Tag: Barbasol Championship

Seamus Power earns first PGA Tour win at Barbasol Championship after six-hole playoff

Power won with par after six playoff holes.

For the third time in the last four weeks a PGA Tour event ended with a playoff. A long one.

After Cam Davis and Harris English’s marathon wins in back-to-back tournaments, this week’s Barbasol Championship at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky – held opposite the British Open won by Collin Morikawa – was won by Seamus Power in six extra holes over J.T. Poston.

Poston appeared to be cruising to victory on Sunday before a wayward drive and piece of string flipped the final round on its head.

In search of his second PGA Tour win to go with the 2019 Wyndham Championship, Poston had a one-shot lead at 19 under entering the day and got as low as 24 under thanks to a front-nine 4-under 32 aided by a trio of birdies on Nos. 2, 7 and 8 and an eagle on the par-3 5th.

Momentum changed on the par-5 15th when Poston’s tee shot was ruled out of bounds by mere inches. He wound up making double-bogey seven, followed by a bogey on the par-3 16th, which brought Power into play.

The Irishman was three shots back after 54 holes but posted the clubhouse lead at 21 under after a second consecutive weekend round of 5-under 67.

On the first playoff hole, No. 18, Power chipped-in for birdie from just off the green and Poston answered with a birdie putt from 10 feet. Again on the 18th, Each found the green in regulation and flirted with birdie on the second playoff hole, but a pair of pars pushed the playoff to a third hole.

After each made par yet again, this time on the par-3 ninth, they played the hole again to the same result to send the playoff back to No. 18 for the fifth extra hole. Two more pars meant a sixth playoff hole, No. 18 for a fourth time, where Power prevailed after Poston’s tee shot found the water and his approach missed the green.

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J.T. Poston leads Barbasol, but James Hahn stole the show with a third-round 60

While it’s J.T. Poston’s name at the top of the Barbasol Championship, the most eyes were arguably on James Hahn as he shot 60.

After the third round of the Barbasol Championship, J.T. Poston remains at the top of the leaderboard. Poston’s second consecutive round of 66 at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, was enough to keep ahead of some pretty aggressive chasers.

One in particular.

While it’s Poston’s name at the top next to his 19-under total, the most eyes were arguably on James Hahn on a day when the Barbasol was pushed back because of weather and then pushed back again. The final groups didn’t even hit the first tee until shortly before 5 p.m., but by that time Hahn had made huge strides – to the tune of 46 spots – up the leaderboard. Hahn is now 17 under and in third, one shot behind Luke List in second.

After opening rounds of 69-70 at Keene Trace, Hahn came back on Saturday with a 12-under 60. He has four birdies on the front nine plus an eagle at the par-5 fifth then made four more birdies and another eagle, at the par-5 15th, on the back.

Hahn, a two-time winner on Tour, has only made nine cuts in 21 starts this season, but something clicked on Saturday.

“You know, earlier in the week I was kind of messing around with different practice routines with my putting stroke,” he said. “Yesterday actually I changed my routine, decided not to take anymore practice strokes at the ball. That freed me up a little bit, but had no idea I was going to shoot like that today.”

After he chipped in on 15 for eagle, Hahn had to do a double-take. The leaderboard showed him at 11 under for the day, but he had “no idea I was that far deep into the round.”

He had a putt for 59 on 18, but missed.

“Felt like you only get so many opportunities to shoot 59, so I wanted to be aggressive,” he said of playing the final hole. “Took driver off the tee, didn’t make a great swing but ended up in the fairway. I was lucky enough to put my hand on it. Hit a great second shot. The balls haven’t been spinning back all week and to see it spin back 20 feet was kind of heartbreaking, but I hit a good number, landed right next to the flag and I hit a really good putt. Speed was perfect, just didn’t give it enough break.”

Joseph Bramlett is also at 17 under and in a tie for third with Hahn. David Lingmerth and Seamus Power are both tied for fifth at 16 under.

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J.T. Poston rides strong ball-striking, soft greens to one-shot lead at Barbasol Championship

Combine soft conditions with what J.T. Poston called his best ball-striking in months, and it’s no wonder he has the lead.

The greens at Keene Trace Golf Club, site of this week’s Barbasol Championship, just seem to fit J.T. Poston’s eye. As a result, Poston, whose lone Tour win came at the 2019 Wyndham Championship, has a one-shot lead entering the weekend in Nicholasville, Kentucky.

“They’re a lot like what I grew up on in Hickory, North Carolina,” Poston said. “They’re bent, like you said, and they’re about the same speed as what I’m probably used to when I was a kid. Just kind of brings back some good memories of putting on that putting green growing up. It just feels normal to me. Don’t feel like I have to hit it too far, I’ve just got a good feel for the speed right now.”

Conditions are soft at Keene Trace after multiple rain storms during the first round. Combine those soft conditions with what Poston called his best ball-striking in months, and it’s no wonder he has put together rounds of 65-66 to start the event.

Ryan Armour and Joseph Bramlett, at 12 under, trail Poston by a shot.

Poston is now in his fifth year on Tour and when asked Friday to reflect on the start of his career, the putter was a theme. It has carried him through times when he felt his ball-striking was not as strong.

Scores have been low so far and the cut fell at 4 under. Poston didn’t make a bogey on Friday and made just one on Thursday. He’ll need to keep that kind of pace to stay ahead of the field on the weekend.

“I’m going to kind of approach it like I have the last two days and see if I can – I don’t even know if I’m going to be leading by the end of the day, somebody might still catch me,” he said. “If I’m leading, I’m going to try and extend that lead to as many as I can, just try to put myself in as good of position I can the last nine holes.”

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Matt Every withdraws from Barbasol Championship after reportedly tossing putter in pond

Matt Every’s early exit from the Barbasol Championship, the PGA Tour event opposite the British Open, continues a tough stretch.

Matt Every has bowed out of the Barbasol Championship, the PGA Tour event opposite this week’s British Open, and initially, there was some confusion over what caused that WD. The PGA Tour initially tweeted from its @PGATOURComms account that Every, the Arnold Palmer Invitational winner in 2014 and 2015, was out with a back injury.

The Tour then came back nearly two hours later with the clarification that Every withdrew because of heart complications.

Every opened the event at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, with a 3-under 69. On Friday, his day was decidedly less pedestrian. Starting on No. 10, he made three bogeys plus a birdie in his first four holes then doubled the par-3 14th. Two birdies and two bogeys followed.

Every’s card ends with a bogey on No. 1. In 10 holes played before withdrawing, Every did not make a par.

According to the Twitter account Monday Q Info, Every tossed his putter in a pond at No. 17 at Keene Trace and from there he began putting with a wedge.

Every’s early exit at Barbasol continues a tough year for the 37-year-old. He has teed it up 18 times on the PGA Tour this season but has yet to make a cut. Last season he made just six cuts in 19 starts.

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Brian Stuard leads at the end of start-stop day at Barbasol Championship

Brian Stuard nearly put together a flawless round on a start-stop opening day at the Barbasol Championship.

When the focus turned away from the British Open late Thursday afternoon, it shifted back stateside to Kentucky. Unfortunately, right about the time the first round of the year’s final major was wrapping up, the Barbasol Championship was stalling out.

Two weather delays at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, prevented the first round from coming to a tidy close on Thursday, and when darkness stopped play for a third time, some players had as many as six holes left.

At the top of the leaderboard, however, Brian Stuard had managed to get in a full round. He came out of the gate with five birdies in his first six holes and had a perfect round going until he got to No. 18, where he made his only bogey of the day. He finished with an 8-under 64 and leads by one shot.

“I think it’s one of those courses where you feel like if you kind of get it going, you can make some birdies,” he said of Keene Trace. “The greens are rolling great and they’re soft, so you can attack. Like you said, it’s just one that you know you’ve got to make a bunch of birdies and just try to have at it.”

That’s a good thing considering that 2019 Barbasol champ Jim Herman won at 26 under. Last year’s tournament fell victim to COVID-19.

“It was a good start, but in all honesty, it doesn’t really mean much,” Stuard said of the round. “I need three more good rounds to put myself in contention, I guess. It’s nice to start off well. Yeah, I need three more, so just got to keep going.”

The chasers are plenty. Eight men stand at 7 under, with three of them still needing to finish the first round: Patrick Rodgers, Will Grimmer and Stephen Stallings Jr.

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Preston Summerhays, 18, gets hot early at Barbasol Championship, his second PGA Tour start

Preston Summerhays, 18, is making his second PGA Tour start with eyes wide open.

Preston Summerhays’ first PGA Tour start came in a major when he was 18 years old. Last fall at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York, Summerhays reaped the benefits of his first U.S. Golf Association championship. He gained entry into the 2020 U.S. Open when he won the 2019 U.S. Junior, but missed the cut at Winged Foot.

Last summer, the opportunity to defend that junior title slipped away when the championship was one of 10 USGA championships canceled because of COVID-19. By the time the U.S. Junior returns next week at the Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst, North Carolina, Summerhays will be too old to defend. He turns 19 on July 22, which is two days ahead of the deadline and thus makes him ineligible.

This week’s start at the Barbasol Championship seems like a nice consolation. Summerhays played his way into this event by winning the inaugural Barbasol Junior Championship last month. He was 11 under after 36 holes at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, and a had a six-shot lead when the final round was canceled because of heavy rain. He was declared the winner.

On Thursday at Keene Trace, Summerhays came out of the gate with an even-par 72. He was 3 under after three birdies on the front nine, but a double-bogey at No. 11 and a closing bogey at No. 18 set him back.

