The OFFICIAL Barclays Discussion Thread

[JBones]

 

 

 

 

 

The 2015 playoffs have begun at The Barclays

 

 

 

Who will get an early lead in the playoffs?  Bubba is off to a nice start, can he keep it together mentally for the rest of the week?  Is this the week Tony Finau finally breaks through with a win and makes me look like a genius by picking him as Rookie of the Year

 

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[westy]

Woah, there's some strange scores going on. Rose is playing like me, great scores early - haven't seen the early coverage but was it playing easier in the morning?

[jbil8802]

Seems similar to our club as of late. Not much rain and everything has really firmed up. It's good to see such a mix of scores.

[Jmikecpa]

Here is the run down on Plainfield CC.  I am not an expert but I have played it two or three times a year for the last four years.  It is not the longest track that these guys will play, but you need to hit fairways.  The rough is long and just swallows golf balls; think US Open rough before they moved the tournament to links courses.  I played there last summer in a private outing and Phil was in the group in front of me playing the course with a few execs from Barclay's and they had it set up in event conditions and pin placements.  First hole I missed the fairway on the right by two paces and had a lie that my caddy just laughed at and wished me luck on getting it back into the fairway.  I hit a full wedge and the ball went 35 yards and I was lucky that it went that far.  I did get some lies there that I could advance the ball to the green, but control was a huge issue.

 

The greens are typical Donald Ross with a lot of undulation so you need to put the ball in the proper spot or it can get ugly quickly.  Guys that have some local knowledge will be better served than guys just trying to figure it out as they go.  I had a few putts that I read as fairly straight that broke two feet and got the correct read thanks to my caddy.  Last time I played it the guy on my back was exceptional and saved me about 4 shots a side.

 

Drive it straight and pick and choose when to be aggressive and a good score can be had.  First time I played it I did not take this approach and put up a miserable 87.  Every time since then I just listen to the caddy and focus on hitting fairways and the scores have been low to mid 70's including a 71 from the tips with Phil in front of me.  A little birdie told me he put up a 75, but could not confirm that as fact.

[Jmikecpa]

One other cool feature of the design is that they can play the up tees on either #15 or #18 and make one of them a drivable par 4 for one of the rounds.  #15 is a no doubt go if they decide to take that route since the front bunkers are an easy up and down with one of the most tame greens on the course.  #18 has a miserable green and two large cross bunkers that are about 35 yards short of the green that make this an interesting choice.  If I remember they pushed the tees up on #18 for one of the rounds last time it was played here and DJ was one of the few that went for it and was successful.

[Undershooter]

Well yours truly forgot to set a line up or get last weeks picks out of there AGAIN. I'm good at this fantasy golf thing. 

 

Not....

[evershady]

Rose is killing me. Dang

[westy]

Glad I didn't have spieth and rose.... My 50 points got me some nice movement up the league table. Gambling and leaving spieth in - leaving casey out.

 

Family are out for 24 hours so will be watching today's play with a glass of red ahead of 36 holes tomorrow.

[Jmikecpa]

The course is just beating a lot of these guys up. Amazing for a track that is 6,900 yards if they really stretch it out. Nice to see them push the tees up on 18 today and make it drivable.

 

My office TV is getting installed this morning so I will be enjoying the afternoon coverage while I get some work done.

[jdiddyesquire]

The rough off the back of some of these greens look like my home course. I loved when Robert Streb hit one that had like a 9 foot embankment he had to get up and down over. The commentators were like GOOD LUCK. I dunno about y'all, but I have to hit that shot at least twice a round EVERY round. haha.

[xxio]

I put a bet on Levine at 600 to 1. I also had Finau but scratched him last minute for a safer Snedeker pick.

[westy]

Oh dear Jordan's having a bit of a shocker, not happy with his game, the officials.....etc etc.

 

Great round from Justin to give himself a chance of making the cut.

[westy]

Woah, a treble and a quad for rickie. Weekend off for him as well.

[westy]

Rory had a good week off, he'll be number 1 again once Jordan finishes on 18 today.

[wbealsd]

Looks like Rose squeeked in, with one heck of a round today!

 

Spieth's out of the weekend, which is a real stunner...

