By Christopher Powers
The PGA Tour makes the short trek from New Jersey to New England this week for the second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the Dell Technologies Championship. For the 16th straight year, TPC Boston will play host to the event, and it will be the last year it hosts its own playoff event. Starting in 2019, the playoffs will be reduced to three events, and the first leg will rotate between a New York Course, a New Jersey course and TPC Boston.

RELATED: Enter the 2018 Golf Digest Middle East Amateur Series today! 

Fortunately, the chowdaheads can expect a great tournament this week before the tour leaves them for a couple of years. For the first time since 2013 they’ll see Tiger Woods, who had an underwhelming week at Ridgewood Country Club, struggling with the putter and finishing T-40. If he can fix his problems with the flat stick, Woods should have a good chance to contend this week at a course he’s fared well at in the past, winning in 2006 and posting T-2s in 2004 and 2007.

Boston fans will also get to see Rory McIlroy, who skipped the Northern Trust in the hopes of re-assessing his game and coming back for a strong finish to a season that had so much promise following a victory at Bay Hill for the Northern Irishman. Then, with a chance to win Sunday at Augusta, McIlroy faded away, and has not recaptured that Bay Hill final-round magic since. Like Woods, he too has good memories at TPC Boston, winning here in both 2012 and 2016.

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Justin Thomas, the defending champion, is also in the field and will play on Thursday in one of the marquee groupings alongside Dustin Johnson and Northern Trust winner Bryson DeChambeau.

RELATED: FedEx Cup Playoffs will be revamped for 2019 with clarity its principal objective

TV Schedule
OSN Sports 3HD will carry live coverage all four days. Tune in from 9.30pm (UAE tIme) Friday, 10pm Saturday, 8pm Sunday and 6.30pm Monday.

Thursday Tee Times (all times ET). Note:  The United Arab Emirates is 8 hours ahead of Boston, MA, so add 8 hours to the times below.

Tee No. 1
8:15 a.m. — Daniel Berger, Chris Kirk, Stewart Cink
8:27 a.m. — Ryan Moore, Whee Kim, Ted Potter, Jr.
8:39 a.m. — Beau Hossler, Byeong Hun An, Keegan Bradley
8:51 a.m. — Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele, Brandt Snedeker
9:03 a.m. — Pat Perez, Rory McIlroy, Chesson Hadley
9:15 a.m. — Jon Rahm, Patton Kizzire, Kevin Na
9:27 a.m. — Troy Merritt, Satoshi Kodaira, Kevin Tway
9:39 a.m. — Jhonattan Vegas, Kevin Chappell, James Hahn
12:40 p.m. — Louis Oosthuizen, Kevin Streelman, Tyrrell Hatton
12:52 p.m. — Charles Howell III, Henrik Stenson, J.J. Spaun
1:04 p.m. — Brendan Steele, Alex Noren, Kevin Kisner
1:16 p.m. — Billy Horschel, Aaron Wise, Cameron Smith
1:28 p.m. — Tony Finau, Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose
1:40 p.m. — Phil Mickelson, Patrick Cantlay, Patrick Reed
1:52 p.m. — Keith Mitchell, Jamie Lovemark, J.B. Holmes
2:04 p.m. — Russell Knox, Scott Stallings, Ollie Schniederjans
2:16 p.m. — Brian Stuard, Jason Dufner

Tee No. 10
8:15 a.m. — C.T. Pan, Bronson Burgoon, Matt Kuchar
8:27 a.m. — Brian Gay, Adam Hadwin, Zach Johnson
8:39 a.m. — Emiliano Grillo, Si Woo Kim, Ryan Palmer
8:51 a.m. — Marc Leishman, Tiger Woods, Chez Reavie
9:03 a.m. — Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas
9:15 a.m. — Bubba Watson, Jason Day, Webb Simpson
9:27 a.m. — Charley Hoffman, Joel Dahmen, Michael Kim
9:39 a.m. — Russell Henley, Anirban Lahiri, Danny Lee
12:40 p.m. — Jason Kokrak, Nick Watney, Jimmy Walker
12:52 p.m. — Scott Piercy, Hideki Matsuyama, Rafa Cabrera Bello
1:04 p.m. — Andrew Putnam, Adam Scott, Ryan Armour
1:16 p.m. — Austin Cook, Gary Woodland, Ian Poulter
1:28 p.m. — Andrew Landry, Luke List, Brian Harman
1:40 p.m. — Paul Casey, Kyle Stanley, Tommy Fleetwood
1:52 p.m. — Brice Garnett, Kelly Kraft, Peter Uihlein
2:04 p.m. — Tom Hoge, Branden Grace, Abraham Ancer

The post 2018 Dell Technologies Championship tee times, viewer’s guide appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

That’s because, even as most of the courses on the professional tours have been stretched to a near-breaking point, the game for the world’s best golfers keeps getting easier to perform (which is not in any way to say it is getting easier to win).

