2011 Barclays TV Schedule and Tournament Notes

THE 2011 BARCLAYS, THE FIRST EVENT of the FedEx Cup Playoffs is off to a weather-interrupted start at the Plainfield Country Club in Edison, New Jersey. With the rain-delayed first round still in progress, Harrison Frazar is the early leader at 7 under.

The tournament is expected to be threatened by Hurricane Irene as the storm moves up the Atlantic coastline this weekend. PGA Tour officials are mulling their options for completing the first leg of the playoffs. One is to play 36 holes on Saturday and award the trophy before Irene reaches New Jersey. Another option is to finish on Monday or Tuesday.


Purse: $8 million
Winner’s share: $1.35 million
Defending champion: Matt Kuchar (at right)

2011 Barclays Leaderboard

Field
Course
Tee times
Interviews
Tournament overview
Tournament news
Tour report
FedEx Cup guidebook


TV SCHEDULE

TV coverage of the 2011 Barclays is on Golf Channel and CBS.

Thursday, August 25
3-6 p.m. - Golf Channel

Friday, August 26
3-6 p.m. - Golf Channel

Saturday, August 27
1-2:30 p.m. - Golf Channel, 3-6 p.m. - CBS

Sunday, August 28
12-1:30 p.m. - Golf Channel, 2-6 p.m. - CBS

SIRIUS-XM broadcast times


−The Armchair Golfer

(Photo credit: Keith Allison, Flickr, Creative Commons license)

Let the FedEx Cup Playoffs Begin

THE FEDEX CUP PLAYOFFS get underway on Thursday with The Barclays at Plainfield Country Club in Edison, New Jersey. The four-event playoff series, which includes the Deutsche Bank Championship and BMW Championship, concludes in Atlanta with the Tour Championship.

After much criticism and formula tinkering, the FedEx Cup points race has slowly gained acceptance. No, it’s not the majors or the Ryder Cup. No, it can’t compete with football. But it’s far better than the days when everyone tuned out after the PGA Championship. With all that cash up for grabs, the top PGA Tour players surely welcome the playoffs and gladly play deep into the month of September. That’s good for core golf fans.

Above are PGATour.com’s top 10 shots from The Barclays. I remembered three of the shots. Four, actually. After seeing it again, I did recall Sergio Garcia’s putt in his 2008 playoff against Vijay Singh. Of course, I also remembered Vijay’s long one that he made on top of Sergio. And there was Matt Kuchar’s iron out of the rough to three feet. That was last year.

I think Heath Slocum got robbed, though. Slocum’s tournament-winning 20-footer in 2009—the biggest putt of his life and the one that beat Tiger Woods—is No. 6 on the list.

Really? Only No. 6?

That’s just wrong.

−The Armchair Golfer

Louis Oosthuizen Fires 67 With Eye Closed

ON SATURDAY MORNING IT seemed doubtful that Louis Oosthuizen would tee it up in the third round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship. The reigning British Open champion has been sick for a while. Last week he withdrew from the Honda Classic after the second round. Antibiotics had helped, but the infection had moved from his left eye to his right, which was swollen shut.

“It looked pretty bad,” Oosthuizen said at PGATour.com. “It was swollen badly and I couldn’t really see through it. I just iced it and got some eye drops put in.”

The eye felt OK an hour before his tee time, so the South African decided to start the round. But he also suspected he would hang it up after a few holes. “I just wanted to give myself a chance,” he said.

Putting five birdies on his card, Louis recorded a 31 on the opening nine. “The first seven holes I could have been seven under.” He took dead aim and didn’t worry about a thing, even though his right eye was swollen and watery, blurring his vision.

Oosthuizen got to 7 under on his round at the 16th before making a pair of closing bogeys to notch a 67. Still, not bad for a player whose right eye was described as a slit when he finished. Beware the ailing golfer.

