- Jason Day, Australia — The No. 1 player in the World Golf Rankings also leads the FedEx Cup standings and is defending champion of the Barclays. Last year in the FedEx Cup playoffs opener at Plainfield Country Club, he played the weekend in 63-62 to win by six strokes over Henrik Stenson of Sweden, a year after tying for second, two shots behind Hunter Mahan at Ridgewood Country Club. The Aussie is 31-under-par in the event in the last two years and has finished outside the top 25 in the playoffs opener only in the first of his eight appearances, when he tied for 31st in 2008. Day has won three times among his nine top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour this season, the last victory in the Players Championship in May, and eight of his 10 titles have come in the last two years.
- Dustin Johnson, United States — The U.S. Open champion is second in the FedEx Cup point standings and the World Golf Rankings heading into the Barclays, in which he is making his eighth appearance. Johnson won the playoff opener in 2011 at Plainfield Country Club, claiming a two-stroke victory over Matt Kuchar when the tournament was shortened to 54 holes by the threat of Hurricane Irene. He has three other top-10 finishes in the Barclays, a tie for ninth last year at Plainfield, a tie for third in 2012 when it was last played at Bethpage Black, and a tie for 2010 at Ridgewood. Johnson also won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and leads the PGA Tour with 12 top-10s this season, but had his streak of six in a row snapped when he missed the cut in his last start in the PGA Championship at Baltusrol.
- Henrik Stenson, Sweden — Coming off a runner-up finish behind Justin Rose in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the big Swede is enjoying a season in which he won the Open Championship at Royal Troon and the BMW Championship in Germany among 10 results in the top 10 around the world. The 2013 FedEx Cup champion is No. 4 in the World Golf Rankings, second in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai point standings and 14th in the FedEx Cup standings. This will be Stenson’s fifth start in the Barclays, and last year he posted his best finish, recording four rounds in the 60s but still wound up six strokes behind runaway winner Jason Day in solo second at Plainfield. In 2009, when the U.S. Open was played at Bethpage Black, site of this year’s Barclays, he tied for ninth, five strokes behind champion Lucas Glover.
- Justin Rose, England — The first Olympic golf champion since 1904 has some work to do in the next three weeks because he is 51st in the FedEx Cup standings and must be in the top 30 to qualify for the Tour Championship. He was slowed by a back injury early this year, but still has five finishes in the top 10 on the PGA Tour and showed his game was coming around when he shot 66-68 in the last two rounds of the PGA Championship to tie for 22nd at Baltusrol. Rose, No. 9 in the world, is playing in the Barclays for the 11th time and his best result was a tie for second in 2013 at Liberty National, where he had a chance to win on the final hole. But he ran his 25-foot birdie putt five feet past the hole, then missed the comebacker to make bogey and finish one stroke behind Adam Scott.
- Jordan Spieth, United States — The defending FedEx Cup champion is fifth in the standings at the start of the playoffs and hopes to get his game back on track after taking three weeks off since tying for 13th in the PGA Championship. He has two victories among six finishes in the top 10 this season, but has not been as sharp as he was in winning five times last year and rising to No. 1 in the world. Spieth is making his fourth appearance in the Barclays and last year he shot 74-73 — 147 to miss the cut by five shots, after tying for 19th in 2013 and tying for 22nd in 2014. However, he had such a big lead in the standings that after also missing the weekend in the Deutsche Bank, he tied for 13th in the BMW Championship and won the Tour Championship to claim the FedEx Cup.
- Adam Scott, Australia — Victories in back-to-back outings at the Honda Classic and the WGC-Cadillac Championship to start the Florida Swing earlier this year, plus runner-up finishes in the CIMB Classic and the Northern Trust Open have Scott at third in the FedEx Cup standings entering the playoffs. However, his only other top-10 result since was a tie for 10th in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, but his game seemed to be coming around when he finished 67-69-69 to tie for 18th in the PGA Championship. The Aussie is playing in the Barclays for the 13th time and won the tournament two years ago when he went out early in the last round and shot 66 at Liberty National. That stood up for a one-stroke victory over Rose, Tiger Woods, Gary Woodland and Graham DeLaet of Canada. He also was second, two shots behind Vijay Singh in 2006, and tied for ninth in 2010.
- Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland — Most of McIlroy’s good golf this season has been played off the PGA Tour, as he won the Irish Open, finished third on the Open de France, tied for fifth in the Open Championship at Royal Troon and had two other top-10 finishes on the Middle East Swing. He ranks third in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai, but is only 35th in the FedEx Cup standings. Rory does have six finishes in the top 10 on the U.S. tour, the best a tie for third in the WGC-Cadillac Championship, but he missed the cut in the U.S. Open at Oakmont and the PGA Championship at Baltusrol. This will be his fifth appearance in the Barclays and his best result was a tie for 19th in 2013 at Liberty National. In 2009, he closed with a 68 to tie for 10th in the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, site of this week’s tournament.
- Phil Mickelson, United States — Lefty remains winless since the 2013 Open Championship at Muirfield, but he has finished second this year in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, the FedEx St. Jude Classic and the 145th Open Championship at Royal Troon, and has four other top-10s. He has climbed 21 spots in the World Golf Rankings this year to No. 13 and he enters the FedEx Cup playoffs at No. 8 in the point standings. Mickelson is making his 14th start in the Barclays and his only top-10 results were a tie for sixth three years ago at Liberty National and a tie for seventh in 2007 at Westchester. However, when the U.S. Open was played at Bethpage Black on 2009, he tied for second, two strokes behind Lucas Glover. That’s one of six runner-up finishes he has in our national championship without winning.
- Sergio Garcia, Spain — Returning from a tie for eighth in the Olympic Games in Rio, Garcia has finished in the top 10 in five of his last six outings on both major tours, even though the Games’ result is not considered official. He started the run with a playoff victory over Brooks Koepka in the AT&T Byron Nelson in and ranks 20th in the FedEx Cup standings, as he also finished second behind Scott earlier this year in the Honda Classic. Garcia won the Westchester Classic before it became the Barclays to kick off the playoffs, in 2001 and 2004 in Westchester, and also lost to Vijay Singh in a playoff in 2008 at Ridgewood, and has three other results in the top five. He tied for 10th in the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, where the tournament will be played this week.
- Jim Furyk, United States — It seemed the 2010 FedEx Cup champion might not qualify for the playoffs this year until he shot a PGA Tour record 58 in the final round of the Travelers Championship to tie for fifth. Furyk followed that up with a tie for 10th in the Wyndham Championship last week, although he faded a bit in a closing 70, and climbed to No. 82 in the point standings. He didn’t get started this season until May after undergoing left wrist surgery in February, and his push actually began when he tied for second behind Johnson in the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black in June. Furyk has played what is now the Barclays 16 times, and his best result were solo second in 1998 and 2005 at Westchester and he has not finished outside the top 11 in the last three years.
–Courtesy of The Sports Xchange, TSX Golf Editor Tom LaMarre
