New rules relax penalty standards, drop height

NORTON, Mass. (AP) — PGA champion Justin Thomas ran off eight birdies on a long, wet TPC Boston for a tournament-best 63, giving him a share of the lead with Marc Leishman going into a Labor Day finish in the Dell Technologies filled with the game’s best players. The FedExCup Playoffs event in Boston has a history of delivering big moments, and this was set up for another. Leishman, who won at Bay Hill this year, also played bogey-free for a 65 on Sunday to join Thomas at 12-under 201. Eight players were separated by three shots going into the final round, a listed that included Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson, Paul Casey and Jon Rahm. Still very much in the mix was Phil Mickelson, only four shots behind. “There is a heightened something to these playoff events that bring out certain champions for the most part,” Spieth said Sunday after finishing with two straight birdies to nudge closer to the lead, just two shots behind. “It’s going to be a throw-down tomorrow.” Thomas had his third round this season at 63 or better — a list that includes his 59 at the Sony Open and a 63 at the U.S. Open — to turn a five-shot deficit into a share of the lead and a chance to win for the fifth time this year. He birdied six of the first 10 holes, the longest at about 12 feet. He played down the 13th fairway on the redesigned 12th hole for the third time this week and holed a 50-foot birdie putt, and then added a pair of 25-foot birdie putts. And he didn’t even birdie any of the par 5s. “I just felt I had total control of my game,” Thomas said. “But it’s crazy to think I did that and parred all the par 5s. That’s a little bit of a bummer, if I could somehow have a downside to the day. But like I said, I’m extremely pleased and put myself in a great position to win the tournament.” And he has plenty of company. Casey played in the final group at the TPC Boston last year, but Rory McIlroy ran him down with a 65 to overcome a six-shot deficit. Casey also played the three par 5s without a birdie, missing a 12-footer on the final hole that would have given him a share of the lead. Then again, the TPC Boston played longer than ever with heavy air and a light rain that never left Sunday. Thomas was stunned when he smashed a driver on the 18th and couldn’t carry a bunker complex only 260 yards out. He normally flies a tee shot like that 300 yards. The forecast for Monday was mostly sunshine, and if the course remains softer from rain, this could be a typical shootout. Leishman figured the winning score would be in the 15- or 16-under range. “That would be my plan, to just try and do what I’ve been doing — give myself as many chances as I can and try and make them,” he said. Rahm had a two-shot lead and still had the lead until running into trouble on the back nine, making three bogeys until he ended his round with a birdie for a 71. . “I will be a little bit frustrated for a while because it always is bad when you’re making good swings and things don’t happen,” Rahm said. “I’ll probably get to the hotel, lay down for a little bit and realize the fact that I’m still three shots back.” Most frustrating was that everyone around him was making a move. It was especially critical for Johnson, who played the third round with Thomas and couldn’t buy a putt. Johnson, coming off a playoff victory last week in New York, sarcastically pumped his fist when he made a birdie on No. 14, and then he kept right on going. The only hole he didn’t birdie coming in was at No. 17, where he missed a birdie chance for 10 feet. “I just wanted to get myself in position to be in range of the leaders,” Johnson said. He was three behind Spieth going into the final round of THE NORTHERN TRUST and ended up winning in a sudden-death playoff. PGA TOUR rookie Grayson Murray (67) and Adam Hadwin (68) were at 10-under 203 along with Spieth, who has made only two bogeys over his last 45 holes. Spieth shot a second straight 66 and was surprised that left him two shots behind, all because of Thomas and Leishman. “I couldn’t have shot a whole lot better,” Spieth said. “I thought four back starting the day, if I could cut that in half, then that would be a tremendous goal. So goal achieved, maybe.” Mickelson dropped a shot on the par-5 seventh with a wild tee shot and missed a 4-foot birdie putt on the ninth hole, but otherwise kept in the game. This is the first time Mickelson has opened with three straight rounds in the 60s since the St. Jude Classic in June, which also was his last top-10 finish. Monday could go a long way in persuading U.S. captain Steve Stricker to pick him for the Presidents Cup. Still to be decided is the final 10 who automatically make the team. Kevin Chappell shot a 69 and moved into position to overtake Charley Hoffman for the 10th spot.

