Deutsche Bank Championship 2015: Tee times, pairings for Friday’s 1st round

In the nearly 12-month PGA Tour schedule, there is just one tournament with a scheduled Monday finish. There are, of course, often Monday finishes due to inclement weather hammering a tournament over the originally scheduled four days. But even on holiday weekends, the preferred finish is on Sunday night ... except for the Deutsche Bank Championship.

The annual stop in Boston has carved out this little Labor Day tradition, beginning the Deutsche Bank on Friday morning every year. It creates a void for the golf-hungry niche that expects tournament play Thursdays while they are at work, but it makes sense to wrap it around the holiday weekend here. There are sometimes schedule challenges for the next week with a quick turnaround for the third leg of the FedExCup, but the PGA Tour put the off-week in between this year.

In 2014, bad weather created the threat for a potential Tuesday finish with no off-week in between and the BMW all the way out in Denver. The Tour always tries to sandwich one off-week in during this four-event postseason, and the most sensical time is after Labor Day like this year. So there’s no real rush to fly out of Boston and off to the Midwest for the BMW this year.

With the Playoffs field cut from 125 to 100, this is one of the more manageable tee sheets logistically of the season. The PGA Tour will still send them in groups of three off two tees, but there’s a ton of room and flexibility if there are weather issues or slow play. There are just 33 threesomes spread out across the day beginning at 8:30 a.m., which is a late start for the first round on Tour (but again this is a limited group).

After five players opted out of last week’s opener for a variety of injuries or other reasons, there’s just one holdout this week from the top 100 -- Sergio Garcia. The Spaniard has passed on several postseason events before when he’s otherwise qualified. He’s given no real reason this time around and needs to make another start to fulfill the minimum requirement for membership status.

The marquee group remains the top 3 in the FedExCup standings. The order is shuffled a bit but the names remain the same. Jason Day, the new No. 1 in points, will tee off with Jordan Spieth and Bubba Watson at 9:30 a.m. ET. Rory McIlroy, the new No. 1 in the world and the third member of this ascendant so-called “Big 3” will be out two groups ahead of them at 9:06 a.m. ET. Here’s the full tee sheet for the opening round at TPC Boston: