The Northern Trust: Expert Picks

Just a refresher for anyone who needs it. The first round of the playoffs, The Northern Trust will work to whittle the field from the top 125 in Fedex Points down to the top 100 who will advance to the Dell Technologies Championship. The top 70 advance from that to the BMW Championship. From there, the top 30 have their points reset with the top player getting 2,000 points, 2^nd place getting 1,800 working its way down to 30^th place who gets 168 points. The Tour Championship will determine who is crowned the FedEx Cup winner.

Tournament Information

The Northern Trust

Date: August 23rd – 26th

Course: Ridgewood Country Club

Purse: $9MM ($1.6MM to winner)

FedEx points: 2000 to the winner

2017 Winner: Dustin Johnson (-13)

Course: Ridgewood Country Club. Designed by A.W. Tillinghast in 1929, this 27 hole course will host the Northern Trust for the first time since 2014. At 7,380 yards, this par 71 is among the oldest golf courses in New Jersey. The course is fairly flat with trees lining up most holes on either side. Amoeba shaped greens liter the course and provide the only other difficulty aside from distance. Golfers are given generous fairways and greens so distance above all else is key here.

Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images

Starting 4

Dustin Johnson (5^th start this year). This is the no brainer. His last three years are 2^nd, 4^th and 1^st and he’s first in FedEx points blah blah blah.

Jordan Spieth (4^th start this year). First of all, I find it amazing I’ve only used Jordan 3 times this year considering the hype behind him. Jordan has two top four finishes at Northern Trust in the last three years. He’s 37^th in total strokes gained and 23^rd in strokes gained tee to green.

Paul Casey (5^th start this year). Top five finishes two of his last three years at Northern Trust, he recently missed his 2^nd cut of the season (oh and after he missed his first cut he rebounded with a 5^thplace finish at the next tournament. If anyone is sleeping on Paul, jump on it, he will do well.

Jason Day (3^rd start this year) He has finished in the top 35 each of the last three times that Ridgewood hosted the Northern Trust (finishing 2^ndand 5^th the last two times).

Bench 2

Chez Reavie (1^st start this year). Top ten finishes each of the last two years here, Chez is a good sleeper pick. He finished 12^th two weeks ago at a course which required you to crush the ball. Despite being 178^th in driving distance, he is 59^th in strokes gained off the tee and 18^th in strokes gained approaching the green.

Jon Rahm (5^th start this year). He can hit the ball a mile (15^th on the tour in driving distance), he finished 3^rd at the Northern Trust last year and he comes into this tournament off back to back top 20 finishes and three top 30 finishes in his last five tournaments. He’s 8^th in strokes gained tee to green.

2018 Stats

Starting 4: Avg Finish 43rd (31^st percentile)

Bench 2: Avg Finish 53^rd (39^th percentile)