New Family on Horizon for GMAC

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Graeme McDowell will sit out the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston after becoming a father on Monday.

The Northern Irishman's wife Kristin underwent a planned cesarean and 35-year-old McDowell duly tweeted about his new arrival.

He wrote: "Thanks so much for all the well wishes. Mum and baby girl are happy and healthy. Happiest moment of my life hands down. #daddy #love."

Having completed his final round at the BMW Championship on Sunday, McDowell told the Golf Channel: "My caddie has been telling me all year 'You're not going to want to go to Boston', so I've decided to give myself the weekend off and just be with the family. Nice to be able to plan it that way."

By missing Friday's Deutsche Bank, McDowell will not be able to advance his current FedEx Cup standing of 40th, while he also has a Ryder Cup slot to protect on the world points list.

McDowell has also announced he is leaving Horizon Sports Managements at the end of the 2014 season to look after his own commercial affairs.

His compatriot Rory McIlroy left Horizon last year and remains in dispute with the company.

McDowell admitted before The Open that the row had "been a strain on our relationship" but insisted he would happily renew his Ryder Cup pairing with McIlroy at Gleneagles next month.

Explaining his own departure from Horizon, he said: "I am at a stage in my life where it feels right to move on to the next phase of my career - both in golf and business.

"I'm now involved with a growing number of exciting business ventures, many of which Horizon helped me establish, and as the landscape evolves so must I."

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Tiger and Rory on Mission

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Tiger Woods will take on Rory McIlroy in an 18-hole match-play exhibition in China next month.

The event will be held at Mission Hills' Blackstone Course on October 28 in Haikou, China.

In the first iteration of a McIlroy-Woods match in China last October, the Northern Irishman bested Tiger by a shot with a 67. They were No. 1 and No. 2 in the world at the time. Woods also received a reported $2 million appearance fee, while McIlroy earned $1 million. Details for this year were not released.

The rest of Woods' 2013 schedule includes playing this week's BMW Championship and next week's Tour Championship on the PGA Tour, then taking a week off before playing for the U.S. team in the Presidents Cup Oct. 3-6.

He's also slated to tee it up at the Turkish Airlines Open from Nov. 7-10 on the European Tour as well as the event he hosts, the Northwestern Mutual World Challenge, Dec. 5-8 in Thousand Oaks, California.

As for McIlroy, he's also playing this week outside Chicago and will play next week at East Lake if he gets inside the top 30 on the FedEx Cup points list. After that, he's expected to play in the WGC-HSBC Champions, which is an official PGA Tour event this year, from Oct. 31-Nov. 3 and then alongside Woods in Turkey.

McIlroy, who is currently 53rd in the European Tour's Race to Dubai standings, also plans to play in that tour's season-ending event, the DP World Tour Championship, if he can remain inside the top 60 in the standings.

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Rory Labours Through Boston Storm

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Rory McIlroy met the violent electrical storm which hit TPC Boston on Saturday forcing him to re-start his third round.

Yet instead of wallowing in another stroke of misfortune, McIlroy, 24, rebounded to play some of his best golf of the season, shooting a seven-under par 64 to sit eight under for the tournament

Already intensely frustrated by his failure to make any significant headway during the first 36 holes of his title defence at the Deutsche Bank Championship, the Holywood native then had a birdie wiped off by PGA Tour officials.

After scraping through the cut on the mark, one-under, McIlroy made an good start,picking up a birdie four at the long second. However, this effort was declared null and void when the storm swept in.

Play was halted for three hours, 29 minutes and with bad weather forecast, officials felt they'd no option but to re-start the third round from scratch if the tournament was to make its scheduled Monday finish.

The 76 survivors were redrawn in threeballs and sent off from two tees with preferred lies allowed on rain-softened fairways.

McIlroy had completed three holes in one-under when the hooter sounded. Yet those early morning efforts were wiped out and McIlroy had to start again at 10 when play eventually resumed.

After a birdie at the par-three 11th, the Ulsterman slumped to a double-bogey six at 14, where he blocked his tee shot deep into trouble and then missed from inside five feet for bogey.

But there were hugely encouraging signs as he then embarked on a splendid birdie blitz, landing six in his next eight holes before taking another at the seventh and his last hole.

No matter where they finish today in Boston, McIlroy and Graeme McDowell both will make the 70-man field at the third playoff, The BMW Championship.

McDowell was level with Tiger Woods on six-under after following up Saturday's bogey-free 66 with a third round 69. Tiger will retain his lead in the FedEx Cup race even if a one-over 73 left him and McDowell 13 off the pace set by third-round leader Sergio Garcia (-19).

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Rory Banks on Strong Finish

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Rory McIlroy is determined to finish a disappointing season with a flourish as he prepares for the defence of his Deutsche Bank Championship title.

The 24-year-old carded a pair of 67s over the weekend at TPC Boston last year to pip Louis Oosthuizen by a shot, and he then clinched the BMW Championship title six days later.

But he has yet to record a victory this season and is currently languishing at 36th in the FexExCup standings, and missing the cut in Boston could eliminate him from the final two events of the play-offs.

"These next few events are a good opportunity to get something good out of the season," said McIlroy, who has slipped from first to fourth in the world rankings.

The two-time major champion has at least shown an improvement in form over the last two months, finishing eighth at the PGA Championship and 19th at The Barclays last week, including a second round of 65.

"It feels much better," McIlroy said when asked to compare his game now to two months ago.

Control

"I've got the ball under control. I'm not as comfortable with my game as I was this time last year, but I'm in enough control that if I get on a nice run I can do well these next few events."

World No 1 and FedEx Cup leader Tiger Woods is set to compete in Boston despite the back injury which literally brought him to his knees in the final round last week.

Woods pulled out of a charity event organised by friend and former Stanford team-mate Notah Begay on Wednesday but was fit enough to take his place in the pre-tournament pro-am.

Ian Poulter needs a strong week in Boston to remain in the play-offs as he is currently 77th in the standings with only the top 70 advancing to the BMW Championship in Chicago.

The top 30 after that event will then play for the FedEx Cup and the $10m bonus in the Tour Championship in Atlanta the following week.

Just 28 players in this week's 100-strong field have already secured a place in the BMW Championship, leaving 42 places up for grabs.

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