At a glance: The Barclays opens the playoff race

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Jul. 22, 2008

Tournament: The Barclays
Tournament dates: Aug. 18-24
Location: Ridgewood Country Club, Paramus, N.J.
Field size: Top 144 players from the PGA TOUR Regular Season
Looking Forward: Only the top 120 in the standings advance to the following week's Deutsche Bank Championship

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Steve Stricker had never had success at Westchester Country Club, so his victory was particularly sweet.

Last year: Steve Stricker birdied four of the final five holes, including the last three, at Westchester Country Club to overcome K.J. Choi for the victory and take the early lead in the FedExCup post-season standings.

This year: Ridgewood, located eight miles from New York City, was named as the site in early 2008 after the tournament was held at Westchester the previous 30 years. The 1929 A.W. Tillinghast design will offer a combination of its 27-hole facility to make up the course for the first Playoff event. Much like other Tillinghast designs such as Winged Foot, Pine Valley and Baltusrol, Ridgewood has quite a history, including the 1935 Ryder Cup -- the third team competition held in the United States -- and its being the club where Byron Nelson once served as an assistant professional. Current Champions Tour players also won notable events at Ridgewood: Jerry Pate won the 1974 U.S. Amateur, Lee Trevino won the 1990 U.S. Senior Open and Tom Watson won the 2001 Senior PGA.

The course features an assortment of dogleg holes in both directions and huge trees on the edges of the fairways that will necessitate shaping shots. It will play to par 71 and just more than 7,300 yards, with the par-5 13th hole measuring up to 621 yards and the par-4 fifth hole as a drivable uphill par 4 of 291 yards.

"It has a lot of the same looks as Baltusrol and Winged Foot, and I think the players are going to love it," said Mickelson, who used his driver 12 times during a late May visit. "It's one of the premier courses in the land. It's spectacular."

The new Liberty National Golf Club, which overlooks Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, will be the tournament site in 2009.

Local knowledge: "The premium will be putting it in the fairway. Oddly enough, for an old course, the greens there are quite large. I always felt like it's harder to play larger greens than smaller greens because you sometimes get complacent out there. Sometimes you start shooting for the middle of the greens rather than the flags. You tend not to pin hunt on bigger greens. Smaller greens are different. You have to be very precise with your second shots on the par 4s and, consequently, you tend to hit better irons when it's like that. The greens will be extremely fast there, and I think they'll have the rough up around the greens. The guy who can keep the ball in the fairway will have a tremendous advantage." -- Lee Trevino, winner of the 1990 U.S. Senior Open at Ridgewood