Rose To Be A Thorn In Spieth’s Side At The Barclays

Jordan Spieth is inevitably the short-priced favourite for The Barclays, which takes place in New Jersey this week.

The Tournament
Originally known as the Westchester Classic, the Barclays was founded in 1967, and was played in June until the advent of the Fed-Ex Play-Offs in 2007, when it moved to its current position in late August. This week’s field is made up of the top 125 on the Fed-Ex Rankings, with only the top 100 at the end of this event going on to play in next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship, the second Fed-Ex Play Off event.

The Course
The Barclays is shared by a number of courses in the New York metropolitan area and this year returns to Plainwood Country Club, Plainwood in New Jersey, which last hosted the tournament in 2011. At a touch under 7100 yards, it’s a short course by PGA standards, and the most notable feature is the unforgiving rough, which can be as high as 6-8 inches in places, making accuracy from the tee essential.

In The Bunker
Jordan Spieth hasn’t finished outside the top ten since the Byron Nelson, seven tournaments ago, and he has six top-five finishes in his last eight outings. But any value about the new world number one vanished long ago and he is destined to be a prohibitively short-priced favourite for the foreseeable future. You might be happy to lump on at 11/2 but that’s not likely to be a profitable strategy in the long-term and in an ultra-competitive field there is surely more value to be had elsewhere.

Recommended Bets
Justin Rose has been a model of consistency in recent weeks. His sixth at St Andrews was followed by a fourth at the Quicken Loans National, a third at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational and another fourth at the PGA Championship. If he continues in that vein, it can’t be long before he bags another title, and it could well come at Plainwood, where he finished sixth in 2011.

At 12/1 he looks a solid bet and should be the first name on your shortlist.

Following a couple of disappointing performances, at the British Open and the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, Dustin Johnson showed better form at the PGA Championship, putting together three good rounds to finish inside the top ten.

That performance should set him up nicely for his return to Plainwood, the venue where he tasted victory in this tournament four years ago, and he should be backed at 12/1.

After winning his first PGA Tour title back in February, Brooks Koepka has found some mid-season form with a string of top-six finishes, including at the Wyndham Championship last week, where he finished with an impressive final round of 65. This is his first time in the FedEx play-offs but he has already shown he belongs amongst the golfing elite and at 28/1 he offers plenty of value this week.

*Prices correct at time of publication.