NORTON – Justin Rose birdied three of the final four holes Friday to emerge with a one-shot lead after the first round of the Dell Technologies Championship, the second of four playoff events on the PGA Tour.
Rose knocked in par putts shorter than 6 feet on the 15th, 17th and 18th holes to close with a 6-under-par 65 at TPC Boston. Scotland’s Russell Knox and Mexico’s Abraham Ancer are tied for second at 5 under. Four Americans, Keegan Bradley, Beau Hossler, Gary Woodland and Chris Kirk, share fourth place at 4 under.
Eight players, including world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, sit at 3 under, tied for eighth.
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are in a group tied for 57th in the 98-player field at 1 over par.
Rose completed his bogey-free round using just 27 putts, as he found 15 of 18 greens in regulation.
Rose birdied Nos. 4, 7 and 10 before his late surge. A win this week would lift him from sixth in the FedEx Cup standings to first.
Knox also came on strong late in his round. Sitting at even par after his second bogey of the day at No. 12, he produced three birdies plus an eagle at No. 15 in the final six holes.
“Very solid round,” said Ancer, who is in the playoffs for the first time and is looking for his first PGA Tour win. “Bogey-free always is a good thing, especially out here in the playoffs.
The field lost one player when Billy Horschel withdrew following nine holes because of illness.
The top 70 players in the FedEx Cup standings after the Dell Technologies Championship move on to the BMW Championship, which starts Thursday at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa. Following that event, the top 30 in the standings will compete in the season-ending Tour Championship, Sept. 20-23 at East Lake in Atlanta.
FOXBORO – The Atlanta Falcons acquired safety Jordan Richards from the New England Patriots for a draft pick, both teams announced on Friday. The draft choice is a conditional seventh-round pick in 2020, according to multiple media reports.
Richards, 25, played the past three seasons for the Patriots after being a second-round pick in 2015 from Stanford.
He started just seven of the 41 games he played in with New England. Richards had 40 total tackles and two forced fumbles.
Last season, Richards had 22 tackles and one forced fumble in 16 games (five starts).
CHICAGO – Highly regarded prospect Michael Kopech faces his former organization for the first time when the Chicago White Sox host the Boston Red Sox on Friday for the second contest of their four-game series. The 22-year-old right-hander was a first-round pick of the Red Sox in 2014 but was shipped to Chicago as part of the package for Chris Sale in December 2016.
Kopech refused to participate in the usual media session with reporters on Thursday, saying he would discuss the Red Sox after Friday’s outing, but White Sox manager Rick Renteria was happy to dissect the youngster’s arsenal of pitches. “Hopefully, he continues to develop, continues to command the zone,” Renteria told reporters. “It’s electric stuff. Hopefully, he’ll just continue to trust himself, which he is doing, and just enjoy being here. Know that he’s capable of doing what he’s doing because of this tremendous gift he has.” The Red Sox overcame a four-run deficit to post a 9-4 victory in Thursday’s series opener to stretch their lead over the New York Yankees in the American League East to 8 1/2 games. J.D. Martinez slugged his 39th homer – a three-run shot – to tie Oakland’s Khris Davis for the major-league lead.
Eovaldi has lost consecutive starts and is winless his last four after winning his first two outings for the Red Sox. The 28-year-old was rocked for six runs – five earned – and eight hits over four innings by Tampa Bay in his last turn. Eovaldi is 1-0 with a 3.52 ERA in two career appearances (one start) against the White Sox.
Kopech earned his first major-league victory in his last turn, when he gave up one run and seven hits over six innings against Detroit. The phenom made his debut on Aug. 21 against Minnesota and struck out four in two scoreless innings but did not return after a 52-minute rain delay. Kopech went 7-7 with a 3.70 ERA and 170 strikeouts over 126 1/3 innings in 24 starts at Triple-A Charlotte.
1. Red Sox RF Mookie Betts hit a two-run blast in the series opener and is 7-for-12 with five walks, two homers and six RBIs over his last four games.
2. Chicago LF Avisail Garcia, who is batting just .159 this month, homered and drove in three runs in the series opener.
3. Boston 2B Ian Kinsler recorded three hits on Thursday for his fifth multi-hit performance in seven contests.
NORTON – There’s been a century and a half of confused linguists who struggle with the terminology for something that occurs every two years. To that end, is a “biannual event” a gathering that occurs every two years or twice per year and why does it matter to golfers playing the Dell Technologies Championship this weekend?
The term matters to the PGA Tour fans who’ve planned their Labor Day weekends each and every year since 2003 and supported a championship-level golf event here at the Tournament Players Club – Boston, all while many New Englanders kiss their summertime good-bye. This year’s event will mark the end of Dell Technologies’ title sponsorship only a couple years after they took the reigns from the long-standing Deutsch Bank Championship that established pro golf in Boston back in 2003.
The sad reality to many of those fans, all reminiscing this weekend, professional golf Boston won’t be back in Boston until 2020.
Back in July, the PGA Tour announced some major changes to its schedule of events. The tour decided to cut down their annual FedEx Cup playoffs from four events to three, end the tour’s summer season in August (in advance of the TV ratings elephant-in-the-room start of the NFL regular season). In the carnage, Boston will sit-out the 2019 PGA Tour season but will host a first-round 2020 FedEx Cup playoff event with the Northern Trust Open alternating sites between Liberty National in the New York/New Jersey area and here at the TPC Boston.
