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Published February 05, 2015
Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - PGA TOUR - DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP, TPC Boston, Norton, Massachusetts - The PGA Tour is in Massachusetts this week for the Deutsche Bank Championship, which gets underway on Friday and ends on Labor Day.
Henrik Stenson was coming off a hot stretch last summer in which he took second at the Open Championship, shared second at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and finished third at the PGA Championship.
As hot as that run was, it was just a foreshadowing of what was to come. Stenson fired four rounds in the 60s at the TPC Boston to beat Steve Stricker by two strokes.
If that wasn't enough, Stenson went on to win the Tour Championship and the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai; which was the season-finale on the European Tour. With those wins, he won the PGA Tour's FedExCup and the European Tour's Race to Dubai.
It was a lucrative year for Stenson, who has yet to win this season. He made the cut in all four majors and shared fourth at the Open Championship and tied for third at the PGA Championship.
The field was scaled back to the top 100 in the FedExCup standings after last week's Barclays tournament. However, only 94 players are scheduled to play with Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell and Paul Casey among those skipping the event.
Rose is taking the week off for family reasons and Garcia has said he wasn't going to play all four FedExCup playoff events. McDowell's wife gave birth to their first child on Monday, while Casey's fiancee is due to give birth next Monday.
Hunter Mahan is coming off a victory at The Barclays, which helped him move from 62nd to first in the FedExCup standings.
Golf Channel will cover Friday and Saturday's action, then have early coverage on Sunday and Monday before handing off to NBC for the conclusion of those two rounds.
There is no rest for the weary as the tour heads to Colorado next week for the BMW Championship. Zach Johnson fired a 65 in the final round last year at Conway Farms to rally for the win. He will defend his title at Cherry Hills Country Club, which has hosted seven major championships and two U.S. Amateur Championships.
EUROPEAN TOUR
ITALIAN OPEN, Circolo Golf Torino, Turin, Italy - The European Tour heads to Turin this week for the Italian Open, which is the final event for players to try to automatically qualify for the European Ryder Cup team.
That battle at Golf Club Torino will include Stephen Gallacher, who could earn a spot on the European Ryder Cup team with a two-way tie for second or better.
Julien Quesne closed with a 5-under 67 last year to fend off Steve Webster and David Higgins, who are all in the field this week.
The win for Quesne was his second on the European Tour. However, he has played just twice in the last seven events. He missed the cut at the Scottish Open and was disqualified from the Made in Denmark.
Also in the field this week are Rafael Cabrera-Bello, Marc Warren, Bernd Wiesberger, Ross Fisher and David Howell, who are among those trying to impress European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley in an attempt to earn one of his captains picks.
McGinley will make his picks at the conclusion of this event.
Golf Channel will have coverage of all four rounds.
The European Tour heads to Switzerland next week for the European Masters. Thomas Bjorn fired a 65 last year to match Craig Lee (67) at 20-under par. Bjorn then birdied the first playoff hole to earn his first win since 2011.
LPGA TOUR
PORTLAND CLASSIC, Columbia Edgewater Country Club, Portland, Oregon - The LPGA Tour moves to the west coast this week for the Portland Classic at Columbia Edgewater Country Club.
Suzann Pettersen overcame an early double-bogey last year to beat Stacy Lewis by two strokes and earn her 12th LPGA Tour title.
Pettersen added two more titles later last year, but is winless in 2014. She missed time with a back injury, which caused her to miss the Kraft Nabisco Championship.
She missed the cut at the U.S. Women's Open, but followed with a share of second at the Women's British and a tie for sixth at the LPGA Championship.
Pettersen has had five straight top-10 finishes including a share of seventh at last week's Canadian Pacific Women's Open.
The field has just 10 of the top 20 leading money winners this year, led by last week's winner So Yeon Ryu. Just seven of the top 20 players at the top of the world rankings are in Portland. Pettersen, the world No. 4, heads that small contingent.
