It’s the fifth and final opposite-field event on the PGA Tour’s 2024 schedule.
It’s the fifth and final opposite-field event on the PGA Tour’s 2024 schedule.
But the money still spends. There was a $4 million purse and a $720,000 first-place prize on the line at the Old Greenwood course at Tahoe Mountain Club at the 2024 Barracuda Championship.
The lone Modified Stableford scoring system event of the season rewards aggressive play and Nick Dunlap, who had seven birdies and an eagle Sunday, was the most rewarded this week.
Dunlap won for the second time on the PGA Tour this season after scoring 19 points in the final round for a four-day total of 49 points.
Here’s the complete look at the money won at the 2024 Barracuda Championship.
This time, Dunlap gets to cash the winner’s check.
Nick Dunlap has won again on the PGA Tour but this time, he gets to cash the winner’s check.
Dunlap scored 19 points in Sunday’s final round of the Barracuda Championship, the fifth and final opposite-field event on the PGA Tour’s 2024 schedule and also the lone event that uses the Modified Stableford scoring system.
Dunlaps’s day matched the highest single-day scoring mark of the week at the Old Greenwood course at Tahoe Mountain Club. His Sunday scorecard featured seven birdies (worth two points) and an eagle (worth five) and would’ve added up to a 62 it it were a stroke-play event.
His eagle came courtesy of a 55-foot bomb on the par-5 15th.
Dunlap vaulted up the leaderboard to finish with 49 points. He then had to play the waiting game to see if third-round leader Mac Meissner or anyone else could catch up. But no one could and Dunlap, who doesn’t turn 21 until December 23, collected a second piece of hardware this year.
Dunlap won the American Express in January to become the first amateur since Phil Mickelson in 1991 to win on Tour as an amateur. His amateur status, though, kept him from collecting the top prize of $1.512 million. Dunlap turned pro shortly after that and now has a second Tour win on his resume. His win this time around is good for $720,000.
He’s the first golfer in PGA Tour history win as both an amateur and a pro in the same season.
As he awaited the trophy ceremony, a camera captured a phone conversation Dunlap had with his mom, who insisted she’s not missing his next tournament.
Dunlap, who was No. 95 on the FedEx Cup points list heading into the Barracuda, has shot up to 63rd, which, if it holds, would put him into the FedEx Cup Playoffs in his rookie season. The top 70 make the field at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis.
TROON, Scotland – Eight years ago, the last time the British Open was held at Royal Troon, Andrew Johnston was the media darling of the championship.
“You want to pick me up?” Johnston joked to a reporter who asked about his weight during a media session that week.
Of the pizza he pounded after the first round, he said, “It wasn’t like a 20-inch, ‘Win a T-shirt if you finish it’ type of thing.”
Henrik Stenson may have won the Claret Jug but the jovial Johnston, known since childhood as Beef, won the hearts and minds of golf fans everywhere, finishing eighth after a final-round 68 and entered the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time at No. 89.
“The best week of my golfing career,” he said this week.
Reporter Nick Lozito, who interviewed Johnston before the tournament and wrote a piece worth your time on his Substack, shared that Johnston recently stumbled on an Instagram reel from that week at Troon. It showed his entrance under the first-tee grandstands to chants of “Beef! Beef! Beef!”
“That was an amazing experience,” Johnston told Lozito. “I’m still pretty speechless. Everywhere I’ve gone since, all over the world — America, all throughout Europe, Australia, South Africa — the fans and crowds have been amazing.”
This week, the 35-year-old Englishman is a continent and nearly 5,000 miles away from the 152nd Open and trying to resurrect his career. He’s playing his trade in Truckee, California, competing in a co-sanctioned event for the PGA Tour and DP World Tour at the Barracuda Championship. After spending one season on the PGA Tour in 2017-18, he failed to keep his card and then suffered a thumb injury that required multiple surgeries and sidelined him for most of 2021-22. That sent his world ranking plummeting to No. 1,932 late in 2023.
“I didn’t know if I’d ever play golf again,” Johnston said late last year. When he finally returned, he withdrew from a tournament in South Africa citing a back injury.
According to Lozito, Johnston played with childhood friend Jess McAvoy, who caddied for him earlier in his career, at North Middlesex, their home course in London, a few months later, and convinced him to leave his job and caddie for him once again.