Dustin Johnson (13 under) leads by two over Luke Donald, Hunter Mahan and Matt Kuchar heading into the final round at the Blue Monster.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Photo credit: Bob Stapleton, Flickr, Creative Commons license)

Matt Kuchar Displays Strong Grip on Vardon Trophy

THE VARDON TROPHY LOOKS like it’s a heavy rascal. But Matt Kuchar, shown above in a recent appearance on Golf Channel’s “Morning Drive” show, has a strong grip on the trophy and that ever-present Cheshire cat smile on his face. The Vardon Trophy is awarded to the PGA Tour player with the lowest adjusted scoring average, which happened to be Kuchar in 2010 with a mark of 69.43.

Harry Vardon, for whom the trophy was named, is famous on several counts. Vardon won the British Open a record six times and was twice victorious in the U.S. Open. Harry is also credited with the overlapping grip that’s favored by so many amateur and professional golfers. I thought of the famous Vardon grip as I took a close look at the trophy in the photo: two hands gripping a club and anchored to a slab of mahogany (or some other hardwood).

It’s early in the 2011 season, but Kuchar’s Vardon Trophy defense is off to a good start. He has three top 10s in his first three events, with a scoring average of 67.62. He is ranked 11th in FedEx Cup points and 13th in the Official World Golf Ranking.

And Kuchar is locked in a first-place tie with Phil Mickelson in the aw-shucks grin category.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Photo credit: Courtesy of Golf Channel)

Players Select Jim Furyk as 2010 POY

IN A VOTE BY PGA Tour players, Jim Furyk was awarded the 2010 PGA Tour Player of the Year. Others on the ballot included Matt Kuchar, Dustin Johnson, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson, but Furyk was the clear choice in my mind. Jim’s victory at the Tour Championship sealed the deal. He also walked off with the FedEx Cup and its $10 million bonus. His two other wins came at the Transitions Championship and Verizon Heritage.

“The year just keeps getting better is all I can say,” Furyk told reporters at the Chevron World Challenge in Thousand Oaks, California. “I’m not sure I want 2010 to end at this point.”

In a year defined by Tiger Woods’s free-fall off and on the golf course, the 40-year-old Furyk had the best season of his 18-year career to rise above other contenders for the tour’s largest pot of gold (FedEx Cup) and top award. No one—not even Furyk himself, I expect—could have seen it coming. No knock on Jim, but I wouldn’t expect him to win POY again. The Tiger vacuum created unexpected opportunities this season for Furyk and other veteran players and rising stars. What happens in 2011 is anyone’s guess.

Rickie Fowler won PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.

−The Armchair Golfer

Jim Furyk Snags PGA Player of the Year Award

CONGRATULATIONS TO JIM FURYK for winning the PGA Player of the Year, an award given by the PGA of America. Furyk earned 60 points under the PGA’s points system. Matt Kuchar and Steve Stricker each collected 50 points. Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson tallied 46 and 42 points, respectively.

Furyk ended a three-year drought when he won the Transitions Championship in March. That was just the beginning for the 40-year-old. He went on to capture the Verizon Heritage in April and the season-ending Tour Championship, making it his first three-win season in 18 years on the PGA Tour. He also won the FedEx Cup and its $10 million payoff. It was a career year for Furyk, and the player of the year award caps it off.

Kuchar won the Vardon Trophy, which is given to the player who has the lowest adjusted scoring average and has played a minimum of 60 rounds. Kuchar had a 69.61 scoring average. Stricker was a close second at 69.66.

In 2009, Tiger Woods won both the PGA Player of the Year Award and Vardon Trophy.

Ben Hogan won the inaugural PGA Player of the Year Award in 1948. Harry Cooper was the first recipient of the Vardon Trophy (named for British great Harry Vardon) in 1937.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: Keith Allison/Flickr)

Matt Kuchar Wins Ryder Cup (in Ping Pong)

APPARENTLY, MATT KUCHAR, a Ryder Cup rookie on the American side, is the man to beat in Ping Pong. Kuchar whipped everybody on both the U.S. and European teams, according to Melanie Hauser’s Quick 18 column at PGATour.com. Melanie quoted a Golfweek source:

Golfweek reports that the man of the Ryder Cup ping-pong matches was ... drumroll, please ... not one of the usual suspects. Not Tiger Woods. Not Phil Mickelson. It was Matt Kuchar. According to the magazine sources, Kuchar took Peter Hanson—and the team’s deep pockets—in a winner-take-all match. “The Euros had no idea just how great a player Matt Kuchar was,” said Golfweek’s source who was in the team room. “At one point, there were thousands of pounds on the table.”