Will Boston host a pro golf event biannually?
The wordsmiths at Merrium-Webster (since 1828) are no help at all. They claim “ambiguity” on the question and list both “every two years” and “twice a year” and offer up biennially as an alternate adjective.
“Well, at least we have a future,” said Tiger Woods before Thursday’s Pro-Am and practice rounds when charity-efforts like MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Boys & Girls clubs and a slew of other charitable causes bank some $28 million in donations from the PGA Tour’s efforts. “At least, we’re coming back,” he said.
That about summed it up, as local Boston media ran stories on Monahan and his original vision for the tournament and his unfounded doubts as to whether New Englanders would give-up their Labor Day weekend on The Cape to chase the likes of Woods and Phil Mickelson around a golf course located midway between Boston and Providence.
The four-day (Friday to Monday, here), 72-hole stroke play competition featuring the top 100 players on the complicated FedEx points list play for $9 million in prize money with $1,620,000 and a whopping 2,000 FedEx points going to the winner.
There are only a couple two-time winners, here at the TPC Boston, and they are the royal and ancient Vijay Singh (2004 and 2008) and Boston favorite Rory McIlroy (2012 and 2016), ye of Northern Ireland. McIlroy took a week off and passed on the opening round of the FedEx Cup playoffs in order to get a physical and mental break and put some good, old-fashioned work into his fading game.
“I’ve had some really good memories here in Boston,” said McIlroy as he prepared for a make-it-or-break-it Labor Day weekend, “two good wins that set me up for a win at the FedEx Cup (Tour Championship) which I was able to win in ’16.
McIlroy’s recent look-back and self-assessment claimed three strong rounds at Firestone Country Club (World Golf Championship – Bridgestone Invitational) back on August 2-5, then poor play at the PGA Championship in St. Louis.
“I took last week off to sort of work on my game and try to feel ready for the next three weeks,” said McIlroy, looking ahead to this weekend in Boston, next week just outside of Philadelphia and the Tour finale in Atlanta. “I feel like that went pretty well and I’m pleasantly surprised I didn’t drop more in the FedEx Cup (standings). I thought from No. 21, I was going to drop outside the top 30. I was able to hold my position pretty well and I’m in decent position.
McIlroy’s look back went all the way to 2005 when he decided to leave school to concentrate on golf as a profession full-time. He also looked at video and worked on his game for more than four consecutive days for the first time since January. In doing so, he and his coach (Michael Bannon) spent more time analyzing the nuances of his swing and getting back to the mechanics and posture that bring him the most success.
That work, combined with his return to Irish-friendly Boston and a course that he enjoys playing, could bring a higher standing in FedEx Cup points and maybe even millions of dollars to McIlroy by Monday, even though he posted a mediocre (Even-71 – T-26th) and headed right into the clubhouse without a pitstop to the media area as he finished on the Par-71 golf course in Round one.
“Its my sort of golf course,”said McIlroy. “It’s familiar to me. It’s sort of tree-lined, it’s bent grass greens. It’s everything that I feel like I do well.
Going forward, it might serve him well biannually or biennially, whichever you prefer.
W won’t know until Monday or until August, 2020 or maybe August, 2022.
CHICAGO – Jackie Bradley Jr. delivered the tiebreaking single in the ninth inning, and J.D. Martinez capped the five-run frame with a three-run home run as the Boston Red Sox notched a 9-4 triumph over the host Chicago White Sox on Thursday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Mookie Betts smacked a tying two-run homer in the seventh, and Ian Kinsler went 3-for-4 with two runs scored as Boston overcame a four-run deficit to win its third straight game. Bradley had two RBIs, and Andrew Benintendi and Blake Swihart each had run-scoring singles for the Red Sox.
Avisail Garcia homered and had three RBIs for the White Sox, who lost for just the second time in their past seven contests. Yolmer Sanchez went 3-for-5.
Right-hander Ryan Brasier (1-0) worked a flawless eighth inning for his first major league win.
The ninth-inning uprising began with one out when Kinsler singled and Swihart walked against White Sox right-hander Thyago Vieira (1-1). Bradley came up and lined the go-ahead single to right to score Kinsler.
Betts struck out for the second out before Benintendi followed with a run-scoring single to center to give the Red Sox a 6-4 edge. Martinez then put the game away by driving a 2-1 fastball over the fence in right-center field for his 39th homer of the season to make it a five-run margin.
White Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito left with a 4-0 lead in the seventh after walking Brock Holt with one out. He struck out eight and allowed two hits and two walks over 6 1/3 innings.
Right-hander Jeanmar Gomez entered and allowed a line single to Kinsler. Swihart followed with a ground single to center to score Holt with the lone run charged to Giolito.
Bradley hit a sacrifice fly to pull Boston within 4-2 before Betts drilled a 1-1 sinker over the wall in left to knot the score at 4. The blast was Betts’ 29th of the season.
Boston right-hander Rick Porcello gave up four runs and eight hits over five innings. He struck out seven and walked three.
Chicago scored three runs in the first inning against Porcello. Nicky Delmonico drew a one-out walk, and Garcia followed by sending a 2-1 fastball over the fence in center field to make it 2-0.
Matt Davidson stroked a run-scoring single to center later in the inning.
The White Sox took a 4-0 lead in the second on Garcia’s sacrifice fly to center.