The chase for the pot of gold at the end of the PGA Tour rainbow officially starts this week at The Northern Trust at TPC Boston.
This will be the first of three events in the 2020 FedEx Cup Playoffs. The top 125 play this week and will be cut to the top-70 for next week’s BMW Championship. Then it will be cut down to the top-30 for the Tour Championship in Atlanta where that rainbow ends and the pot of gold will be claimed.
For the last golfer left standing, it will mean a massive boost in their bank account and job security. How massive? Try a $15 million payout (up from $10 million last year) and a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour.
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To get to that point, the eventual champ will need to survive the first two events and battle through impressive fields of golfers that will only get stronger and hungrier as the fields are whittled down.
But before we start adding cash to the bank account, let’s look at this week’s event in Boston and check out a few variables about what it will take to stay alive in the hunt.
Now don’t get us wrong, winning a PGA Tour event is great (or so we’ve heard). But surviving to play another week is also right up there on the wish list and those outside the top-70 have to make a move to get into that next prestigious grouping.
The intriguing aspect this week is that players in the top-30, who are absolutely going to be safe this week, will be going flag-hunting as often as possible in search of the win and the playoff-friendly 1,500 FedEx Cup points the champ receives. That would certainly ensure a trip to Atlanta and let them free-wheel in the second playoff event.
Make no mistake, this week will be a birdie-bogey barrage with players, no matter their ranking, knowing what’s on the line with a good finish. Players may take chances with shots this week they may not take during a routine week. And not all of those chances and shots will wind up being good ones.
This week we’re going with a player out to make a statement as he’s way under the radar this week for some reason. No, sorry, it’s not Tiger Woods.
We’re looking at Adam Scott at 50-1. Scott is ranked 36th in the FedEx Cup race so he will advance into next week without a problem. If he wins he will absolutely solidify a spot in the finals. That will be quite the accomplishment after he took more time off than most players when it came time for the PGA Tour to get re-started.
Don’t forget, he’s still the 11th ranked player in the world and won the Genesis Invitational back in February before the shutdown.
His return was at the PGA Championship, where he posted four solid rounds and wound up a respectable T-22 while knocking off some rust.
We’re also moving to a tournament that’s right in his wheelhouse. He won this event in 2003 and also has six top-10s. He was fifth in this event last year and had a T-5 in 2018 just to prove our point.
As for a long shot choice outside of the top-70, we’re staring straight into the eyes of someone we’ve never had as a long shot: Brooks Koepka. He’s ranked 97th in the FedEx Cup rankings. That’s totally out of whack for the world’s No. 7 player. And at 30-1 he’s at a great price. In 2019, he was third in the final FedEx standings. In 2018, he was ninth and in 2017 he was 10th. He’s likely got to win this week to keep playing. And when the pressure is on, like whenever he tees it up in a major tournament, he seems to rise to the occasion.
Now would be a good time for him to put together four solid rounds and stay in the playoff chase.
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