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By making the transition Jack Nicklaus made when he tired of playing the robo-assassin to Arnold Palmer’s neighborly gunslinger, Tiger Woods has given the Masters gallery a chance to be part of something extra special.

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Last we saw 18-time PGA TOUR winner Rory McIlroy, more than three weeks ago, he was shooting a dispiriting final-round 75 to finish T8 at the U.S. Open in New York. Bryson DeChambeau, meanwhile, was bludgeoning Winged Foot into submission, his Ruthian approach leading to a six-shot victory over Matthew Wolff. McIlroy, like countless others, could scarcely believe it. "It’s kind of hard to really wrap my head around it," he said. Well, he's had time, and he's hinting at bringing some extra firepower to THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK this week. With some speed work in the gym and a lighter shaft in his driver, he posted on Instagram that he's getting up around 190 mph ball speed and 340 yards of carry. Has he been inspired by DeChambeau? Well, yes, but only to a point. "Yeah, for the last couple weeks I was working on some stuff," McIlroy said from Las Vegas, where eight of the top 10 and 70 of the top 125 from the final 2020 FedExCup standings will take on Shadow Creek. "I think as a golfer, we’re so ingrained to trying to hit the ball where you’re looking, and I think with - I think that’s one of the great things that Bryson’s done. "Bryson, when he speed-trains, he just hits the ball into a net, so he doesn’t really know where it’s going," McIlroy continued. "He’s just trying to move as fast as he can ... and sort of making the target irrelevant for the time being and then you can sort of try to bring it in from there. From what I’ve done and what I’ve been trying - you know, sort of experimenting with the last couple weeks - it’s the fastest I’ve ever moved the club, the fastest my body has ever moved." Distance, he added, has always been an advantage, whether it was the era of Jack Nicklaus; the heyday of Tiger Woods; or today. For most of his career, McIlroy has been at or near the top of the Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee stat. Now he's flirting with making one of his strengths even more of an asset. Still, he added, just because he has been experimenting with extra speed, that doesn't mean he'll always use it. "At least I know that if I need to do it, I can do it," he said. Justin Rose admitted he's still just trying to hit the ball straight again, let alone far, but said he's been taking note as McIlroy and others try to catch up to the TOUR's new distance leader. "I think I’ve seen the trickledown effect of what Bryson’s been doing," Rose said, "and you’re seeing guys like Rory and even Justin Thomas - I’m hearing kind of rumors out on the range, everyone’s trying to crank it up a little bit, get a few more miles an hour." If this all feels a bit jarring, it might be because it seems like just yesterday that McIlroy, 31, was the pacesetter. A four-time major winner, he's young enough to still be in his prime, or just entering it. He won THE PLAYERS Championship and his second FedExCup title just last year, but hasn't found his A game since the TOUR returned in June. His last win was the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions last November. Now along comes DeChambeau, whose relentless innovation still invites criticism even as it succeeds. McIlroy took time out to clarify that he is not one of those critics. "I called what Bryson did brilliant, and I think my comments maybe got taken out of context," he said. "I said he’s taking advantage of everything we have in the game right now. I didn’t mean that in a bad way. I meant he has went to the nth degree of everything we have available to us: science, TrackMan, biomechanics, everything, all the knowledge that we have nowadays that golfers 20 years ago didn’t have access to because there just wasn’t enough knowledge out there." DeChambeau, McIlroy added, has to his credit been willing to go deeper down that rabbit hole than anyone else. "He’s worked his ass off to do that and it’s paying off hugely," McIlroy said. How much will he, Thomas, Rose and others tear apart their own games in search of similar quantum leaps? Time will tell, but clearly the process has begun. "I think it’s the way the game’s going," McIlroy said. "I got sent a really good article last weekend, it was in the Wall Street Journal, just about every single sport becoming faster, longer, stronger, and I don’t think golf’s any different. I’m just trying to keep up with the way it’s going."

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