The Barclays kicks off the Playoffs for the FedExCup

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The PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup begins this week with The Barclays. Here are some facts and figures for the first of four Playoffs events.

What: The Barclays
When: Aug. 18-24, 2008 (first round tees of Thursday, Aug. 21)
Course: Ridgewood Country Club (Paramus, N.J.)
Field: Top 144 players in the FedExCup standings
Format: 72-hole stroke play
Par: 35-36-71; Yardage: 7,319
Television: GOLF CHANNEL (Thursday-Friday); CBS (Saturday-Sunday)
FedExCup points: 190,000 (11,000 to the champion)
Purse: $7,000,000; Winner's Share: $1,260,000

Ridgewood Country Club

Ridgewood was founded in 1890, with the 27-hole golf course designed by A.W. Tillinghast opening in 1929. The Barclays will be contested on the Championship Course which is a composite of 18 holes from the East, Center, and West Courses.

The Barclays rotation

The Barclays is proud to represent a past, present and future of being staged on prestigious golf courses in the greater New York market. From 40 years at historic Westchester Country Club, to the well-received move this year to Ridgewood Country Club to playing in the shadow of the New York City skyline next year at Liberty National, each course provides a different challenge to the game's best players and offers an opportunity for Metropolitan New York/New Jersey to experience this one-of-a-kind event, the first in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

• 2008 -- Ridgewood Country Club
• 2009 -- Liberty National
• 2010 -- The rotation for The Barclays for 2010 and beyond will be announced at a later time, although under the terms of the contract with Westchester, The Barclays will return at least once by 2012.

Events at Ridgewood Country Club

• 2001 Senior PGA Championship (won by Tom Watson)
• 1990 U.S. Senior Open (won by Lee Trevino)
• 1974 U.S. Amateur (won by Jerry Pate).
• 1935 Ryder Cup (won by the United States 9-3. U.S. team members included Walter Hagen (competing in his final Ryder Cup), Gene Sarazen, Paul Runyan and Horton Smith; Great Britain team included the Whitcombe brothers (Charles, Ernest and Reg) and Percy Allis)

The Barclays History

Nicklaus

The Barclays was founded in 1967, as Jack Nicklaus won the first event that year. Other notable winners of the event include: Arnold Palmer, Johnny Miller, Andy North, Lee Elder, Curtis Strange, Raymond Floyd, Seve Ballesteros, Hale Irwin, Lee Janzen, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington.

In 2007, Steve Stricker won his first PGA TOUR event since 2001 at the first event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. Stricker birdied four of the final five holes in the final round to overtake K.J. Choi. Stricker jumped to No. 1 in the FedExCup points standings with the victory, ultimately finishing second to Tiger Woods in the FedExCup. The victory came in his 148th start since his last victory at the 2001 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.

FedExCup general information

The PGA TOUR Regular Season consists of 37 events in 33 weeks from the beginning of January at the Mercedes-Benz Championship in Hawaii through mid-August at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C. FedExCup points are awarded at four levels:

• Official PGA TOUR events played during the Regular Season each award 25,000 FedExCup points. The Masters Tournament, THE PLAYERS Championship, U.S. Open, British Open and the PGA Championship award 27,500 FedExCup points (10 percent more). World Golf Championships events award 26,250 FedExCup points (5 percent more). Additional events (played the same week as another PGA TOUR event) award 12,500 FedExCup points.

• The Regular Season events will decide the seeding (Nos. 1-144) for the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. Each of the four Playoff events offers 190,000 points. The field for the first event, The Barclays in New Jersey, will include the top 144 players. The second event, the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston, will have a 120-player field. The third tournament, the BMW Championship in St. Louis, will have 70 players (with no cut). The finale, THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola in Atlanta, will be comprised of the top-30 qualifiers who will compete for the FedExCup with one to be crowned the FedExCup champion.

Changes to 2008 PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup

• Two venues changing (The Barclays to Ridgewood CC in Paramus, NJ, and headed in 2009 to Liberty National GC in Jersey City, NJ; the BMW Championship to St. Louis in 2008 on a rotating basis with Cog Hill G&CC in Chicago and Crooked Stick GC in Indianapolis). One of the reasons the PGA TOUR is back in St. Louis is because of the level of excitement generated prior to the 2001 World Golf Championships-American Express Championship that was cancelled due to the 9/11 tragedies.

• East Lake GC, host of the THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, has re-built the greens (mini verde, a strain of bermuda grass that is heat and drought resistant) to ensure East Lake will provide a championship venue.

• Beginning in 2008 and going forward, the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup will take a two-week break so players can be rested for high-profile team events such as the Ryder Cup and The Presidents Cup, as well as prepare for THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. This was done based on feedback from players, as well as the PGA of America in regards to this year's Ryder Cup.

