Overton rallied for BMW, now must control emotions

• By Jay Coffin
• Sep 4, 2012 4:32 PM ET

CARMEL, Ind. – Jeff Overton picked the perfect time to produce his third top-10 finish of the year.

A week ago he was sitting at 83^rd in FedEx Cup points and in jeopardy of sitting at home during the BMW Championship. For Overton, that would’ve been a disaster. He was born in Evansville, Ind., played college golf at Indiana University and still lives in Bloomington, a quick 70 miles from Crooked Stick. This is Overton’s major championship.

So he opened with a 64 last week at the Deutsche Bank Championship to help build confidence. Overton ended with a seventh-place tie, which was good enough to vault him to 40^th in points and safely qualify for the BMW.

“I was so nervous,” Overton said Tuesday about last week’s performance. “There was so much energy going on in my system because I knew I wanted to make it back here.”

Now that Overton is here, he has to find a way to harness and control the emotions. He will have former college teammates here, family will be with him at every move and the entire state will be pulling for him. They call it Hoosier hospitality in these parts. If Overton plays well enough to slip into the top-30 in FedEx Cup points he’ll earn a trip to Atlanta for the Tour Championship.

“I don’t really know what to expect,” Overton said. “I feel like there’s going to be a lot more people out here following me than I’m used to.

“I just have to kind of mentally prepare for it a little bit and know how to deal with that. That’s all part of being a professional and growing up as a pro.”