When it comes to the FedEx Cup Playoffs, winning isn't everything, although Vijay Singh might disagree.

Singh made it two in a row by winning the Deutsche Bank Championship to render moot any discussion of whether Tiger Woods or Padraig Harrington should be the 2008 PGA Tour's player of the year.

The FedEx playoffs are also about making the cut. Ask Hawai'i's Dean Wilson, who did, and Parker McLachlin, who didn't. As a result, Wilson, who didn't even play in Monday's final round when Singh ran away with a 22-under-par victory, is in the 70-player field for the BMW Championship beginning today at the Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis. McLachlin isn't.

Wilson chalked up valuable FedEx Cup points by surviving the 36-hole cut at the Barclay's and Deutsche Bank events, while McLachlin went 0-for-2. Even though Wilson didn't make the third-round cut because of the tour's new 70-player limit, he actually moved up from 45th to 41st in the FedEx Cup playoff point standings. McLachlin, who still leads Wilson in 2008 money earnings, tumbled from 80th to 107th, pointwise.

You've heard of players missing short putts costing them thousands of dollars. Well, for both Wilson and McLachlin, one stroke made the difference in what could amount to tens of thousands of dollars. Wilson made the cut by one stroke and McLachlin missed by one in the Deutsche Bank Championship, enabling only Wilson to play on.

Asked if any one birdie or par-save made the difference for him last week, Wilson said that it doesn't always work out that way, so it didn't matter. "What mattered was making the 36-hole cut," he said by telephone. "Probably, if I didn't make the cut I wouldn't have been in the field this week. But I did."

His only disappointment was not playing the final round.

"I don't really like it (the new rule if more than 70 players make the cut). I like that guys can play and move up. If I was able to play (Monday), I would have had a chance for a good round and moving up," said Wilson, who got a $13,300 paycheck to increase his 2008 earnings to $1,261,585, putting him 68th on the money list. (McLachlin is 66th with $1,280,940.)

But he's not complaining, thanks to the more valued FedEx Cup playoff points.

How valuable in view of the restructuring of a more volatile point system? Well, Wilson advanced with a chance to be among the top 30 qualifiers to play in the Tour Championship. He's 971 points and 11 spots behind Geoff Ogilvy. If it were based strictly on money, Wilson would be $640,000 behind Camilo Villegas' current 30th-ranking besides chasing 37 other guys.

"It's pretty interesting," Wilson said of the FedEx format. "You have a good opportunity to move up and maybe get in some tournaments that are tougher for me on the money list (ranking). If I play well this week and maybe have a top-10 or something and get into the field in the Tour Championship, that might get me into the Masters and the U.S. Open automatically. So there are a lot of good opportunities."

All that, thanks to making the cut by one stroke. Wilson had a couple of buddies from Hawai'i, Carl Ho and Mark Chun, helping him make it through the week at the Boston TPC in Norton, Mass. "Carl also came here last year. He kind of likes to come up for this one," Wilson said about Ho, a Waialae Country Club member.

At the time Singh was putting the finishing touches to his second straight FedEx Cup victory on Labor Day, Wilson was flying to St. Louis for his first look at Bellerive CC, a course designed by Robert Trent Jones and previously host to only three tour events — the 1953 Western Open, the 1965 U.S. Open and the 1992 PGA Championship.

"I don't know anything about it," said Wilson, which could be echoed by most of the players this week except Jay Williamson, a St. Louis native and Bellerive CC member.

The only thing Wilson does know is that he's feeling pretty tired and looking forward to two weeks off after the BMW Championship. That would be three weeks off if he doesn't play in his second Tour Championship in three years.

Right now, he's happy in the position he's in. A position with a chance to move up, way up.

"So far, so good. I'm looking forward to this week and hoping to get into the Tour Championship. And, after that, there are some tournaments I like in the Fall Series, so I'll be excited to play those. I know I won't play in Mississippi (Viking Classic). We'll just see," Wilson added.

But you can bet and let it ride that Wilson will play in the Valero Texas Open (Oct. 9 to 12), an event in which he finished T6, T2, seventh and T3 in the past four years, pocketing $759,766. Another can't-miss event will be the following week at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, his home away from home.

After the season, Wilson is thinking about playing an event in Japan, where he won six times before joining the PGA Tour in 2003.

"I haven't been there for so long," said Wilson, who was the second on the Japan Tour money list in 2001 with three victories, including the Japan PGA match-play and stroke-play championships. "I still have to touch bases with some people there. I won't make that decision until after the Fall Series."

As for his 2008 season overall, Wilson said he's happy how it has progressed despite being still winless since his only tour victory in the 2006 International.

"I struggled at the beginning of the year. Had some good tournaments. I've still got a lot more events to play, so I'm just looking for my game to get a little bit more consistent and try to play well and make cuts," said the 38-year-old Kane'ohe native, who missed the cut in four of his first five tour events, including the Sony Open in Hawai'i.

As for making cuts, none was more important than last week. He's still in the FedEx playoffs, thanks to being a cut above more than 50 percent of the 144 players who started out.