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TSN Senior Reporter

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Questions, so many questions, about the FedEx Cup.

Bob, The Answer Man, is here to try and sort you through the next three weeks of PGA Tour playoffs.

How many players are in and how many advance?

The field this week is 124. One player who could play, Louis Oosthuizen, is out due to a sore neck. He will rejoin the battle at next week’s event. The low 70 golfers will advance to the BMW Championship and the low 30 make it to the Tour Championship.

How much money is at stake?

There is $60 million in the prize pool with the FedEx Cup winner earning $15,000.

What about the rest of the field?

There’s a sliding scale of prize money but everyone gets a cut. The player who ends up 125th after this week will take home $101,000. Even the guys who didn’t make the playoffs – those who were 126-150 on the points list – get a $70,000 consolation gift.

Are there cuts in these tournaments?

This week’s event, the Northern Trust, will be cut to the low 65 and ties. The BMW Championship and the Tour Championship do not have cuts.

How are the points awarded?

The points players earned during the regular season carry over to the playoffs. In the playoffs, however, the point values quadruple. So, a win in the regular season was worth 500 and this week, it’s 2,000. That means the potential for lots of movement.

Do they still have that odd scoring for the Tour Championship?

Yes, they call it Starting Strokes. The leader after the first two events starts the finale at 10 under. The second-place golfer begins at eight under and so on until the 26th to 30th players who will tee off at even par. It was instituted in 2019 to ensure the winner on the last day captured both the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup.

How many Canadians are in it?

Four: Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes, Roger Sloan and Adam Hadwin.

What are their chances?

Conners, who is 28th in the standings, is guaranteed to move on to the second event. Hughes, at 67, needs a solid week to maintain his position inside the top 70. Sloan and Hadwin are 92nd and 96th respectively and need big weeks. They both played well at the last stop with Sloan in a tie for second and Hadwin finishing tied for 10th. Hadwin has advanced to the second round of the last four years.

How much can a player move up the list?

In 2009, Heath Slocum entered the playoffs in 124th spot and won the first event, the Barclays. He finished the season in 11th spot. Billy Horschel made the most memorable leap. He started in 69th spot and promptly missed the cut in the first of what was then four events. He was 82nd the second week and finished that tournament in second spot, then followed up by winning both the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship to take the FedEx Cup. Big things can happen if a player finds the groove.

What about the course?

Liberty National is in New Jersey just metres away from the Statue of Liberty. It was previously a popular dumping ground for First World War ammunitions and corroded oil tanks and was also an operations site for the Gambino organized crime family. Tom Kite and Bob Cupp designed the layout, which was no easy task. Tens of thousands of truckloads of sand and soil were brought in to create some movement in the land that was previously dead flat. Over the years, greens have been smoothed out and fairways widened to provide a fair test. It’s been the site of previous playoff events and the 2017 Presidents Cup. Patrick Reed won the last Northern Trust event here in 2019 and the Americans captured the Presidents Cup.

Where can we watch?

Third-round coverage is on TSN4 and CTV2 starting at 3 p.m. EDT on Saturday. Sunday’s fourth-round coverage begins at 2 p.m. EDT on TSN3 and CTV2. The first two rounds will be on Golf Channel.