Jon Rahm shoots 8-under 64 | Round 1 | BMW Championship | 2021

Tiger Woods in the Hunt;TS Isaac Getting Near

It was a sunny day at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale,New York as Tropical Storm Isaac drew closer to South Florida,darkening skies at Key West,the southernmost tip of the United States.Sergio Garcia of Spain and America's Nick Watney shared the lead of The Barclays,the first of the four PGA Tour Playoffs  for the FedEx Cup,at the difficult and classic public golf course,part of Bethpage State Park on Long Island.
Each of the park's five courses has a color for a name.Bethpage Black was designed in the 1930s and features numerous huge bunkers with amoeba shapes.The greens of the lengthy course were drying fast,making them firm and bouncy.Garcia and Watney managed the tough old course better than most,ending the second round at eight under par.Tiger Woods finished just three strokes back at -5.American Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland just made the cut with even par,eight strokes back.
Snoopy 1,the famous MetLife blimp,provided views of the eccentric bunkers,which reach an extreme at the eighteenth hole,flanking it with their surreal menace.Garcia was coming off last week's victory at the Wyndham Championship with a lot of momentum,while Watney had been having a nondescript season so far.
Down in Florida,tropical storm conditions are expected for Monday and Tuesday.Coastal bay flooding may be a threat on Tuesday and Wednesday,with hurricane conditions possible.A Tropical Storm Warning and a Hurricane Watch have been posted for South Florida.It was already raining heavily in Miami at an NFL preseason game between the Miami Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons.The Falcons beat the Dolphins 23-6.
TS Isaac is currently blowing at 70 mph,moving NW at 14 mph and will soon cross Haiti,then go back over open water before crossing Cuba.It could be a category 1 hurricane by Monday evening.Heavily affected areas could range from Mississippi to Georgia.Category 1 is the weakest hurricane.On the twentieth anniversary of mighty Hurricane Andrew,TS Isaac bears scant resemblance to the devastating hurricane.
Barclays(BCS),MetLife(MET)
Update:At Bethpage Black,Sergio Garcia took sole possession of the lead of The Barclays,finishing round 3 at ten under par.Nick Watney was in second place on the leader board at -8,while Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were in 10th place with their four under par.Mickelson had improved from his even par second round by shooting a fine 67 on Saturday.
Tropical Storm Isaac ravaged Haitian refugee camps,killing at least seven people,and shifted a bit westward.About 10,000 people in the Dominican Republic were dispaced when 724 homes were damaged.At last check,it was a 60 mph storm,moving NW at 17mph.It is expected to cross close to Key West,so the Key West High School shelter is filling up. By Sunday evening,it will be a category 1 hurricane,with at least 75 mph winds,as it traverses the Gulf of Mexico.Landfall will be Tuesday evening at a minimum of category 2,with at least 105 mph winds,somewhere between Mississippi and Alabama on the Gulf Coast,according to the latest forecast model.

Matteson Leads Deutsche Bank Championship

American golfer Troy Matteson leads the Deutsche Bank Championship after the first round on Friday.Matteson,31,shot an excellent six under par 65 as the second leg of the PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup got underway near Boston.Dustin Johnson won the first leg last weekend,The Barclays.
Finishing second on the leader board Friday were American Jerry Kelly;South Korean Y.E. Yang;England's Luke Donald,the world number one;and South African Charl Schwartzel.These all shot a five under par 66.
Matteson,the leader,is a product of Georgia Tech.This year,he has two top ten finishes on the PGA Tour to his credit.His earnings amount to 916,012 dollars so far,ranking him 91 on the money list.
Unlike Matteson,the market had a poor Friday and a negative week,hindered by a flat jobs report and renewed European debt concerns.The S&P 500 Index was down 2.48 for the week.
Stock futures were decidedly negative Friday evening,suggesting a rough opening on Tuesday after the Labor Day holiday.The S&P futures plummeted 32.0,while the longer bond index futures climbed.Gold futures rocketed to 1876.90 an ounce,but oil fell to 86.45 a barrel on recession fears.