• Changes in point structure for Playoff events for more volatility for movement: 1) Narrowed the gap between players' point totals at the reset going into the Playoffs, cutting them by half between each place; 2) added 2,000 points to each finish position after the cut in all Playoff events. Based on these new point structures, about a dozen players would have 'played their way into' the Deutsche Bank Championship and the BMW Championship. Similar numbers hold true for THE TOUR Championship. With the new points structure, there would have been 12 players at THE TOUR Championship with a chance of winning the FedExCup instead of six.

• Beginning in 2008, $16.5 million in cash will be paid to the top 10 finishers in the FedExCup race and the remaining $18.5 million will be paid on a tax-deferred basis into the Retirement Plans of the top 150 players. The maximum tax-deferred-payment amount will be $1 million to the winner of the FedExCup, who will also receive $9 million in cash, for a total first-place payout of $10 million.

• Last year, two players (Doug LaBelle II and Rich Beem) from outside the top 120 were able to advance to the Deutsche Bank Championship. LaBelle, a rookie, advanced thanks to a birdie on the 72nd hole and finished T41 to move from No. 121 to No. 120. He edged Steve Allan by 25 points. Beem made a large jump from No. 134 to No. 113 with a T7 finish.

The fifth hole at Ridgewood

• The signature hole at Ridgewood Country Club is the 291-yard, par-4 fifth hole, known as the 'Five and Dime'. In the old days the members called it the "five and dime" because most played it 5-iron off the tee and a 10-iron (now a wedge) into the green.

Here are other notable drivable par 4s on the PGA TOUR:

Players to watch

Padraig Harrington
Recorded a final-round 66 in the 90th PGA Championship and claimed his third major-championship title, and second of 2008, with a one-shot victory over Sergio Garcia and Ben Curtis. The victory made Harrington the first European-born winner of the PGA Championship since Tommy Armour in 1930. This came on top of a magnificent 1-under 69 in the final round of the British Open for a 3-over-par 283 total and a four-shot win over Ian Poulter to become the first European in more than a century -- 16th overall -- to win golf's oldest championship in consecutive years. Harrington now joins Tiger Woods (2006 and 2000), Nick Price (1994) and Walter Hagen (1924) as the only players to win the British Open and the PGA Championship in a single season.

At the 2005 Barclays, the Irishman made a 61-foot eagle-putt on the final hole of regulation to beat Jim Furyk for his second PGA TOUR victory. To date, Harrington has five PGA TOUR victories and 16 international wins.

Vijay Singh
Vijay Singh recorded his first PGA TOUR victory at The Barclays in 1993. He won again in 1995 and then again over a decade later in 2006, becoming the tournament's only three-time winner. With his victory earlier this month at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, Singh became the oldest player to win a World Golf Championships event and also broke the record for PGA TOUR victories (32) by an international player.

Phil Mickelson
One of five players with multiple victories in 2008, Mickelson has his sights on the FedExCup in 2008 after finishing third behind Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker last year. His 34 career victories (including three majors) ranks 13th all-time, and Mickelson is the only player with multiple PGA TOUR victories in each of the last five seasons.

Kenny Perry
The 47-year-old Kentucky native has three wins (the Memorial Tournament, Buick Open, John Deere Classic) and ranks second in the FedExCup standings behind Tiger Woods, who is out for the season. Perry's strong play this year put him third in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings and earned him a spot on the U.S. Team that will play in his home state of Kentucky in the fall. In his last 10 starts, Perry has three wins, a playoff loss to Ryuji Imada (AT&T Classic) and a total of six top-10s.

Anthony Kim
Just two weeks after his 23rd birthday, the Dallas resident set off fireworks of his own at the AT&T National over the 4th of July weekend outside Washington, D.C. Kim, the winner of the Wachovia Championship earlier this year, came from three strokes behind in the final round at Congressional Country Club to claim his second PGA TOUR title this year. He is one of five players who have collected multiple tournament titles this season (Tiger Woods, 4; Kenny Perry, 3; Phil Mickelson, 2; and Padraig Harrington, 2). The last two players with multiple TOUR victories in one season under the age of 24 were Adam Scott (2004) who won THE PLAYERS Championship and the Booz Allen Classic at the age of 23, and Sergio Garcia (2001) who won the both the MasterCard Colonial and the Buick Classic in 2001 at the age of 21. Since 1960, there have been a total of 14 players with two or more wins before the age of 24, led by Tiger Woods' 15. The list:

Sergio Garcia
PGA Championship runner-up Sergio Garcia, who has won The Barclays twice in his career (2004, 2001), captured THE PLAYERS Championship in a playoff over Paul Goydos. He ended the longest victory drought of his career by making a clutch par putt to force a playoff and hitting the island-green 17th on the first extra hole to defeat. His first victory in three years and 53 PGA TOUR events was keyed by leading the field in Driving Accuracy and Greens in Regulation. At the age of 28, Garcia has seven career wins -- most among active players under the age of 30. Adam Scott has six.

