As the new match-play format culminates in a two-week Tour Championship, three pros barely survived the BMW Championship cutline, one of them not learning his fate for two hours after his final round. Only the top 30 in the FedExCup standings advance to East Lake, and the three names below survived on points banked earlier in the season rather than on how they played last week. Here’s how they scraped in.

Min Woo Lee

Min Woo Lee had a fair fighting chance. When he arrived at the BMW Championship, he was ranked 18th in the FedExCup standings. After the second playoff tournament, though, he fell three positions.

Ahead of the BMW Championship, Lee made changes to his equipment, including buying two Callaway Quantum Triple Diamond drivers, aware that something needed to change. The multiple equipment changes did little to save his week.

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He finished the tournament ranked second-last in the field, just ahead of Nico Echavarria. Lee finished T47, having shot four bogeys in the final round. He will now enter the week ranked 21st in the FedExCup, but with little chance to contend.

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Lee has four top-10s this season, but he will need to prove a lot at his Tour Championship debut.

Tommy Fleetwood

Fleetwood is the defending champion this week, but he gave himself little to defend, and he knows it too.

Speaking to the PGA Tour after the BMW Championship, he said, “I haven’t been in contention much this year, and then (Travelers Championship) obviously leading, and I felt like it was a great atmosphere and I enjoyed playing in that atmosphere,” adding that positive fan support does him a lot of good.

It does, actually. For instance, after the letdown at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, his putting showed a positive trend, gaining over three strokes.

But he still finished the BMW Championship at T47, sharing the spot with Lee and Fox. He made one bogey and one double bogey on the final day; he ranked 8th in the FedExCup standings heading into the second playoff tournament but fell one spot after Sunday.

Even so, Fleetwood has two top-10s in the last three starts, including a win last season. But he will need to put in plenty of effort not to end up dead last in the field of 30.

Ryan Fox

Fox rounded out the same T47 logjam as Lee and Fleetwood, grabbing the last available spot for the Tour Championship, but barely.

He had to wait two hours after completing his round to see if he had made it to the East Lake field. In a post-round interview, he said, “I would like to have made it a bit easier the last couple of weeks.” He made three bogeys and one double bogey in the final round.

Fox ranked 25th heading into the BMW Championship, but dropped five spots within the week. Still, he will be making his Tour Championship debut. But he will need to be careful, as he ranks well outside the top-50 in important stats on the Tour, including SG: Total (80th).

All three carry elimination risk into East Lake. While the world raves about Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, we’ll be watching to see if Lee, Fleetwood, and Fox can climb back.