Through advances in clubs and balls, fitness, technique and agronomy, tour players keep hitting the ball farther and proportionately straighter, with less fear of a disastrous miss. They are leaving themselves shorter irons into greens (very often some kind of wedge), clubs designed to produce the combination of accuracy, height and spin that allows stopping power around the hole. It adds up to a lot of birdie chances inside 15 feet, the distance from which the vast majority of putts are converted.

Amid all this progress, the modern architect’s task is to find a way to fairly increase the challenge to the best players. In the process, he aims to reward skill through the bag, encourage more strategic options, introduce more variety in shot-making and club selection (as in longer clubs for approaches to par 4s) and make the game more interesting to play and to watch. Otherwise, golf at the highest level would likely devolve into a pattern of driver (or 3-wood) off the tee and wedge to 12 feet.

For the last several years, architects have tried to find ways to counteract the “bomb and gouge” style. Measuring the appropriate consequences and making the changes that enact them is what keeps designers up at night.

For the last several years, architects have tried to find ways to counteract the “bomb and gouge” style that has become the percentage way to play at regular tournaments on the PGA Tour, where rough is manageable and greens are not overly firm. Players now know that, in general, their chances are better from off the fairway with a short iron or wedge than from the short grass with a 5- or 6-iron. It means that all things being equal, a player would rather be a long hitter who’s a bit crooked than a short one who is generally straight.

I disagree with the idea that a long driver’s advantage should be neutralized by narrowing landing areas beyond 300 yards, bringing together more closely the area from which players hit their approaches. But there’s a good argument that to restore a balance of equitable skill, long hitters who don’t hit it straight should pay a stiffer price than they currently do.

Measuring the appropriate consequences and making the changes that enact them is what keeps architects up at night. In a souped-up game in which setups necessarily keep inching closer to the edge, it’s easier to go too far. Or at least be perceived to have done so, especially when the chief evaluators are players who would prefer not to change their playing style.

At TPC Boston, Hanse was trying to inject some variety into what has become known as a “bomber’s paradise.” Reasoning that a good course has ebb and flow, he decided that making the 12th a hard hole made sense early in the back nine, before a closing stretch that has traditionally produced a lot of birdies.

Hanse stretched the formerly 461-yard par 4 all the way to 511 yards and built a new, more contoured green. To keep tee shots from running down a hill toward the green, he ended the fairway at 330 yards, and at 305 yards, placed two deep “lobster pot” bunkers evoking the Principal’s Nose on the 16th at the Old Course at St. Andrews. Justin Thomas’ called the pair “so death.”

On a hole that in the past had left wedges and 9-iron approaches, Hanse wanted players who chose not to try to thread a longer tee shot past the fairway bunkers to hit a mid- to long iron approach into the green, something that has become rare for the tour’s longer hitters. In Friday’s first round, Dustin Johnson hit a 6-iron into the 12th, the longest iron he said he had hit into a par 4 all year.

Predictably, players didn’t like being asked to “lay up” on a 500-yard-plus par 4. Some refused, but rather than take on the bunkers, they hit drivers way left—over trees, and often into rough into the adjoining 13th fairway. Eventual winner Justin Thomas did this all four days, hitting 7-irons into the green, as did another younger bomber, Jon Rahm. They decided that missing the green would still leave them a better chance to save par than driving into the bunker and being left with a long third.

Hanse, the designer of the Olympic Course and highly regarded for his thoughtful work, absorbed the expected criticism and urged patience. Changes to a hole often cause initial discomfort (and arguably should), and a good golf hole by definition shouldn’t fully reveal its secrets immediately. “Once they figure it out, they’ll see there was sound thought put behind the design,” Hanse said of the 12th, which played to an average of 4.343 strokes, about a third of a stroke higher than it used to.