A busy Golf Channel will have coverage all four rounds from Portland.
After a week off, Pettersen will again defend her title at the season's final major, the Evian Championship. Pettersen beat then amateur Lydia Ko by two strokes last year, when the championship was cut to three rounds because Thursday's play was completely washed out and the greens needed to be covered overnight prior to the final round to protect them from more rain.
CHAMPIONS TOUR
SHAW CHARITY CLASSIC, Canyon Meadows Golf & Country Club, Calgary, Alberta - The Champions Tour heads north of the border for the next two events. In the first year of the Shaw Charity Classic last year, Rocco Mediate blitzed the field en route to an easy 7-stroke win.
Mediate fired a 63 in the opening round to grab a 1-stroke lead. He followed with consecutive 64s to blow away the field. The victory was his second of the season and career on the Champions Tour.
The 51-year-old hasn't won since, and has only three top-10 finishes this season. The last of those top-10s was a share of sixth at the Tradition.
Mediate withdrew from the Senior PGA Championship, then shared 22nd and 26th at the Senior Players Championship and U.S. Senior Open respectively. He did not play the Senior British Open.
Bernhard Langer, who won the Senior Players Championship and Senior British Open earlier this year, will headline the field along with Tom Lehman, Mark O'Meara and Hale Irwin, the tour's all-time wins leader.
Golf Channel will have tape-delayed coverage of all three rounds.
The Champions Tour remains in Canada next week for the Quebec City Championship. Esteban Toledo birdied the third playoff hole to defeat Kenny Perry and win for the second time on the Champions Tour.
WEB.COM TOUR
HOTEL FITNESS CHAMPIONSHIP, Sycamore Hills Golf Club, Fort Wayne, Indiana - As it did last year, the Hotel Fitness Championship kicks off the Web.com Tour Finals.
This is the first of four events at the end of which 25 players will earn, or keep, their PGA Tour cards for the 2014-15 season. The top 75 from the Web.com Tour money list are eligible to play these events, as are the 75 players that finished Nos. 126-200 on the PGA Tour money list.
Last year, former Masters champion Trevor Immelman rallied from five strokes off the pace in the final round to win the title. He closed with a 66 to beat third-round leader Patrick Cantlay by one.
Immelman's exemption from winning the Masters ended in 2013, but this victory helped him keep his PGA Tour status for 2014. Immelman made the cut in just 13 of his 28 starts this season, and is heading back to this event to defend his title and to try to keep his tour card for next season.
Meanwhile, Cantlay was only able to make five starts as he recuperated from a broken vertebrae. He missed the cut in three of those five.
The field this week includes past PGA Tour winners Jonathan Byrd, Chad Campbell, Ben Curtis, Tim Herron, J.J. Henry, Sean O'Hair and John Rollins.
Golf Channel has live coverage all four days.
The Web.com Tour Finals continues next week in North Carolina with the Chiquita Classic. Andrew Svoboda parred the first playoff hole last year to beat Will Mackenzie for the title.
PGA TOUR CANADA
WILDFIRE INVITATIONAL, Wildfire Golf Club, Peterborough, Ontario - The PGA Tour Canada ends its three-event run in Ontario this week with The Wildfire Invitational.
After carding a pair of 65s in the second and third rounds last year, Mark Hubbard closed with a 66 to earn a 2-stroke win over Kyle Stough and Mackenzie Hughes. It was the first tour win for Hubbard.
Hubbard has five top-10 finishes on the Web.com Tour this season, including a runner-up finish at the United Leasing Championship, where he coughed up the third-round lead.
The field this week includes 18 of the top 20 leading money winners this season. There are just two events left after this. At the end of the season, the top five on the Order of Merit will earn their Web.com Tour cards for next season.
The tour heads to Nova Scotia next week for the Cape Breton Celtic Classic. Hughes fired a 66 in the final round last year to overtake David Skinns and Ryan Williams for the title.
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