The 14th year of the Fed Ex Cup Playoffs commences tomorrow at The Northern Trust at TPC Boston, a course that is closer to Providence, Rhode Island than it is Boston. It’s 20 miles south of Providence and 35 miles north of Boston.

Patrick Reed won The Northern Trust last year, but it was played at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey. DeChambeau won here in 2018 when it was the Dell Technologies Championship. Other winners on this course include, Adam Scott, 2003, Eldrick Woods, 2006, FIGJAM Mickelson, 2007, Webb Simpson, 2011, Rory, 2012 and 2016, Fowler, 2015, and Justin Thomas in 2017, the year he won the Fed Ex Cup.

Past Fed Ex Cup Champions are, 2007, Eldrick, 2008, Vijay Singh, 2009, Eldrick again, 2010, Jim Furyk, 2011, Bill Haas, what’s happened to him? A little older now, 2012, Brandt Snedeker, 2013, Henrik, 2014, Billy Horschel, 2015, Spieth, 2016, Rory, 2017, Justin, 2018, Justin Rose, 2019, Rory.

The present top 10 in the Fed Ex Rankings are, No.1 Justin, 2,458 points, No.2 PGA Champion Collin Morikawa, 1,902, No.3 Webb Simpson, 1,878, No.4 DeChambeauroids, 1,657, No.5 Sungjae Im, 1,561, No.6 Patrick Reed, 1,353, No.7 Daniel “Whata” Berger, 1,347, No.8 Rory, 1,327, No.9 Brendon Todd, 1,316, No.10 Jon Rahm, 1,215.

There will be 500 points awarded to the winner of this week’s Northern Trust and 500 points awarded to the winner at next week’s BMW Championship at Olympia Fields, in Olympia Fields, Illinois, about 30 miles west of Chicago. The Tour Championship is in 2 weeks, Sept 4th-7th, with the top 30 in the Fed Ex Standings playing for the ultimate $15 million prize bonus money to the winner of the Fed Ex Cup. That’s quite a payday. The winner this week earns $1,665,000 and earns the same next week with a victory at the BMW. The top 125 play this week and will be cut down to the top 70 after this weekend. Out of those 70, the top 30 that survive the BMW move onto the Tour Championship at East Lake GC in Atlanta.

Justin Thomas will have JIm “Bones” McKay on his bag once again. McKay took regular caddie Jim Johnson’s place as Johnson is dealing with high blood pressure. Johnson is expected to be on Thomas’s bag at the U.S. Open Sept. 17-20. Thomas won with McKay 3 weeks ago at the WGC Fed Ex St. Jude Invitational, so good chemistry there, though Thomas faltered at the PGA Championship, finishing -1 and tied for 37th. Morikawa won at -13. Thomas got a practice round in with Eldrick on Monday at Winged Foot in New York home of the 120th U.S. Open, September 17th-20th. Golf Channel and NBC will televise. Thomas said he usually hangs up the clubs after the Tour Championship, but that’s not happening this year with the U.S. 2 weeks after the Tour Championship. There are several players who are on the brink of not making the top 70 which would qualify them for next week and that’s significant because if they don’t make the top 70 after this week, they will not be able to play the next 2 weeks and will miss important U.S. Open playing preparation along with the fact that they’ll be out of the Fed Ex Cup. Bubba Watson is 66, Mickelson is 67, Rickie Fowler is 88, Spieth is 100 and Justin Rose is 109.

Brooks Koepka, who is ranked 97, dropped out this week because of his lingering knee injury issue. He will not play until the Open which he won back to back in 2017 and 2018. But that’s definitely concerning for his chances to compete well at Winged Foot and have a shot. Don’t see that happening.

Winged Foot will play 7,477 yards and is a Par 70.

Player of the year will be decided after the Tour Championship since the 2020-21 season starts the next week at the Safeway Open Sept. 10th-13th. Candidates are JT with 3 victories, the CJ Cup in South Korea in October of 2019, the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii in January, and the WGC Fed Ex St. Jude 3 weeks ago. Collin Morikawa has 2 victories, the Workday Charity Classic at Muirfield Village GC in Dublin, Ohio in July, and of course, the only major that counts this season, the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in SF 2 weeks ago. Webb Simpson has 2 victories, the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head in June, and the Waste Management Open in Phoenix back in January early February, Super Bowl Sunday weekend. The Kansas City Chiefs remember it well, while the 49ers want to forget about that Sunday. Brendon Todd also has 2 victories, the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico in November of 2019, and the Bermuda Championship in late Oct, early Nov of last year. So those are the leaders in the clubhouse. Guys like Jon Rahm, DeChambeau, performance enhancers locked and loaded this week, and Sungjae Im, could get in there as well.

