Maximizing player rest and limiting travel demands were again part of the NBA's formula for the coming regular season. That's what the league indicated Thursday when announcing the schedule for 2023-24. Teams have an average of 14 instances of back-to-back games this season, up slightly from last year's rate of 13.3 per team. But back-to-backs involving travel are down to 9.0 on average. The rate of those last season was 9.6 per team. No team will play the day before or after high-profile national television games, such as Christmas matchups and all ABC weekend matchups.
Jon Rahm is the No. 1 seed in the FedEx Cup playoffs, which begin Thursday at the St. Jude Championship. That's not a good omen based on recent history. Only one player in the last 13 years has started the PGA Tour's postseason as the No. 1 seed and gone on to win the FedEx Cup. That was Jordan Spieth in 2015. Spieth had a big lead that year. Rahm does not. He's narrowly ahead of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. This is the first of three playoff events. Only the top 50 from the 70-man field advance to next week.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan doesn't have a lot of details to share with players on the proposed deal with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf. That's according to two of players attending his first meeting with players since Monahan returned to work three weeks ago. Rickie Fowler says there's a lot of moving parts. Tom Hoge says there's a real possibility the deal doesn't get finalized. Only 25 players from the 70-man field attended the 90-minute meeting. Several top players already have been involved in remote meetings from their position on the policy board or advisory council.