The Barclays currently is the first leg of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoff Series. Held this year at the Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey, the tournament is open to the top 125 FedEx Cup points leaders following the Wyndham Championship the previous week. Following this tournament, the new points are allocated (five times that of a regular tournament) and the new top 100 will go on to round two at the Deutsche Bank Championship.

The tournament moves to the Plainfield, New Jersey, Country Club in 2011, and may return to its original home in Westchester New York in 2012.

The Barclays began in 1967 as the Westchester Classic. It was held at the Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York from 1967 to 2007. The site was so well known that even as the sponsors changed, it was just known as “The Westchester.”

The Westchester’s traditional spot was either the week before (even years) or the week after (odd years) the US Open. It was relocated on the calendar in 2007 in the great FedEx Cup shakeup.

Vijay Singh has won the event four times.

The players tee off between 9 am and 11:20 am, but NBC’s coverage runs from 1:30 to 6 pm. The Golf Channel covers the event from 11:30 to 1:30. So the whole thing apparently will be on tape delay.

Not worth watching unless its live, IMHO.

The good news about this year’s FedEx Cup is that no one is a lock to win. That actually makes the final round interesting. The downside is that the end-game is so complicated that the Tour had to create a series of charts to explain it all. You can see them here.

The short version is as follows:

• If Furyk, Retief Goosen or Geoff Ogilvy wins the event, he will win the FedExCup if Charley Hoffman and Paul Casey finish outside of the top three
• If Luke Donald wins the event, he wins the FedExCup
• If Casey or Hoffman wins the event, he wins the FedExCup, regardless of how anybody else finishes

A divorce on the one hand and inconsistent play on the other hasn’t stopped Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson from sharing the lead for the oddsmakers at 12/1 for the Barclays Championship. I’m actually having a hard time figuring out the oddsmakers fascination with these two characters. Aside from Mickelson’s Masters’ victory, neither has done a thing to merit their consistent location at the top of the list.

Odds for the 2010 Barclays follows, courtesy of Bodog, the world’s largest betting destination.

It is somehow fitting that while Phil Mickelson won the Tour Championship, Tiger Woods still was the big winner.

Thanks to the points system devised by the Tour, if Tiger finished second, no one out of the top five could win the FedEx Cup. Phil, who began the weekend in fourteenth place did what he had to do. But Tiger sealed the deal with the second.

In some ways, it’s a microcosm of the way Phil Mickelson’s career has gone. I’m convinced that absent Tiger, Phil would have been the dominant force on the Tour over the last ten years. With Tiger ...

GolfBlogger favorite Kenny Perry leads the Tour Championship after Saturday’s round at East Lake, building a two shot lead on Tiger with a 64.

But it doesn’t matter in the overall FedEx Cup picture. If I’m doing the math correctly, for Perry to win, he has to hope that Woods finishes fifth or worse; that Stricker finishes fourth or worse and; that Furyk and Johnson finish third or worse (Johnson would tie Perry with a third). The fifth place going into the tournament, Heath Slocum (and all others below him) cannot challenge a Perry first place finish.

Furyk currently is tied for 15th, seven shots back. He’s not a contender. Johnson is thirteen shots back. He’s out of it also. So of the top players going into the Tour Championshipo the only ones that really count after three rounds are Perry, Woods, and Stricker.

Here’s an analysis of the chances of the top players after three rounds: Perry, Woods, Mickelson, O’Hair, Harrington and Stricker.

Only Tiger and Stricker (currently six shots back) have a chance to take the Cup outright with a win in the Tour Championship.

Tiger wins the Cup in any scenario where he finishes second, and Stricker doesn’t win.

Stricker wins if he finishes second or third, and Tiger finishes fifth or worse.

Mickelson, currently in third, can take the Cup if he wins; Tiger finishes ninth or worse and; Stricker and Furyk finish fourth or worse.

Harrington has to win the Tour Championship, with Tiger finishing third or worse.

O’Hair needs both Tiger and Stricker to finish third or worse.

Here’s where you can watch the Tour Championship—the culminating event of the FedEx Cup

THU-FRI: 1-6p ET GOLF
SAT: 12-2p ET GOLF
SAT: 2-6p ET NBC
SUN: 11:30-1:30p GOLF
SUN: 1:30-6p ET NBC