[Kor.A.Door]

How is it that a guys decides not to play, yet moves up in world rankings. How the heck does he move he didn't even play, so does that mean if Jordan wouldnt play the playoffs he would win

[westy]

Same in all sports where the calculation is a divisor of points earned by events played I'm afraid. Not ideal, but until someone devises a better system....

[Dave]

Would like to see Finau take this out. He's in form and I've always backed the underdog.

[wbealsd]

It looks like Rose has caught fire!  Can he keep it up?

 

I'm still shaking my head when I look at the Leaderboard, lots of surprises going into this weekend.

 

Glad I started Bubba on my Fantasy roster!

[Jmikecpa]

Rory moving to number 1 by doing nothing for the weekend makes no sense, but then again the world rankings make no sense to begin with. Not sure how you could win 2 majors and top 3 in the other two and not be the #1 player in the world.

[Kor.A.Door]

Rory moving to number 1 by doing nothing for the weekend makes no sense, but then again the world rankings make no sense to begin with. Not sure how you could win 2 majors and top 3 in the other two and not be the #1 player in the world.

Exactly!!. Also, how is it that heading into the playoffs he had a more than 1,700 point lead on the next player in FedEx points, yet after one event he is down to number 3 or 4.

 

My question is would Jordan have been better off for both rankings if he simple didn't play until the tour championship? Because it seems to be that you are not penalized for not playing, but if you choose to play you get penalized if you don't make the cut. The system needs to be fixed so that if you do not play in the playoff you lose something, you should not be promoted for sitting out. I'm all for competition and trying to make things close for the playoffs, I get it, but when someone has a huge lead you cannot make the points so far fetched that he loses the lead after one event. Hate it.

[Jmikecpa]

Have I mentioned how absolutely brutal the 18th green is at Plainfield???? I have driven it where Finau was twice and made a 7 and one heck of a 5 thanks to a 20 footer that dropped.

[Mr_Theoo]

Have I mentioned how absolutely brutal the 18th green is at Plainfield???? I have driven it where Finau was twice and made a 7 and one heck of a 5 thanks to a 20 footer that dropped.

Donald Ross at his finest

[Jmikecpa]

Phil being Phil....

 

Still made par though.

 

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/watch-mickelson-tries-backward-shot-barclays/?cid=facebook-gc-a-watch-mickelson-tries-backward-shot-barclays-082915

[evershady]

I thought I saw a report sayin Jason Day WD from the event so I pulled him from fantasy. Those point really would have helped get me back up the leaderboard.

[Undershooter]

I have no problem with the rankings purely bc it takes 2 years into account. Rory's year last year was comparable to Jordan's this year. Jordan's year last year was not comparable to Rory's year this year(injury and all). Thus I have no problem with Rory as #1 even though Jordan has been the much superior player this season.

 

Edit: Jordan's season in the majors is better but you have to take the wgc events into account bc of strength of field.

[Dave]

Bae in the lead, isn't this one of his last tournaments before he has to go back to Korea and do his compulsory national army service?

[westy]

Rose, day, Watson and Na for final day for me.....come on chaps making some serious progress this week.

 

Rose is regretting that first round isn't he!

[Kor.A.Door]

I have no problem with the rankings purely bc it takes 2 years into account. Rory's year last year was comparable to Jordan's this year. Jordan's year last year was not comparable to Rory's year this year(injury and all). Thus I have no problem with Rory as #1 even though Jordan has been the much superior player this season.

Edit: Jordan's season in the majors is better but you have to take the wgc events into account bc of strength of field.

My issue is that Rory didn't play and still took it over, so if Jordan didn't play then he wouldn't have lost anything. I think there has been a precedent set (byTiger), that when you are #1 you don't have to play in very many events and you can still hang on to position. I think there should be penalties for not playing, Jordan was penalized for playing, Rory was promoted for not playing.

[westy]

Rory has usually played more than some others, look at the rankings and those with 40 events (which is the minimum divisor). Rory has played 7 events less than Jordan - He'd be only a couple behind if not for his injury.

 

The fewest actually played is surprisingly Jason Day, who's played less than even Dustin (personal reasons) Johnson. Scott, Day, Mickleson, Bubba and a few others don't play as much as some others - Rose has been up at 52 events pretty much his whole career.

 

Perhaps the answer is to only have the best 40 performances counting? But hey cleverer people than me have thought about this issue.