While the great and the good of golf are battling it out in the WGC in Memphis this week, the second string of the PGA Tour get the chance to showcase their credentials in the annual Stableford scoring event, the Barracuda Championship.
This event kick started the career of Collin Morikawa last season and there are plenty of hopefuls who will be looking to follow in his footsteps and springboard their career into the spotlight, or revive it to old glories.
Recent Winners
2019 – Collin Morikawa
2018 – Andrew Putnam
2017 – Chris Stroud
2016 – Greg Chalmers
2015 – JJ Henry
2014 – Geoff Ogilvy
2013 – Gary Woodland
2012 – JJ Henry
2011 – Scott Piercy
2010 – Matt Bettencourt
The Scoring
It is Stableford scoring this week rather than the usual scoring system used on the PGA Tour. Players receive two points to their score for every birdie they make while each eagle is worth five points. You get nothing for a par and lose a point for each bogey your player makes. Double bogeys and worse are worth a loss of three points. At the end of the week the highest number of points wins the tournament.
The Format
The scoring might be the same this week but the course being used isn’t as the tournament has moved to the Old Greenwood Course at the Tahoe Mountain Club. The Nicklaus designed course is said to be perfect for this scoring with three par 5s and three drivable par fours. Reading between the lines it is a cross between Riviera and Muirfield Village, albeit easier to score on. The overriding thing to remember is birdies are the order of the day. The last two years the player who has made the most birdies has won the tournament.
We are at altitude this week so the ball is going to go further so players with a good record in this part of the world or in places like Mexico or Switzerland are good to have on side. Nearly all Nicklaus designs have wide open landing spots and require accurate irons and this is unlikely to be any different. I’m after players with a bit of length who can putt well. A decent short game would be a bonus as I don’t expect many long irons being hit in.
The Field
We don’t really need to cover the fact that the field this week is pretty ordinary, although actually because this event usually sits alongside The Open, it is probably stronger than normal as not so many people are playing the other tournament. That should mean we get a competitive tournament. We have players who have multiple wins on the PGA Tour here in the likes of Russell Henley, Brendan Steele, Ryan Moore and Martin Kaymer.
We also have a whole bunch of players who are looking for their maiden win at this level in players such as Alex Noren, Sam Burns, Patrick Rodgers and Kurt Kitayama. There are also players in between who have a win on tour in Lanto Griffin, Branden Grace, Si Woo Kim, Kyle Stanley and others. All in all we have a decent mix of players to get stuck into here.
Market Leaders
Depending on where you shop this week you can get four co-favourites at 22/1. That in itself highlights the open and competitive nature of this tournament. The four men in question are Brendan Steele, Alex Noren, Ryan Moore and Russell Henley. I’ll elaborate on Noren below. Steele may well go well here. He hits it a long way whereas his putting can be sketchy. Henley doesn’t hit it as far but he’s known as one of the best putters in the game. Moore is an accurate sort but his short game would have me having kittens at this price.
Sam Burns is 25/1 to win this week and I get why he is popular. He smacks it miles off the tee and when he is in form he can hole some putts too. There has been a feeling for a while that Burns is due a breakthrough and in a lower grade to what he has been competing in recently the natural thing is to think that will come here. He’s a little skinny at 25/1 for a man who isn’t used to winning though it must be said.
Another man who has seemingly been a winner in waiting for a while is Patrick Rodgers. He looked like winning every week when he broke onto the tour a few years ago but he is still looking to break his duck. He has all the credentials needed to win a lot of tournaments in the modern game. He spanks it miles and has a good touch on the greens so the only thing that can be attributed to him is a lack of intensity in his game. Either way he’s a touch on the short side at 28/1. It is 33/1 bar.
Main Bets
I intimated I would expand on Alex Noren here and that is because he is the first of my main bets this week. Regular readers will know I’m a massive fan of the Swede and there is so much to like about him here, especially given that he came back into form at the 3M Open last week where a better final two holes and he might even have pinched the title. He is playing to get into the USPGA Championship here and needs to win to get in. He’s also playing for official membership of the tour beyond next season and has the ideal game for this place. He is long enough off the tee, a brilliant iron player and has a wonderful touch on and around the greens. He’ll win plenty of PGA Tour events when he has status properly and that could come here. Throw in an excellent record in Switzerland meaning the altitude isn’t going to be an issue and he looks a superb bet here.
Another player I’ve been a big fan of for a while is Lanto Griffin. Griffin won the Houston Open earlier in the season so he ticks the winner box and his game is just perfect for this place. He hits it a long way off the tee, and is better on tracks where there is some freedom off the tee, and he is one of the best putters on the tour. He has been a little bit quiet since the restart but recorded top 25s in the strong field at the Travelers and at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. He was prominent on the Korn Ferry Tour last season and I expect a big showing from a man who ticks plenty of boxes this week.
Outsiders
I’ll chuck some darts at a couple of big hitters and a man who knows this course better than anyone this week. The first of the big hitters is Wyndham Clark, a player who I took last week at the 3M Open. He shot a decent first round but it went pear-shaped in the second round and he ended up missing the cut. It might just have been that it was too big a tournament for him. He is a player who smacks it a long way off the tee though and he is a decent putter too so a level below the best on the PGA Tour is likely to be more his cup of tea. At 66/1 he’s potentially overpriced here.
Brandon Harkins is the man with the course knowledge this week. His family regular went on holiday in this part of the world so he would make sure he played a round of golf here and is said to have played the course more than 20 times. Admittedly that won’t have been in tournament conditions but with no crowds or anything not much is going to have changed here. If there is a strategy to this, as there is to so many Nicklaus designs, he’ll know the landing spots and where to miss from the get go. That doesn’t mean he’ll win the tournament but he’s been playing well enough on the Korn Ferry Tour recently to suggest that it is worth paying to see how he performs at 100/1.
My last bet for this tournament is going to be Seamus Power. Power by name and power by nature here. He is one of the longest drivers on the tour and leads the field in birdie average this season. He is also high up in the eagle charts too so he’s sure to put plenty of points on the board. The key will come in limiting the mistakes he makes but he has a decent enough short game and isn’t a bad putter so with the positions he smacks it into off the tee his bogeys should be on the low side. He feels overpriced at 100/1.
Tips
Back A.Noren to win Barracuda Championship (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 23.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back L.Griffin to win Barracuda Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back them here:
Back W.Clark to win Barracuda Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with 888sport (1/5 1-6)
Back him here:
Back B.Harkins to win Barracuda Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-6)
Back him here:
Back S.Power to win Barracuda Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-7)
Back him here:
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