THE NORTHERN TRUST honors 9/11 survivors and first responders

OnScene: Curry prepares for Web.com Tour event

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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – History could be on Tiger Woods’ side this week. The last time the PGA Championship was played in May, the winner was the same man who won the Masters a month earlier. That was Sam Snead, who won both events in 1949. You may have heard that Woods won this year’s Masters. Now he’s trying to win the year’s first two majors for just the second time in his career. He accomplished the feat in 2002, when Augusta National and Bethpage Black were the venues. Woods doesn’t need the assistance of omens, though. He’s no longer a man on the comeback trail. He’s once again one of the best players on the planet. Period. He’s been victorious in two of his last seven starts and finished no worse than sixth in the past three major championships. The question is no longer “ifâ€� but “how many?â€� This week, he can tie Snead’s record for most PGA TOUR victories (82). And the pursuit of Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors is debate fodder once again. The conversation continues this week after Woods’ lengthy post-Masters layoff. Despite speculation to the contrary, Woods said he was physically able to play two weeks ago at the Wells Fargo Championship. He just needed more time to relax and relish in a victory that was once unthinkable. “I wasn’t ready yet to start the grind of practicing and preparing,â€� said Woods, who ranks 18th in the FedExCup. “I was feeling good in the gym, but I wasn’t mentally prepared to log in the hours.â€� Woods said he feels “rested and readyâ€� this week. If he is to win his 16th major this week, though, he’ll have to do it with a different game than the powerful one he used to win the 2002 U.S. Open on this brawny Long Island muni. Woods dominated with distance back then. He was the only player to finish under par on a 7,214-yard course that was the longest U.S. Open venue in history. He locked up the title by reaching the par-5 13th in two with a 2-iron from 263 yards. No one else in the field possessed that shot. Woods ranked seventh in both driving distance and driving accuracy that week. He hit 73% of the fairways on a week while the field averaged 59%. He hit 53 greens in regulation, five more than anyone else in the field. He had a 74% success rate with his irons on a week when the field barely hit more than half the greens. Back then, Woods’ biggest differentiator may have been his ability to gouge balls out of the rough and onto the green. Woods had enough speed to dig shots out of even the thickest rough while other players were pitching out. It’s why he was dominant at Firestone and Torrey Pines, two courses that perennially have the toughest fairways to hit. The name may be different, but this week’s setup is expected to be reminiscent of the previous major championships held here. Rain played a role in both U.S. Opens here, as it already has this week. Defending champion Brooks Koepka expected a winning score around even par. The rough is thick and wet. Words like and “brutishâ€� are appropriate descriptors for Bethpage Black, the only course that greets players with a warning sign. “In order to win this one, driving is going to be at the forefront,â€� Woods said. He’ll need to hit fairways to take advantage of his strongest asset. Iron play is still Woods’ forte. He leads the TOUR in greens in regulation and ranks 14th in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green. But at 43 years old and with a fused back, the speed isn’t quite the same. Related: Featured groups, tee times | Power Rankings | Tiger-Snead: Tale of the tape | Koepka’s goal: 10 majors | JT withdraws with wrist injury | Nine things to know about Bethpage | Spieth ‘under the radar’ in latest career Grand Slam bid | Tiger ‘would certainly welcome’ spot in 2020 Olympics He has to play the role of wily veteran, relying on his smarts more than his speed. That’s what he did at Augusta National, which he used to decimate with his drives. He won this year’s Masters while ranking 44th (out of 65 players) in driving distance. The pivotal moment came on No. 12, when he played the safe shot while the other contenders crumbled around him. Woods sees similarities between himself and Peyton Manning, who won a Super Bowl after neck surgery. Or a pitcher who has to rely on command after their fastball has lost a couple mph. “Just because someone doesn’t have the strength to do something, he’s going to figure out a different way,â€� Woods said. “I don’t have a fastball. (Manning) couldn’t zip the ball into the tight little windows. He had to anticipate more. He has to do more work in the film room. I had to do more work on managing my game, my body, understanding it, what I can and cannot do.â€� That’s why the driver may be his most important club this week. Hitting to Bethpage Black’s elevated greens from the rough will be a tall task for everyone, especially those who aren’t among the longest hitters. Woods, who wowed with some eye-popping swing speeds last season, is 52nd in driving distance this week (299.6 yards). “He seems to have lost a bit of ball speed this year, which I think is a conscious decision to take some pressure off his back,â€� said Padraig Harrington. “He realizes if you’re still leading greens in regulation, … he doesn’t need that ball speed.â€� Harrington was impressed with how Woods played the final holes at Augusta National. After a couple unsuccessful attempts to hit a draw off the tee, Harrington saw a man who stopped trying to play the “properâ€� shot and accrue style points. “He just played to win,â€� Harrington said. “He hit a fade off the 14th, he hit a fade off the 15th, where you’re trying for a bit of distance. He was just getting the job done and winning the tournament.â€�

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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.

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