US TOUR:THE USPGA Tour travels to Massachusetts this week for the Deutsche Bank Championship and the second leg of the lucrative FedEx Cup play-offs, which tees off tomorrow. Charley Hoffman, who shot a closing nine under par 62 and tied the tournament record at 22-under for 262 last year, defends his title at TPC Boston.
After his victory in last week’s Barclays tournament, Dustin Johnson heads the FedEx Cup standings going into this event. He leads from last week’s runner-up Matt Kuchar with the regular season points leader Nick Watney in third.
Pádraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell are both chasing FedEx Cup success – the former has moved up to 80th in the standings but will need to move inside the top 70 after Boston to progress to next week’s BMW Championship in Chicago.
McDowell will also be hungry for FedEx points as he lies in 84th place.
The Deutsche Bank is one of the youngest tournaments on the USPGA Tour, beginning its life in 2003. Since then it’s produced some notable champions. Adam Scott won the inaugural event and Messrs Singh, Woods, Mickelson and Stricker have all tasted victory at TPC Boston since then.
Last season Hoffman finished five shots clear of Luke Donald, Jason Day and Geoff Ogilvy.
Played over Labor Day weekend, the tournament finishes on Monday. Labor Day is a holiday celebrated by most Americans as the symbolic end of the summer.
The TPC Boston opened for play in June 2002, it’s a private members’ course designed by Arnold Palmer Course Design. It tends to play as one of the easiest courses on the PGA Tour schedule so expect to see low scoring this week.
Some 99 players will tee off in the second stage of the USPGA Tour play-offs for the FedEx Cup. The only player not playing is JB Holmes, who is missing the playoffs for health reasons.
Using last year’s points total, its expected the top 56 players at the Deutsche Bank Championship likely have enough points to move on. That would leave 43 players to vie for the remaining 14 spots.
The top 30 is important because only the top 30 after the BMW will advance to the Tour Championship and have a chance to win the FedEx Cup.
THE LOWDOWN
Course: TPC Boston, Norton, Massachusetts.
Length: 7,214 yards. Par: 71.
Prize money: €5.6 million, (€930,000 to the winner).
Field: 99.
Defending champion: Charley Hoffman (22 under par)
The layout: Relatively straightforward track with plenty of birdies the order of the day.
Type of player suited to challenge: Big, powerful hitter.
On TV: Sky Sports 3 10pm (tomorrow).
Weather forecast: With only a few light showers and a gentle breeze on the weekend scoring conditions should be excellent.
Time difference: -5 hours
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