The Barclays reduced to 54 holes
EDISON, N.J. - Slugger White, vice-president of rules and competition for the PGA Tour, announced The Barclays will be reduced to a 54-hole tournament, if it can be completed tomorrow. Tee times have been moved up to between 7 AM and 9 AM for Saturday, but if weather causes a delay, the tournament wiould be reduced to 36-holes and revert back to the standings as they exist after two rounds.With the approach of Hurricane Irene, the fact that New Jersey has declared a state of emergency and the Plainfield Country Club not able to take on much water because of 12 inches of rain that had fallen in the last week, the decision was made to reduce the length of the event.
Weather – The first round resumed at 7:15 a.m. on Friday with 51 players returning to complete their first rounds. The first round was completed at 9:12 a.m. The second round began at 7:45 a.m. (30 minutes later than originally scheduled). Partly cloudy skies with highs in the mid-80s. Winds E-SE 5-10 mph.
The first two rounds have been played with preferred lies being used in closely mown areas.
The Barclays shortened to 54 holes
Due to the impending threat of Hurricane Irene, which is forecast to move up the East Coast and into the Tri-State area on Sunday, PGA TOUR officials have decided to shorten The Barclays to a 54-hole event, with the final round taking place on Saturday. Players will tee off of split tees from approximately 7:00 – 9:00 a.m. Should the round not be completed on Saturday due to inclement weather, The Barclays would revert back to a 36-hole event.
All airtimes for Saturday and Sunday will remain the same on The Golf Channel and CBS. Sunday’s coverage will consist of the final round telecast from the 2010 Barclays with some taped coverage from Saturday’s 2011 final round.
This is the first 54-hole event since the 2009 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, when Dustin Johnson was declared the winner after heavy rains on Sunday and into Monday morning deemed the course unplayable. Johnson held a four-stroke lead over Mike Weir at the conclusion of the third round that year.
The 54-hole finish will be the second at The Barclays. In 1998, J.P. Hayes birdied the first playoff hole at Westchester Country Club to defeat Jim Furyk in the weather-shortened event.
This week represents the 26th 54-hole event on the PGA TOUR since 1990.
A look at the last five 54-hole events on the PGA TOUR:
2011 The Barclays (winner to be determined)
2009 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (Dustin Johnson)
2005 BellSouth Classic (Phil Mickelson)
2002 Southern Farm Bureau Classic (Luke Donald)
2000 BellSouth Classic (Phil Mickelson)
Those who purchased tickets for Sunday will be contacted by tournament officials and offered good-any-day passes to the 2012 Barclays at Bethpage State Park.
Tournament Scenarios
If 54 holes is completed, the winner will receive an official win, official FedExCup points and money.
If inclement weather on Saturday forces the tournament to revert to 36 holes, the win would be unofficial, but FedExCup points and money would be official.
Matt Kuchar – No. 12 in FedExCup – 63-65—128 (-14)
Matt Kuchar, who won The Barclays on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff last year and nearly went on to win the FedExCup (finished No. 2), posted a 6-under 65 on Friday to move to 14-under 128.
While Bob Gilder owns the 36-hole record at The Barclays with an opening 36-hole score of 127 in 1982, Kuchar’s 128 total at Plainfield Country Club is the best in tournament history on a par-71 course. The previous-best score on a par-71 layout was 130, set by K.J. Choi at Westchester Country Club in 2007.
Only David Toms (124 at the Crowne Plaza Invitational) and Patrick Cantlay (127 at the Travelers Championship) have posted lower opening 36-hole scores on TOUR this season.
Kuchar has held/shared the second-round lead of a PGA TOUR event three previous times in his PGA TOUR career, with no wins coming in those events. He eventually finished second at the 2008 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, T10 at the 2010 PGA Championship and T3 at the 2010 BMW Championship.
Should his lead hold up this afternoon, Saturday will mark the second time Kuchar has carried the lead into the final round of a TOUR event. He won the 2009 Turning Stone Resort Championship after sharing the third-round lead with Scott Piercy and then outlasted Vaughn Taylor in a six-hole playoff.
Kuchar is hoping to join Ernie Els (1996-97) as the only repeat winners of The Barclays, although he would do so on a different course than his first win (Ridgewood Country Club). In fact, of Kuchar’s three career PGA TOUR wins, he has never had a chance to defend a title on the same course. He won the 2002 Honda Classic in the tournament’s last appearance at TPC Heron Bay. He won the 2009 Turning Stone Resort Championship, which qualified him for the 2010 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational the following year, played the same week as he would have been defending his title.
Kuchar is seeking to become the first player to successfully defend a title on a different course than he won on the previous season since Padraig Harrington at the 2007 and 2008 British Open, won at Carnoustie and Royal Birkdale, respectively. The last player to perform the feat in a non-Major Championship was Jim Furyk at the 2006 and 2007 RBC Canadian Open, won at Hamilton G&CC and Angus Glen GC, respectively.
Kuchar is making his eighth start at The Barclays, with his victory in 2010 his lone top-25 finish among four previous made cuts. He now owns six consecutive rounds in the 60s at the event, with rounds of 68-69-69-66 a year ago.
Kuchar continues to be one of the most consistent players on TOUR with eight top-10 finishes in 2011, including a runner-up finish at the Memorial. In 2010 and 2011 combined, he has 19 top-10 finishes, the most on the PGA TOUR over that time frame.
At No. 12 in the FedExCup standings, Kuchar is the highest-ranked player in the FedExCup standings without a victory in 2011.
Dustin Johnson – No. 19 in FedExCup – 66-63—129 (-13)
Dustin Johnson carded a 6-under 29 on Plainfield Country Club’s opening nine holes on Friday en route to a bogey-free 8-under 63. He is currently one stroke shy of Matt Kuchar.
Johnson’s 63 is his best result in 12 rounds at The Barclays, topping a third-round 64 in 2010 and a final-round 64 in 2009. In four starts at the event, he has missed the cut (2008), finished T15 (2009) and T9 (2010).
Johnson is making his 18th start of the season, with 14 made cuts and season-best runner-up finishes at the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship and the British Open.
Justin Rose – No. 44 in FedExCup – 67-65—132 (-10)
Justin Rose equaled his best round of the season with a 6-under 65 on Friday. In 19 events, he has now posted the score five times, most recently during the third round of the AT&T National (finished T15).
Rose, No. 44 in the FedExCup standings, owns three top-10 finishes this season (T3-Arnold Palmer Invitational, T5-Transitions Championship, T9-Northern Trust Open).
Rose has finished inside the top 15 in the FedExCup twice (15th-2010, 16th-2007).
Rose is making his sixth start at The Barclays, with T14 (2007) and T15 (2010) finishes the best of his four previous made cuts.
Padraig Harrington – No. 44 in FedExCup – 65-67—132 (-10)
Including rounds of 69-68-69-68 at last week’s Wyndham Championship, Padraig Harrington has now strung together six-consecutive rounds in the 60s, his best streak on TOUR since putting together nine such rounds during the 2009 PGA TOUR Playoffs. That year he closed The Barclays with rounds of 67-67, followed with rounds of 67-67-67-68 at the Deutsche Bank Championship and then opened the BMW Championship with rounds of 68-68-69.
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