Kuchar posted a 1-1-2 record in his first Ryder Cup. The Ping Pong victory wasn’t exactly a suitable consolation prize, but at least it sounds like Matt offset some of the week’s expenses.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: Dustin Baxter/Flickr)

Sea Island Mafia Invades McGladrey Classic

THE INAUGURAL MCGLADREY CLASSIC tees off on Thursday at the 7,055-yard par-70 Seaside Course at the Sea Island Resort in Sea Island, Georgia. This coastal golf community is also the known territory of the “Sea Island Mafia,” a a group of golf mobsters who will exert their local influence on the second event in the Fall Series.

They’ve been ID’d as follows: Davis Love III, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Jonathan Byrd and Chris Kirk. They’ve made this pleasant corner of Georgia’s Golden Coast their domain. Several of them are represented by an outfit called Crown Sports Management. Love is considered to be the Godfather. They are armed with clubs and dangerous on the golf course.

(Photo: Sea Island Godfather / Keith Allison, Flickr)

Actually, Love, a longtime Sea Island resident, is the host of this week’s event. (Love and others are known as the Sea Island Mafia. I didn’t make that up.)

“The St. Simons/Sea Island area has been home for Mark and me and our families for a long time, and we’re extremely happy to support the community that means so much to us,” Love said at Golf360.

One by one, several of Love’s peers migrated to Sea Island.

Wrote Stan Awtry at PGATOUR.COM: “...many of the TOUR’s best players make their home, or second home, at Sea Island—partially because it’s a nice place to live and partially because of the unequalled practice facilities at the Sea Island Learning Center.”

Three of them—Love, Johnson and Kuchar—hustled home from the Ryder Cup to participate. One thing’s certain. Sea Island will be a much more friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

−The Armchair Golfer

Strange Grass Patterns Detected at Tour Championship

MATT KUCHAR WAS THE FIRST to see them as he was walking to the 2nd hole, a 214-yard par 3. Then Martin Laird, Charley Hoffman and Paul Casey. By the end of the first round, nearly all 30 players in the field of the season-ending Tour Championship reported sightings of a bizarre grass pattern at East Lake Golf Club, sort of golf’s version of crop circles.

Oddly, no one besides the players noticed anything unusual about the East Lake turf, a combination of zoysiagrass fairways and bentgrass greens.

The grounds crew had no explanation.

“The course is certainly in pristine condition,” said a supervisor, “but otherwise everything is normal, including mowing patterns.”

(Image at left is simulated based on players’ descriptions.)

Aerial photography also failed to reveal any unusual phenomenon.

“If I had been staring at the ground since the Sony Open, I would probably be seeing things, too,” offered a spectator.

−The Armchair Golfer

2010 Deutsche Bank Championship TV Schedule and Tournament Notes

THE 2010 DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP starts Friday at TPC Boston in Norton, Massachusetts. Matt Kuchar, last week’s winner at The Barclays, leads the FedEx Cup playoffs points race.

Purse: $7.5 million
Winner’s share: $1.35 million
Defending champion: Steve Stricker


The field
Tee times
The course
Video
Tournament news
2010 playoffs primer


2010 Deutsche Bank Championship Leaderboard


TV SCHEDULE

Thirteen hours of TV coverage are scheduled for the 2010 Deutsche Bank Championship.

Friday, Sept. 3
3-6 p.m. (GOLF)

Saturday, Sept. 4
3-6 p.m. (GOLF)

Sunday, Sept. 5
3-6 p.m. (NBC)

Monday, Sept. 6
2-6 p.m. (NBC)

PGA Tour radio coverage

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: Keith Allison/Flickr)