While The Open Championship is taking place in Scotland, Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood course in nearby Truckee, California, will be hosting the Barracuda Championship, a co-sanctioned event between the PGA Tour and the European Tour. The tournament will begin on July 18 and run through July 21 on this par-71, 7,480-yard course.
This tournament is the only PGA Tour event that uses the Modified Stableford scoring format. The tournament’s official website explains how it works: Instead of counting the total number of strokes taken as in typical stroke play golf, the Modified Stableford consists of scoring based on the number of strokes taken on each hole. Good play adds points and poor play subtracts them. Unlike traditional scoring methods, where the goal is to get the lowest score, in Modified Stableford, the goal is to get the highest. The number of points awarded for each hole is determined by comparing the number of strokes to par. Once a player has made two strokes over par, a double bogey, he may pick up his ball as it is not possible to score any points on that hole and he cannot lose any additional points. He can then resume play on the next hole. A double eagle gives you +8, an eagle is +5, abirdie is +2, par is 0, abogey is -1 and a double bogey (or worse) is -3.
The American Akshay Bhatia won the title last year with 40 points, while the record is held by South African Erik Van Rooyen with 50 points.
2024 Barracuda Championship Preview and Free Picks – Info
Where can I watch it?
Golf Channel
2024 Barracuda Championship Top Contenders
Although most of the world’s top players will be at The Open, California will feature six golfers in the FedEx Cup top 70, with Taylor Pendrith (36th) beingthe highest-ranked.
Pendrith has had a great 2024, capturing his first PGA Tour title after winning THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson by one stroke in early May. He also posted three other top 10s and a 16th-place finish at the U.S. Open.
The Canadian missed the cut last year, but finished 11th the year before and in 2021 was 13th with a score of +34, his best points finish.
However, the betting favorite is 32-year-old American Keith Mitchell, who had three top 10s this year. He missed the cut last week at the Genesis Scottish Open, and 10 days ago was 18th at the John Deere Classic.
Mitchell, who is 74th in the FedEx Cup, has a title he won in 2019 at the Honda Classic, while this year in 19 of the tournaments he played, he made the cut in 14 of them. Last year he was in this same field but failed to make the cut.
Finally, South African Erik Van Rooyen, champion in 2021 and who holds the record of points in this tournament, has to be included in the list of candidates. The 34-year-old golfer is 55th in the FedEx Cup and has four top 10s this year, including a runner-up finish at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches.
Last week he was 39th at the Genesis Scottish Open and in late June was sixth at the Rocket Mortage Classic. In addition to the 2021 Barracuda Championship, he was champion of the World Wide Technology Championship last year.
2024 Barracuda Championship Outside picks
Much has been made of Mac Meissner in his rookie season, achieving important things. He was one of the contenders last week at the ISCO Championship, but finished 16th, improving on the 20th-place finish he posted a few days earlier at the John Deere Classic. In addition, he has two top 10s this season, posting a 10th-place finish at the Valero Texas Open and a fifth at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Another of the youngsters who can give something to talk about in this tournament is Michael Thorbjornsen. The 22-year-old American was second in the John Deere Classic and was another of the candidates to win the ISCO Championship, but could not make the cut. After that bitter pill, he is eager to win his first title.
And finally, we want to talk about Beau Forest, not because of his chances to be champion, but because this 26-year-old American, who works full-time as a software engineer for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprises company, carded a 6-under 65 in the Barracuda Championship’s Monday and won the chance to play the tournament.
He played golf at the University of the Pacific, graduating in 2020, and has since been working in Aruba. This will be his first PGA Tour professional tournament and it’s worth seeing what he can do while fulfilling a dream.
2024 Barracuda Championship Podium Betting Picks
1. Keith Mitchell
2. Taylor Pendrith
3. Mac Meissner
Prize bag
The Barracuda Championship is a tournament with a total purse of 4 million dollars, which is distributed among its participants. The champion will receive 720.000 dollars, in addition to 300 points for the FedEx Cup.
2024 Barracuda Championship Odds
Keith Mitchell – 17
Erik Van Rooyen – 20
Patrick Rodgers – 23
Chan Kim – 23
Taylor Pendrith – 23
Michael Thorbjornsen – 23
Sam Stevens – 26
Mark Hubbard – 31
Rico Hoey – 31
Mac Meissner – 31
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