Power Rankings: Barbasol Championship

And in this corner (of the world), they are 156 golfers poised to compete at the Barbasol Championship in Nicholasville, Kentucky. This is the other of the tournaments co-sanctioned by the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour this week. The Genesis Scottish Open also received the usual treatment with a Power Rankings.

The Champions Trace Course at Keene Trace Golf Club south of Lexington promises to yield lower numbers than its counterpart, The Renaissance Club, so the approach is different for the blended field for which about one-third are DP World Tour members. Details on what they can expect, what’s at stake (with what’s not) and more are chronicled beneath the projected contenders and others to consider.

OTHERS TO CONSIDER

• Jim Herman … As his fully exempt status for winning the Wyndham Championship in 2020 is nearing an end, the 45-year-old has perfected exceptionally timely performances. It includes at Keene Trace in 2019 where and when he qualified via Past Champion status. Positive results have eluded him of late, but he did light up TPC Deere Run last week for an eight-under 63 in the second round. Not only did he answer his victory here with a T20 in his title defense (in 2021), but this is as close to a home game as it gets for the Cincinnati native whose beloved Reds are, gulp, atop the National League Central at the All-Star break. Not that he lacks for confidence, but that’s the kind of bonus mojo that he hasn’t felt in a long time.

• MJ Daffue … On a racetrack like Keene Trace, it wouldn’t hurt for him to think of it as a 72-hole open qualifier. That was his mode of entry du jour five times in 2020-21. Now a first-time PGA TOUR member this season (although not eligible for Rookie of the Year votes because he exceeded seven starts two seasons back), he’s performed best on approach and on the par 5s. With piling up scoring opportunities and taking advantage of four par 5s serve as priorities 1 and 1a this week, he’s positioned to cash for a fourth consecutive start.

• Satoshi Kodaira … Limited to 11 starts this season due to conditional status and commitments abroad in the last quarter of 2022, the 33-year-old from Japan is clinging to glimmers of hope to regain fully exempt status on the PGA TOUR. Currently second in fairways hit, 41st in greens in regulation and T18 in proximity to the hole, those present reasons to be confident even with a reduced sample size. Of his 39 rounds this season, 23 have beaten par, as well as 11 of his 12 at Keene Trace where his best of three paydays in as many tries is a T20 two years ago.

• Julien Guerrier … The Frenchman just turned 38 and he’s a non-winner in 192 starts on the DP World Tour as a professional, but he currently is enjoying his best season. Thanks to a pair of podium finishes in his last six starts, he’s 29th in the Race to Dubai, second-best among fellow members at Keene Trace.

The physical space between The Renaissance Club and Keene Trace also can define the challenge inside the ropes on both tracks. While the stop in Scotland was the hardest par 70 of all non-majors in its debut as a PGA TOUR host a year ago, Keene Trace has been a perennial pushover among the par 72s since it was introduced in 2018. Last year’s scoring average of 69.817 was the bull’s eye, and it should be again this week.

Inclement weather is all but a certainty in any or all of the first three rounds. Intermittent puffs of air will lift a little of the heavy air with daytime highs in the mid-80s, but it’s not going to blow like its distant cousin on the Firth of Forth, so the soft, 7,328-yard stage in central Kentucky will be there for the taking.

The tallest rough is down an inch to 2½ inches and the bentgrass greens essentially are average in size at 6,000 square feet, but they’re prepped to run no longer than 11½ feet on the Stimpmeter, so scoring will resemble the sensory overload of a pinball machine. Even though Keene Trace turns in one of the lowest averages in distance of putts converted – 67 feet, 5 inches last year was the second-shortest among all courses – the sheer volume of attempts fulfills the inverse relationship. The field will sink about a third of its average of 12½ greens in regulation per round.

The last three cuts on the PGA TOUR fell at 4-under par, and that includes the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club, which was the only par 72 among them, but this week’s floor to play on might be 5-under 139. It was here last year when a whopping 83 survived. In fact, using the current standard of low 65 and ties, only once in its first four editions would the cut been higher than 5-under, in 2021 when it still would have been 4-under. (The 2020 contest was canceled due to the pandemic.)

Winning paces have ranged from Jim Herman’s 26-under in 2019 to Seamus Power’s 21-under in 2021. All champions have received 300 FedExCup points and a membership exemption in the winners category two seasons beyond the current, and that’ll be the case again this week if the winner is a PGA TOUR member upon arrival. Should a non-member prevail, he’ll be eligible for a membership exemption through only 2024. A DP World Tour member would earn the standard exemption on his circuit for taking the title.

An agreement between the PGA TOUR and the DP World Tour is that top 10s among non-members at the Barbasol Championship will not pay forward as a top-10 exemption into next week’s Barracuda Championship. Likewise, top 10s among non-members at the Barracuda will not apply for the same exemption into the 3M Open that follows.

Defending champion Trey Mullinax has opted not to compete in advance of his second appearance in The Open Championship.

ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE

PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled.

MONDAY: Power Rankings (Scottish)
TUESDAY*: Power Rankings (Barbasol), Sleepers (Scottish)
WEDNESDAY: Golfbet Insider
SUNDAY: Payouts and Points (Scottish), Payouts and Points (Barbasol), Medical Extensions, Qualifiers, Reshuffle

* - Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.