As the final Major of the season is taking place in The Open at Royal Troon, the unsung players of both the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour will have their chance to shine state-side.
Like last week’s Scottish Open and ISCO Championship, this week’s Barracuda Championship is co-sanctioned between the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour.
Again, like last week’s fixtures, this week offers another test, opposite of The Open, for golfers to secure valuable FedEx Cup points and in some instances, secure a PGA TOUR card.
There are just three weeks remaining before the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the time is now for bubble players to put together good results to improve their season-long standing positions.
This week’s venue will be the Old Greenwood Course at Tahoe Mountain Club in the Reno-Tahoe region of California.
The Barracuda Championship was first held in 1999 as the Reno-Tahoe Open and has always served as an opposite field event.
What is unique about this week’s event is the scoring style, which will play as a Modified Stableford scoring format with points awarded to scoring relative to par per hole. Golfers are looking for the highest score this week, opposed to the traditional lowest score winning.
Scoring Format
As previously mentioned, this week offers a change-of-pace to what we typically see on both the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour.
Rather than counting the total number of strokes taken in typical stroke play, this week’s Modified Stableford format is based on a points system relative to the number of strokes taken at each hole.
Good play results in added points as bad play results in negative points compared to the number of strokes to par on each hole.
Additionally, a golfer cannot record worse than a double-bogey on any given hole. If a golfer gets to double bogey, they can pick up their ball and move to the next hole.
In the end, the golfer with the highest number of points across all four days will claim victory.
Here is a breakdown of the points per play per hole:
Albatross - 8 Points
Eagle - 5 Points
Birdie - 2 Points
Par - 0 Points
Bogey - -1 Point
Double Bogey - -3 Points
This scoring format can create some very fun golf as the strategy can be summed up by the phrase, go for it. It’s a very risk-reward favored format as the worst possible outcome is a double-bogey.
In other words, golfers will oftentimes choose to risk it on shots they typically would not in standard stroke play.
The Field
Playing opposite The Open, the field is just what you would expect to see this week out of an alternate event. It consists of PGA TOUR players who oftentimes don’t get a start in some of the stronger fields and low-ranking Europeans.
A win this week would secure a PGA TOUR for any European based golfer. Others are looking to bolster their FedEx Cup point totals to sneak into the top 70 to secure a card for next season along with playing at the year-end FedEx Cup Playoffs.
This week’s field is headlined by the likes of Erik van Rooyen, Keith Mitchell, Michael Thorbjornsen, Sam Stevens and Taylor Pendrith.
Some notable names from the DP World Tour teeing it up this week include Alex Fitzpatrick, Gavin Green, Andy Sullivan, Fabrizio Zanotti, Johannes Veerman, Paul Waring and Dylan Frittelli among others.
Akshay Bhatia used this event a season ago as his maiden PGA Tour victory. He of course will be teeing it up this week at Royal Troon and will not be back this season to defend his title.
Chez Reavie is the most recent winner of this event to be playing this week. He won the title in 2022. He’ll be joined by Rooyen (2021) and Richy Werenski (2020) as former champions of this event playing this week
The Course
The Barracuda Championship switched venues in 2020. It was first played between 1999 and 2019 at the Jack Nicklaus designed Montreux Golf and Country Club just 30 miles away from the current venue, Old Greenwood Course at the Tahoe Mountain Club. The Old Greenwood Course was also designed by Jack Nicklaus
This will be the fourth consecutive year that the event is played at the Old Greenwood Course.
This week’s track plays as a par 71 at 7,480 yards but sits 6,000 feet above sea level. Therefore, it does not play as long as the scorecard suggests.
The elevation allows for the long-hitters off the tee to go even further. Although that may suggest that long-bombers off the tee may see an advantage, history has shown that finding the fairway and in turn, setting up a quality second shot has been key to victory here.
