Strong play at the right time can help in the playoffs, no matter what the sport. Such was the case for Stuart Appleby on Sunday at the Barclays.
With a back-nine 31, the nine-time PGA Tour winner posted a final-round 65 to tie for second, his best finish since he won the Greenbrier Classic in 2010 with a 59 over his final 18 holes.
His finish at Ridgewood Country Club earned him 1,083 FedEx Cup points, making him the big mover of the day. Appleby started the playoffs at 98th (only the top 100 moved on to this week's Deutsche Bank Championship) so a missed cut outside New York City could have ended his 2013-14 season. Instead, he jumped to 19th place.
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Follow ESPNGolf on Twitter Appleby hasn't gotten past the second leg of the playoffs since 2010 and hasn't played at East Lake -- host site of the Tour Championship -- since 2008.
Other big movers Sunday included Barclays winner Hunter Mahan (62nd to first) and Cameron Tringale, who rose 51 spots to 10th in the FedEx Cup standings with a T-2 finish on his 27th birthday.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the biggest drops came from Brian Stuard (now 64th after he failed to make the secondary cut), Scott Brown (70th, after an MC this week) and Jason Dufner (74th.) All three dropped 17 places, although Dufner didn't play at the Barclays due to a neck injury that also forced him to withdraw from the PGA Championship two weeks ago.
That makes Brown the proverbial "Bubble Boy" for next week at TPC Boston, with the top 70 players in the FedEx Cup standings advancing to the BMW Championship at Cherry Hills in Colorado.