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Geoff Ogilvy's season, and perhaps position in the Presidents Cup, are on the line in a "do-or-die" week in Boston.
Geoff Ogilvy's season, and perhaps position in the Presidents Cup, are on the line in a "do-or-die" week in Boston.
Ranked 91st in the FedEx Cup standings heading into the second week of the US PGA Tour's rich play-off series, the former US Open champion needs a high finish at the Deutsche Bank Championship to progress to week three in Chicago where only the top 70 play.
Ogilvy is also ranked 11th on the International team standings for the Presidents Cup clash with the US at Royal Melbourne from November 17-20, one spot out of automatic inclusion with just over two weeks left until selection.
Should he fail to progress to the next stage in Chicago he'll have no further chance to boost his points tally, potentially putting his fate in the hands of International captain Greg Norman who gets two additional picks.
Thankfully, despite missing his last two cuts, Ogilvy comes to TPC Boston with positive vibes thanks to his runner-up finish last year, and three further top 10s in just six appearances at the event.
"This is the week, it's do or die, sudden-death now," Ogilvy admitted.
"I haven't missed out on Chicago before and I've only missed East Lake (the final playoff off event, the 30-man Tour Championship) once and that wasn't very fun.
"I have a fair bit of work to get there as I need a really good finish to stay alive.
"I obviously have to pass over 20 people so it will be difficult but it's achievable."
A proud Victorian, Ogilvy has made no secret of his desire to be on the President's Cup team on home soil at Royal Melbourne.
"It's the last world ranking points scoring tournament that I could probably play in so obviously I'd like another crack to add points.
"It's an added motivation this week and I know if I play well this week, good things will probably happen."
The 34-year-old has had a wretched run with injuries and illness this season culminating in his fall outside of the automatic selection zone and with several top players jockeying to get in he knows someone is going to be disappointed.
Adam Scott, Jason Day, Charl Schwartzel, KJ Choi, Kyung-tae Kim, Retief Goosen and Ernie Els appear home and hosed in the top 10 while Y.E. Yang (8th), Ryo Ishikawa (9th), Louis Oosthuizen (10th), Ogilvy (11th), Vijay Singh (12th), Aaron Baddeley (13th) and Robert Allenby (14th) are in a dogfight for the final spots.
"I'd love to get in automatically I'm not going to lie," Ogilvy said.
"Because it's really tight around the bubble now with Vijay back in the mix and Louis apparently isn't playing the next few weeks so all sorts of things can happen.
"Aaron Baddeley and Robert Allenby were playing well last week also so unless two people really step up in the next two weeks Greg (Norman) is going to have a really difficult decision or he is going to have some really disappointed guys."
Seven other Australian's remain in the play-off race for the FedEx Cup and will tee it up with Ogilvy this week.
Jason Day (15th), Aaron Baddeley (19th) and Adam Scott (23rd) will progress despite results this week while Robert Allenby (59th), John Senden (61st), Marc Leishman (70th), Ogilvy (91st) and Greg Chalmers (92nd) still have a chance at the $US10 million prize but need to finish high to continue.
Day led into the final round last year before being run down by American Charlie Hoffman to finish tied second with Ogilvy while Scott won in 2003.
