Prime 9: The players who earned their way inside the FedEx Cup top 70
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Prime 9: The players who earned their way inside the FedEx Cup top 70

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Of the three FedEx Cup playoff events leading into the Tour Championship in Atlanta, the Deutsche Bank Championship has been the most volatile over the last four seasons.

There had been more players that have advanced to the next leg of the playoffs (20) since 2009 than either next week's BMW Championship or The Barclays. On Labor Day, another nine players earned a ticket to Crooked Stick by finishing inside the top 70 in the playoffs, heading to the third leg in Indiana on Thursday.

Here's a look at those nine players, where they are in the standings now, where they started the week and how they finished.

40. Jeff Overton (83, T-7)
45. Bryce Molder (93, 9th)
54. D.A. Points (72, T-20)
59. Troy Matteson (78, T-20)
63. Matt Every (75, T-35)
66. Chris Kirk (81, T-35)
68. Charl Schwartzel (71, T-47)
69. Charley Hoffman (86, T-26)
70. Dicky Pride (96, T-20)

Molder was the week's biggest gainer, jumping 48 spots. Dicky Pride, however, may be even more impressive. He has made it this far in just 16 starts this season, beginning the year with limited status.

Of course, for the nine players happy to continue on in the playoffs to the first of two no-cut events to close out the series, there have to be nine players sent packing sooner than they had hoped. They are: Josh Teater, John Rollins, Scott Stallings, Ken Duke, Harris English, Jonathan Byrd, Spencer Levin, Charles Howell III and Brian Davis.

For as happy as the nine players are who jumped into the field at the BMW Championship are now, they might be sad to know their chances of qualifying for the Tour Championship next week are slim.

In the last three years since the current FedEx Cup format was implemented, just nine players have hopped from outside the top 30 into a spot in the playoff finale at East Lake. That's just 7.5 percent of the 120 players ranked 31st to 70th heading into the last three BMW Championships.

About the author

Ryan Ballengee

Ryan Ballengee is founder and editor of Golf News Net. He has been writing and broadcasting about golf for nearly 20 years. Ballengee lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his family. He is a scratch golfer...sometimes.

Ballengee can be reached by email at ryan[at]thegolfnewsnet.com

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