Jordan Spieth talks Netflix doc before playing at Pebble Beach

PARAMUS, N.J. – Dustin Johnson does have a pulse. We checked. You might not know it such is the swagger and demeanor of the FedExCup leader – always appearing cool and calm. Nothing much phases him. Not even a snap hooked drive that ultimately sees him write a dreaded snowman on his card. He just laughed it off. It was his ninth hole of the day and on the same hole playing partner Brooks Koepka made eagle – producing a five-shot swing between the pair. Nine holes later they both signed for a 4-under 67, just one shot behind the early leaders. Three birdies on his closing nine holes, including a near ace on the par-3 6th that cruelly lipped out, has Johnson projected to maintain his place on top of the FedExCup standings. It is a spot he wants to keep. “I’m fired up all the time. I just don’t let you guys see it. You’ll never know,â€� Johnson jokes. “But obviously I’ve got a lot of fire running inside of me and there’s a lot of things I want to do that I haven’t done. So, yeah, that keeps pushing me. “Winning the FedExCup is definitely a big accomplishment. It’s something that I really would like to win. To be the FedExCup champion means obviously you played really well in the Playoffs but you also had a great year, too.â€� Johnson entered the Playoffs with a slim 83-point lead over Justin Thomas. Thomas shot 2-under 69 in the same group. “83 points in the Playoffs is not a big lead. So I’m going to have to play well if I want to keep the lead the next three events,â€� Johnson added. Usually a pretty reliable driver of the ball, Johnson hit just six of 14 fairways on Thursday. “Today was an unusual day for me. I haven’t had the driver go this crooked in a long time. It had nothing to do with the driver. It was the drivee,â€� Johnson added. “But I figured it out, and it doesn’t matter. I can figure out a way to get around the golf course like I did today, even though I didn’t have my best stuff. My iron play was good. My wedges were good. I can still figure out how to hit those close to the hole, and I did. And once we had made the turn, I think I hit most of the fairways when I was finishing.â€� KEVIN TWAY KEEPS IT IN THE FAIRWAY Kevin Tway (5-under 66) stands to make a leap from 85th in the FedExCup if he keeps this up, but all anyone wanted to talk about after his round was what his father would have said about it. Eight-time PGA TOUR winner Bob Tway has followed his son’s progress at tournaments like the John Deere Classic this summer, but he’s not in New Jersey, so Kevin could only smile and hazard a guess.   “I think he’d like that I hit 10 fairways,â€� Kevin said. “I remember him watching (the Wyndham Championship) last week. One round, I wasn’t hitting any fairways, and my mom said he was on the bed cussing, like, ‘Just hit the fairway! It’s not that hard!’â€� Kevin Tway, who made nearly 100 feet of putts Thursday, is asked wherever he goes about his relationship with his father, who made more than 680 TOUR starts and saw his career plateau with his win at the 1986 PGA Championship at Inverness. “He knows my game probably better than anyone,â€� Kevin said of his dad, “so we talk just about every day. I always have him right here on my shoulder. He’s almost like a caddie out here for me. I’m always, ‘What would you do here?’ Stuff like that. We talk about it a lot. What he felt in certain situations, how he went about winning golf tournaments. I pick his brain a lot. He played at the highest level for 30 years; that’s a good tool to have.â€� Kevin’s opening round didn’t come out of nowhere. He’s had a productive summer, including a T11 at the Wyndham Championship, T9 at the AT&T Byron Nelson, T5 at the Charles Schwab Challenge, and T6 at the Travelers Championship. He also shot 63 at the inaugural Morgan Hoffmann Foundation Celebrity Pro-Am at nearby Arcola Country Club on Monday. Although his playing partners were on him to break the course record, Tway said he didn’t care what he shot. “That’s sometimes easier,â€� he said. “It’s always harder to do it when it really matters.â€� So far, so good at THE NORTHERN TRUST. OBSERVATIONS HIDEKI ROLE REVERSAL … A year ago Hideki Matsuyama opened the FedExCup Playoffs as the number one seed after three wins before producing a dismal post-season effort. The Japanese star could only muster a MC-T23-T47-T26 Playoff run ultimately dropping him to eighth in the standings. But this season he’s hoping for a role reversal. Without a victory Matsuyama entered THE NORTHERN TRUST in 76th place on the standings. After an opening 4-under 67 at Ridgewood Country Club he has a chance to make amends this season. “I’m trying my best. I’m trying to get better every day, and hopefully the Playoffs will be good to me this year,â€� Matsuyama said. “I’ve been working hard and I’m seeing some improvements in my game, and hopefully that will carry on through the Playoffs and I can do a little better.â€� WOODS PGA FORM DOESN’T TRAVEL … The last time we saw Tiger Woods he was putting serious heat on Brooks Koepka down the stretch at the PGA Championship. But his opening round at THE NORTHERN TRUST failed to elicit any of the huge roars and excitement we saw at Bellerive. Woods posted a solid even-par 71, five shots back of the morning wave lead. “Just didn’t have the situations where I had the full club and I could go ahead and take a rip at it and start being aggressive and going after these flags,â€� he said. “I kept having to play a little defensive because I was taking more club, trying to shape it and take spin off. One of those days.â€� NOTABLES JAMIE LOVEMARK – Opening round 66 holds a share of the morning wave lead. VAUGHN TAYLOR – Looking to be a bubble buster after his early 66 has him projected to Boston. TOMMY FLEETWOOD – Englishman chasing a big win in the USA opens with a 67. BROOKS KOEPKA – The U.S. Open and PGA Championship winner continued his hot form with a solid 67. JUSTIN THOMAS – FedExCup No. 2 opens with a 2-under 69. BRANDT SNEDEKER – Last week’s winner and Mr. 59 didn’t make the first tee … forced to withdraw with back spasms. Click here for more. QUOTABLES We’ve seen guys come from 125. If you’re in the Playoffs you have a good chance to get to East Lake. Just got to be in it to win it. I just hit a God-awful shot. I haven’t hooked a driver in a long time.I’ve not actually talked to him about it. I’d love to knock him off, and I’m sure he’d love to keep me where I’m at.

