Dennis Paulson - September 3, 2012

• By Morning Drive Team
• Sep 3, 2012 10:39 AM ET

SiriusXM PGA TOUR Network Analyst Dennis Paulson is at TPC Boston for the Deutsche Bank Championship. He has followed Louis Oosthuizen a lot this week and what is amazing about his game is that he seems to be doing everything well. The one question that remains is if he will be able to follow his 2010 Open Championship win with a big FedExCup Playoff event win in the United States. He is only about 5’ 8” but he hits the ball a very long way and he is also very straight off the tee.

Phil Mickelson seems to feel very comfortable with his claw-like putting grip and Paulson expects that Phil will be using the grip at the Ryder Cup. Mickelson said that he has added some weight to his putter and he is performing quite well with the exception of a couple of missed putts on the 18th hole. This week, Phil seems very engaged on the course and very happy to be out there.

Paulson expects there to be a number of rounds of 64 or 65 in part because the conditions are perfect but he does not anticipate a round of 62 because the course will be playing harder today than it did on Sunday because some tees will be back and the pins will be placed in more difficult positions.

A number of PGA TOUR players agree with Luke Donald about Gil Hanse’s redesign of the 18th green. Those players understand the desire to put an extra emphasis on the second shot approach but because the green has been raised, good shots to the green are being penalized and Donald alluded to that when he said he hit his best shot of the day on Sunday to the 18th green but walked away with bogey.

Players like Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson will have to play the first four holes in at least 2 under par if they are going to have any chance to make a move to pass Louis Oosthuizen on the leaderboard. The front nine is playing much easier than the back nine and players more than any other day have to take advantage of scoring opportunities before they begin playing holes that are much more difficult during the final round.