For Tiger Woods, even reaching the Tour Championship is impressive

OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – Bubba Watson admits his mind hasn’t been fully focused on golf this year and he’s looking forward to shutting things down for the rest of 2017 once his FedExCup Playoffs end. After a solid 3-under 67 start at Glen Oaks Club leaves him sitting tied 6th at THE NORTHERN TRUST his vacation time could be delayed a little longer. The nine-time PGA TOUR winner and two-time Masters champion entered the FedExCup Playoffs ranked 113th, firmly facing elimination if he doesn’t perform this week. But he’s finally playing with some mental freedom and hopes to ride the wave a little longer. “All I know is where my mind was, where my focus was the first half of the year; it wasn’t in the right spot to play the best game of golf,â€� Watson said. “Now, I’m driven, I’m dedicated and I want to be back on top. I want to win tournaments, so this is the best way I know how to do it. “Hopefully when this is over, I’m in Atlanta and then I get to take a break after that. My thing is just play until they tell me I can’t play anymore. When I’m done with the Playoffs, no matter where that is, I’m taking at least four and a half months off. I won’t play until next year.â€� The top 100 in the FedExCup standings after this week advance to the Dell Technologies Championship with the top 70 after Boston advancing to the BMW Championship in Chicago. From there the top 30 make it to the TOUR Championship. Points in Playoff events are quadrupled. Watson currently projects to 62nd place. The Florida native plans to spend the bulk of his time off with his family as son Caleb begins school. “I’m going to be tee-ball coach. So looking forward to that, being home with the family and just have a blast,â€� Watson beamed. “My kid started kindergarten. My family’s not going to be able to travel as much anymore. So I just want time off. If I had to choose golf or family, I’m going family every day of the week.â€� TOP FIVE OUTLOOK: FedExCup leader Hideki Matsuyama looks set to lose his top dog status after an opening 4-over 74 left him tied for 102nd. Currently he’s trending towards a missed cut and a drop down to 4th. Dustin Johnson sits just one shot off the pace at Glen Oaks and as such projects to the top spot from his fourth position. Justin Thomas (68) currently projects to drop from No. 2 to No. 3 with Jordan Spieth (69) dropping back to 5th. Rickie Fowler started the week 5th but his round of 68 has him falling to 6th in the current projections. Tournament leader Russell Henley (64) is the man projected to surge into the top 5, all the way to No. 2. BUBBLE BOY: Heading to New York Seung-Yul Noh was the man on the bubble to advance at 100th in the FedExCup but the Korean is going to need something special to remain in the mix for TPC Boston. A 4-over 74 leaves him tied for 102nd this week and projected to 111th in the standings. The nerves now shift to Sanderson Farms champion Cody Gribble whose 78 has him projected to fall from 89th to 100th. MOVING IN, MOVING OUT: After one round, five players have put themselves in position to play their way into next week from outside the top 100. They are led by Bubba Watson who projects from 113th to 62nd after his 67. Martin Flores (118 to 63) and Harold Varner III (123 to 64) joined Watson with 67s to get the start they needed for salvation. Ryan Blaum’s 68 has him projected from 105th to 77th and Brian Gay’s 69 shows him moving from 106th to 94th. The players projected to be booted out at after one round are Branden Grace, Jason Kokrak, Byeong Hun An, Robert Garrigus and Seung-Yul Noh. OUT OF THEIR CONTROL: There will be 25 players officially eliminated from the Playoffs after THE NORTHERN TRUST but we already know one of them is Dominic Bozzelli who withdrew before the tournament. He started at 115th and projects to 119th. Four other players are not in the field this week leaving them at the mercy of others. Masters champion Sergio Garcia (rest) now projects to 30th, Brandt Snedeker (rib injury) projects to 73rd, Adam Scott (paternity leave) projects to 79th and Scott Piercy (shoulder injury) projects to 97th. Scott has welcomed his second child into the world in the last few days, a son named Byron. He will not play in Boston, effectively ensuring his elimination from the Playoffs. NOTABLE NUGGETS: Among those players projected to be eliminated at this stage are major winners Jimmy Walker and Geoff Ogilvy plus Team USA Presidents Cup Captain Steve Stricker. International Team hopeful Byeong Hun An hurt his chances after an opening 74 leaves him projected 105th. At 13th on the International Team standings An must make the cut on Friday or be out of chances to both make the team outright and to further impress Nick Price for a captain’s pick. The biggest potential FedExCup movers are so far Chris Kirk and Camillo Villegas who share third after rounds of 66. They project to move up 64 spots each from 97th and 98th to 33rd and 34th respectively. Harold Varner III (59 spots), Martin Flores (55 spots) and Bubba Watson (51 spots) also look good for a giant leap. Defending FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy had a tough day at the office with a 73 projecting him from 44th to 54th in the standings. Phil Mickelson’s round of 72 has him projected to drop from 51st to 61st. Jason Day’s 69 gives him a modest projected lift from 49th to 46th while Presidents Cup teammate Louis Oosthuizen is eyeing the top 30 after his first round 67 has him projected from 35th to 16th.

