W2W4: Thursday’s best matches

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The 14th annual FedExCup Playoffs opens with a new but familiar backdrop. THE NORTHERN TRUST will be contested at TPC Boston for the first time. The par 71 was the only host of the Dell Technologies Championship when it was a staple in the 2-hole of the old four-event series from 2007-2018. Eight of the 12 winners on the course during the FedExCup era qualified for the 2020 Playoffs. As of midday Monday, all 125 who are eligible are committed. Scroll past the expanded ranking of projected contenders for the adjustments made for the Playoffs, details on TPC Boston and more. RELATED: The First Look | One-liners for every player in the Playoffs POWER RANKINGS: THE NORTHERN TRUST Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider will include reviews of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler, each of whom is a former winner at TPC Boston, as well as Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood among other notables. Nothing has seemed to evade the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the FedExCup Playoffs included. About halfway into the three-month hiatus, it was announced that the Playoffs would be shifted forward a week on the calendar. In other words, THE NORTHERN TRUST originally was scheduled for last week. The other modification to THE NORTHERN TRUST and next week’s BMW Championship addressed the FedExCup Playoffs points earned. Instead of the usual quadrupling of the points versus what’s available during the regular season, they are tripled. For example, the winner of the first two events receives 1,500 FedExCup points instead of 2,000. This helps offset the elimination of 13 tournaments, including THE PLAYERS, three majors and the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. What you remember about last year’s introduction of the reduction to three Playoffs events hasn’t changed. At the conclusion of THE NORTHERN TRUST, the top 70 in FedExCup points will advance to the BMW Championship. It’s just that with the points up for grabs shaved by one-quarter, it could be more challenging to survive. (Tuesday’s special Power Rankings for the Playoffs will analyze this in greater detail.) TPC Boston’s position on the PGA TOUR schedule dates back to 2003, and it always hosted right around the first week of September. Of this week’s field, 86 have competed here before. Save a handful for whom it’s been a few years since they qualified, what they’ll see isn’t much different than how they remember it. TPC Boston tips at 7,308 yards. The field will average under par comfortably, but the trio of par 5s - Nos. 2, 7 and 18 - are just inside the top-half of the harder par 5s on any course, so capitalizing on them is at a relative premium and more valuable than usual. Distance off the tee in general will carry an additional benefit, but because greens are smaller than average at 5,200 square feet, course management will win the race. THE NORTHERN TRUST will be a borderline shootout during which hitting greens in regulation and connecting with pace and read on the putting surfaces should define the champion. Aside from combination fescue-bluegrass primary rough allowed to grow upwards of three-and-a-half inches, bentgrass serves as the shortest grass across the property. This includes the greens that are prepped to measure 12-and-a-half feet with a Stimpmeter. With favorable weather through the 36-hole cut - the last of the 2019-20 season - there is unlikely to be an imbalance in the draw - also the last of the season. Daytime temperatures will rise into the upper 80s on Saturday when winds are expected to freshen. A reasonable chance of rain if not storms elbows its way into the equation on Sunday. ROB BOLTON'S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM's Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings (THE NORTHERN TRUST) TUESDAY*: Power Rankings (FedExCup Playoffs), Sleepers, Fantasy Insider * – 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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PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic – A trio of golfers lead at 6-under after the first round of the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. Past TOUR winner Matt Jones, Joel Dahmen, and Paul Dunne all shot matching 66’s on a windy Thursday at Corales Golf Club. Jones, who won the 2014 Shell Houston Open in a playoff over Matt Kuchar, said his 6-under was “probably the worse scoreâ€� he could have shot. Teeing off early, the wind was down and the course was more scoreable than it was later in the day. That didn’t stop Dahmen and Dunne from posting solid numbers. Jones said his iron game and distance control were the keys to his success Thursday. The Australian finished T-28 here a year ago, and is in the midst of one of his more solid PGA TOUR seasons in recent memory. He’s made his last five cuts in a row, and has notched two T-13 finishes, tied for his best results of the season. The 38-year-old held off Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott to capture the Australian Open on his childhood course in 2015, and although he said he rarely thinks about that victory, the good memories are there if he needs them this week. “That’s a long time ago and I’ve got a lot of war wounds since then out here on this Tour,â€� he admitted. “But if I get in that position again with a chance to win, I’ll probably lean on that experience.â€� Dahmen, meanwhile, came into the week having made his last two cuts – after a run of four-straight misses – including a T-13 at THE PLAYERS Championship. He said his season has been “better than it looks on paper,â€� as his Thursday 66 was his best round since a matching 66 at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January. “At THE PLAYERS I was close, just a couple bogeys on the back nine that really could have had me in the hunt there,â€� said Dahmen, whose usual caddie is at home with a week off before a busy stretch. “Leading up to the first round last week, my game’s close and hopefully we can keep it going through three more rounds.â€� The last time Dahmen held a piece of a first-round lead was at the 2017 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but he went on to finish T-48. He drained a 23-foot birdie try on the par-3 9th – his final hole of the day – to get to 6-under, and the 2014 Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada Player of the Year said he wouldn’t be changing his approach for Friday. “I’m not a range rat as it is,â€� said Dahmen. “So we’re going to have a cold beer, put the feet up and just enjoy this place.â€� Rounding out the threesome at the top is Irishman Paul Dunne, who finished T-5 in Punta Cana in 2018 and managed to parlay that top-10 result into a T-8 at the Houston Open the following week. He also played The Open Championship and the PGA Championship last year, but this week marks his first start at a PGA TOUR event since last August. He’s played six European Tour events so far this year, finishing third at the ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth. “It’s been fairly average,â€� Dunne said of his year. “Things are starting to get better, I’m starting to get back in the swing of tournaments. “It’s nice to fill the gap there with a great event and hopefully I can make the most of it.â€� Dunne, who got a Sponsor Exemption this week, was 1-under through his first nine holes, but turned it on late. He played his second nine (the front) in 5-under. He said he was feeling some good vibes from last year early on. “I feel comfortable here,â€� said Dunne. “The couple of loose tee shots I normally hit in a round I can get away with here, so play to my strength a little bit. The breeze blowing for the week is nice, we’re used to that.â€� Sungjae Im, who has finished in the top-5 in two of his last three tournaments and is the top-ranked golfer in the FedExCup standings in the field this week, is one shot back of the leaders at 5-under. Sam Burns, who won on the Web.com Tour exactly a year ago this week, leads a group of six golfers at 4-under, rounding out the top-10.

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