which could be important because heavy rains in Atlanta have made the rough lush, and fourth in scoring average behind Woods, Stricker and Furyk. Are you sensing a trend here?

HEATH SLOCUM: Even Slocum would admit he's the wild card entry among the top five in the FedExCup standings. He only made the Playoffs by two points but Slocum made sure he'd stick around when he rolled in a clutch 20-footer for par on the 72nd hole to win The Barclays. The victory also assured Slocum, who was struggling to make the top 125 on the money list and keep his card, of a two-year exemption on TOUR. It was the third win of his career and the third top-10 of the season for Slocum. He's only played in THE TOUR Championship once, tying for 17th in 2007.