Tag: Northern Trust

How much money each PGA Tour player earned at the Northern Trust

First and second place each earned more than $1 million at Liberty National.

It pays to play well on the PGA Tour, folks. Just ask this week’s winner, Tony Finau, who earned his second win Sunday, claiming the 2021 Northern Trust at Liberty National in Jersey City, New Jersey.

It’s Finau’s first win in more than five years. He shot 67-64-68-65-264 to finish regulation at 20 under, tied with Cameron Smith.

Finau then won on the first playoff hole with a par after Smith went out-of-bounds with his tee shot. Finau will take home $1,710,000, while Smith earned $1,035,500 for his runnerup finish. Jon Rahm, who led or co-led after the first three rounds, finished solo third, good for $655,500.

Check out how much money each player earned this week at the Northern Trust, as well as the top 18 money winner’s of all time.

Northern Trust: Scores | Photos | Get to know Liberty National

Position Player Score Earnings
1* Tony Finau* -20* $1,710,000
1 Cameron Smith -20 $1,035,500
3 Jon Rahm -18 $655,500
T-4 Alex Noren -15 $399,792
T-4 Tom Hoge -15 $399,792
T-4 Justin Thomas -15 $399,792
7 Erik van Rooyen -14 $320,625
T-8 Kevin Na -13 $277,875
T-8 Keith Mitchell -13 $277,875
T-8 Corey Conners -13 $277,875
T-11 Patrick Cantlay -12 $203,775
T-11 Keegan Bradley -12 $203,775
T-11 Harold Varner III -12 $203,775
T-11 Hudson Swafford -12 $203,775
T-11 Shane Lowry -12 $203,775
T-16 Harry Higgs -11 $144,875
T-16 Robert Streb -11 $144,875
T-16 Sungjae Im -11 $144,875
T-16 Pat Perez -11 $144,875
T-16 Xander Schauffele -11 $144,875
T-21 Sebastián Muñoz -10 $95,792
T-21 Stewart Cink -10 $95,792
T-21 Aaron Wise -10 $95,792
T-21 Charley Hoffman -10 $95,792
T-21 Cameron Tringale -10 $95,792
T-21 Sam Burns -10 $95,792
T-27 Mackenzie Hughes -9 $69,350
T-27 Cameron Champ -9 $69,350
T-27 Maverick McNealy -9 $69,350
T-27 Lee Westwood -9 $69,350
T-31 Billy Horschel -8 $48,925
T-31 Adam Schenk -8 $48,925
T-31 Cam Davis -8 $48,925
T-31 Joel Dahmen -8 $48,925
T-31 Seamus Power -8 $48,925
T-31 Harris English -8 $48,925
T-31 Doug Ghim -8 $48,925
T-31 Chez Reavie -8 $48,925
T-31 Bryson DeChambeau -8 $48,925
T-31 Brooks Koepka -8 $48,925
T-31 Ian Poulter -8 $48,925
T-43 Rory McIlroy -7 $32,775
T-43 Scottie Scheffler -7 $32,775
T-43 Hideki Matsuyama -7 $32,775
T-43 Viktor Hovland -7 $32,775
T-47 Zach Johnson -6 $24,331
T-47 Joaquin Niemann -6 $24,331
T-47 Carlos Ortiz -6 $24,331
T-47 Brandt Snedeker -6 $24,331
T-47 Marc Leishman -6 $24,331
T-47 K.H. Lee -6 $24,331
T-47 Peter Malnati -6 $24,331
T-47 Webb Simpson -6 $24,331
T-47 Max Homa -6 $24,331
T-56 Patton Kizzire -5 $21,470
T-56 Daniel Berger -5 $21,470
T-56 Chris Kirk -5 $21,470
T-56 Kramer Hickok -5 $21,470
T-56 Anirban Lahiri -5 $21,470
T-56 Russell Henley -5 $21,470
T-56 Russell Henley -5 $21,470
T-62 Andrew Putnam -2 $14,016
T-62 Dylan Frittelli -2 $14,016
T-64 Paul Casey -4 $20,140
T-64 Garrick Higgo -4 $20,140
T-64 Abraham Ancer -4 $20,140
T-64 Kevin Streelman -4 $20,140
T-64 Lanto Griffin -4 $20,140
T-64 Scott Piercy -4 $20,140
70 Luke List -1 $19,475
T-70 James Hahn E $19,190
T-70 Denny McCarthy E $19,190
73 Jordan Spieth +1 $18,905
74 Gary Woodland +2 $18,715
75 Brian Harman +3 $18,525

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Tony Finau wins Northern Trust after five days, a playoff and an out-of-bounds tee shot by Cameron Smith

Tony Finau ended a five-year winless streak on the PGA Tour, winning the 2021 Northern Trust in a playoff.

