The PGA TOUR visits the picturesque Liberty National to kickstart the race for the FedExCup $15-million. Here is what you need to know …
The best 125 players of the PGA TOUR regular season will do battle under one of the best skylines in sports with views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty on display.
Branden Grace starts the week with the most to do as he sits well outside the top 70 that will progress to the second playoff event. At 88th, he needs a very good result if he is to join Dylan Frittelli and Louis Oosthuizen, who has four top 10s this season, at the BMW Championship.
Grace’s best result of the season came back at the Waste Management Phoenix Open where he came up agonisingly short as Rickie Fowler held on for the win.
Frittelli, winner of the John Deere Classic, is 53rd in the FedExCup standings and just two off Oosthuizen’s current position. The former will be looking for a big week as he looks towards trying to sneak into the final event field in his rookie campaign and at the same time work on the mind of Internationals captain Ernie Els with Presidents Cup places now very much on the line.
At the top of the pile, Brooks Koepka is aiming to add the bonus bonanza on offer at the Tour Championship to a season that has already yielded three wins including the PGA Championship and the recent WGC in Memphis.
The big change to the finale is that the standings leader will start with a stroke advantage with the Tour opting for a winner-takes-all scenario.
| FedExCup rank entering East Lake | Starting strokes |
| No 1 | 10 under |
| No 2 | 8 under |
| No 3 | 7 under |
| No 4 | 6 under |
| No 5 | 5 under |
| Nos 6-10 | 4 under |
| Nos 11-15 | 3 under |
| Nos 16-20 | 2 under |
| Nos 21-25 | 1 under |
| Nos 26-30 | Even par |
Selected tee times:
07:32am – Patrick Reed, Louis Oosthuizen, Max Homa
07:43am – Tiger Woods, Scott Piercy, JT Poston
08:16am – Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, Matt Kuchar
08:27am – Branden Grace, Luke List, Wyndham Clark
12:22pm – Dylan Frittelli, Adam Long, Graeme McDowell