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Here are the recaps from the completed matches in Saturday’s two sessions at the Presidents Cup. Foursomes are being played in the morning at Liberty National with Four-ball matches set for the afternoon. MORNING FOURSOMES MATCH 11: USA wins, 4 and 3 Jordan Spieth/Patrick Day (U.S.) def. Jason Day/Marc Leishman (International) Holes won: USA 6, International 2 Holes led: USA 8, International 2 Recap: The powerhouse American duo won the final four holes to break open a tight match and continue their domination in these team events. Spieth and Reed are now 2-0-1 this week and 7-1-3 in team events (including Ryder Cup results). Meanwhile, the Aussie partners are 0-2-1 this week, with Day now 0-6-2 in his last eight Presidents Cup matches. Day did have the biggest highlight for the Internationals, chipping in for birdie to win the 7th hole and put his team 1 up. But the Americans responded two holes later with a birdie at the par-5 ninth to square the match. They then dialed it up a notch on the back nine. A terrific approach by Reed set up a tap-in birdie at the 12th. A Spieth approach set up a Reed 7-foot birdie putt at the 13th. The Internationals lost the 14th with a bogey after Day found the bunker with his tee shot. And then Spieth’s approach to 7 feet at the 15th set up Reed for the match-ending birdie. QUOTES Jason Day: “I didn’t do Leish any favors hitting driver off the tee on 12. I didn’t do too well hitting a driver off on 14, as well, obviously putting him in a bunker there wasn’t a go, and then Jordan hit a great bunker shot out of there. I mean, it is what it is. Unfortunately we just didn’t have it today, more so myself. Leish played great. You know, it sucks.” Marc Leishman: “I didn’t hole the putts today that I needed to hole. I teed off the holes where you need to be holing them and wasn’t, but they just played too good. You know, today is a day where you’re going to make a few mistakes, and we did, but they outplayed us, so credit to them.” MATCH 12: USA wins, 4 and 3 Dustin Johnson/Matt Kuchar (U.S.) def. Adam Scott/Adam Hadwin (International) Holes won: USA 8, International 4 Holes led: USA 13, International 0 Recap: The Americans won six of the first nine holes, thanks in large part to some poor International play, and maintained control the rest of the way. Pars were good enough for the U.S. to win hole Nos. 1, 3 and 6, and the Americans even won the fifth hole with a bogey. The Internationals suffered another double bogey at the seventh, but the U.S. won it with a 17-foot birdie putt from Johnson. DJ also won the ninth with a 7-foot birdie putt, putting the Americans 4-up at the turn. Hadwin started the Internationals’ rally with a 24-foot putt to win the 10th and also made an 8-footer to win the 13th. But a third double bogey cost them the 14th and stopped any momentum. QUOTES Dustin Johnson: “We play a lot of practice rounds together, and we really enjoy playing this alternate-shot together. It’s a fun format, especially on a day like today. It’s tough out there. I thought we played really solid.” Matt Kuchar: “I love playing with this guy. I think anybody would do well playing with this guy. I’ve been a lucky recipient a number of times. We make a great team and it’s really been a fun ride.” MATCH 13: USA wins, 2 and 1 Phil Mickelson/Kevin Kisner (U.S.) def. Jhonattan Vegas/Emiliano Grillo (International)  Holes won: USA 5, International 3 Holes led: USA 6, International 1 Recap: In one of the most well-played matches of the day, the Americans led off with a birdie at the first hole and went 4 under to beat back the steady new South American tandem of Vegas/Grillo. Mickelson and Kisner improved their record to 2-0-1 this week. The Internationals briefly took the lead when the U.S. bogeyed the 7th, but the Americans responded with a birdie to square the match and never trailed again. A terrific approach by Mickelson won the 15th, and his approach at the 17th to 7 feet set up Kisner to close out the match. MATCH 14: Halved Louis Oosthuizen/Branden Grace (International) halve with Justin Thomas/Rickie Fowler (U.S.) Holes won: International 4, USA 4 Holes led: International 5, USA 2 Recap: The South African duo remained the strongest pairing for Nice Price’s team, claiming a half-point in the final match against the red-hot American pairing which had rolled through the first two sessions. Oosthuizen and Grace won three of the first six holes and were 2 up at that point, Oosthuizen having set up Grace for a 7-foot birdie putt at the sixth. But the U.S. won the next two holes with a par and a birdie and were 1 up through 10. Oosthuizen rolled in a 38-foot putt at the 11th to square the match and the two sides halved the rest of the holes. AFTERNOON FOUR-BALLS Match 15: Louis Oosthuizen/Jason Day (International) vs. Jordan Spieth/Patrick Reed Match 16: Jhonattan Vegas/Hideki Matsuyama (International) vs. Justin Thomas/Daniel Berger Match 17: Anirban Lahiri/Si Woo Kim (International) vs. Kevin Chappell/Charley Hoffman (U.S.) Match 18: Marc Leishman/Branden Grace (International) vs. Brooks Koepka/Dustin Johnson (U.S.)

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