PGA Tour Officials Agree to Host 'The Barclays' at Bethpage Black

Events Scheduled for 2012 and 2016 Expected to Generate Millions in Revenue for New York State and Nassau County

New York State and the PGA TOUR have reached an agreement to take The Barclays, the first event of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, to Bethpage State Park's Black Course in 2012 and 2016.

Bethpage Black, in Farmingdale, became the first publicly owned and operated course to host the U.S. Open in 2002. It also hosted the 2009 U.S. Open. Bethpage Black was designed by famed golf course architect A.W. Tillinghast and opened in 1936 and will now host the first tournament in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

The event, which is expected to generate millions of dollars in revenue for New York State and Nassau County, will be paid for entirely by the PGA – no taxpayer dollars will be used to subsidize The Barclays.

"The PGA TOUR's decision to hold the The Barclays at the scenic Bethpage Black golf course proves that New York's pristine golf courses are among the best in the nation," Governor Cuomo said today.

"We are committed to bringing world class events like the PGA TOUR and the prestige that comes with it back to New York. This will have a positive economic impact on Long Island and beyond, and New York looks forward to welcoming players and fans back to the Empire State."

New York State Parks Commissioner Rose Harvey said, "The Bethpage Black is an unforgettable place to both play and watch great golf. I'm grateful to Governor Cuomo and the PGA TOUR for the opportunity to host The Barclays golf tournament at Bethpage State Park, and to show again why our state park system is such a great asset to New York State."

In the early 1930s, the Bethpage Park Authority purchased the Lenox Hills Country Club and other adjacent properties to build what we now know as Bethpage State Park. Famed golf course architect A.W. Tillinghast was hired to design and oversee construction of three new golf courses (Black, Red and Blue) as well as modify the Lenox Hills Course which became the Green Course.

"This is a tremendous announcement for the PGA TOUR, The Barclays and for Bethpage," said PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem.

"This partnership will allow The Barclays to continue on its recent tradition of being contested at some of the best courses throughout New York and New Jersey. Fans and players alike will share in their excitement and anticipation of being a part of this event in 2012 and beyond."

About The Barclays

The Barclays has been a part of the PGA TOUR schedule since 1967 when Jack Nicklaus won the inaugural event at Westchester Country Club. Since that time, some of the greatest players in the game have earned the title including World Golf Hall of Fame members Arnold Palmer, Johnny Miller, Raymond Floyd, Seve Ballesteros, Hale Irwin, Curtis Strange and the new defending champion, Matt Kuchar, 2010 winner of The Barclays.

Many of the world's current top players have won the event as well, including two-time champions Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia, and four-time champion Vijay Singh. As the first of four events in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, The Barclays plays a leading role in the FedExCup, the season-long competition that is the centerpiece of the PGA TOUR season.

About the PGA TOUR

The PGA TOUR is the world's premier membership organization for touring professional golfers, co-sanctioning more than 100 tournaments on the PGA TOUR, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour. The PGA TOUR's mission is to entertain and inspire its fans, deliver substantial value to its partners, create outlets for volunteers to give back, generate significant charitable and economic impact in communities in which it plays, and provide financial opportunities for TOUR players.

In 2011, the three Tours collectively have tournaments in 29 states and in 12 countries and territories outside of the United States. PGA TOUR tournaments are broadcast to approximately 500 million households in 224 countries and territories in 29 languages.

Virtually all tournaments are organized as non-profit organizations in order to maximize charitable giving. In 2010, tournaments on the three Tours generated more than $120 million for local charitable organizations, bringing the TOUR's all-time total of charitable contributions to more than $1.6 billion. The PGA TOUR's web site is PGATOUR.COM, the No. 1 site in golf, and the organization is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL.

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Tiger Woods: Protecting an Endangered Species

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his New York Post publication
have been relentless in their effort to castrate Tiger Woods

Sponsors Wrong for Bailing On Golf Great!

People? People!!! Don’t act like you can’t hear me. It’s pretty hard to ignore The G-Man once he gets going. The United States of America is in a very, very bad state. I’m not referring to the recession, global warming or the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. I’m talking about the fact that we’ve become so goddamn transfixed by the lives of celebrities that we lose sight of the things that are vitally important. It’s absolutely incredible how callous, ignorant and insensitive we’re becoming as a nation, and I’ll bet our allies and enemies are having one hell of a laugh at our expense.