TPC Boston

7,342 yards, Par 71. There are 3 Par 5’s on the course, No.2, 542 yards, No.7, 600 yards, and the well known 18th, 530 yards. There are 4, Par 3’s and 11 Par 4’s. The rough will be 3 1/2 inches thick and the Bentgrass greens will be stimping at 12 1/2.

Key Holes

No. 4, 298 yards, Par 4

A drivable Par 4. The bombers will go for it. The others will lay up leaving a full pitch shot to the green. A drive placed to the widest part of the fairway sets up a challenging pitch over a bunker that guards the left side of the green.

No. 11, 231, par 3

The toughest Par 3 on the course, there is a massive bunker guarding the front right of the green. The left side is contoured to allow shots to the left to funnel down to the green. Par is a good score.

No.14, 516 yards, Par 4

The toughest hole on the course. There are mounds on the left off the tee that if you hit into them you’ve got 200 to the green. There are 2 bunkers on the front of the green and the green is small. Par is a victory on this hole.

No.18, 530 yards, Par 5

Should be drama filled on Sunday. Players can choose to carry the 2 fairway bunkers in the middle of the fairway to leave themselves a chance to reach the green with a fairway wood. Only the longest hitters can carry the right fairway bunker at 320 yards. Roid it up DeChambeau. Carrying that 320 bunker will give the player a mid iron to the green. Players laying up will need to avoid a pot bunker in the center of the fairway. The approach is over high fescue grass that will swallow up a mishit. The green is narrow shaped and can be hard to hold. There will be plenty of birdies and some heartbreak on the 72nd hole on Sunday.

Key groups Thursday, with Fed Ex Ranking.

7:26 AM CT-Justin Thomas, Morikawa, Webb Simpson (Nos.1-3 respectively, Fed Ex)

Thomas earned the Wyndham Rewards $2 million bonus last week for finishing 1st in rankings after that tourney though he didn’t play. Morikawa became the 4th player at age 23 in the last 57 years to win the PGA Championship joining Rory (2012), Eldrick (1999) and Jack Nicklaus (1963). Simpson is making his 12th appearance at The Northern Trust, where he owns 3 Top 10’s.

7:37 AM CT-Eldick, Dylan Fritelli, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Nos. 49-51)

11:55 AM CT- Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Lanto Griffin (Nos. 10-12)

12:06 PM CT-DeChambeau, Sungjae Im, Patrick Reed (Nos.. 4-6). There’s a lot of sand at TPC Boston, so the cheatin radar will be aimed at Reed.

Last week’s winner at the Wyndham Championship- Jim Herman? Are you kiddin me? Shot -21. Only missed 2 fairways all weekend and 7 greens all week. Led the tournament in Greens in Reg. Sank a 57 foot eagle putt on Sunday on the par 5, 5th that broke 8 feet right to left. Knocked it 4 feet on 17 for a kick in birdie to take the lead. On 18, knocked his approach 8 feet, but missed the putt, and had to survive Billy Horschel’s 8 foot putt for birdie that would have sent them into a playoff. Doc Redmond, playing with Horschel, missed from 10 feet for birdie on 18.

The 42 year old Cincinnati native had posted 1 top 25 in 19 starts this year and missed 11 cuts going into last week. He has now won 3 times on the PGA Tour with victories at the 2016 Shell Houston Open, the 2019 Barbasol Championship, ironically his only top 25 this year until last week, and last week’s Wyndham. He moved from 192 to 54 in the Fed Ex Rankings. That came out of nowhere.

Weather

Thursday, perfect, Sunny, 79, Wind WNW 6.

Friday, 88, Sunny, wind WSW 13

Saturday, 88, Partly Sunny, Wind SW 9

Sunday, 82, 50% chance of scattered showers and t storms, wind SW 10 MPH.

The wind on Friday and Sunday will make 18 even more interesting. It’ll be at their back and coming across from the west, so the approaches on the 72nd hold will be riveting to watch on Sunday.

TV

Thursday-Friday-2-6 PM CT, Golf Channel.

Saturday, 12-2 PM CT, Golf Channel, 2-5 PM CT, CBS

Sunday, 11:30 AM-1:30 PM CT, Golf Channel, 1:30-5:30 PM CT, CBS.

Winner

I’m going to take the 35 year old from Raleigh, North Carolina by way of Wake Forest. He was my pick at the PGA Championship, and while that wasn’t his best effort, he’s been consistent this year. He won here in 2011, and he finished tied for third last week at the Wyndham shooting 66, 66, 65, 65 for -18, 3 shots off Herman’s winning score. Give me,

Webb Simpson

Sleeper

Harold Varner III

Finished tied 7th last week shooting 62, 69, 67, 65. 73rd in the standings, but has played well this year.