The Barclays Golf Tournament at Liberty National GC, Jersey City, New Jersey

The FedEx Championships start this week with the first event of the four being The Barclays at Liberty National GC in New Jersey. This event has the top 125 players in the FedEx rankings all competing to be the one golfer left who will walk away with the $10 million prize pot. It is the 7th edition of these 4 knockout championships and as usual they seem to be getting better and better with each year that passes. Tiger Woods, but who else, won the first one back in 2007 and again in 2009 with Vijay Singh being the only non-American to lift the $10million prize in 2008. Jim Furyk won in 2010, Bill Haas in 2011, with Brandt Snedeker winning last year to complete the list of winners...

Of the previous winners only Haas and Snedeker entered the four events outside the Top 10 in the rankings, something that has been good for the tournaments, as it keeps the top names in for all 4 events. Some of the golfers would take a week off if they knew they would qualify for the next tournament, so the organisers tightened up the points scoring system so that you have to play in all 4 events if you want to win the top prize money of £10m…


So what about the course…? Well it’s a coastal course not to dissimilar to a links course that we would have over here. A par 71 and standing you at 7,353 yards, it has wider fairways than the last visit, and less undulating greens. A score of -9 won the last time here and i wouldn't think that it would be much different this year. It's still going to be a real test for the golfers who do play it, and so the usual standards of hitting fairways and greens then putting well should see the winner come out on top. It is still very open to the elements and the wind will make the course play very tough indeed...

This is the 2nd visit here since 2009 where Heath Slocum beat four players by one shot to claim The Barclays title. He did so on a course that was heavily criticised for the rough being too deep to get out of, and greens that were very hard to play on. Since then the course has seen some new developments to it and it seems to have quietened the crowd a bit...

Please, please click on the link below and see the course through the pictures, it really looks a great course. Especially with the back drop of the Manhattan skyline, Statue Of Liberty and the wild sky above you, it truly is a beautiful course…

http://www.libertynationalgc.com/


The Clubhouse is spectacular by its self, but then again if you are going to spend over £250 million on something, it better be good…!!!



So who can prevail here in New Jersey and claim The Barclays title…? Well, the last Tour event here is the only tour event this course has held since the course was designed and set up in 2006. And that was the 2009 Barclays Championship where Heath Slocum won, so we don’t have a lot to go on with players having a great record on this track. The closest I can think of that would match this course would be Kiawah Island with its rolling fairways, large bunkers and big undulating greens. Back in 2009 only 24 broke par for their 4 rounds with Slocum's winning score being -9. Of those players who finished under par and inside the Top 10, Els, Woods, Watney, Jacobsen, Simpson and Poulter return to play again. But again, this isn’t much to go on as it’s been 4 years since that Tour event and so we must go off the current form and whether he can play a links style course…


So with this in mind...


Dustin Johnson shot a final round score of 62, -8 under, back in 2009 so he may well have good memories of this course. He also seems to do well in the 4 FedEx championships. He finished 3rd last year at Bethpage, he won the 2011 Barclays at Plainfield Country club, which has a similar set up to here plus T9th in 2010. He sits 16th in the Fedex Rankings and has had 5 Top 10’s with a T8th at last week’s PGA…

Webb Simpson isn’t one who I call on much when it comes to betting but if a man is playing well you have to take notice. He shot a final round score of 63, -7 under par last week to finish T11th, where he had a total of 23 putts in that round. He probably hasn’t had the season he would have liked with only a 2nd place finish the best he has achieved this year. But he has won one of these FedEx final four events, doing so back in 2011 when beating Chez Reavie in a play-off. He sits 17th in the FedEx rankings…

Matt Jones got me a little return last week when he shot the best score in the last round of the Wyndham classic, a 62, -8 under par. So he is in form, and I would like him to carry on playing that way for another week at least. He currently sits at 37th in the FedEx and has good all-round stats to his name full stop. He sits at 7th for Total Driving, 9th for Scrambling and a whole host of numbers inside the top 50 of the rankings. It is a bit of 'once more to the well' with me, but hey, strike when the iron is hot they say…

Kevin Streelman sits 13th in the Fedex rankings and yet dos not feature inside the top 50 in the betting market. Took last week off after his T11th place finish in the US PGA and hopefully that will give him time to prepare for this FedEx onslaught. He is no stranger to doing well in these events as a 3rd place finish back in 2010 shows us. The season has been good to him with winning his very first PGA title back in March, in the Tampa Bay championship, plus following that win up with a 2nd, 3rd and 5 top 10’s to his name…



Dustin Johnson @ 28/1…
Webb Simpson @ 35/1…
Matt Jones @ 125/1…
Kevin Streelman @ 125/1…
All done in the usual £2.5 e/w… PadPow pays ¼ odds top 6… Good luck…

 

Dusty is in to 22/1...
Webb is now into 25/1...
Matt Jones clipped into 100/1...
Streelman still at 125/1...

Moving markets again...