The Northern Trust was pushed to a Monday finish. So why not have a playoff to extend the action further?

Tony Finau and Cameron Smith each finished 72 holes at 20 under to extend the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs beyond regulation and into the dinner hour at Liberty National in Jersey City, New Jersey.

But on the first playoff hole, after Finau teed of first, Smith hit out-of-bounds right, effectively ending the extra golf before everyone could walk off the tee box. Finau then hit a 5-iron onto the green, high-fived his caddie and cruised on in from there.

He started the week with but one PGA Tour victory. It came more than five years ago in the 2016 Puerto Rico Open. He has gone a overly discussed 1,975 days and 143 starts since then, amassing 11 top-3 finishes along the way.

NORTHERN TRUST: Winner’s bag | Leaderboard | Photos

But that streak is over. Finau is now 2-3 in playoffs and he vaults to the No. 1 spot in the FedEx Cup standings.

On Saturday afternoon, the PGA Tour moved the final round back to Monday. By 7 p.m. ET that night, nine inches of rain fell on Liberty National. On Monday, the tee times were pushed back three times before finally starting at 11:30 a.m. ET. The final round was contested without any fans on site.

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Golf giveth and taketh it away: Jordan Spieth makes back-to-back eagles one day, back-to-back triples three days later

Just further proof that golf is a crazy game.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Golf, it giveth and it taketh away.

It’s one of golf’s truisms and three-time major champion Jordan Spieth found out the hard way at the Northern Trust.

Spieth, 28, enjoyed both the highs and lows that makes golf so seductive. On Friday, he made back-to-back eagles for the first time in 743 career PGA Tour rounds. But even Spieth knew that the Golf Gods had shined bright on him. After the round, he joked of his latest Houdini act, “I think I was probably plus-8 Strokes Gained: Luck.”

Spieth shot 8-under 62 on Friday to vault into contention, noting “it was one of those days where just like everything was going my way,” but he conceded that his round was a bit of smoke and mirrors and that he was heading to the range to try to iron out swing faults.

“I didn’t play normal golf today,” he said. “It was just kind of one of those days where you probably won’t get away with that throughout weekend.”

Spieth’s comments turned out to be prescient. He shot 72 on Saturday and then experienced the lowest of lows as he made back-to-back triple bogeys at Nos. 9 and 10.

At No. 9, he pulled his tee shot, the first of two shots into the water at the par 4. One hole later, he sprayed his tee shot right and had to take a penalty stroke en route to another 7 on the card. Spieth shot 8-over 79. He finished 1-over 285 for the tournament.

According to stats guru Justin Ray, Spieth became the first player in the last 20 seasons to make consecutive eagles and consecutive triples or worse in the same PGA Tour event.

Northern Trust tournament leader Jon Rahm wasn’t referring to Spieth when he said the following but he might as well have been: “At the end of the day, things seemed to balance out.”

Yes, they do. Just further proof that golf is a crazy game.

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Northern Trust: Monday weather updates, preferred lies and more for the final round

Updates for Monday’s final-round finish.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Nine inches of rain.

That’s how much rainfall drenched Liberty National, site of the Northern Trust, since 7 p.m. ET on Saturday.

“Bad news is we had three times the amount of flood precipitation that was forecasted but the good news is we didn’t have the wind,” said PGA Tour rules official John Mutch. “So we didn’t have the damage on the structures or trees or anything like that.”

All that rain has left the grounds crew with plenty of work to do to prep the course. Tee times, originally scheduled to begin at 7:30 ET, have been pushed back four hours.

“Now we are just pushing water. The bunkers have all been repaired. The maintenance staff has done an incredible job. They have worked through the night as has all the ops team and everyone else,” said Mutch. “So we plan to start at 11:30 today. It’s going to continue to dry. Fairways are remarkably good for nine inches of rain but obviously it is wet.”

As a result, the final round of the first leg of the FedEx Cup will be played under preferred lies.

