AP – Australian veteran Robert Allenby has made a timely strong start to the Wyndham Championship, the last event of the US PGA Tour’s regular season.

The 42-year-old Victorian is on the fringe of qualifying for the lucrative FedEx Cup playoff series – in 122nd position with the top 125 to advance to next week’s opening event, the $US 8 million Barclays Championship in New Jersey.

Allenby did a lot to shore up his spot when he fired a four-under-par 66 in Greensboro on Thursday to be tied ninth, along with countryman Steve Bowditch, three strokes behind leader Camilo Villegas at Sedgefield Country Club in North Carolina.

Villegas, currently 105th in the FedEx Cup playoff standings, is also set to solidify his position among the top 125.

The Colombian, who won the last of his three US tour titles in 2010, overtook early pace-setters Webb Simpson and William McGirt, who shared second on 64.

There was a further stroke back to England’s Paul Casey, Scotland’s Martin Laird and Americans Scott Langley, Heath Slocum and Andrew Loupe.

Allenby’s countryman and contemporary Stuart Appleby also started well with a 68 to be tied 36th.