The USGA figured wide fairways were needed for brawny Erin Hills, but the course’s added length didn’t prevent low scores at the U.S. Open. (Photo by Andrew Redington)

The controversy in Boston comes after two major championships in which the setups were questioned. At the U.S. Open, where as the “ultimate examination” the setup is expected to get closer to the edge than any other event, Erin Hills played easier than anticipated.

Because heavy winds that regularly whip along the Wisconsin plains never came, and rain did, fairways made wide to allow for the expected conditions gave the players too much room. The extra high rough that the USGA installed to punish the wildest wind-blown drives barely came into play, and even with the damp fairways, the record length of the course barely deterred the longer hitters, who regularly launched 340-yard blasts with relative impunity.

Perhaps in an unconscious response, the setup for the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow went the other way. On a vastly redesigned course, narrow fairways were bordered with new Bermuda rough that was extra thick and wet from rain, while new greens were overly firm and fast—and undulating—as SubAir systems dried them out. The result was a test that offered almost no tolerance for poor ball-striking, in a sense playing the role of U.S. Open for 2017. It was refreshing to see the best players truly tested, and the best strikers of the week were rewarded. At the same time, average tee-to-green play was too severely penalized, and the golf was often painful to watch.

Next year the U.S. Open is going to a Golden Age classic, Shinnecock Hills, artful in the extreme, but also shortish. It’s the kind of venue that is most at risk of being overrun by the modern game.

In the last few years, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw restored the course. The fairways were widened (up to 60 yards), the greens expanded, and trees were removed. Visually, the result was spectacular, and the club’s members have loved the changes.

The USGA, too, initially sang the restoration’s praises, but recently officials have reconsidered their original setup plans at Shinnecock. The fairway width—done to create more strategic angles and options—was deemed too wide (perhaps in the wake of Erin Hills). Native fescue rough is now being planted on the edges of the fairway to narrow them back down. The course won’t be as narrow as it was when it held the championship in 1986, 1995 and 2004, but it will be narrower than what was originally planned on for 2018.

Why? Increasing fairway width is a well-meaning concept intended to introduce more angles and shot-making options, as well as putting the driver back in the players’ hands. But it’s become apparent that on a fast-running vintage course that gives players plenty of room off the tee, drivers will get bombed into wedge distance, from where angles essentially become moot.

So that the art of Shinnecock can be brought out rather than overrun, the decision was made that long and crooked has to be punished.

What’s clear from Erin Hills, Quail Hollow, TPC of Boston and Shinnecock Hills is that the modern game is getting harder to fit into golf’s tournament arenas. And that a day of reckoning is coming.

The post The Great Divide: The clash between modern tour pros and golf course architects appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

But in case Steve Stricker was on the fence in regards to Mickelson, this video — in which the five-time major winner asks a kid if he should lay up, only to receive a Phil-esque response from said child — showcases the 47-year-old’s showmanship, one that would play well against the New York/Jersey crowds:

Phil asked this youngster a question.

And got an honest answer. ?@DellTechChamp pic.twitter.com/u4RamP2CLW

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 5, 2017

Please, Strick, tag Mickelson with one of your selections, under the following condition: young Riley has to be on the bag at Liberty National.

The post Phil Mickelson asks kid if he should lay up. Kid delivers Phil-esque response appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
Kevin Chappell had done all he could on Monday in his last-ditch effort to qualify for the Presidents Cup. An even-par 71, with a bogey-6 on the final hole, during the final round at TPC Boston left him in a tie for for 35th in the Dell Technologies Championship. It dropped the 31-year-old roughly five spots down the leader board from the start of the round, but the question was whether it had cost him enough points to keep him from leaping from 11th to 10th on the qualifying list and grabbing the last of the 10 automatic spot on the squad.

Winner at the Valero Texas Open in May, Chappell decided there was no need to stick around to find out; he’d learn the answer soon enough. So it was that he was heading to the airport when PGA Tour officials reached him to let him know the good news, that he had squeaked inside the bubble by .23 points and will be playing for the American side at Liberty National later this month.

Chappell’s social-media response to hearing the news was pitch perfect.

??????????????

— Kevin Chappell (@Kevin_Chappell) September 4, 2017

Chappell’s good fortune proved Charley Hoffman’s undoing, as he fell from 10th to 11th after finishing T-47 at TPC Boston. He’ll now have to rely on the kindness of U.S. captain Steve Stricker using one of his two wildcard picks on him when he rounds out the 12-man lineup on Wednesday night. Working in Hoffman’s favor is the fact he has had two runner-up finishes and seven top-10 performances in 2017, seemingly finding himself in the hunt every week this summer despite not actually winning a title.

