Tiger Woods is an overwhelming favorite to win the first leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs, the Barclays at Liberty National Golf Course. Interestingly enough, the current version of this course was partly shaped by Woods' criticisms.
The Barclays was last held at Liberty in 2009, when Woods said the course was "interesting." According to reports, another golfer's caddie was far harsher when he said the makers of the course "ruined a perfectly good landfill."
Since the vocal critics of the course made their issues known, there have been massive changes. Five greens were re-done, six others were reconstructed, 13 landing areas were changed, and finally 11 tee boxes were either made bigger or taken out.
Steve Wenzloff, the PGA's vice president of design services said, "The goal of the modification was really to help increase the overall receptiveness of the golf course. "I say receptiveness as sort of a broad definition. Specially, two facets: the tee shots and the approach shots. It's still a hard golf course, and there's nothing wrong with that. The teeth will still be in it, just the teeth won't sink as deep into your skin."
Unsurprisingly, Woods is a heavy favorite to leave Liberty with a win. Woods, ranked No. 1 in the world, is a 5-to-1 favorite to emerge victorious according to CBSSports.com. The pack of accomplished golfers behind him have significantly worse odds, including Adam Scott (16-to-1), Henrik Stenson (18-to-1), Phil Mickelson (18-to-1), and Rory McIlroy (18-to-1).
Dustin Johnson, who recently got engaged to Paulina Gretzky, the daughter of hockey god Wayne Gretzky is a dark horse here at 25-to-1, while Jason Dufner, PGA Championship winner and famous internet meme checks in with 30-to-1 odds.
Tiger Woods tees off at 8:16 a.m. on Thursday. The full list of tee times is listed below, courtesy of ESPN.com.
Nicholas Thompson 7:10 AM ET
Daniel Summerhays 7:10 AM ET
Scott Brown 7:10 AM ET
Martin Flores 7:10 AM ET
Richard Lee 7:10 AM ET
Rory Sabbatini 7:10 AM ET
Luke Guthrie 7:21 AM ET
Derek Ernst 7:21 AM ET
John Huh 7:21 AM ET
Nick Watney 7:21 AM ET
Kyle Stanley 7:21 AM ET
Robert Garrigus 7:21 AM ET
Brendon de Jonge 7:32 AM ET
Brian Gay 7:32 AM ET
Josh Teater 7:32 AM ET
Gary Woodland 7:32 AM ET
David Hearn 7:32 AM ET
K.J. Choi 7:32 AM ET
Rory McIlroy 7:43 AM ET
David Lingmerth 7:43 AM ET
Charley Hoffman 7:43 AM ET
Scott Piercy 7:43 AM ET
Chris Stroud 7:43 AM ET
Ryan Palmer 7:43 AM ET
Charl Schwartzel 7:54 AM ET
Jason Dufner 7:54 AM ET
Lee Westwood 7:54 AM ET
Jason Day 7:54 AM ET
Graham Delaet 7:54 AM ET
Kevin Streelman 7:54 AM ET
Charles Howell III 8:05 AM ET
Jordan Spieth 8:05 AM ET
Jonas Blixt 8:05 AM ET
Graeme McDowell 8:05 AM ET
Justin Rose 8:05 AM ET
Henrik Stenson 8:05 AM ET
Tiger Woods 8:16 AM ET
Matt Kuchar 8:16 AM ET
Hunter Mahan 8:16 AM ET
Brandt Snedeker 8:16 AM ET
Jim Furyk 8:16 AM ET
Patrick Reed 8:16 AM ET
Kevin Stadler 8:27 AM ET
Matt Every 8:27 AM ET
Ted Potter, Jr. 8:27 AM ET
Bryce Molder 8:27 AM ET
J.J. Henry 8:27 AM ET
Pat Perez 8:27 AM ET
Jeff Overton 8:38 AM ET
Jeff Maggert 8:38 AM ET
Justin Hicks 8:38 AM ET
Camilo Villegas 8:38 AM ET
James Hahn 8:38 AM ET
Geoff Ogilvy 8:38 AM ET
Greg Chalmers 8:49 AM ET
Carl Pettersson 8:49 AM ET
Steven Bowditch 8:49 AM ET
Morgan Hoffmann 8:49 AM ET
Chez Reavie 8:49 AM ET
George McNeill 8:49 AM ET
Jerry Kelly 12:00 PM ET
Brian Stuard 12:00 PM ET
Ernie Els 12:00 PM ET
Brendan Steele 12:00 PM ET
Brian Harman 12:00 PM ET
Stewart Cink 12:00 PM ET
Marc Leishman 12:11 PM ET
Freddie Jacobson 12:11 PM ET
Brian Davis 12:11 PM ET
Ian Poulter 12:11 PM ET
Ryan Moore 12:11 PM ET
Cameron Tringale 12:11 PM ET
Sergio Garcia 12:22 PM ET
David Lynn 12:22 PM ET
John Rollins 12:22 PM ET
Luke Donald 12:22 PM ET
Tim Clark 12:22 PM ET
Kevin Chappell 12:22 PM ET
Michael Thompson 12:33 PM ET
Rickie Fowler 12:33 PM ET
Scott Stallings 12:33 PM ET
Angel Cabrera 12:33 PM ET
Roberto Castro 12:33 PM ET
Martin Laird 12:33 PM ET
Matt Jones 12:44 PM ET
Webb Simpson 12:44 PM ET
Dustin Johnson 12:44 PM ET
Sang-Moon Bae 12:44 PM ET
Bubba Watson 12:44 PM ET
Harris English 12:44 PM ET
Keegan Bradley 12:55 PM ET
Adam Scott 12:55 PM ET
John Merrick 12:55 PM ET
Boo Weekley 12:55 PM ET
Ken Duke 12:55 PM ET
Chris Kirk 12:55 PM ET
Bill Haas 1:06 PM ET
D.A. Points 1:06 PM ET
Jimmy Walker 1:06 PM ET
Phil Mickelson 1:06 PM ET
Billy Horschel 1:06 PM ET
Russell Henley 1:06 PM ET
William McGirt 1:17 PM ET
Jason Kokrak 1:17 PM ET
Bo Van Pelt 1:17 PM ET
James Driscoll 1:17 PM ET
Bob Estes 1:17 PM ET
Justin Leonard 1:17 PM ET
John Senden 1:28 PM ET
Charlie Beljan 1:28 PM ET
Lucas Glover 1:28 PM ET
Jason Bohn 1:28 PM ET
Mark Wilson 1:28 PM ET
Martin Kaymer 1:28 PM ET
D.H. Lee 1:39 PM ET
Charlie Wi 1:39 PM ET
Johnson Wagner 1:39 PM ET
Andres Romero 1:39 PM ET
Erik Compton 1:39 PM ET
Aaron Baddeley 1:39 PM ET
Ben Crane 1:50 PM ET
Stuart Appleby 1:50 PM ET
Scott Langley 1:50 PM ET
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