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“These fairways are all sand capped so that’s helped us a lot. This golf course is built on sand. It’s a links style course, right on the Hudson, so it does drain well,” Mutch said. “Also what hurt us a little bit is we had high tide this morning and a full moon last night. So it all kind of works together.”

Mutch also confirmed that the course can’t take on any more water.

“We have definitely reached field capacity. But as the tide goes out, so will the ponds drain, and right now the forecast is pretty good for next four to six hours. We have some chance of something hitting us tonight, some embedded cells. I’m being optimistic and hoping that that doesn’t happen,” he said. “If it does happen, the meteorologist thinks we can get up to an inch. But after that from that point on, we don’t have any predicted rain.”

Another band of storms could roll through beginning around 3 p.m., but by 7 o’clock the Tour’s meteorologist predicts the storm will have headed east of the course. Regardless of the fact, the plan is to play on until 72 holes is completed, even if that means returning to finish on Tuesday, per a modification in the tournament rules that was rubber-stamped by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.

“Yesterday evening we had a call, and because of the importance of the FedExCup and how these tournaments are linked to each other, one to the next and then to the next and finally to East Lake, it’s paramount in his view, and our view, that we play 72 holes. And that we do everything in our power to get 72 holes in,” Mutch said. “Like I said, we have a good forecast for Tuesday, and if we don’t get hit by anything tonight, we’ll have it done tonight.”

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PGA Tour hopes to finish Northern Trust at Liberty National on Monday. But what if it can’t?

The Tour hopes to finish the Northern Trust on Monday, and has a plan if weather intervenes.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – The PGA Tour isn’t far from the bright lights of Broadway this week, and so as the saying goes, the show must go on.

The final round of the Northern Trust at Liberty National Golf Club was postponed until Monday due to Henri, which flipped back and forth from Tropical Storm to category 1 Hurricane status before making landfall on Sunday near Rhode Island and bringing heavy rain and 40-mile-an-hour winds as it weakened.

Central Park in Manhattan was doused with record rainfall and many New Jersey residents are without power, but the Tour officials hope to complete play on Monday despite a forecast that calls for another “drenching rain.”

Tee times were released late Sunday afternoon with players being sent off both nines in threesomes. The first tee time of the day is set for 7:30 a.m. ET, though veteran Tour pro Lee Westwood isn’t so sure that will be doable.

Northern Trust: Scores | Photos | Get to know Liberty National

PGA Tour rules official John Mutch expressed a more sunny outlook despite the flash flood warnings in the area.

“Really good for 5 inches of rain,” Mutch told ESPN of Liberty National, which was built on a landfill and has a SubAir system beneath the greens. “They were working on the bunkers when I was there. There’s not a whole lot of standing water. I was pleased. I’ve seen a lot worse.”

When the third round ended, Smith had caught Rahm at 16-under 197 with a course-record 60. South Africa’s van Rooyen shot 62 to trail by one stroke in third. He’s one of five players projected to move into the top 70 of the FedEx Cup point standings and advance to the BMW Championship, which begins Thursday in Baltimore. Should he fail to be on the right side of the cutline, he’s slated to head to Switzerland for the Omega European Masters.

The forecast is dicey, with continued rain through Sunday night and into Monday. If less than half the field tees off for the final round, the tournament could be shortened to 54 holes and a sudden-death playoff between Rahm and Smith, who both missed birdie putts at 18, would determine a victor. That scenario has happened in the past such as when Tiger Woods won the 1997 Tournament of Champions and Phil Mickelson edged Gary Nicklaus at the 2005 BellSouth Classic.

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In praise of Harry Higgs, the new Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green recordholder and a most memorable day

It slipped by without much fanfare – other than a few tweets – but Harry Higgs set a PGA Tour single-round record on Thursday.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – On this rare day of rest on the PGA Tour, let’s take a moment to revisit a record that was set during Thursday’s first round of the Northern Trust at Liberty National.

It slipped by without much fanfare – other than a few tweets – but since the tournament’s final round was postponed until Monday, let’s reflect on the Strokes Gain: Around the Green record set by the one, the only Harry Higgs.

It was Paul Tesori, caddie for Webb Simpson, who brought attention to Higgs’ heroics from off the green. He tweeted to stats guru Justin Ray asking if gaining 5.92 strokes on the field Around the Green was a record and Ray responded in the affirmative.

