The U.S. Open is a month out, the Masters is three months out, and yet here we are at the Northern Trust, the first stop in the three-event FedEx Cup finals sequence. The top 125 in FedEx Cup points based on the 33-event regular season are eligible to tee it up in Boston this weekend.

Let’s go with Justin Thomas. He’s $2 million richer based on his substantial victory in the points race and he’s playing solid golf. As winner of three 2019-’20 PGA Tour titles, he led the Wyndham Rewards Top 10, thus the $2 million bonus. Smaller payoffs went to the next nine, down to $500,000 for 10th place. “Wyndham Rewards, it’s something that I tracked a lot more than I thought I would,” said Webb Simpson, who was third both in the regular season windup, the Wyndham Championship, and in the points race. “And I think other guys do as well. It’s a massive bonus they’re giving us for (being in the) top 10.”

Thomas had nine top-10 finishes in 15 starts. He won at the CJ Cup last fall, the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January, and the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational last month. The consistency is something he prided himself on. “I think that something I’ve gotten better at is managing my bad rounds and managing my emotions,” Thomas told pgatour.com recently.

Thomas ranks as a slight favorite to Rory McIlroy, who has been a summer disappointment but still ranks as no. 1 in the Hawley Ratings and third in the Official World Golf Ratings. In six events since the season re-started, McIlroy hasn’t done anything as dramatic as missing a cut, but he’s only been close once, 11th in the Travelers. TPC Boston is this year’s course for the Northern Trust, and it’s a course where McIlroy played well when the Dell Technologies Championship was here most of the century thru 2018. He won here in 2016 and 2012, with a top-10 tucked between those two.

Two weeks ago, in the week leading to the PGA, McIlroy told Joel Beall at golfdigest.com that nothing is wrong with his game. “I feel like I’ve played pretty well. I just haven’t got a lot out of my game,” McIlroy said. “Haven’t scored as well as I was doing before the lockdown. Wasn’t really efficient, or haven’t been efficient as I was back then. Short game hasn’t quite been as sharp.”

According to the Hawley course fit statistics, the stats most highly correlated with success on the course in its Dell days are driving distance and shots gained around the green. Driving accuracy correlates to a slightly lesser extent. Both Thomas and McIlroy are in the top quarter of the field in a statistical match-up of their games with those stats. A couple of longshots, Brian Stuard and Ryan Armour, lead in that analysis, with bigger names Simpson, Tyrrell Hatton, and Jon Rahm right behind them.

Jason Day comes into the event at the top of his game. His last four appearances have been top-10s at the PGA, FedEx, Memorial, and Workday. He has two top-10s on TPC Boston in the 2010s.

Another player who is looking strong is Daniel Berger, who has been touted at this website a couple of other times recently. His last three finishes have been a top-20 at the PGA and top-10s in the preceding two appearances. Also coming in hot are Collin Morikawa, winner of the PGA, and four players who have been weekend contenders recently – Harris English, Tony Finau, Brendan Todd, and Matthew Wolff.

Longshots who you might think about include Cameron Davis, in the top 20 last week and with three straight made cuts; Henrik Norlander, with six straight made cuts including a top-10 at the Memorial; Richy Werenski, whose first missed cut in seven events after the re-start was in the PGA; and Xinjun Zhang, who has missed six of the last eight cuts but the other two were 12th and 10th in the 3M and Memorial.

Notables who haven’t been playing up to their press clippings include McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, and Patrick Cantlay.

Pgatour.com was reporting Monday that all 125 eligibles are committed to play. Other past winners at this course who are in the field include Bryson DeChambeau, Rickie Fowler, Charley Hoffman, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Simpson, and Tiger Woods.

The field will be down to the top 70 for next week’s BMW Championship in Chicago, then 30 for the Tour Championship in Atlanta.