 

Nice write up again Red -

After an agonising play off defeat to rob me of £300 + last weekend, i'll try my luck again this weekend, courtesy of the £70 i returned from Spieths 2nd placing!

Jordan Spieth - 50/1 - How can i possibly leave out the person who has made me the most money this season?

Keegan Bradley - 33/1 - Signs of the old Keegan in the last few tournaments he has played, hoping for some more of the same

Bubba Watson - 66/1 - I still think Bubba has a big win in him this year, even though it hasnt been the greatest season for this former major winner.

Geoff Ogilvy - 200/1 - I dont need to say anything about Geoff other than i wonder if he will donate all these £3 e/w bets i am putting on him? haha


I also have Thongchai Jaidee at 60/1, Peter Uilhein 50/1 and Gregory Bourdy 45/1 in the Jonny Walker C'Ship for some interest in that

 

Scores as they stand after the 1st round was stopped for bad weather...

Leader - Kevin Stadler @ -7

T14 - Geoff Ogilvy............ -3
T25 - Webb Simpson......... -2
T25 - Bubba Watson......... -2
T41 - Matt Jones............. -1
T41 - Kevin Streelman....... -1
T41 - Keegan Bradley........ -1
T41 - Jordan Spieth.......... -1
T61 - Dustin Johnson......... E

Those highlighted have completed the 1st round...

The bad weather obviously helped some and hindered others yesterday as the local lightening strikes put paid to the 1st round of The Barclays. No disrespect to some of the leaders but the coarse must have been just like target practice as we see Stadler, Villegas and Nicholas Thompson in the top 10 at the moment. But this is what can happen on the Tour, so we can only hope that some of our picks get a favourable day today. Most of our picks have only played 6 holes so far, so there is time to get nearer to the top of the leaderboard yet...

 

Quick mention about Jordan Spieth from yesterdays round. At one he was +3 and looking rather untidy. Got his act together on his back 9 and ended up with an under par round.

Will need to go low today to trouble the leaders however

 

Yeah, good call Smokin... Plus Westy was +5 at one stage in his first round and has managed to somehow get it to -2, so it can be done... Plus there are a few of them that are scoring low with these dampish conditions... Its just a shoot out for some of em...

 

Leaderboard after most of the 2nd round has been completed...

Leader - Matt Kuchar @ -10

T2 - Webb Simpson............. -9
T4 - Keegan Bradley.......... -7
T24 - Kevin Streelman......... -4
T24 - Bubba Watson........... -4
T30 - Matt Jones................ -3
T42 - Geoff Ogilvy............... -2
T42 - Jordan Spieth............. -2
T79 - Dustin Johnson........... +1

Those highlighted have completed the 2nd round...

Matt Kuchar leads the way with an impressive performance to be -10 under with 4 holes left to play in the 2nd round. Earlier in the day Webb Simpson shot -5 under to lead the golfers but didnt shoot the lowest score. That was left to Keegan Bradley who shot a 63, -8 under par score to propel himself right up the leaderboard and well in contention for the last 2 days...

Lets hope for a bit more from our picks Smokin as most of them have a chance if the conditions stay the same, and one of them gets hot with his putter...

 

Leaderboard after the 3rd round...

Leaders - Matt Kuchar & Gary Woodland @ -12

T6 - Kevin Streelman......... -7
T6 - Bubba Watson........... -7
T6 - Jordan Spieth............ -7
T13 - Webb Simpson......... -6
T26 - Keegan Bradley........ -4
T40 - Matt Jones............. -2
T69 - Geoff Ogilvy............ +5

It looks like we are going to have a right ding dong to find out who wins this years Barclays as i would say anyone within the top 12 players could do so. You only have to look at what Kevin Chappell did yesterday shooting a 62, -9 under par score for his round. So you would have to say that anyone with in 5 shots has a chance. Kuchar still looks very good at the top but we have 3 players sat at 6th position, so we have a chance of getting something back... Good luck Smokin, fingers crossed one of us has a good un...

 

Fingers crossed we at least grab some place money each!

I think Tiger has looked poor this week at times yet still only 4 off the lead....that doesn't bode well for the leaders..a looming tiger is always a danger!

As for Keegan..what a crap round just after a 63...typical

 

Winner of the Barclays event is Adam Scott... Someone who has just slipped under the radar of my beady eye to take the 1st of the 4 play-off finals...

Got to give him credit for shooting a -5 under par last round to post an early clubhouse lead that no one could get to or better...

As for our picks, well lets just say that they completed their rounds...

Winner - Adam Scott @ -11

T13 - Bubba Watson.......... -7
T15 - Webb Simpson.......... -6
T19 - Kevin Streelman........ -5
T19 - Jordan Spieth........... -5
T33 - Matt Jones.............. -3
T33 - Keegan Bradley......... -3
65 - Geoff Ogilvy............... +5

Ans so onto the Deutsche Bank Championship this week...

 

Least i wont be wasting money on Geoff next week hahahah