Everyone from the global media to fellow golfers has piled on Tiger Woods since admitting he cheated on his wife, and things only got worse after a bevy of skanks surfaced with claims that they also polished the legendary golfer’s “sand wedge”. Yes, I called them skanks because that’s just what the hell they are. Wake up, America! Don’t you find it odd that none of them had anything to say when they first hooked up with Woods or during the entire course of their alleged affairs? Oh, but the gold digging sluts slithered out of the woodwork once they saw an opportunity to shove the knife in his back, make money or get their 15-minutes of fame, didn’t they? Still, there were those who chastised Woods, abandoned him and kicked him when he was down. Tiger Woods messed up, big time, but he doesn't deserve to be raked over the coals.

These two-bit, money-grubbing banshees are more than deserving of the skank title, and the majority of people lusting for more information about Tiger’s indiscretions need to take a hard look in the mirror .…. so they can see the ugly staring back. They need to see how they’re being transformed into media zombies - whose thirst can only be quenched with the blood of a wounded Tiger. Well, for those of you who want to be saved from the hellish transformation, The G-Man has an antidote. It’s called the truth, and I’m about to shove the needle in even deeper!

Former basketball superstar Charles Barkley and filmmaker Spike Lee have publicly expressed concern for the safety of Woods. They believe all the negative media attention and lost endorsements could place the golfer in a suicidal state of mind. If it should come to this, heaven forbid, The G-Man would place all of the blame squarely on Rupert Murdoch and his toilet paper tabloid, “The New York Post”. Both have been relentless in their attempt to demean and castrate Woods. The proof is in the fact that they've lampooned him and the situation on every front cover since the story broke. In my humble opinion, Murdock and the Post editors are straight-up dicks! Yeah, I said it. Go ahead and sue my black ass.

I lost all respect for The Post when it published that despicable cartoon comparing President Obama to a chimp. The editorial staff's decision to publish a full-length photo of a 15-year-old girl as she lay bleeding on the sidewalk, after being struck in the head by a stray bullet, really pissed me off, too! To their credit, the New York Daily News published the same photo and only showed the facial expressions of the victim’s friends and relatives as they stood over her body. That is responsible journalism at its best! Now you have a pretty good idea as to why I only use the New York Post to wipe my ass.

There are two more things I want to say regarding the “Simpsonization” – as in O.J. Simpson - of Tiger Woods. There were pro-golfers who sought out the media in effort to bash Woods. They called him a phony, a liar and a con man. The G-Man doesn’t blame them. Hey, if I got my ass handed to me by Tiger Woods at every tournament I ever played in, I’d seek some form of revenge, too. Instead of bashing him like a bunch of little punks, they really need to shut the hell up! Lord knows, they all have probably done something in their lifetime to shame themselves and loved ones. The only difference is they were lucky not to have their dirt publicized. I want all of those pencil-necked golfing pros to do me a favor. Sit your plaid-Knickers-wearing, loud shirt sporting, 18-hole-playing asses down and suck on a bottle of Yoo-hoo! None of you are fit to carry Woods' golf shoes.

Secondly, the last time I checked, only one person was perfect enough to feed five thousand people with just fives loaves of bread and two small fish; turn water into wine and walk on water. No one on this planet is capable of such feats because we’re mere mortals. Moreover, as mere mortals, it is part of our DNA to fuck up every now and then. Why the hell do you think the term “I’m sorry” was invented? Hallmark and 1-800 FLOWERS have made billions from faithful and unfaithful people!

All of the advertisers that are bailing on Woods are publicly saying they want a perfect human being as their spokesperson. Excuse me!!!! You stuffed shirts at Accenture and other Fortune 500 companies can’t be that damn stupid; not when some of you may have cheated on your tax returns or banged your hot-ass secretary - like a screen door caught in a hurricane - on those extended business trips. Folks, did you hear the collective gasp of every well-to-do housewife in America that read the previous line? They're not stupid. They know what time it is. I'll go as far as to say that some of the execs that dumped Woods may have spent time in jail or did a stint in rehab. My point is everybody has skeletons lurking in the closet, so let’s not fool ourselves or treat Woods like he's the worst person on the planet.

Thanks to each corporate sponsor's asinine, knee-jerk reaction to the scandal, they lost sight of the fact that Woods has also done some major good through his charitable work and within the Professional Golfers Association. The sponsors and ad execs drank the nasty Kool-Aid that the Jim Jones media loves to serve up, and they ended up throwing the baby out with the bath water. They were wrong to do that. Tigers are fast becoming an endangered species all over the world, and given his rare and amazing contribution to the sport of golf, this Tiger, flaws and all, should also be preserved and protected.

Photo source: Rupert Murdoch - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 2007
Copyright World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org) swiss-image.ch

Author: worldeconomicforum at http://www.flickr.com

Permission: Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License.