So, what got into Harry on Thursday? “I don’t know but I’m going to try to figure it out so he can do it more often,” his brother Alex said.

Adam Scott played in the same threesome with Higgs and a day later still marveled at the black magic act he had witnessed. “He had one of those days where they all go in,” Scott said. “The world is revolving perfectly for you when things like that happen.”

Indeed, they were. Higgs holed three putts from off the green and chipped in for par on another occasion. The fun started happening for Higgs at the 13th, his fourth hole of the day, after he missed the par-5 with his second shot. Using a putter from 50 feet, he holed out for eagle.

“The first one that he putted in from way off the green hit Wyndham’s (Clark’s) coin like 30 feet from the hole, hopped up and still went in,” said Scott.

Of having Clark’s coin on his line, Higgs said, “It was in a perfect spot. Figured I didn’t need him to move it since I was off the green.”

From there, Higgs made run-of-the mills birdies at Nos. 16 and 6 that was offset by a string of three bogeys beginning at 17.

After hitting his tee shot in the water at the fifth, Higgs chipped in with his 60-degree wedge to save par from 34 feet left of the green. Then his TaylorMade Spider putter, which he’s used since playing the 2018 Korn Ferry Tour, took over. First, he made a bomb at the seventh for birdie.

Harry Higgs
The weapons Harry Higgs used to set the Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green record. (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)

“To call a 79-footer easy is a little aggressive but it broke right and went back to the left and so if you hit it the right speed it’ll just auto correct,” he said.

It may go down as an obscure record but Higgs wiped Patrick Reed’s name from the ShotLink record books (+5.84 in the third round of the 2017 U.S. Open) and etched his own in its place in memorable fashion. Higgs came up 80 feet short of the green at the ninth, his last hole of the day, with his approach to the par 4. No problem: by this point, Higgs was feeling it.

“If that’s as close as you’re going to get to the hole, you might as well try to hole them,” he said.

And so he drained another bomb.

“That was a bonus,” he said of his uphill, walk-off putt to close out a wild way to 2-shoot 2-under 69. “I told myself I have to think like I’m going to hit it off the green to get it all the way there.”

Here’s the thing: Scott said it’s “scary” to think what his strokes gained would’ve been if Higgs hadn’t half-chunked a chip at 17 and failed to chip on to the green from the tall stuff on 18.

“It should’ve, could’ve been even better,” Higgs conceded. “But that’s the story of this lovely game we play.”

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Bubble Watch: Who’s in, who’s out for BMW Championship

The tournament within a tournament at the Northern Trust is the battle to finish within the top 70 in the FedEx Cup point standings.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Keith Mitchell picked a good Friday to make 10 birdies.

The University of Georgia product shot up the leaderboard with six birdies in a row en route to shooting 7-under 64 at Liberty National Golf Club and shares third place at the midway point of the Northern Trust.

Last month, Mitchell strung together seven birdies in a row to begin his third round at the 3M Open. What else does Mitchell have in store for the FedEx Cup?

“Try to get to eight (in a row),” he said. “When you get on those rolls, the putts are falling, you’re hitting them close, and then you try to just keep the pedal down. And it’s a little easier when you feel confident in every part of your game, and today was another time where I felt great.”

That has Mitchell projected to improve to No. 37 in the FedEx Cup, an improvement of 64 spots in the standings, which would be the largest potential move this week.

“I have to finish somewhere in the top 10, maybe even top five, and to be able to do it here is great,” Mitchell said. “But if it wasn’t for those at 3M, I’d probably have to finish even better. You know, we’re never going to discredit a birdie, and this week I’m going to need a lot more just to keep going to next week.”

The tournament within a tournament at the Northern Trust is the battle to finish within the top 70 in the FedEx Cup point standings to advance to the BMW Championship at Caves Valley next week.

With points quadrupled, Mitchell shows the volatility that can exist. He’s one of six players projected to move into the top 70 along with Harold Varner III (No. 44), Alex Noren (No. 52), Tom Hoge (No. 62), Erik van Rooyen (No. 65) and Seamus Power (No. 69).

Those projected to fall out: Talor Gooch, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tyrrell Hatton, Martin Laird, Troy Merritt and J.T. Poston.

Former World No. 1 Jason Day missed the cut and will be absent from the BMW Championship, where he is a past champion, for the first time since 2012.

Among those who will have to sweat out the weekend are Phil Mickelson, who missed the cut and is projected at No. 68 and Matthew Wolff, who is projected as the ‘bubble boy’ at No. 70.

Varner, for one, is living and dying with every shot.

“I think about it every hole,” he said. “I know if I birdie this hole, I’m going to move up. It’s pretty simple. In the context of actually thinking where I’m at on the list, I can’t add that up that fast, thankfully. But yeah, if you play well, you’re going to have a good chance to be at East Lake. Yeah, I’m always thinking about it.”

Players projected to move into top 70

Player Position YTD Rank Proj. Rank*
Keith Mitchell T3 101 37
Harold Varner III T6 72 44
Alex Noren T6 91 52
Tom Hoge T6 108 62
Erik van Rooyen T17 76 65
Seamus Power T25 73 69

Players projected to move out of top 70

Player Position YTD Rank Proj. Rank*
Talor Gooch T57 64 71
Matt Fitzpatrick MC 60 72
Tyrrell Hatton MC 63 73
Martin Laird MC 65 74
Troy Merritt MC 69 77
J.T. Poston MC 70 78

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Bryson DeChambeau puts signature to crazy scorecard in first round of Northern Trust

DeChambeau had quite the colorful scorecard on Thursday.

Check out this gonzo scorecard.

Bryson DeChambeau made two – yes, just two – pars in Thursday’s first-round of the Northern Trust at Liberty National in Jersey City, New Jersey.

And still shot an even-par 71.

How is that possible? Well, he made nine birdies.

Here’s how the scorecard full of circles (birdies), boxes (bogeys) and double boxes (double bogeys) read above DeChambeau’s signature:

5-4-3-3-3-4-5-4-6 for a front-nine 37.

4-2-6-4-2-5-3-3-5 for a back-nine 34.

That’s two pars – on the par-3 third and the par-4 10th – nine birdies, five bogeys and two double bogeys. The world No. 6 started his round with two bogeys and ended his round with another bogey. Starting at the 11th, he went birdie-double bogey-birdie-birdie-bogey-birdie-birdie-bogey.

Northern Trust: Leaderboard | Photos

Despite the rarity of his round, DeChambeau, who is No. 7 in the FedEx Cup standings on the strength of his victory in the U.S. Open in the fall and the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this year, didn’t want to address it.

But he became just the fourth player since the PGA Tour started tracking hole-by-hole scores in 1983 to make two or fewer pars in a round and shoot par or better.

In 2011, Jarrod Lyle made two pars and shot 2-under-par 69 in the second round of the John Deere Classic.

In 2010, Kevin Johnson made two pars and shot 6-under-par 66 in the Puerto Rico Open.

And in 2001, Kaname Yokoo made just one par and somehow shot 4-under-par 68 in the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Players champion Justin Thomas also made nine birdies in the first round at Liberty National in the first of three events in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. But he made just one bogey and shot 63, which put him atop the leaderboard alongside reigning U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm, who had a bogey-free 63.

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Patrick Cantlay off to good start at Northern Trust with Tiger Woods’ caddie, Joe LaCava, on the bag

Replacement caddie? No problem for Cantlay.

To look at Patrick Cantlay, you wouldn’t know if he shot 80 or 70.

Would have no idea if the tricky winds that whipped all about Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Thursday in the first round of the Northern Trust gave him fits.

No clue how he got along with his replacement caddie who goes by the name of Joe LaCava. Or whether the pressure of the FedEx Cup Playoffs and trying to make the Ryder Cup team was getting to him.

Cantlay isn’t a robot, by any means. He just doesn’t show a lot of emotion whether he’s having a good, bad, or indifferent day. Guy has the perfect face and demeanor for the poker table.

Truth be told, however, Cantlay had a very good day on the course with striking views of Lady Liberty and the Manhattan Skyline. Cantlay birdied one-third of his holes and shot a 3-under-par 68 to earn a spot on the first page of the leaderboard in the first of three postseason events.

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His methodical work also bolstered his chances to win the FedEx Cup and its $15 million grand prize and did nothing to hurt his efforts to wear the red, white and blue in next month’s Ryder Cup.

“I thought I played really hard today. I don’t think it’s normal for it to be that windy that early, but it was soft. So if you hit good shots, you would be rewarded,” the four-time PGA Tour winner said. “Not perfect, but a really nice start.”