“I played decent today,” Summerhays said. “I got off to a really good start, 3 under through nine. Then hit a couple bad shots on the back side, but I feel really good about my game. Like you said, it was my second start, so I’ve been able to take some experience from the past Open and put it into this event and it’s been really fun so far.”

Summerhays is watching closely this week at how Tour players score and how they handle themselves – not that he doesn’t have an inside track on that kind of thing anyway. The Summerhays family is deep in golf, from Preston dad’s Boyd (also his caddie this week), who is a well-known instructor and former PGA Tour player, to his great uncle Bruce, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour Champions.

As for how Preston plans to improve for the next round?

“I’ll probably just need to work on my wedges,” he said. “I probably could have hit it a little closer today. I hit a lot of great putts that just didn’t fall, but I feel pretty good overall, just need to make sure I keep hitting fairways, hit it close and make some putts.”

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Jim Herman has an idea for past Barbasol Championship winners: ‘A little head start’

Jim Herman has finished in the top 30 in each of his last three events, including a T-28 at last weekend’s John Deere Classic.

Just in time to play the delayed role of defending champion, Jim Herman seems to have found his golf game.

After a rough patch earlier this year, one in which he missed the cut eight times in 10 tournaments, the Cincinnati native has finished in the top 30 in each of his last three events, including a T-28 at last weekend’s John Deere Classic in Silvis, Illinois.

And now Herman heads back to Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, just on the outskirts of Lexington. Two years ago, Herman hoisted the trophy after the Barbasol Championship, using a scintillating 62 in the third round en route to the win.

Since this event was cut from the PGA Tour schedule a year ago, Herman has had an extra 12 months to enjoy his reign over a tournament that’s just about an hour from his boyhood home.

As for defending, he’d love to put a new rule in effect for past champs.

“I wish you could start off with a little head start. If they’d give that to
you, I’d definitely take it,” he said. “It’s hard to get back into that mode where you were on that Sunday. We hit all these golf balls, we do all the practice to put ourselves in this position where we’re in the final groups on the weekend. There’s a lot that goes into it and just to say that you could just walk into a
course where you’ve won that following year and assume you’re going to be in the mix is very naive of myself or anyone else.

“Just trying to have some carryover of my form from the last couple weeks and … draw from the emotion and the positive vibes that I did have from two years ago here and see if we can build on that.”

For Herman, the key in recent weeks has been his putter, which has moved him back into contention for the FedEx Cup playoffs. Herman currently sits at 174th (the top 125 reach the playoffs in August), but he’ll need a big showing in the Barbasol and in upcoming weeks to qualify.

Herman said in advance of this week’s title defense that his driver has been clicking, yet the putter is perhaps the biggest key. Even with recent strong showings, he still sits 169th on Tour in Strokes Gained: Putting.

But with soft conditions, he’s expecting another low number will capture the big prize.

“I think we’re going to have some low scores again. I don’t know if it will be 26 under like two years ago, but you’re going to just have to go low. The course is in good shape, but wet,” Herman said. “The greens are putting really well, but they’re soft. We’re going to be throwing darts all week. If the fans like birdies, we’re going to be making them this week.”

The opposite-field event is certainly ripe for the taking. With most of the world’s best players off at the British Open, Herman has as good a chance as any against the likes of Charl Schwartzel, Seamus Power, Russell Knox, Richy Werenski and Patrick Rodgers.

And if it doesn’t work out he’ll simply wait for his next chance to defend a crown — at the Wyndham Championship in early August. His only previous Tour victory came in 2016 at the Houston Open.

“With Wyndham coming up in about three or four weeks, there’s a lot of positive energy in my camp. All my friends and family, a lot of people looking forward to this event coming down from Cincinnati here in Lexington,” he said. “Then look forward to Memphis, playing Memphis in a couple weeks, and then getting back out to defending at Wyndham. Great tournament there, had a great weekend at Wyndham last year.

“Winning three times obviously it’s been way exceeding my overall expectations, but it’s been a pleasure being the champion three times in three great events.”

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Scott Stallings withdraws from Barbasol Championship

Scott Stallings withdraws from Barbasol Championship.

The Barbasol Championship is taking place Jul 15–18 at Keene Trace Golf Club (Champion Trace Course) in Nicholasville, Kentucky.

Local East Tennessee PGA Tour golfer Scott Stallings has withdrawn from the 2021 Barbasol Championship.

From Oak Ridge High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Stallings played collegiately at Tennessee Tech.

Stallings has appeared in 282 career PGA Tour events. He turned professional in 2011.

Stallings has three career victories: 2011 The Greenbrier Classic, 2012 True South Classic, 2014 Farmers Insurance Open.

The East Tennessee native has recorded 23 top-10 and 56 top-25 finishes during his career. He has made the cut 147 times.

Stallings has recorded two top-10 and four top-25 finishes in 2021. He has made 13 cuts in 23 events played this season.

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