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It’s almost becoming just their regular group — Rory and Brooks; Brooks and Rory.
Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy, both four-time major champions, are paired together for the first two rounds of The Northern Trust at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City this week, which will make it five of the past six rounds on the PGA Tour the two long-bombers have played together. Koepka and McIlroy are also ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the FedEx Cup standings, respectively, going into this first leg of the three-tournament playoff schedule.
Koepka is on the path to defending his title as PGA Tour Player of the Year, having won the PGA Championship in May at Bethpage Black on Long Island. It was his second straight PGA Championship after he also won back-to-back U.S. Opens in 2017 and 2018. In the four majors this season, the man known for playing his best in the biggest tournaments had the one win, two second-place finishes and one fourth.
McIlroy, meanwhile, hasn’t won a major since the 2014 PGA Championship, having won his four in a span of four years. He went a full calendar year without a victory on the PGA Tour, from the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill until this year’s Players Championship in mid-March. He then added a second win, at the Canadian Open in early June. McIlroy’s practice was delayed Tuesday due to brief bad weather coming through.
The threesome is rounded out by Matt Kuchar, with an 8:16 a.m. tee time off the 10th tee for Thursday’s first round.
Tiger Woods got onto the practice range Tuesday just before the horn sounded because of nearby lightning, thus delaying his day, which had been set to include nine holes. Woods, who won last year’s final tournament of the “postseason” at the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta, is set to play the first round with Scott Piercy and last week’s winner in Greensboro, N.C., J.T. Poston.
That drew a funny tweet from Poston’s caddie, Aaron Flener, who took a picture of the pairing sheet and wrote, “I’m having a little trouble breathing right now.”
The field had 121 of the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings, missing Sam Burns (ankle injury), Rafa Cabrera Bello (expecting birth of first child), Paul Casey (chose not to play) and Henrik Stenson (chose not to play).
In the field are all of the top 18 players in the World Rankings, as well as 40 of the top 50.
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