OB SPORTS GOLF & LEISURE
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FALL 2018
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obsports.com
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TOUR REPORT
The FedEx Cup
Playoffs
F
our events have been cut to three,
with the Boston tee party saying
adios. Not only will the final one,
the Tour Championship, avoid the
NFL clash, but having three instead
of four offers a greater guarantee that
the game's best will compete in each
of them, rather than skipping an early
event to rest.
....
RBC Canadian Open
O
nce considered golf's fifth major,
a prestigious national title that
dates to 1904, the long-downtrodden
Canadian moves to the week that pre-
cedes the U.S. Open. Set up the layout
to mimic U.S. Open conditions and
watch the stars come out.
....
Midwestern Markets
D
etroit and Minneapolis are new
homes to their first regular PGA
Tour events in years. The Rocket Mort-
gage Classic debuts at Detroit Golf
Club in late June, while the 3M Open
at TPC Twin Cities drops the senior
stars in favor of the young guns the
first week of July.
LOSERS
.............
Memphis
T
he city loses its pre-U.S. Open
June dates and gains a World Golf
Championships event, the WGC-
FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
Even one week after the British
Open, the WGC designation practi-
cally guarantees a field full of studs,
but fills July 22-28 on the calendar. Re-
member the scene in "Wizard of Oz,"
when the Wicked Witch of the West
cries, "Look what you've done! I'm
melting, melting!" You'll hear a lot of
that this week.
....
The PGA Championship and
traditional northeast venues
M
id-May isn't exactly ideal for
courses in the northeast and
upper Midwest. Barely out of spring,
with cool, damp conditions the norm
that time of year, it could be a gloomy,
muddy affair at Long Island's Beth-
page Black in 2019, at New Jersey's
Trump Bedminster in 2022 and espe-
cially at Rochester's Oak Hill in 2023.
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