Old Greenwood is largely tree lined with water in play on six holes, adding to the importance of accuracy off the tee opposed to distance.
In all, there hasn’t been stat-tracking at this event and course so historical data is hard to find but we can access what to expect by the naked eye and other Jack Nickalus designs.
As for the scoring, the four winners here at Old Greenwood have gone 39 points (Werenski in 2020,) 50 points (Rooyen in 2021,) 43 points (Reavie in 2022) and 40 points (Bhatia in 2023.)
Golfers will be forced to ‘go-for-the-green’ as one may say in this risk-reward scoring format.
A strong all-around game, favoring tee-to-green and greens in regulation percentage statistics, seem to be the key to success here. Any hopeful winner too will have to get it done on the greens as a bad week with the flat stick will leave points on the table.
The Weather
There isn’t much to talk about when it comes to the weather this week as all four days look to be ideal for golf. There is a zero-percent chance of precipitation across all four days with temperatures ranging from 85-degrees on Thursday to 90-degrees on Sunday. Winds will begin at 12 miles-per-hour on Thursday before decreasing to nine miles-per-hour come Sunday.
Key Stats
Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (SG: TTG)
Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)
Greens in Regulation Percentage (GIR%)
Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (SG: OTT) / Driving Accuracy
Sand Saves Percentage
Birdie or Better Percentage
Bogey Avoidance
Scrambling
Strokes Gained: Putting (SG: PUTT)
Betting Card
Chan Kim (+4000)
I’m going back to the Chan Kim well this week. A final round nine-under last week at the ISCO Championship propelled him into a top ten finish. He also placed T12th recently at the John Deere Classic. He loves these smaller fielder events as he also placed T6th at the Corales Puntacana Championship, T8th at the Mexico Open, T14th at The American Express and T14th at the Valero Texas Open on the season. Kim is currently ninth on Tour in birdie or better percentage, 14th in SG: TTG, 15th in bogey avoidance, 16th in scrambling, 20th in SG: APP, 22nd in GIR%, 42nd in driving accuracy, 51st in SG: OTT, 54th in sand saves percentage and 155th in SG: PUTT. His putting can be bad but he did gain 0.491 strokes on the greens last week at the ISCO. Another week like that with the rest of what he brings to the table, he’ll be in contention on Sunday.
Mac Meissner (+4000)
Meissner placed T16th last week at the ISCO Championship. He placed T20th at the John Deere Classic in his start prior. Beyond that, he’s also placed T5th at the Charles Schwab Challenge, T13th at the Myrtle Beach Classic and T10th at the Valero Texas Open this season. Meissner is currently 21st on Tour in SG: TTG, 43rd in bogey avoidance, 49th in both SG: APP and scrambling, 50th in sand saves percentage, 51st in GIR%, 57th in birdie or better percentage, 78th in SG: OTT, 87th in driving accuracy and 102nd in SG: PUTT.
Johannes Veerman (+6600)
Veerman, a regular of the DP World Tour, placed T10th last week at the ISCO Championship. He’s a guy I’ve played often on the DP World Tour side of things. On the season he also placed T10th at the KLM Open, T8th at the European Open, T8th at the Volvo China Open and T2nd at the Hero Indian Open dating back to March. Veerman is currently 23rd on the DP World Tour in GIR%, 32nd in SG: APP, 33rd in SG: TTG and 55th in SG: PUTT.
Patton Kizzire (+10000)
Kizzire made the cut last week at the ISCO Championship but that’s the extent of that. He recently placed T20th at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, T10th at the Myrtle Beach Classic, T24th at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson and T23rd at the Corales Puntacana Championship. Kizzire is currently fourth on Tour in GIR%, 11th in SG: APP, 16th in birdie or better percentage, 22nd in sand saves percentage, 40th in bogey avoidance, 58th in SG: TTG, 74th in driving accuracy, 101st in scrambling, 108th in SG: OTT and 153rd in SG: PUTT.
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