If Hoffman seems an obvious choice, the question of Stricker’s other pick isn’t quite so clear. Or maybe it is. Brian Harman, winner of the Wells Fargo Championship this summer, runner-up at the U.S. Open and 12th on the final points list is certainly in the running. But the sentimental choice is Phil Mickelson, who is moved up from 18th to 15th in the points list with his T-6 finish at TPC Boston, his best stroke-play finish of the 2016-’17 season.

As for the International team, no one moved inside the top 10 at the Dell Technologies Championship, although Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo tried to make it interesting. Grillo needed a top-12 finish at TPC Boston to make the leap from his No. 12 spot into the top 10 on the International team points list. Impressively, he managed to shoot a closing 66, which moved him from 32nd to 22nd but allowed Adam Hadwin to keep the 10th and final spot. Grillo’s finish, however, moved him inside the top 70 in the FedEx Cup points list, securing him a spot in the field at the BMW Championship in two weeks.

U.S. Presidents Cup Team Final Standings
Dustin Johnson
Jordan Spieth
Justin Thomas
Rickie Fowler
Daniel Berger
Brooks Koepka
Kevin Kisner
Patrick Reed
Matt Kuchar
Kevin Chappell

International Presidents Cup Team Final Standings
Hideki Matsuyama
Jason Day
Adam Scott
Louis Oosthuizen
Charl Schwartzel
Marc Leishman
Branden Grace
Jhonattan Vegas
Si Woo Kim
Adam Hadwin

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By Christopher Powers
Justin Thomas has been no stranger to vaulting up leader boards this season with low rounds when he needed them most. At the U.S. Open, it was a moving-day 63 at Erin Hills that gave him the 54-hole lead, which he ultimately could not convert. On Sunday at the PGA Championship he posted a four-under 68, this time to win his first major.

On Sunday at the Dell Technologies Championship, Thomas produced one of those performances again, shooting a bogey-free eight-under 63 at TPC Boston that has tied him for the lead with Marc Leishman at 12-under 201.

Thomas, 24, owned the par 4s, making birdies on eight of them, including a 26-foot bomb he rolled in on the par-4 17th. He had 12 3s on his scorecard, setting a FedEx Cup record. The putter was not kind to him his first two rounds, when he made just 145 feet of putts total. He eclipsed that total on Sunday, rolling in 156 feet of putts en route to the low round of the tournament.

A win on Sunday would give Thomas his fifth of the season and put him in rare company with Jack Nicklaus (1963), Tiger Woods (1999 and 2000) and Jordan Spieth (2015) as the only players since 1960 to win five times, including a major, in one season before the age of 25.

Australia’s Leishman, meanwhile, shot a bogey-free six-under 65 that featured three straight birdies of 32, 52 and 12 feet on the 13th, 14th and 15th holes. The reigning Arnold Palmer Invitational winner can continue his strong season with a victory this week. In 22 starts, he’s registered five top-10s, 13 top-25s and amassed more than $3.5 million in earnings.

After opening the week with a one-over 72, Jordan Spieth has bounced back, playing his next 36 holes in 11 under, including his third-round five-under 66. He’s at 10-under 203, just two shots back.

Also at 10 under are Adam Hadwin and Grayson Murray. Murray, sitting at 70th in the FedEx Cup standings entering the week, is now projected at 35th and in position to advance to the third leg of the playoffs in his first attempt as a PGA Tour rookie.

Hadwin, 29, is now projected at 10th, also in position to advance to the third leg for just the first time in his three seasons on the PGA Tour. He’s also sitting at 10th in the Presidents Cup standings and could make the International team for the first time.

Bouncing back after a second-round one-over 72 was Dustin Johnson, who carded a bogey-free five-under 66 that featured birdies on four of his last five holes. While the World No. 1 won’t play in the final group again, he’s in the identical position he was in a week ago at the Northern Trust, three shots off the lead at nine-under 204. A victory at TPC Boston on Monday would be his fifth of the season and 17th of his PGA Tour career.

Jon Rahm struggled on Sunday, posting an even-par 71 with four birdies and four bogeys. He’s tied with Johnson at nine under.

Phil Mickelson is still hanging around at eight-under 205 thanks to a third-round two-under 69. That gives him three straight sub-70 rounds, something he hasn’t done since the FedEx St. Jude Classic in June, where he finished in solo ninth. A top-10 finish this week would be just the second in his last 12 starts, and his fifth of the season.

Also at eight-under is Patrick Cantlay, who shot a second straight three-under 68 without dropping a shot. He’s put together an excellent season, with five top-25s, three top-10s and nearly $1.5 million in earnings in just 10 starts.

Rickie Fowler, Pat Perez and Justin Rose are five back at seven-under 206.

Stewart Cink and Branden Grace entered the week outside the top 70, but both sit at six-under 207 and are currently projected at 61st and 63rd, respectively.

Bubba Watson will need to go low on Sunday to extend his season. The two-time Masters champ is at three-over 216, currently projected 75th.

The post Justin Thomas shoots 63, ties for lead with Marc Leishman at Dell Technologies Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

But he’s yet to look as strong as he did in early April at Augusta, where he wowed us all down the stretch on Sunday, striping iron shot after iron shot to capture his first major. That victory, plus two top-10s and eight top-25s was enough to get Garcia into the top-30 of the FedEx Cup standings, allowing him to skip the Northern Trust and begin his push for the TOUR Championship at this week’s Dell Technologies Championship at TPC Boston.

On Friday, he opened with a four-under 67 and looked like he would challenge over the weekend. He stumbled on Saturday with a two-over 73, and frustration from that round seems to have carried over into Sunday’s third round. At the short par-4 fourth, Sergio hit one ugly putt for eagle from just off the green and took out his anger on faulty flat stick. Check it out:

RIP Sergio’s putter. pic.twitter.com/t74IIdoO68

— Skratch (@Skratch) September 3, 2017

He knew he caused some damage right away, and pulled out the 3-wood for his 13-foot birdie putt, which he had no problem with:

Update: Sergio don’t need no stinking putter. pic.twitter.com/oGDui0j8CD

— Skratch (@Skratch) September 3, 2017

Pretty solid roll, but we don’t recommend this. In fact, he’s already bogeyed the next two holes, including a three-putt at the par-4 sixth.

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By Joel Beall
It appeared Adam Scott’s 2017 had come to an end at the PGA Championship. The 37-year-old and his wife were expecting their second child, and the pregnancy was envisioned to keep the Aussie on the sidelines for the first two events of the FedEx Cup. Given his subpar (at least by his standards) campaign, missing those tournaments would prevent Scott from moving on to postseason’s third stop at Conway Farms Golf Club in Chicago.

“My priorities were shifted this year and my practice changed accordingly,” said Scott, now 18th in the world after reaching No. 1 just three years ago. “I’m certainly far from desperation [but] certainly motivations and priorities shift over a 20-year career. Not every time are you going to be able to commit and put everything into it.”

Turns out those fears were premature, thanks to an early delivery on August 23rd. With mom and child in good health, Scott has decided to give the Fedex Cup a go after all, teeing it up at this week’s Dell Technologies Championship at TPC Boston.

But if Scott harbors hopes of getting to East Lake, the 2013 Masters champ has some work to do. He enters the week ranked 73rd in the standings, with the top 70 advancing to the BMW Championship. On the bright side, Scott has a stellar track record at the former Deutsche Bank event, with a win and six top 10s in 11 appearances.

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By Joel Beall
Sergio Garcia hails from Spain, but Texas holds a special place in his heart. He made his PGA Tour professional debut at the 1999 Byron Nelson, and his first tour win came at the 2001 Colonial. More importantly, Garcia’s wife hails from the Lone Star state, and the pair recently married in Texas this summer.

It’s no surprise, then, that Garcia is among the athletes and celebrities pledging financial support to Houston as the area begins to recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey.

My wife @TheAngelaAkins & I are donating $2k for every birdie & $5k for every eagle I make during the #FedExCup to help #Texas. #TexasFlood

— Sergio Garcia (@TheSergioGarcia) August 29, 2017

Garcia will tee it up this week in the FedEx Cup’s second postseason event, the Dell Technologies (formerly Deutsche Bank) Championship. In six appearances at TPC Boston, the 37-year-old has two top-10 finishes.

To help with the hurricane relief effort, donate here to the Red Cross.

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