Market Ends Skid;Irene Pesters Sports

The stock market logged its first positive week in over a month as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke left open the possibility of aiding the market more if need be.Mr.Bernanke announced that the Fed would lengthen its September meeting by a day to discuss the situation.The Fed had more in its toolbox and would use it when appropriate,Mr.Bernanke reassured at the Fed's annual conference in Jackson Hole,Wyoming.
For the week,the Dow climbed 4.32,while the NASDAQ rose 5.89 and the S&P gained 4.74.On the year,the S&P has lost 6.43.
Hurricane Irene claimed its first victim Friday,drowning a 22-year old surfer off Croyden Beach on the Virginia coast.In another tragic incident,a North Carolina man was walking in his yard Saturday morning when a big tree limb crashed down on him in winds up to 63mph-another death that is being attributed to the massive weather system,and believed to be the first Irene fatality on land.The storm also disrupted a number of sporting events as Major League baseball canceled some games and rescheduled others to avoid it.The PGA followed suit by shortening The Barclays tournament to 54 holes.Held at the Plainfield Country Club in Edison,New Jersey this year,the leader board was topped by American Matt Kuchar on Friday,who shot a second round fourteen under par 65.At the CN Canadian Women's Open in Montreal,American Angela Stanford and Japan's Ai Miyazato shared the lead at -11.At the Champions Tour Boeing Classic in Washington state,the opening round standings were as follows:1.Russ Cochran;2.Jeff Sluman;3.Ted Shulz,Hale Irwin and Bernhard Langer.All are Americans except for Langer,the esteemed German pro.
The NYSE plans to resume trading on Monday as scheduled.Stocks will be influenced by a number of reports next week,including the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index;the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing survey;and the monthly employment report on Friday.The S&P futures rallied a strong 18.50 Friday evening,and bond index futures were up as well.

Market Settles Down;Tiger Doesn't

The stock market enjoyed its second straight rally Friday,allowing the S&P 500 Index to post a modest loss of 1.7 for the week,while the Dow dropped 1.5 and the NASDAQ 1.0,respectively.For the year,however,the S&P has lost a more serious 6.27,and the CBOE VIX Volatility Index is up an astonishing 104.85.
Indeed,2 trillion dollars of wealth has been lost so far this month.All the same,Friday's trading volume was considerably more normal at about 1.2 billion shares versus around 3 billion shares earlier in the week.Some portfolios were able to return to the black after the two good days in a row.
The S&P futures gained 8.30 Friday evening,hinting at a positive Monday opening.Oil futures were down 0.34 to 85.38 a barrel,while gold futures dropped 8.90 to 1742.60 an ounce.Bond index futures were mostly higher.
At the PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club,Tiger Woods failed to make the cut for that event for the first time in his career,along with Graeme McDowell,Martin Kaymer and Darren Clarke,among other notable golfers who couldn't handle the course.His weekend,and indeed his season,is over.The PGA Tour Playoffs will begin in a few weeks' time for those who do qualify.

A Ruffled Remembrance

On the eve of 9-11,patterns change.The memories flood back in.This year,there's a backdrop of stupidity,a possible provocation that could burden our service members with even more danger.The prayer must be that it doesn't take place.
At Cog Hill,just outside of Chicago,American Matt Kuchar shares the lead of the BMW Championship with Korean Charley Wi at six under par.Australian Marc Leishman is third at -5.In the LPGA,Morgan Pressel heads the leaderboard at the NW Arkansas Championship,shooting a 66 for -5.In baseball,Baltimore was over Detroit 6-3 at Comerica Park.
Skip the money numbers.It was made modestly in the market this week.The futures say that will continue on Monday.

Hurricane Earl Leaves Off

Hurricane Earl was moving Northeast at 23 mph tonight,not impressing many people very much.It's really little more than a few inches of rain and some gales-at worst.Unfortunately,a number of other tropical systems are forming off West Africa,so the next few weeks could be replete with worries for the East and Gulf coasts.The Labor Day weekend is proceeding pretty normally,although Amtrak train service was cancelled between New York and Boston and the White Sox/Red Sox baseball matchup was canceled in Boston.
The second leg of the PGA Tour Playoffs,the Deutcshe Bank Championship,began in Norton,Massachusetts as scheduled,though Hurricane Earl poured on the afternoon starters.Australian Jason Day and American Zach Johnson shared the first round lead,shooting -8 63s.Eight players were tied for second at -7 64.Tiger Woods was well back with his +1 72.Phil Mickelson did slightly better with his two under par.
The market was substantially up this week,with the Dow gaining 2.9,the S&P 3.8 and the NASDAQ 3.7%.There will be little economic data next week for the market to react to,but a lot of traders will be back from vacation,perhaps lending more volume to any reactions to developments that may occur in mergers and acquisitions,politics or other news.Stock futures continued the optimism this evening,all rising between one and two percent.Bond futures also gained.