Harold Varner III said the same after he took the clubhouse lead with a 66. Also at 68 was Viktor Hovland.

Northern Trust 2021
Harold Varner III (right) is congratulated by Bubba Watson after making a putt for birdie on the 3rd hole during the first round of Northern Trust at the Liberty National Golf Club. (Photo: Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports)

Reigning British Open champion Collin Morikawa, who earned the pole position for the FedEx Cup Playoffs by winning the points race during the regular season, never found his rhythm nor his best form and shot 74.

Jordan Spieth, who was second in the standings heading into the playoffs, shot 72.

Walking alongside Cantlay this week is LaCava, who is in the employ of Tiger Woods and was the longtime caddie for Fred Couples. Earlier this year, LaCava caddied twice for Couples.

The Cantlay-LaCava partnership is a one-week gig. Cantlay’s full-time looper, Matt Minister, is out after testing positive for COVID-19 but Cantlay expects him to return to his day job next week at the BMW Championship. At the World Golf Championships-St. Jude Invitational two weeks ago, Cantlay had Joe Skovron, Rickie’s Fowler’s caddie, on the bag.

Cantlay became friends with LaCava at the 2019 Presidents Cup in Australia. He also bonded with Woods that week and expanded their relationship back in the U.S.; the two live in Jupiter, Florida, and both are members at The Medalist in nearby Hobe Sound. Cantlay got in touch with Woods and got the OK to put LaCava on the bag.

“I knew he was kind of sitting at home, so I just asked him if he was available,” Cantlay said of LaCava, who lives in Connecticut.

Something else happened Down Under – Cantlay fell in love with team golf in his debut in the Presidents Cup, where he formed a successful team with gold medalist Xander Schauffele and the U.S. was victorious with Woods as the playing captain.

Cantlay now wants to make his Ryder Cup debut. He said he’s been thinking about the Ryder Cup for a while. Cantlay is ranked No. 9 in the official world golf ranking and stands 11th in the Ryder Cup standings; following the BMW Championship, the top 6 automatically make the team and then captain Steve Stricker makes six discretionary selections after The Tour Championship.

“I just have to take care of business and play well,” he said. “I’d love to play in the Ryder Cup. It brings out the best in me and I get fired up for it.”

He’s of the same mind concerning the FedEx Cup. The winner of the Zozo Championship last fall and the Memorial in June stood in third place when the playoffs began, but points are quadrupled the next two weeks; regular-season victories garner 500 points, a win this week 2,000.

“I think I’m in a good spot,” Cantlay said.

Straight-forward answer as usual.

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Dustin Johnson playing Northern Trust at Liberty National without a driver

DJ noticed something with his driver and made the last-minute move before his tee time.

Dustin Johnson, the winner of the 2020 FedEx Cup, started his round at the 2021 Northern Trust on Thursday without having a driver in his bag.

No, Johnson is not taking a page out of Phil Mickelson’s playbook from the 2008 U.S. Open when the left-hander decided to take on Torrey Pine’s South Course without a driver. According to Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, Johnson noticed a small crack in his TaylorMade SIM2 driver shortly before his scheduled 12:44 p.m. ET tee time. Since Johnson had not started playing, he was free to replace the club, but while Johnson travels with a backup driver, it was not being kept at Liberty National Golf Club.

So, instead of using a driver, Johnson is carrying two 3-woods in the first round of the Northern Trust. The 2016 U.S. Open and 2020 Masters champion typically carries a SIM2 Max 3-wood with 16.5 degrees of loft. The SIM2 Max does not have an adjustable hosel, the standard SIM2 titanium does and that allows players and fitters to increase or decrease the club’s loft. It is likely that Johnson’s stronger-lofted 3-wood has between 13.5 and 15 degrees of loft.

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Why not grab a driver off TaylorMade’s PGA Tour truck? The vans and trucks that provide equipment services to players left Liberty National on Wednesday after lunch, which is customary, and started heading South to Cave’s Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland, the site of next week’s BMW Championship.

Most PGA Tour players bring the 14 clubs they play to use to tournaments, along with a backup driver, backup putter and oftentimes a hybrid club, driving iron and intentionally a sand wedge with a different bounce configuration than their normal wedge in case the sand conditions are firmer or fluffier than normal.

Johnson finished the PGA Tour’s regular season ranked 20th in strokes gained off the tee (0.452) and 17th in FedEx Cup points.

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