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, 2nd place getting 1,800 working its way down to 30th place who gets 168 points. The Tour Championship will determine who is crowned the FedEx Cup winner.
Tournament Information
Tour Championship
Date: September 20th - 23rd
Course: East Lake Golf Club
Purse: $8.75MM
2017 Winner: Xander Schauffele (-12)
Course:
East Lake Golf Club. This par 70, 7,385 yard course in Atlanta hosts the FedEx Championship. It was created in 1904 and built by Donald Ross and Reese Jones with a 76.2 course rating. It underwent a transformation from one of the worst project areas to a beautiful and vibrant bucolic area. The fairways are generous with a few rolling hills, traps and lakes sprinkled throughout. I’m partial to hole 8 with a nice lake running alongside and traps to complement. Hole 8 provides a great visual for the beauty that is in this course
Starting 4
Paul Casey (3rd selection this year). Paul has the best record here over the last three years. He has finished in the top five each time. He has one top 15 finish in his last 8 tournaments but I feel confident he can finish in the top 10 at East Lake Golf Club. (IF Paul Casey is out due to this back injury then go with Patrick Reed as the backup. He looked good at BMW and I think he can be the sneaky contender here)
Justin Rose (5th selection this year). He has finished in the top 10 each of the last four years at the Tour Championchip when he plays (he didn’t make the cut in 2016). Fresh off back to back 2nd place finishes in the last two playoff tournaments he is the favorite going into this weekend.
Rory McIlroy (5th selection this year ). Two of his last four years he has finished in the top two at the Tour Championship (he finished 16th in 2015 and didn’t make the cut last year). He has finished 5th at the BMW Championship and 12th at the Travelers Championship after sitting out the Northern Trust Open
Justin Thomas (1st selection this year). 6th here in 2016 and 2nd here last year. He has top 25 finishes in each playoff event so far. He’s 3rd in total strokes gained.
Driving Distance leaders this season:
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 8, 2018
1. Rory McIlroy (320.2)
2. Trey Mullinax (318.7)
3. Tony Finau (316.3)
4. Tom Lovelady (315.9)
5. Luke List (315.2)
6. Dustin Johnson (314.5)
7. Bubba Watson (313.6)
8. Brooks Koepka (313.4)
9. Gary Woodland (313.2)
10. Justin Thomas (312.9) pic.twitter.com/NrKSUcCvha
Bench 2
Tommy Fleetwood (3rd selection this year). Not much track record to go from as this is his first full year on the PGA Tour but he has a propensity to shine in big moments. He has top 25 finishes in eight of the last nine tournaments.
Aaron Wise (1st selection this year). Much like Tommy there is no real track record to go off but he has outplayed most of this field in two of the three playoff tournaments. He’s on my bench and yet I would not be surprised if he finishes higher than three of my starters.
Have any questions for Rookie of the Year candidate Aaron Wise?
— Callaway Golf (@CallawayGolf) September 17, 2018
Fire away right here and he'll answer some tomorrow from East Lake >> https://t.co/snIahYNINb pic.twitter.com/bgNaygBrwt
2018 Stats
Starting 4: Avg Finish 42nd (31st percentile)
Bench 2: Avg Finish 52nd (39th percentile)