Last call for TPC Boston Labor of love
NORTON — A Labor Day weekend staple for the past 15 years, this will be the last time for the foreseeable future the PGA Tour makes an annual appearance in the Greater Boston area.
The Dell Technologies Championship was the odd tournament out when the decision was made to shorten the FedEx Cup playoffs next year from four events to three so to end the Tour Championship before the start of the NFL and college football seasons.
While it cost his tournament a place on the calendar, director Rich Brady said the decision to adjust the schedule made too much sense to pass up.
“When you look at the month of August and who we would compete against for sports viewers, it’s not the NFL, it’s the dog days of baseball,” he said. “I think we have a great chance to own the sports calendar in the month of August. It’s going to be great for the sport overall.”
But that doesn’t mean there will be a sense of doom and gloom this week. Playoff golf will return in 2020 when the first playoff event, The Northern Trust, will alternate between Liberty National in New Jersey in 2019 and then TPC Boston.
“We’re focused on this event, obviously, as it’s this week,” Brady said.
“Dell has been a great partner of this tournament, back in the EMC days then for the last two years as a title sponsor so we’ve really been putting all of our effort into making this event great. But we’re optimistic that we’ll be back in 2020. We’ll have a different date on the calendar (in August). We’ll still be a playoff event which is great for the fans of this area that are accustomed to seeing the best players.”
Of the top 100 players, 98 are scheduled to tee it up Friday with a check worth $1.62 million and 2,000 FedEx Cup points to the winner. The top 70 in the standings advance to the BMW Championship outside of Philadelphia the following week.
For the first time since 2013, Tiger Woods will be in the field. While he is yet to win this season, Woods has a pair of runnerup finishes including at the PGA Championship earlier this month.
Woods’ presence certainly will be felt at TPC Boston, where crowds are expected to swell once again.
“I remember the buzz around Tiger when he played here five years ago. It’s tough to get from Point A to Point B when you’ve got a gallery following Tiger,” said Brady, who added that ticket sales are up and expects some of the seating areas to sell out before the tournament begins.
Woods won the event in 2006, the final year before the playoff format debuted. He was runnerup in 2004 and 2007 and third in 2012.
The tournament will be an opportunity for some to seal their spot on the Ryder Cup team as captain Jim Furyk will name three of the four captain’s picks on Tuesday as he finalizes the team he will take to Paris next month. Woods and last week’s winner, Bryson DeChambeau, appear to be near locks.
The eight automatic qualifiers were finalized after the PGA Championship, seven of whom will be in the field this week with Rickie Fowler sitting it out because of a “partial tear” in right oblique.
Justin Thomas won by 3 shots a year ago for his fifth win of the season and went on to win the FedEx Cup championship. Other past champions in this year’s field include Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson and Webb Simpson.
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The PGA of America selected former Deutsche Bank America chief executive Seth Waugh to be its next CEO. Waugh comes to the PGA of America with strong golf and business ties. He is finishing a three-year term on the PGA of America’s board and during his time at Deutsche Bank, he helped create the PGA Tour event at TPC Boston.
Waugh will lead an organization that serves nearly 29,000 PGA professionals, runs three major championships for men, women and seniors, and hosts the Ryder Cup every four years.