Englishman Andrew Johnston slaps hands with a fan at the Albertsons Boise Open. He earned his PGA Tour card through the Korn Ferry Tour Finals in 2017.
Johnston returned to the DP World Tour in June and missed his first two cuts. His play improved over the next two events, placing in the top 40 to jump nearly 800 spots in the world rankings, to 1,245, before heading to America. It’s a long way from those peak days of Beef Mania when the golf world couldn’t get enough of him.
Lozito concluded his piece by painting the picture of Johnston sitting in the shade before his Wednesday pro-am round, when his three amateur partners rushed to shake his hand.
“Is it OK if I call you ‘Beef?’ ” one asks.
Beef gives one of his infectious chuckles, Lozito noted.
Sunday is bound to be life changing for one PGA Tour player.
None of the top four players on the leaderboard at the 2023 Barracuda Championship at Tahoe Mountain Club in Truckee, California, have won on Tour before. Two of them, Ryan Gerard and Akshay Bhatia, weren’t even PGA Tour members when the season began.
After Sunday’s final round, it’s likely someone hoists a trophy for the first time.
Patrick Rodgers birdied the 18th hole and earned two points in the Modified Stableford format to take a one-point lead over Gerard going into the final round. Rodgers tallied eight points in the third round and sits at 34 for the tournament. Gerard, who led after the 36 holes, struggled to garner any momentum on moving day, earning only three points and has 33 points.
“I was really super proud of the way that I was resilient and turned the round around and knew there was still a lot of points to be had,” Rodgers said. “The eagle on 12 was huge, and birdieing two of the last three was great to be in a good position going into tomorrow.”
Bhatia made a major move up the leaderboard, sitting in solo third with 31 points, courtesy of his 17-point outing. He shot 8-under 63 with six birdies and an eagle.
“I know I’m close to winning,” Bhatia said. “It’s a good feeling. Obviously finishing top 10 and gaining points and everything is important out here. But it’s just amazing the perspective you have when you just kind of wish you did certain things a little different, and I would have been pretty close to hosting that trophy last week.”
Beau Hossler, who is also searching for his first Tour victory, is in solo fourth with 30 points. Joel Dahmen is in fifth with 29.
The opposite-field event gives plenty of opportunities for someone to have a career-changing victory. The leaderboard is set up for exactly that come Sunday.
“I feel like any time that you’re in contention coming down the last round, last however many holes, you’ve got to play well to get into that situation,” Gerard said. “So just going to take that in stride and really just trust that we’re going to have some good stuff happen tomorrow and just really do my best and everything else is just an added bonus. So we’re excited to just go out there and see what happens.”
The name of the game in a Modified Stableford scoring event is big numbers and Ryan Gerard is putting up a lot of them so far this week.
Through two rounds at Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood in Truckee, California, Gerard has 16 birdies, each worth two points in the unique scoring format. Two late bogeys in Thursday’s first round cost him one point each but through 36 holes, Gerard has 30 points to lead the 2023 Barracuda Championship.
Gerard’s best finish this season is a solo fourth at the Honda Classic in February. He has made nine cuts in 14 events.
Patrick Rodgers made a late move with birdies on three of his last four holes to get to 26 points, good for second.
Vincent Norrman, a first-time Tour winner a week ago at the Barbasol Championship, like the Barracuda an opposite-field event, is playing well again this week. He has 23 points.
S.Y. Noh led after the first round with 23 points thanks to three eagles (each worth five points) to become the fourth player this season to have three eagles in one round. Friday, though, was a disastrous day at Old Greenwood for Noh, as he posted a minus-5 score after two double bogeys, a bogey and just one birdie. His Friday 75 dropped him into a tie for 10th.
The cut came in at 10 points and among those to miss out on a weekend tee time: S.H. Kim, Keith Mitchell, Harry Higgs, Greyson Sigg and Taylor Pendrith.
Coming into the week at Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood course, Beau Hossler sat 73rd in the FedEx Cup standings.
With the new rules, only the top 70 are guaranteed spots in the Playoffs. Counting this week, there’s only three events left for players like Hossler to lock up their spots in the field at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis.
After the first round of the 2023 Barracuda Championship, Hossler is doing his best to make sure he’s well inside the cut line.
