Playoff Stop: TPC Boston

The FedEx Cup playoffs continue on Friday morning with the traditional Labor Day schedule at The Deutche Bank Championship. The tournament will play through Monday afternoon, and feature the top 100 survivors on the points list from the Barclays. The Deutche Bank is contested on the compelling par 72 layout at TPC Boston, located in Norton Mass.

TPC Boston is a 7241 yard course located 25 miles Southeast of Boston, and was originally designed by Arnold Palmer. It underwent a massive re-design in 2007 by course designer Gil Hanse with PGA Golf Professional Brad Faxon acting as an advisor. The course with it’s current design was named by Golf Digest as the Best Private Remodel of 2007.

The golf course has lush rolling fairways, Bentgrass greens and numerous wetlands. The fairways are Fescue and Native grasses. Complete with some 92 deep bunkers and an abundance of tall trees, the somewhat new venue has the look and feel of some of the older courses in the area.

A couple of holes to keep an eye on are the 298 yard par 4 4th hole, and the final three finishing holes at 16, 17 and 18, which are par 3, 4, and 5 respectfully. The 4th hole is a drive-able par 4 where an Eagle can be had, but with an errant tee shot, one can quickly put a big number on his score card.

The finishing holes each have their own problems. 16 is a short 161 yard par 3, but has water guarding the left side of the double tiered green, and you know the pin placement there will be brutal. 17 is a 412 yard par four with several driving options that avoid bunkers in the 270 yard range. The green is the smallest on the golf course.

The par 5, 528 yard 18th hole has diagonally places bunkers off the tee, and is designed to to catch wayward drives from all hitting lengths. The last bunker is 328 yards, but will yield a mid iron shot to the green, and a possible Eagle attempt. Heartbreak lies in the bunkers, and can quickly take a golfer out of contention on Monday afternoon.

The Deutche Bank Championship is the second installment of golf’s playoff system, and defending champion Webb Simpson comes in after missing the cut at The Barclays in 20th place in the standings. His misfortune at Bethpage Black, dropped the US Open Champion  seven positions.

We should get a feel this weekend for Nick Watney’s game since his putting stroke was re-discovered at The Barclays. He comes to TPC Boston with the Championship lead, 532 points ahead of second place Brandt Snedeker, and 809 points ahead of Tiger Woods. If Nick and Brendt can play well this weekend, I think it will go a long way in convincing Ryder Cup Captain Davis Love III they belong on Team USA when he makes his picks on Tuesday. This will be their last chance for impressions.

If Tiger Woods wants to win his third FedEx Championship, he will need to re-learn how to play the weekends in big tournaments, something he hasn’t done since June of 2008 when he captured the US Open at Torrey Pines. I believe the speed of the greens on Saturday at Bethpage totally had Tiger confused. He three putted four greens in one round of golf for the first time in his career.

Be sure to not tune in on Thursday expecting to see live coverage, as it does not begin until Friday this week because of the Labor Day weekend. This means we will have a sporting event on Monday while we are recovering from a big weekend of barbecues, and more importantly, if you are a Nascar fan like myself, you won’t have to do a lot of channel changing , as the race is Sunday Night from Atlanta Motor Speedway. It should be a great holiday weekend, as College Football begins on Thursday night with some pretty good games. Everyone have a safe and enjoyable Holiday Weekend.

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