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PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Graeme McDowell was being interviewed on Sky Sports this week when the UK network posted a graphic showing his track record at Riviera. “Didn’t make for very great reading,� G-Mac said. “I was like, ‘Please, switch that off.’� In five previous trips to this week’s Genesis Open host course, McDowell has three missed cuts and a best result of T-41. Of those first 14 rounds, just two were in the 60s. The results are surprising given that Riviera is Hogan’s Alley, a course that should favor shotmakers such as McDowell. Although recent winners like defending champ Dustin Johnson and two-time champ Bubba Watson are among the TOUR’s longest hitters, McDowell doesn’t consider Riviera a bomber’s course – at least not this week. He said the dry weather has firmed up the course, forcing the big hitters to scale back and giving the shorter hitters such as G-Mac a chance to succeed in tougher scoring conditions. He’s making the most of it. Through two rounds, McDowell is 7 under, his 5-under 66 on Friday vaulting him into a tie with first-round co-leader Patrick Cantlay and Sam Saunders, who still has three holes left before finishing his second round. The 66 ties for G-Mac’s lowest round in his last 21 TOUR starts. “This is the first real dry year I can remember being here for the last four or five, and I think the firmness of the golf course is taking guys by surprise,� McDowell said. “… Historically, I’ve played well in tough setups. I’m relishing the opportunity to continue playing this tough set-up this week. I like my game plan; I’ve just got to keep executing.� The confidence is good to hear from McDowell, who entered this week ranked 219th in the world. After he won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2010, he was ranked 13th and eventually rose to sixth. The last few years have been discouraging – his last top-3 finish was third place at The RSM Classic in 2015. “Of course, it’s tough to fight off,� McDowell said. “This game is very difficult and you do ask yourself some deep, dark questions sometimes.� His goal now is to stay out of his own way and not dwell on the negatives. He calls it “Dustin Johnson golf.� “Have that carefree attitude, have that ‘I’m really good at this game’ and get out of your own way and let your talent come through a little bit,� G-Mac explained. “I might try and keep that going this weekend. He’s pretty good.� CALL OF THE DAY Notables Considering his hot hand, Sam Saunders could be forgiven if he wanted to play through the darkness Friday. He was on fire when the horn sounded, having birdied six of his last eight holes to grab a share of the lead. But Saunders was fine with the suspension of play. “I knew going into today that I wasn’t going to finish, so I didn’t even try,� he said. “… It was nice to finish those last few holes in the dark with some birdies out there.� Saunders has three holes left and will resume play at 10:15 a.m. ET (7:15 a.m. local). Just five missed greens through the first two rounds for Patrick Cantlay seems like a good way to eliminate the stress on the tree-lined Riviera layout. “I’m hitting it really well right now,� said Cantlay, whose 2-under 69 on Friday included a string of three consecutive birdies. “Ball’s coming out of the middle of the clubface and it’s going where I’m looking. It’s always nice to play golf like that. I really feel comfortable with the golf course and how I feel about the course and how I’m hitting it. I’m really not surprised.� When Bubba Watson won at Riviera for the first time in 2014, he was bogey-free for his last 45 holes. Two years later, he had a bogey-free second round en route to another win. Watson hasn’t been bogey-free this week, but he has put together a couple of solid scores (68-70) to give himself a chance going into the weekend at 4 under. “Around here, it’s very difficult,� Watson said when asked about playing bogey-free golf at Riviera. “You know, there was a great champion that went bogey-free on the weekend one time.� A slight smile ensued. Yes, it was a self-reference. Tiger Woods’ mother Kultida was in the gallery Friday following her son, who missed the cut after shooting a 5-over 76. “It was nice to have her out there. She misses it,� Woods said. “She’s seen me go through the struggles and for her only child to go through those struggles was a little rough on her. So she’s very proud of me getting back out there and playing, and she’s very excited about it.