Hossler, in a Modified Stableford scoring format, is +17 after the first round in Truckee, California, and sits on top of the leaderboard. The highlight of his day came on the par-3 third, when he recorded an ace for the first time in his Tour career.
“I was kind of in between clubs,” Hossler said. “I think it was like 211, but at altitude it’s playing like 190. I hit 7-iron and it landed in a good spot and it went in. It looked like it was the only hole on Tour this year that had no camera.”
In addition to his ace, Hossler also made eagle on the par-5 sixth. Two holes, +10 (as eagles are worth five points) on the scorecard and a first-round lead.
He shot 7-under 64 in stroke play with four birdies (worth two points each), the two eagles and a lone bogey (golfers lose a point for bogeys). Hossler hasn’t won in his Tour career but does have two runner-up finishes.
“My game feels probably the best it’s felt in years right now, which is good,” Hossler said. “Maybe the results haven’t quite been there the last few weeks, but I feel like I’m working on some good stuff with my golf swing. Starting to see some a lot better iron play the last probably two weeks. So, hopefully, I can keep doing that and get the putter hot.”
Alexander Levy sits second after the morning wave at +16. Carson Young and Patrick Rodgers are at +15. The Barracuda is the lone event on the Tour schedule to use the Modified Stableford scoring system.
The Barracuda Championship is the only PGA Tour event played opposite a major during the 2021-22 season.
The Barracuda Championship is the only PGA Tour event to use the Modified Stableford scoring system. It’s also the only PGA Tour event opposite a major championship during the 2021-22 season, and Chez Reavie made the most of the opportunity.
The former Arizona State golfer won his third PGA Tour title at the Old Greenwood golf course at Tahoe Mountain Club at scenic Truckee, California.
Reavie started the final round with a six-point lead and held on for a one-point win over Alex Noren. Reavie, 40, is the oldest winner on the PGA Tour this season.
The event is one of three that is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour as part of the strategic alliance forged by the two governing bodies, and Reavie also earned spots on both tours through the 2024 seasons.
Chez Reavie adds the Barracuda Championship to his PGA Tour resume.
TRUCKEE, Calif. — After several lead changes on the back nine, Chez Reavie clamped down when he needed to and emerged as the champion.
Reavie picked up his third win on the PGA Tour when he took the Barracuda Championship on Sunday at the Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood golf course.
Reavie finished plus-43 points after picking up 6 in Sunday’s final round. He edged Alex Noren, who was second with plus-42.
Reavie, 40, is the oldest player won in the PGA Tour this year. This was his third career win on the Tour. He also had the lead after three rounds in his two previous wins.
Reavie had plus-37 points after Saturday’s round, but struggled a bit on his front nine Sunday.
He said staying patient was the key.
“I knew I was going to have to. I knew some guys were going to make a lot of birdies early. I was hoping to be one of those guys, but the putter was kind of letting me down early,” Reavie said. “Just tried to keep it as close as I could to the hole and give myself some good looks.”
Chez Reavie kisses the championship trophy after winning the 2022 Barracuda Championship at Tahoe Mt. Club’s Old Greenwood in Truckee, California. (Photo: Tom R. Smedes/Special to Reno Gazette-Journal)
Reavie said he didn’t look at the score until after the first nine, but then started checking every other hole.
He picked up 300 points in the standings and moved up to 49th in the FedEx Cup rankings with the win. He also won $666,000 for his efforts.
He also won the 2008 RBC Canadian Open and the Travelers Championship in 2019.
Noren scored 14 points on Sunday. He was making his 132nd PGA Tour start and was trying to become the Barracuda’s sixth straight first-time winner.
Noren, from Stockholm, Sweden, turned 40 last week. He had been the first alternate at the British Open, but decided to play in the Barracuda, thinking nobody would drop out at St. Andrews.
He said the Old Greenwood course was a little tricky Sunday as the wind picked up early and held steady most of the day
“It’s been a roller coaster of a week, obviously, but when you make the cut, you think, well, this is a great week anyway, and then I played good on the weekend and had a blast,” Noren said. “If it was another tournament, I might not have gone there, but I just love this week, and I wanted to have a vacation at home with the kids before the Playoffs start. I wanted to be able to grab some points, either at the Open or here. I didn’t want to just sit out the Open and then having to add a week.”
Martin Laird was third with plus-38 points; Mark Hubbard took fourth with plus-37 and Scott Gutschewski was fifth with plus-35.
