Tiger 2018: Most emotional golf season ever

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The PGA TOUR released today the four featured groupings for Thursday-Friday at the penultimate event of the FedExCup Playoffs, the BMW Championship at Medinah Country Club (No. 3) in Medinah, Illinois. Friday’s featured groupings on PGA TOUR LIVE will include Tiger Woods, C.T. Pan and Billy Horschel, while the second will be determined by a Fan Vote. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 3-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 12-3 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (NBC). Sunday, 12-2 p.m. (GC), 2-6 p.m. (NBC) PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 9:45 a.m.-7 p.m. (featured groups). Saturday, 8:15 a.m.-3 p.m. (featured groups), 3-6 p.m. (featured holes). Sunday, 8:15 a.m.-2 p.m. (featured groups), 2-6 p.m. (featured holes). International subscribers (via GOLF.tv): Thursday-Friday, 11:15 to 22:00 GMT. Saturday-Sunday, 12:30 to 22:00. RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 1-7 p.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com). RELATED: FedExCup standings | Seven things to know about Medinah | Course, field preview Featured Groups Thursday, August 15, 10:48 a.m. Friday, August 16, 12:54 p.m. Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, Rory McIlroy (FedExCup Nos. 1, 2 and 3) Koepka enters the event No. 1 in the FedExCup standings on the strength of three wins (THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES, PGA Championship, World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational) and three runner-up finishes on the season Reed moved to No. 2 in the standings with a win at THE NORTHERN TRUST, his second career victory in the FedExCup Playoffs McIlroy, winner of the event in 2012 and the only past FedExCup champion in the top 10 of the standings, is looking to become just the second player with multiple FedExCup titles (Tiger Woods/2007, 2009) Thursday, August 15, 1:05 p.m. Friday, August 16, 10:48 a.m. Matt Kuchar, Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay (FedExCup Nos. 4, 5 and 6) Kuchar held the lead in the FedExCup standings for a TOUR-best 17 weeks during the Regular Season; he will return to the TOUR Championship after missing out in 2018 for the first time in nine seasons Rahm is coming off a T3 at THE NORTHERN TRUST, clinching a berth in the TOUR Championship for the third time in his third full season on TOUR Cantlay, winner of the 2019 Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, is second on TOUR in Scoring Average (69.170; leader: Rory McIlroy) Thursday, August 15, 10:37 a.m. Friday, August 16, 12:43 p.m. Xander Schauffele, Abraham Ancer, Gary Woodland (FedExCup Nos. 7, 8 and 9) One of four players to win multiple events this season, Schauffele is No. 7 in the FedExCup standings and finished in the top 15 in both the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons With a runner-up at THE NORTHERN TRUST, Ancer moved to No. 8 in the FedExCup standings, clinching a berth in the TOUR Championship as well as a spot on the 2019 International Presidents Cup Team The 2019 U.S. Open champion, Woodland has been in the top 10 in the FedExCup standings since the third week of the season, the longest active streak on TOUR Thursday, August 15, 12:54 p.m. Friday, August 16, 10:37 a.m. Dustin Johnson, Webb Simpson, Justin Rose (FedExCup Nos. 10, 11 and 12) Johnson has four career wins in the FedExCup Playoffs, tied with Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods for the most all-time Simpson, runner-up in three of his last six starts, has top-10s in each of the last two seasons at the BMW Championship Rose lost to Keegan Bradley in a playoff at the 2018 BMW Championship before going on to win the FedExCup

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Typically, a career year for any professional athlete isn’t identifiable until there’s agreement that the glory days have passed. For the best talent at any time, evidence suggesting future greater achievement is filed regularly, so it’s a fool’s errand to argue that a career year already has been cemented. Yet, there are exceptions. RELATED: Play Pick ‘Em Live | The First Look In professional golf, winning a major constitutes candidacy for a career year, but Hideki Matsuyama is only 30 years old, so classifying his career year as 2021 when he became Japan’s first male major champion at the Masters, could be rushing to judgment despite the historic accomplishment. However, the year also included his participation in the Olympics in his native Japan where he was edged for a medal, and it ended with victory at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, also in his homeland. It was a lot, and it was great. The moral of the matter is that it would be unfair to expect any golfer to convert on a combination of those successes when the stars align like that. So, while it may prove not to be Matsuyama’s career year in the context of an overall body of work, it likely will be the most special year of his career personally, so it demands this moment to appreciate it because he defends the last of those highlights at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Chiba this week. POWER RANKINGS: ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP Corey Conners, Cam Davis and Shriners co-runner-up Matthew NeSmith will be among the notables reviewed in Draws and Fades. The ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP opens a fortnight reserved for 78-man invitationals. THE CJ CUP in South Carolina is on deck. Both are rewards to the top 60 in the previous season’s FedExCup standings and neither has a cut. (Each field reserves space for the top 60 eligible among those who qualified for the Playoffs.) The event’s location in Japan is a giveaway that the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP is conducted in conjunction with the Japan Golf Tour, although it’s not an official event for the latter. Fifteen JGTO members are in the field, the majority of whom can be found at the top of their money list. Another is Keita Nakajima, who is making just his third start as a professional after an extended stretch atop the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Narashino is a par 70 with five par 3s and three par 5s. The nines are respective pars of 34 and 36. After debuting in 2019 with a scoring average of about one-half stroke under par, it returned in 2021 standing taller at 70.484. (Because of the pandemic, the 2020 edition was held at Sherwood Country Club in California.) After Matsuyama grabbed outright possession of the 36-hole lead, he sprinted through the finish line and posted 15-under 265 to win by five. The composite routing of the King and Queen Courses is 38 yards longer this year at 7,079 yards. The extensions occurred at the par-3 fifth that now can play as long as 205 yards after an increase of 14 yards, and at the par-4 10th that’s an even 400 yards with 24 yards of added length. Thursday’s opening round almost certainly will be a wet one, but dry conditions are expected for most of the remainder. Wind won’t trouble much and daytime temperatures will climb into the mid-70s, eventually, so scoring projects not to be harder than it was a year ago, but asking for another field average that’s a red number might be aggressive. Weather permitting, bentgrass greens are poised to crank at 12½ feet on the Stimpmeter. The first two editions were prepped for 11½ and 12 feet, respectively. Members of the JGTO typically aren’t tested as often on this kind of pace. Also, because the tournament is scheduled a couple of weeks earlier than its first two spins in Japan, the thickest of the 3½-inch rough figures to be lusher than how returning entrants remember it. Course management is the priority, but now that there’s experience on the greens, ball-strikers aren’t benefited as much as they are on a new track. They’re going to need to roll in some putts, too. Matsuyama wasn’t going to be denied, so citing the fact that he led the field in greens in regulation and ranked second in scrambling presents and unrealistic benchmark for all. (ShotLink isn’t utilized at Narashino.) Speaking of hitting greens, the layout at Narashino serves as living history of golf in Japan. Each of the 18 holes has two greens. It was designed that way to extend playability across seasons of the year. The local rule is that when a golfer lands on the wrong green, he is allowed a free drop off the shortest of grass and no nearer the hole. For deeper detail on the possibilities this week, read this. Last year’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP began at 8:30 a.m. local time on Thursday. Chiba is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Time in the United States, so it teed off at 7:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. Consider this adjustment for how you monitor the action. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Draws & Fades WEDNESDAY: Pick ‘Em Preview FRIDAY: Medical Extensions, Reshuffle SUNDAY: Qualifiers * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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