Louis close to big payday

Louis Oosthuizen is closer to a breakthrough win in the US after finishing second at the Deutsche Bank Championships in Boston.

The tournament was the second of the four-leg Fedex Cup play-off that ends with a massive $10-million for the winner. Oosthuizen's second place has seen him move to fifth on the Fedex Cup standings.

Although Oosthuizen officially has a US PGA Tour victory to his name after his 2010 British Open triumph, which is an official event on both the European and PGA tours, a first win on US soil still eludes him.

In April, he lost a sudden-death play-off against Bubba Watson at the Masters and on Monday he again just missed out on victory, losing to world No1 Rory McIlroy by a stroke.

"I'm in a great spot for the next two tournaments," Oosthuizen said.

"I'm happy that I'm playing really well and I've got the game back to where I want it to be. It will be great going into the next weekend in the finals.

"I've put myself in great spots this year. I had a good chance at Houston; I had a good chance at Augusta, and at a few other tournaments earlier in the year.

"I'm just going to keep on doing what I'm doing."

Oosthuizen carded a 63 in the third round, thanks to a sensational front nine of 29 on the difficult par-71 Boston layout, which included a run of seven successive birdies.

On the back nine he had several more birdies opportunities but the putter went cold on him. He still took a three-shot lead into the final round but could only manage an even-par round while McIlroy produced a four-under 67 to cement his place at the top of the Fedex Cup standings.

• Former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel sneaked into this weekend's BMW Championship in Carmel, Indiana, as one of the top 70 players in the standings.

Schwartzel (68th) will join Oosthuizen (5th), Ernie Els (18th) and Tim Clark (43rd) as the four South Africans in the penultimate tournament.

The Fedex Cup starts with 125 players at The Barclays, which is cut to 100 for the Deutsche Bank tournament before being further reduced for the BMW.

After this weekend's tournament the field will be felled further with the top 30 competing in the prestigious Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Only Oosthuizen, among the four remaining South Africans in the top 70, has a realistic chance of winning the overall Fedex Cup title - although two wins from any single player could see them vault to the top to the richest payday of their careers.

Currently Oosthuizen is 1890 points behind McIlroy in the chase for first prize. Each tournament in the play-off series carries 2500 points for the winner.