Reavie is the first player 40 or older to win on the PGA Tour since Lucas Glover at the 2021 John Deere Classic.
He finished 43rd last year at the Barracuda and his best finish in the event was 42nd in 2009.
The Barracuda went to the Modified Stableford scoring system in 2012.
This was Laird’s best finish of the season.
He played with Reavie on Sunday and said the wind gusts made it a little tougher than earlier in the week.
Both Reavie and Laird said they plan to play in the 3M tournament in Minnesota this week.
Laird said getting away form the golf course for a while earlier in the week paid off for him.
“I feel like my game has been pretty good for a while. It was funny this week, my family has been out and I’ve literally not done any practice, just had a very relaxed week and had my best week of the year. There’s a lot to be said for that,” Laird said. “Sometimes we kind of get stuck in a rut and almost try and practice our way out of it, and sometimes it’s the opposite; you just need to kind of get away. I’m kind of going to take that philosophy the next few week and just kind of be a lot more relaxed and go and enjoy it.”
It was his first time playing at Old Greenwood.
“I really enjoyed the old venue, but this Old Greenwood golf course is fantastic. It’s a really good fun golf course for this format, so look forward to coming back,” he said.
What about 2023?
The dates for next year’s Barracuda have not been set. This is the last year on the current contract with Barracuda as the tournament title sponsor.
Tournament director Chris Hoff told the Reno Gazette-Journal that negotiations are ongoing and he said it is likely that Barracuda will return as the title sponsor.
“We’re in renewal talks with them right now,” Hoff said. “We’re optimistic and they’ve had a great time this week and the last nine years have been incredible.”
The deal to hold the tournament at the Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood course runs through 2023.
In August 2021, it was announced that from 2022 onward, the event would become a co-sanctioned event with the European Tour.
Scoring
The Barracuda Championship is employing the Modified Stableford scoring format, the first PGA Tour event to use the format since The International in 2006. Players are allocated points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole with the goal of achieving the highest overall score. Albatross +8, Eagle +5, Birdie +2, Par 0, Bogey -1, Double bogey or worse -3. It’s the only PGA Tour event to use the scoring format.
Streak broken
The last six winners of the Barracuda Championship were first-time PGA Tour winners.
Alex Noren: “Golf is a long career, and I’ve played a lot of British Opens, and I’ll get to play it again.”
TRUCKEE, Calif. — Chez Reavie continues to tear up the golf course, and Alex Noren has some added incentive this week.
Reavie leads the PGA Tour’s Barracuda Championship with plus-37 points at the Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood course, where they are using the Modified Stableford scoring system.
Martin Laird is next with plus-31 and Noren is tied with Cam Davis, both at plus-28 points.
But Noren was oh-so-close to playing in the year’s final men’s major, the British Open at St. Andrews.
Noren had been the first alternate for the British Open, but decided to fly to California to play in the Barracuda instead.
“I didn’t think anybody would withdraw,” Noren said Friday. “They actually did, and sad for them, but also I wanted to play this.”
When Justin Rose withdrew from the Open, that opened a spot that would have gone to Noren. Instead that spot went to Rikuya Hoshino. Erik van Rooyen, who won the Barracuda in 2021 to earn a spot in the 2022 Open Championship, also withdrew before the Open started.
“I wanted to get some more points. I’ve got three weeks of training after this before the [FexEx Cup] playoffs, and I wanted to play this week, and maybe that mindset made me have a little less patience that I needed this time. Golf is a long career, and I’ve played a lot of British Opens, and I’ll get to play it again.”
Noren tried to forget about what might have been and simply went to work at Old Greenwood, posting a score of plus-28 points through three rounds.
He admits it’s hard to escape the British Open, because it’s on TVs everywhere he goes around Truckee.
He said being contention in the Barracuda, somewhat eases the pain of missing The Open.
“Every time they show ‘The Open’ on TV, I get frustrated, but I love coming here. I think it’s one of the best courses on the Tour and a great tournament. It’s very enjoyable to play,” Noren said.
Noren, 40, is ranked No. 66 in the world, No. 75 in the FedEx Cup rankings.
Reavie, meanwhile, had his first bogey of the Barracuda on No. 15 on Saturday, this after he had five birdies in the third round. He said he expects to feel some nervousness on Sunday, while he waits for his afternoon tee time.