The "Milton Three"
Take a closer look at the three players on TOUR (Boo Weekley, Heath Slocum and Bubba Watson) who hail from the tiny town of Milton in the Florida Panhandle. How did such a small town produce three TOUR stars almost simultaneously, and what do the "Milton Three" contribute to golf with their less-traditional approach to the game?
• When it comes to colorful characters on the PGA TOUR, it doesn't get better than Boo Weekley with his southern charm and wit. With consecutive wins at the Verizon Heritage and his top-15 standing in the FedExCup standings, Weekley has the game to back it up.
• Watson has led the PGA TOUR in Driving Distance the last three years.
• The methodical Slocum finished 30th in the final FedExCup standings in 2007.

Andres Romero
Andres Romero went from caddie to Zurich Classic of New Orleans champion. The 27-year-old from Tucuman, Argentina, has won on both the European Tour (Deutsche Bank Players Championship) and PGA TOUR in a span of just eight months, making him an international player in the truest sense of the word. He is currently ranked 25th in the FedExCup standings.

PGA TOUR Shot of the Year Candidates
Who will add to the following list throughout the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup?

• Tiger Woods won at Bay Hill by making a twisting, 25-foot, downhill putt for birdie on the final hole. It was the first time in seven years Woods won with a birdie on the final hole.

Scott

• Adam Scott claimed the EDS Byron Nelson Championship with a 48-foot putt on the third hole of a playoff with Ryan Moore.

• On the 17th at the TPC Sawgrass in the sudden-death playoff, Sergio Garcia hit sand wedge to four feet. That clinched his victory over Paul Goydos at the PLAYERS Championship.

• Phil Mickelson's 52-degree wedge shot from 140 yards (under one tree and over another tree) on Colonial's 18th to nine feet, needing a par for a three-way playoff with Rod Pampling and Tim Clark. The ensuing birdie putt clinched his 34th career PGA TOUR victory.

• Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open (70-foot eagle putt on 13th hole in the third round; one-hop chip-in for birdie at 17th hole in the third round; 12-foot birdie putt on 18th hole in final round to force the Monday 18-hole playoff).

• At the British Open, Padraig Harrington's nearly-perfect 5-wood on the 71st hole to three feet that resulted in an eagle and a 4-shot lead. Harrington went on to win his second consecutive British Open title.

Risk vs. reward

Phil Mickelson's penchant for risk-reward finishes are well-chronicled:

Mickelson

• A co-leader after 54 holes at the 2001 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Mickelson was one stroke back of Davis Love III in the 18th fairway when he tried to hit driver from the fairway from 257 yards. The shot got caught in the wind, flared left and into the Pacific Ocean. He made double bogey and closed with a 73.

• Trailing Tiger Woods by one stroke on No. 16 on Sunday at the Bay Hill Invitational, hit a 4-iron from 200 yards out of the rough and trees that found a water hazard fronting the green.

• Second shot from left rough on 72nd hole at the 2006 U.S. Open that caught a tree where a double-bogey erased a one-shot lead.

• The 52-degree wedge shot from 140 yards (under one tree and over another tree) on Colonial Country Club's 18th to nine feet at the 2008 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, needing a par for a three-way playoff with Rod Pampling and Tim Clark. The ensuing birdie putt clinched his 34th career PGA TOUR victory.

• A back-nine 31 with five birdies on Sunday en route to first Masters title in 2004.

• Rounds of 60 (2005 FBR Open), 62 (2005 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am) and 63 (2006 BellSouth Classic) in blowout victories.

Consistent golf under the radar

Robert Allenby (No. 11) and Jim Furyk (No. 14) are among the top 15 of the FedExCup standings without a victory. Both Allenby and Furyk rank among the TOUR leaders in top 10s in 2008, with seven and six top 10s, respectively.

Effect of Playoffs/FedExCup season on the U.S. Ryder Cup Team

In past years, most of the players on the U.S. Ryder Cup Team didn't play very much competitive golf in the two months prior to the event. This year, they will be battle-tested -- five very big events in the eight weeks prior to the Ryder Cup. How will this stretch of tournaments help their performance?

PGA TOUR winners in their 20s

There have been 11 different winners (12 total) in their 20s in 2008 vs. 7 winners in their 20s for 48 events in 2007. Is the "Tiger Woods influence" that has been thrown around for years finally taking effect? Other prominent players in their 20s yet to win this year include Brandt Snedeker, Hunter Mahan, Justin Rose, Charles Howell III and Jeff Quinney. Underlined players indicate those players winning for the first time.