2013 Barclays Final Round Open Comment Thread

The points ramifications are too breathtaking for me to even type, so we'll just see how this FedExCup excitement plays out at the Barclays. Matt Kuchar and Gary Woodland lead, meaning they'll be vying for the most air time with Tiger and the Statue of Liberty.

If you've got a provider other than Time Warner, your telecast times are:

Golf Channel 12-1:30 ET

CBS: 2-6 PM ET

Golf Channel replay 9:30 PM ET

Video: Consecutive Groups Holes-In-One By Choi & Chalmers

Fun stuff on the 14th at Liberty National Saturday as Greg Chalmers and K.J. Choi make 1's in consecutive groups.

Chalmers:

Choi:

Video: Billy Horschel Does Google Glass

Thanks to social media guru Robert Andrade for Tweeting this YouTube video of PGA Tour winner Billy Horschel being the first pro golfer to show you what their view is like via Google Glass.

I was hoping the golf shot portion would be a little more interesting...and steady. Still, it's fun to see things through the eye of a player. Now if he'd wear them in competition...

Kite: Most Players Said Good Things About Liberty National

Liberty National co-architect Tom Kite's remarks that a vocal minority in 2009 got too much attention for criticizing the course might carry a little more weight if they hadn't completely blown the place up.

Brett Cyrcalis reports on Kite's visit to Liberty Monday on the even of the Barclays.

“There were a lot people that raved about the golf course, and there were a few people that were critical,” Kite told The Post behind the driving range at Liberty National, where the first tournament of the four-event FedEx Cup playoffs will begin. “We tried to address some of the issues that were a concern to some of the players, and at the same time build on all the really good things most of the players said. It wasn’t written about, but most of the players said really good things.

“It’s easy to write negative stuff,” Kite continued. “It’s more than that. When people say complimentary things about you, you all don’t write about it. There’s no question that that was the case.”

Update on 2013-08-21 00:43 by Geoff

**PGATour.com has a roundup of all the course changes as well as links to hole-by-hole drawings detailing the changes.

The Re-Re-Improved Liberty National Returns...

We architecture geeks will have no complaints this week, still high on The Country Club looking better than it has in years and Colorado Golf Club proving downright amazing to watch even if the Solheim Cup matches ended up a blowout. But reality sets in as the tour moves to the new, re-re-improved Liberty National for the Barclays.

Players will be on fine-watch for saying anything remotely critical after Commissioner Finchem buddy Paul Fireman sank even more millions beyond the initial $250 million he spent on this Bob Cupp-Tom Kite design that brought up the rear in Golf World's PGA Tour course ranking.

Still, it's good fun to go back and read the remarks from last time, including one of Tiger's all time best lines.

Brett Cyrgalis talks to the PGA Tour's Steve Wenzloff about the softening of features and shifting of the 18th green to give the Barclays corporate tent more room, not that anyone will miss the old finishing hole.

“The goal of the modification was really to help increase the overall receptiveness of the golf course,” said Steve Wenzloff, the PGA Tour’s vice president of design services and player liaison. “I say receptiveness as sort of a broad definition. Specially, two facets: the tee shots and the approach shots.”

So you're softening the tee shots and the approaches to the greens, which leaves? Nothing else.

The nuts and bolts of the re-do:

In total, five greens were entirely rebuilt, and an additional six were reconstructed; 13 landing areas were altered; and 11 tee boxes were expanded or moved. Some fairway bunkers were moved farther from the line of play, and the greens complexes generally were made flatter, allowing for more hole locations and less severe run-offs into deep chipping areas.

The 18th green was moved 20 yards down the fairway to allow for Barclays to have a larger corporate tent, and the hole stayed the same length by virtue of a rarely used back tee, 20 yards behind the one used in 2009.

That could be a first...a green moved for a corporate tent.

Playoff "Vernacular" & Logo Change...Again!

Disappointingly, the Reset Cup has not become the preferred description of the algorithm infused, two-points reset system best known as the FedExCup Playoffs, until next year when the vernacular changes again.

For Immediate Something:

NEW LOGO FOR THE FEDEXCUP PLAYOFFS
 
The seventh year of the FedExCup Playoffs kicks off this week at The Barclays, featuring the top 125 players in the 2013 FedExCup standings.
 
For your use, we have attached the new logo, "FedExCup Playoffs," that replaces the previous version, "PGA TOUR Playoffs." We would greatly appreciate any  references going forward to be the "FedExCup Playoffs" and use of the new logo as well.
 
Additional changes to PGA TOUR vernacular are as follows:
 
·        The Playoffs officially become the FedExCup Playoffs (with new logo).
·        There should be no more reference to the Regular Season.

What about lower case regular season?

·        The 2013 PGA TOUR Season concludes October 6 at The Presidents Cup.  The 2013-14 PGA TOUR Season begins October 7 at the Frys.com Open.
·        Reference to a specific tournament will still be by the calendar year in which it is played.
·        There no longer will be a “Fall Series” on the PGA TOUR; those should be referred to as “season-opening events.”
·        The final four events on the Web.com Tour are the Web.com Tour Finals, ending with the Web.com Tour Championship at TPC Sawgrass (Dye's Valley course).

Time Warner Customers: WGC Bridgestone 3rd Round Highlights

At least, for the residents of New York City, Los Angeles and Dallas where local CBS stations have been blacked out by the cable operator in a pricing spat.

Meanwhile, it may not really matter as Tiger has a seven shot lead and based on what Bob Harig wrote, Tiger got his bad round of the way and still managed to score, a big positive heading into Oak Hill and the PGA.

"I didn't quite have it, but I scored," Woods said. "And that's the name of the game is posting a number, and I did today. Grinding my way around that golf course today. As smooth as yesterday was ... [that's] as difficult as today was. I was just trying to build my lead somehow, and for most of the day I was doing that. Ended up being a dead push for the day, but that's not too bad, either."

From PGA Tour Entertainment: