Seven Europeans survive US play-offs cut

Seven Europeans are through to this week’s BMW Championship in Illinois, the third leg of the US Tour’s FedEx Cup play-off series.

But only Padraig Harrington and Ian Poulter are in position at the moment to qualify as well for the Tour Championship in two weeks’ time.

The four-tournament play-offs see the fields cut from 125 to 100 to 70 to 30.

Harrington’s fourth place finish in Boston puts him seventh in the points table, but Poulter is down nine to 30th and therefore cannot afford to drop one spot this week.

Luke Donald stands 32nd, Paul Casey 36th after missing the first two events because of a rib muscle injury, Brian Davies 53rd, Sergio Garcia 55th and Fredrik Jacobson 56th.

Among those who dropped out last night were Greg Owen (77th), Justin Rose (85th), Richard S Johnson (91st) and Daniel Chopra (97th), as well as last year’s FedEx Cup winner Vijay Singh.