The First Look: Barracuda Championship

The Barracuda Championship in Truckee, California, is the PGA TOUR’s only Modified Stableford event and represents one of the last chances for players to earn FedExCup points for the fast-approaching Playoffs.

After this week’s Barracuda Championship and The Open Championship, only two events remain – 3M Open and Wyndham Championship – before the Playoffs begin at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

Although not co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour, the Barracuda offers 50 spots to DP World Tour players.

Here’s how the Modified Stableford format works.

Here’s everything you need to know as the TOUR returns to Lake Tahoe.

FIELD NOTES: Up-and-coming stars and PGA TOUR winner this season Nick Dunlap is looking for another great result as we inch closer to the FedExCup Playoffs… Presidents Cup hopefuls this week include Canada’s Taylor Pendrith and Adam Svensson plus South Korea’s K.H. Lee, while International Team assistant captain Camilo Villegas is also in the field… Dylan Frittelli is the highest-ranked DP World Tour golfer in the field… Other past champs teeing it up this week include Chez Reavie, Andrew Putnam, and Richy Werenski… The four players who came up short in the five-man playoff at the ISCO Championship on Sunday – Matthew NeSmith, Rico Hoey, and Zac Blair – are all returning to action and will hope to do one better at the Barracuda Championship.

SPONSOR EXEMPTIONS: It will be a full-circle moment for the University of Florida’s Ian Gilligan at the Barracuda. Gilligan was a guest of the championship when he was a teenager and battling cancer. Now he’s 15th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and played the Shriners Children’s Open last fall after winning the Southern Highlands Collegiate while at Long Beach State…Newly minted pro Barclay Brown, a Stanford alum, will make his non-major PGA TOUR debut after playing The Open in 2022 and the U.S. Open last year. Brown held the clubhouse lead at The 150th Open after posting a 4-under 68 in the second group out. He is a member of Hallamshire Golf Club along with former U.S. Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick and brother Alex, with whom Brown played in the 2021 Walker Cup… Mats Ege, who finished No. 11 on the PGA TOUR University ranking for 2023-24, will make his TOUR debut. Ege played at East Tennessee State and was Southern Conference Player of the Year in 2022-23… Longtime pro Patrick Newcomb will play his first TOUR event since 2015. Newcomb has made two Korn Ferry Tour cuts this season… University of Utah alum Mitchell Schow (who is from the same hometown as PGA TOUR member Patrick Fishburn) won the Reno Open in April to earn a spot in his first PGA TOUR event… Low Amateur at both the Masters and the U.S. Open Neal Shipley is back in action on TOUR. Shipley has played three TOUR events since turning pro and finished tied for sixth at last week’s ISCO Championship… TOUR winners Ryan Palmer and Scott Piercy round out the sponsor invites.

COMCAST BUSINESS TOUR TOP 10: Sungjae Im jumped inside the TOUR TOP 10 after his T4 at the Genesis Scottish Open. Im has six top-10 finishes this season, four in his last six starts… Scottie Scheffler continues his run at No. 1 in the standings… Sahith Theegala (who finished T4 at the Scottish Open) and Hideki Matsuyama swapped spots in the standings, with Theegala now No. 7 and Matsuyama now No. 8… This is the first week all season that Byeong Hun An is not inside the TOUR TOP 10.

FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 300 FedExCup points.

COURSE: Tahoe Mountain Club (Old Greenwood), par 71, 7,480 yards. The tournament team has flipped the nines at Old Greenwood this year, which will provide added drama with two par 5s and a drivable par 4 now on the back nine. Having two par 5s gives players more opportunities to score big points with an eagle coming down the stretch.

This is the fifth year Old Greenwood will play host to the Barracuda. There are rolling hills, numerous bunkers (with new sand added to almost all of them), and large greens. The course, which opened in 2004, is roughly 6,000 feet above sea level.

72-HOLE RECORD: +50, Erik Van Rooyen, 2021

18-HOLE RECORD: +22, Kyle Reifers (fourth round, 2015), Chad Campbell (third round, 2018).

LAST TIME: Akshay Bhatia birdied the 72nd hole to tie Patrick Rodgers, then won the playoff with a par. Rodgers missed a 15-foot birdie putt on the last hole in regulation that would have given him the victory. His tee shot on the first playoff hole ended up in a divot and he hit his approach well short. It was Bhatia’s first PGA TOUR title after he earned Special Temporary Membership earlier in the season after finishing runner-up at the Puerto Rico Open. France’s Julien Guerrier fired the round of the week, +20, to tie for third along with Jens Dantorp three points out of the playoff.

How to watch (all times ET):

Television:

• Thursday-Sunday, 5-8 p.m. (Golf Channel)