On the par-3 seventh, Woods puts his tee shot 15 feet or so. The seventh has been the third-hardest hole of the early week, so a birdie here is getting a shot and a half on the field. From 102 yards, Woods gets too much spin on his wedge.
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THE OVERVIEW NORTON, Mass. — Be careful when you say it can’t be done — about the suggestion, that is, of someone sweeping all four FedExCup Playoff tournaments. Impossible? You might want to tell that to the great Jack Burke Jr., a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and a notable name in the PGA TOUR record book: The last player to win four consecutive tournaments in a single year. Now, it was your grandfather’s world back then, the winter of 1952 (Feb. 17 to March 9, to be exact) when Burke manhandled fields in the Texas Open, Houston Open and St. Petersburg Open (average margin of victory, 6.67 strokes), and mixed in a triumph (via playoff) in Baton Rouge. But Burke proved you can win four straight out here. And just so you don’t go emphatically stating that such a feat won’t come to fruition again, let the record show that the only guy this year who can pull off four consecutive FedExCup playoff wins is one Dustin Hunter Johnson, who earlier this year won three straight starts, albeit over a six-tournament stretch. “Quite honestly, in my book, that was way tougher what Dustin did,â€� Billy Horschel said. “To win, take time off, come back and win, stop, win again. You don’t ride the momentum.â€� Horschel knows a thing or two about getting hot in the FedExCup Playoffs. He was T-2 here at the Dell Technologies Championship in 2014, then won the BMW Championship and TOUR Championship. “It was just about making sure I didn’t lose momentum,â€� he said. Eight times in 10 editions of the FedExCup Playoffs, a player has won twice. Rory McIlroy did it in 2012 and ’16. Six other players have done it once – Horschel, Tiger Woods (’07), Vijay Singh and Camilo Villegas (’08), Henrik Stenson (’13), and Jason Day (’15). Horschel and Woods came closest to winning three straight; Tiger also was T-2 at TPC Boston before winning the last two events in claiming the inaugural FedExCup title. Why so many multiple winners in the short history of the Playoffs? You could argue diminishing field size, for one. Start with 125, then 100, then 70, then the final 30 at East Lake. That’s a total of 325 competitors over the four events. Burke, by comparison, won his four straight in a combined field size of 356 players. If you’re wondering about Johnson’s three straight earlier this year – the cumulative field size was 284, although one of his wins was the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play. In essence, that meant he needed to beat seven different players. Still, no one has won three Playoff events in a single year, and sweeping all four is perhaps unthinkable. “Truthfully, only a handful of guys could do it,â€� Horschel said. Like Johnson, winner of last week’s THE NORTHERN TRUST? Horschel agreed that the FedExCup leader and world No. 1 possesses the firepower to do it. Johnson seeks to take the second step this week at TPC Boston. But Horschel doesn’t see the sweep happening. “I’m on the record, Dustin’s not winning the next three events,â€� said Horschel, offering not so much a slight to Johnson as a testament to the depth of talent on the PGA TOUR. “It’s that difficult (out here). It’s such a fine line from winning to finishing top 20, top 10, or top 5. It’s all about who can carry the momentum from week-to-week and honestly, I don’t think there are a lot of guys who have that ability.â€� – Jim McCabe THREE PLAYERS TO PONDER Coughing up a five-shot lead is tough, but Spieth has no need to dwell on last Sunday. As he said, he didn’t lose it; DJ won it. His results coming into this week are eerily similar to his results going into last year’s event at TPC Boston. Might be a good sign considering the result. A past champ at TPC Boston, he’s the bubble boy in the U.S. Presidents Cup standings. A tie for 14th likely secures his first national team spot. PLAYER COMMENT NO. THE FLYOVER The 530-yard par-5 18th ranked as the second-easiest hole on the course last year, playing to a stroke average of 4.672 (the fourth hole below as the easiest). Nine different players made eagles last year, and Dustin Johnson had the longest drive of any player at 18, hitting his tee shot 332 yards in the final round (sound familiar?). Here’s a closer look at TPC Boston’s closing hole. THE LANDING ZONE Last season, there were 534 par-4 holes played on the PGA TOUR. The fourth hole at TPC Boston ranked as the 532nd most difficult – or, more to the point, the third easiest of all par 4s, playing to a stroke average of 3.627. Although listed at 353 yards on the scorecard, the hole played between 278 to 300 yards in the four rounds last year, with the back tee going unused. Players attempted to drive the green 96.4 percent of the time, and there were nearly as many birdies made (147) as pars (162). In essence, if you make par here, you’re losing a half-stroke to the field. Here’s a look at where all tee shots landed last year.  WEATHER CHECK Cool temperatures and mostly dry conditions are expected at TPC Boston. PGA TOUR meteorologist Stewart Williams said remnants of Hurricane Harvey could result in isolated thunderstorms on Saturday night through the day during Sunday’s third round. Expect shifting winds, with gusts forecast to 20 mph on Sunday. Click here for the latest weather conditions from Norton, Massachusetts. SOUND CHECK TPC Boston has been a great place for me in the past, a place I feel very comfortable at and the kind of golf course I’ve played well on, and to get that win last year was awesome … I play the golf course very well. ODDS AND ENDS 1. COURSE CHANGES. Two par-4 holes are significantly different than last year – the 12th and 13th, with golf architect Gil Hanse making the design changes. The 12th is now 510 yards (it was 461), with Hanse installing new tees, two fairway bunkers, a split-level fairway and relocating the green. It’s expected to make the 12th play tougher this year. The left side of the 13th fairway has been recontoured to provide more generous tee shot options. Hanse also relocated and reshaped the green. 2. TARGET SCORE. If you’re looking to predict this week’s winning score, you should probably start at 15-under 269. That’s been the winning score the last three years by Rory McIlroy (2016), Rickie Fowler (2014) and Chris Kirk (2014). 3. LAUNCHPAD TO FEDEXCUP. Three of the past 10 winners at TPC Boston have gone on to win the FedExCup – McIlroy last year, Henrik Stenson in 2013 and Vijay Singh in 2008. 4. THE MISSING FOUR. Four players are not in the field this week – Henrik Stenson, Brandt Snedeker, J.B. Holmes and Scott Piercy. Holmes and Piercy are outside the top 70 and are now eliminated from the Playoffs. The injured Snedeker, ranked 68th, is sitting out the Playoffs. Stenson is safe at 22.
Major surprise: Top three miss cut for first time
Golf Digest asks PGA Tour Pro Patrick Cantlay a series of surprising questions.