� The other two members of Woods’ group are lurking entering the weekend. Justin Thomas shot an even-par 71 and is 2 under; Rory McIlroy also is at 2 under after a 69 when he birdied two of his last six holes. “Hit the ball really well the last nine holes yesterday and then 18 today, so last 27 I played really nicely,� McIlroy said. Defending champ Dustin Johnson shot a 2-under 69 and is 1 over for the tournament. He’ll likely make the cut but he has some work to do this weekend. Jordan Spieth, meanwhile, is 1 under after his 70. With 15 players yet to complete their second rounds, the third round will be played in threesomes off split tees beginning at approximately 11:30 a.m. ET (8:30 a.m. local). QUOTABLES No one’s getting away out there. It’s very tricky. It’s very U.S. Open-like conditions. … It’s sort of anyone’s tournament right now.I may or may not have taped a Jay Leno Garage show, went and saw who I consider a friend of mine, Ellen, and then went over and watched a taping of Big Bang (Theory). So there’s some other things we’re doing besides the All-Star Game that nobody knows about, but it’s been a blast. When you come here, it’s Hollywood. I mean, do stuff, you know? Let’s have some fun and enjoy life.I dreamt of winning everywhere. Superlatives Lowest round – Graeme McDowell and Austin Cook each shot 5-under 66s. Scott Stallings is also at 5 under on his round and still has two holes left after play was suspended for darkness. Longest drive – Tony Finau had a 375-yard drive at the 18th and made par. Longest putt – Adam Scott (who started his round on the 10th tee) rolled in a putt of 76 feet, 7 inches on the par-5 first for birdie. On his previous hole, the 18th, he made a putt of 21 feet, 5 inches. Hardest hole – The 495-yard par-4 12th played to a stroke average of 4.387, yielding just seven birdies against 48 bogeys, 4 double bogeys and 2 others. Easiest hole – The 511-yard par-5 first also played to a stroke average of 4.387, with nine eagles and 76 birdies against 5 bogeys and 1 double bogey. Bogey-free rounds – Martin Kaymer (67) and Cameron Smith (68). Scott Stallings, still on the course, is also bogey-free.

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NORTON, Mass. – Rory McIlroy has spent the last few weeks watching his 16-year-old self and perfecting a swing adjustment that he hopes will catapult him to a second FedExCup triumph. The 2016 FedExCup champion sat out THE NORTHERN TRUST in the opening week of the FedExCup Playoffs and as a consequence dropped to 28th in the FedExCup standings. But the two-time Dell Technologies Championship winner feels it was time well spent as he is trying to return to the swing of his younger years, studying video of when he was just 16. The catalyst was a poor final round at the World Golf Championships – Bridgestone Invitational where he failed to put pressure on Justin Thomas in the final group (finished T6) and a relatively limp performance at the PGA Championship in St. Louis where he tied for 50th. “That was all to do with swing mechanics and technique,â€� McIlroy said of his recent form. “I just needed to have a couple of weeks off and sort of assess where I was at and what I needed to do to improve and go forward. “So I worked for ten days with Michael Bannon down in Florida. We worked on a few things, sort of looking back at old video all the way back to when I was 16 and what I’ve done well in my swing throughout the years. And just sort of trying to get back to that.â€� The Northern Irishman downplayed the changes a little, saying he wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. But none-the-less he felt it imperative to step away from competition to ingrain it in. The issue for McIlroy has been being too shallow on his takeaway and steep on his downswing. His younger self had the opposite – steep on the takeaway and shallow on the way down. “That’s why I get two-way misses left and right,â€� McIlroy says. “It was a good thing for me because I’ve been sort of fighting with Michael on this for a while. So it made me realize, OK, I can do this again. And even just watching it you start to feel the feelings that you might need to get back into those positions. So it was a beneficial week.â€� The 14-time PGA TOUR winner who claimed the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard earlier this season now feels fresh and more importantly confident with the tweaks as he looks to go on his Playoff blitz. On two separate occasions McIlroy has won multiple Playoff events in one season (2014, 2016). On both of those occasions TPC Boston was one of the happy hunting grounds. “It’s good to be back. I’ve had some really good memories here in Boston, two good wins that have set me up for a win at the FedExCup, which I was able to win in ’16,â€� he said. “It’s a good test. If you play well, you can make a lot of birdies and you can get on runs. I feel like I’ve played well here because of that, the par-5s, the short par-4s, the bentgrass greens, I seem to putt better on those. So I’m excited to get back. “I’m actually pleasantly surprised I didn’t drop more in the FedExCup, I thought from 21 I was going to drop outside the top-30. But I was able to hold my position pretty well. I feel like I’m in a decent position coming into this week.â€�

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