NORTON — As it often does, the fine line between ending one’s season and advancing to the next tournament can come down to one shot. Well, that’s not entirely true. It can come down to one shot from a whole bunch of players.
For Jerry Kelly, though, he’s not playing in this week’s BMW Championship without his second shot to the par-5 18th hole on Monday at TPC Boston. Hitting a hybrid from the fairway, Kelly watched the low cut land short of the green, bounce up, and roll to 4 feet. He then made the eagle putt.
All of that was vital, because Kelly ended up finishing 70th on the FedEx Cup points list. That’s the cut-off: Only the top 70 after the Deutsche Bank Championship keep playing, and thanks to his final-hole eagle, Kelly is among them.
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“I knew exactly where I stood. I actually was kind of pausing on the putt for par on 17, waiting to see where I stood,” Kelly said.
After making the eagle putt, Kelly had to wait more than three hours to see if he would remain inside the top 70. Sometimes he was safe, other times not. It all depended on what everybody on the course was doing.
Ben Crane thought he was safe. He came into the week 78th, but was projected to jump to 57th after three rounds, and was 1 under par on his final round through 17 holes. Still safe. Then he made a double bogey at No. 18. Uh-oh.
“I was going, ‘OK, this is not going to work out, with making a mess of the last hole,’ ” Crane said. “But looks like I’m going to finish 70th.”
He was off by one, but in a good way. Crane is 69th in the standings. He was holding two plane tickets: One to Denver for the BMW, one to Nashville, where he lives. Now he’s off to Colorado.
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Same with Carl Pettersson, who was either flying to Denver or Raleigh, N.C. But Pettersson, who started the week 93d, tied for ninth at the DBC, and jumped into the top 70, one of six players to crash the number needed.
“It’s been a fun ride. I went back to my college mentality: Just freewheeling it, having fun, not really looking at scoreboards, just going out and playing my game and playing aggressive, which I like to do,” said Pettersson, who closed with 66.
In addition to Crane and Pettersson, the others to jump from outside the top 70 and into the BMW field were Billy Horschel (from No. 82 to 20th), Geoff Ogilvy (100 to 24), Chesson Hadley (84 to 57), and Morgan Hoffmann (72 to 68).
Robert Streb is the odd man out. He tied for ninth after a final-round 68 — which included an eagle on the 18th hole — but he finished 2 points behind Kelly for the last spot. The eagle by Kelly got him in, by a nose.
Mickelson up, down
Phil Mickelson’s week at TPC Boston was fairly pedestrian: bad day (74), decent day (69), average day (72), solid day (67). It was enough to get Mickelson into next week’s playoff event, though, and that was the goal, since the BMW Championship will be played at Cherry Hills Country Club.
“In 1990 I won the US Amateur at Cherry Hills, and I haven’t had a chance to really go back. I stopped there one day, didn’t get to play,” said Mickelson, who moved up one spot from No. 57 on the points list. “I love that golf course, it’s one of my favorites. I have a picture of every hole painted in my mind from 24 years ago, and I’m so excited to go back.”
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Mickelson beat Manny Zerman at Cherry Hills in the final that year, 5 and 4. He also was a two-time winner of the International, which was played at nearby Castle Pines in the thin Denver air.
On Monday, Mickelson closed with three straight birdies in his 67, so perhaps he can take some much-needed momentum on a short week to a place that holds fond memories.
“I’m not disappointed with the way I’m hitting the ball, or putting, I’m just not really focused that well,” Mickelson said. “I’m hopeful that next week at Cherry Hills, my motivation will be extremely high to go play well there.”
Front-loaded
If you were looking for an indication that low final-round scores were out there, it was provided by Steven Bowditch and Gary Woodland. Both shot 7-under 29s on the front nine.
“I got off to a pretty good start: Birdied 1, hit a great shot on 2 to about 8 feet, made eagle. Made a good [par] save on 3, then hit it to about 15 feet on 4, made that [for eagle], then made a bomb on 5,” Bowditch said. “Missed opportunities on 6, 7, 8, then I hit it to 2 feet on 9, then 3 feet on 10. Missed it on 10, that was the momentum-killer.”
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Indeed. Bowditch made no back-nine birdies, shot 65, and tied for 45th. Woodland also shot 65 to tie for 29th, but unlike Bowditch, he did it without making any eagles, much less two. Woodland pieced together birdies at Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 9; only two of those birdie putts were longer than 10 feet.
Strong finish
Henrik Stenson, last year’s DBC winner, closed with his best round of the week, a 65 that guaranteed him a place in the BMW Championship . . . Brian Harman, sent out as a single because an odd number of players (73) made the secondary cut, needed 2 hours, 45 minutes to shoot 69 . . . Monday’s scoring average of 69.38 was the lowest of the four rounds. Every day was lower, in fact: 71.14 in the first round, followed by 70.73 and 70.38 . . . Hardest hole of the tournament was the par-4 14th, which gave up just 20 birdies and played to a 4.27 average. Easiest hole was the par-4 fourth, at 3.62 . . . Best score in the final round was a 64 by Worcester native Scott Stallings, who tied for 35th at 4 under.
Michael Whitmer can be reached at mwhitmer@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeWhitmer.