NORTON, Mass. — The plan still is for the Deutsche Bank Championship final round to wrap up Labor Day, but just about everything else will be different Monday.
Due to the strong wind and rain expected throughout the Northeast due to Hermine, the groupings for the final round will be threesomes, with a start time set for 7 a.m. ET. In order to get as many groups going as quickly as possible, they also will tee off on holes 1 and 10, with 11-minute intervals separating each tee time. The final group of Paul Casey, Brian Harman and Smylie Kaufman is scheduled to begin at 9:01Â a.m.
The weather still might cause some delays, as wind gusts could get as high as 45 miles per hour around the middle of the day, according to PGA Tour meteorologist Brad Nelson. As for rain, Nelson said showers might start late in the morning and be in and out for the rest of the day.
So Monday at TPC Boston should be pretty interesting. But before the best golfers in the world tee it up one last time at the Deutsche Bank Championship, let’s take a look at a few more notes.
— With only 18 more holes separating the remaining golfers in the FedEx Cup playoffs from the BMW Championship, Patrick Reed (first), Jason Day (second) and Dustin Johnson (third) still have firm grips on the top three spots. But there’s a new face at No. 4.
Casey, who leads at 15-under after shooting his third straight 5-under-par 66, is projected to move up 55 spots. Ricky Barnes is in the last qualifying spot for the BMW Championship at No. 70.
— With many of the big names out of the championship picture, the fans made their new favorite golfer clear: Smylie Kaufman (11-under).
The fans constantly were cheering his name, so much so that he called them “wild.”
“Walking to the 16 green, everybody was chanting my name,” Kaufman said. “That was different. It was funny. We had fun out there. The crowd was nuts. They kind of bought into my personality, I guess, a little bit, so that was fun.”
— The low round of the day Sunday went to Louis Oosthuizen, who finished in second place here in 2012.
After starting off with a par, Oosthuizen rattled off four straight birdies to make the turn at 4-under, and he added three more on the back nine to finish with a 7-under-par 64.
He finished tied with Rory McIlroy at 9-under.
— Speaking of McIlroy, he had the third-best round with a 5-under 66, and it could have been even better if this shot went in:
Rory McIlroy … 210 yards … for albatross …
Incredible. https://t.co/lZwfDtL46c
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 4, 2016
— Someone who didn’t have a good day was defending FedEx Cup champion Jordan Spieth. He began his round with three straight bogeys, and a double bogey on the 12th hole made things worse. He finished with a birdie on 18 for a 1-over 72. He dropped 10 spots on the leaderboard and is 5-under overall.
— Minus a minor miracle, Jason Day won’t win the Deutsche Bank Championship, but he did have one of the better rounds on the day with a 4-under 67 to move him to 4-under overall.
— So shiny:
What they are all playing for over these four weeks. pic.twitter.com/QQmbjZvKQW
— Cameron McDonough (@Cam_McDonough) September 4, 2016
— We wouldn’t recommend getting used to saying or spelling Deutsche Bank, because the sponsor of the second FedEx Cup playoff event will change next year.
The tournament doesn’t have a new name yet, but it will be sponsored by EMC Corporation going forward, according to a Thursday press release. It still will be held at TPC Boston over the Labor Day Weekend in 2017, though.
Thumbnail photo via Mark Konezny/USA TODAY Sports Images
