The Barlays & 2010 PGA Tour Odds: Professional golf's version of the playoffs begin this week with the playing of The Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey. The top 125 players go into this tournament with a chance, theoretically, of winning the FedExCup. Which, by the way, is worth a cool $10 million. That field is then cut to 100 for next week's Deutsche Bank Championship, to 70 for the BMW Championship, and to 30 for The Tour Championship four weeks from now at East Lake in Atlanta.
Ernie Els has been leading the points race all summer, and enters this weekend with a 149-point advantage on second-place Steve Stricker. Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose, Jeff Overton, Hunter Mahan, Bubba Watson, and Matt Kuchar round out the top 10.
Heath Slocum won The Barclays last year, but that was played at Liberty National in Jersey City. Two years ago, at Ridgewood, Vijay Singh beat Sergio Garcia and Kevin Sutherland in a three-man playoff to win The Barclays. Ben Curtis, Mathew Goggin, and Kevin Streelman finished in a tie for fourth, one shot out of the playoff, and Paul Casey, Martin Laird, Justin Leonard, Nicholas Thompson, and Mike Weir tied for seventh, two shots back. In a very bunched field, 23 players shot between four-under and eight-under in that tournament.
As of Wednesday morning Sportsbook.com is listing Tiger Woods , who hasn't finished in the top 20 in any of the four tournaments he's played since the US Open, as a +1,000 tri- favorite on its wide-open Barclays betting board. Mickelson and Rory McIlroy are also at +1000, followed by Sticker at +1,200; Casey at +2,500; Els, Mahan, Kuchar, Padraig Harrington, and Dustin Johnson at +3,000; Watson, Retief Goosen, Zach Johnson, and Nick Watney at +4,000; Sean O'Hair and Camilo Villegas at +5,000; Leonard, Overton, Rose, and Bo Van Pelt at +6,000; Luke Donald, KJ Choi, and Adam Scott at +6,500; Stewart Cink at +7,000; Lucas Glover, JB Holmes, David Toms, Stuart Appleby, Tim Clark, Singh, and Brandt Snedeker at +8,000; Angel Cabrera and Geoff Ogilvy at +8,500; and “The Field,” consisting of the other 87 players teeing off Thursday, is being offered at +200.
Sportsbook is also offering player-vs.-player tournament matchup betting on The Barclays. Some of those offerings include Mickelson at +125 over Woods at +105; Dustin Johnson at -140 over Mahan at +120; and Kuchar at -135 over Goosen at +115.
The Golf Channel will provide live coverage of The Barclays on Thursday and Friday from 3-6 pm Eastern, and 1-2:30 Saturday and Sunday. CBS picks up the late coverage over the weekend, beginning at 3:00 both days.
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