One of the tournaments within this week’s tournament is the Kodak Challenge, which resumes at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Bill Lunde leads the $1 million season-long race. Three strokes behind Lunde? Childhood friend Charley Hoffman.

Lunde and Hoffman grew up in San Diego together and have been friends since their days in So Cal. Of course when it comes to trying to win something, friendship gets shelved.

“We always root for each other, but when his name's on the scoreboard, I want to beat him more than anybody else,” Hoffman said. “I want to get up there and try to make a run.”

This week’s Kodak hole is the 560-yard par-5 16th at TPC Summerlin.

Hoffman is 22nd on the PGA TOUR in total eagles with nine, which he feels should give him an advantage over Lunde.

“It's definitely an eagleable hole,” Hoffman said. “I've done some research. [Lunde] hasn't made any eagles, so if I get an eagle and a couple more birdies, I can actually win the event.”

Lunde, however, has played a lot more holes than Hoffman in the Kodak Challenge, so that means Hoffman will almost certainly need to eagle the 16th this week to have any chance of catching Lunde. And if he does that could impact his decision-making for the rest of the Fall Series -- next week’s Frys.com Open also features a driveable par-4.

“I'm going to give him a run,” Hoffman said. “He already told me he'd never talk to me again if I beat him, and then I asked him if he promised. No, kidding.

“But no, it's all in good fun and we're all trying to win a million dollars here.”

EDISON, N.J. -- Getting there may be a challenge with Hurricane Irene rumbling up the East Coast.

But eight players punched their ticket to TPC Boston on Saturday at The Barclays when they moved into the top 100 in the FedExCup standings.

Camilo Villegas made the biggest move -- jumping 58 spots to 51st when he tied for sixth at Plainfield Country Club. Chris Stroud moved up 31 spots, Ian Poulter 36, Padraig Harrington 44, Bill Lunde 18, William McGirt 29, John Merrick 6 and Ernie Els 19 to No. 99.

Poulter and McGirt had two of the biggest challenges in the final round. The colorful Brit birdied four of his last five holes on Saturday to seal the deal while McGirt, who was the last man to make the field for the first event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, clocked in at No. 101 until he made a birdie on the 17th hole.

Falling out of the top 100 were Bryce Molder, Hunter Haas, Chris DiMarco, Paul Goydos, Nick o'Hern, Matt Bettencourt, Tim Herron and Michael Bradley. Of that group only Molder made the cut and his closing 70 and tie for 65th simply wasn't enough.

Kris Blanks posted two birdies and an eagle on his final eight holes early Thursday to take the round lead at the RBC Canadian Open. Blanks’ 3-under 67 held up as the day’s low round on a very tough Shaughnessy layout, but not without a few scares. Both Matt Kuchar (1 over) and Ben Martin (2 under) were tied with Blanks at one point but could not maintain their positions atop the leaderboard. Sean O’Hair briefly took the lead from Blanks, reaching 4 under after 14 holes, but he closed with three consecutive bogeys and posted a 1-under 69. Martin is part of a group of 11 players tied for second, one shot off Blanks’ pace. Among the others at 2 under are Kodak Challenge leader Bill Lunde, Canadian Matt McQuillan, Paul Goydos and Bo Van Plet. Ernie Els, who traveled to Canada as one of two players from last year’s TOUR Champisonhip by Coca Cola field currently outside the top 125 in the FedExCup standings, is also at 2 under. Defending RBC Canadian Open champion Carl Pettersson opened with a 4-over 74 and is tied for 90th.

DUBLIN, Ohio – Bill Lunde withdrew prior to the start of the second round of the Memorial Tournament, citing illness.

Lunde, who won the Turning Stone Resort Championship last year, has put together a solid season so far on the PGA TOUR. He finished 12th and 13th in his first two starts and had only missed three cuts in 15 events prior to this week.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am has tightened up considerably on a spectacular and sunny day on the Monterey  Peninsula.

Steve Marino has bogeyed two of his first three holes while D.A. Points has made birdies in Nos. 1 and 2 at Pebble Beach so they are tied at 11 under.

Points, who is playing with comedian Bill Murray, made an 18-footer at No. 1 and two-putted from 33 feet on the par-5 second. Marino is playing Monterey Peninsula Country Club, which is generally regarded as the easiest of the three venues.

Bryce Molder, who started on the back nine at Spyglass Hill, had closed to within a shot after a birdie and eagle on his first two holes but he has just made a double bogey at No. 13. So now he’s tied for third with Jimmy Walker, Alex Cejka, Bill Lunde, J.J. Henry and Keegan Bradley at 8 under.

Here’s some good news for current leader Justin Rose: Dating back to the tournament’s 1952 inception, the second-round leader has gone on to win the event 22 times. In that same span, there have been just 10 wire-to-wire winners, with Peter Jacobson being the most recent in 2003.

Also, the last three winners on the PGA TOUR in 2010 hail from Europe (Justin Rose, Lee Westwood and Graeme McDowell). That has never happened on TOUR.

Meanwhile, Bill Lunde nearly matched Rose’s 8-under 62 with one of his own, but he came up one stroke shy. Lunde’s 63 is one stroke shy of his career-low 62 (third round, 2009 Bob Hope Classic). Lunde, who is making his 94 ^th career start on TOUR this week, finished in a tie for 47th at TPC River Highlands last year in his only other start here.

Bill Lunde is in with a 63 -- one off his career low -- after chipping in for eagle during our LIVE@ coverage on the 15th hole on Friday at TPC River Highlands. He also eagled the par-5 13th.

Lunde is still five shots back of Justin Rose, but the score is sure to put the second-year TOUR member in one of the latter groups on Saturday. It's been a rough sophomore season for Lunde, who has just a tie for 10th at the Puerto Rico Open presented by Banco Popular to show for his 16 starts in 2010.

To watch players go for the 15th green all week at TPC River Highlands, click here.

Justin Rose’s lead is now down to five shots after Bill Lunde and Vijay Singh each just moved to 8 under, which begs the question can anyone catch him?

Obviously there’s a ton of golf left with it still early in the second round. But even if Rose builds a big lead, it’s anything but guaranteed to be safe. Case in point: Brad Faxon in 2005.

Faxon entered the final round trailing by seven shots before tying the course record with a 9-under 61 to force a playoff with Tjaart van der Walt. Faxon birdied the first extra hole and won the playoff. -- Brian Wacker