“I have to spend an hour or two at home just calming myself down because I’m so looking forward to coming out here and competing,” Reavie said. “I can come out here and try too hard if I get too excited.”
Reavie, who played golf at Arizona State, is one of only two PGA Tour golfers from that school who have not defected to the LIV Tour, along with John Rahm. Fellow former ASU golfers Phil Mickelson, Paul Casey, Pat Perez and Matt Jones have all jumped to the LIV.
Big leap
Michael Thompson had nine birdies, and nine pars, and totaled 18 points on Saturday. He has plus-26 points heading into Sunday’s final round.
Joshua Creel had two eagles on Saturday, on holes No. 8 and 16 and picked up 11 points on the day. He has plus -26 points through three rounds.
Harry Higgs also earned 11 points on Saturday, thanks to three birdies and an eagle. He is at plus-26 points heading into Sunday. Higgs said he is better off if he can avoid chipping.
“I’ve hit a lot of good iron shots and holed some kind of bonus putts. The first day I just hit a few balls just into a spot where I had to chip out,” Higgs said. “But this format is kind of fun. You can kind of get away with that.”
He enjoys the feeling of smashing the ball on his tee shots and watching it fly farther than it does at most golf courses he plays at.
“It’s fun when it gets in the fairways, too; you can hit a long, long way out here, bouncing and rolling and flying a little further with the altitude,” Higgs said.
Higgs said he has not played well this season and is worrying too much about the little things going wrong.
“I’ve just not been sharp, not been playing good golf, not been kind of playing like myself,” he said. “My attitude has been horrible. I’ve been pissing and moaning about little things that go wrong and then that builds and builds and builds. Been playing on the cut line way too much all year. I view myself as much, much better than that. But obviously there comes a time where talk is cheap and you’re now going to have to show it, more so to myself.”
Scoring
The Barracuda Championship is employing the Modified Stableford scoring format, the first PGA Tour event to use the format since The International in 2006. Players are allocated points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole with the goal of achieving the highest overall score.
Albatross +8, Eagle +5, Birdie +2, Par 0, Bogey -1, Double bogey or worse -3.
He was one of the first players on the course and Chez Reavie did not waste time.
TRUCKEE, Calif. – He was one of the first players on the course and Chez Reavie did not waste time.
Reavie scored 19 points in Friday’s second round and surged into the lead at the PGA Tour’s Barracuda Championship at the Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood golf course.
Reavie, 40, from Wichita, Kansas, who played his college golf at Arizona State, has plus-28 points after two rounds. Mark Hubbard and Henrik Norlander are tied for second with plus-25 points.
Reavie had seven birdies and an eagle on No. 6, and no bogeys on Friday.
The eagle, his second of the week, came after he chipped in from just off the green.
He said it was a little colder out, starting so early. Reavie teed off at 7:18 a.m. local time Friday, and his shots were not flying quite as far as they did Thursday when he started later in the day.
“Fortunately we kind of noticed that on the range and adjusted for it, and I was lucky enough to just trust the numbers, the clubs that we picked, and then as it warmed up, it kind of gradually kind of started getting closer to what it was yesterday afternoon,” Reavie said.
He said staying in the fairways and out of the rough is key to doing well at Old Greenwood because the greens are so firm.
Hubbard, 33, had seven birdies and two bogeys on Friday, en route to scoring 12 points.
He played basketball at San Jose State and had a few friends from there up at Old Greenwood to watch him play golf this week.
Hubbard is winless on the PGA Tour. He was third last week in Kentucky in the Barbasol Championship.
Hubbard agreed with Reavie that the early start Friday morning took some adjusting.
“It was tough early, man, with the cold and the elevation. It’s hard to know how far the ball is going, and it seemed like every pin on our front nine, the back nine, was front with water short, so you couldn’t really play with it,” he said. “So it was just tough to get the ball close early. Once it heated up and started going another 10 percent I started making some birdies.”
Martin Laird putts on the 18th green during the second round of the 2022 Barracuda Championship at Old Greenwood in Truckee, California. (Photo: Jason Bean/Reno Gazette Journal)
Norlander, who has been working with a sports psychologist, is in his best position after 36 holes this season.
“First of all, I’m pretty excited to not make travel plans on Friday afternoon. That’s been sort of what I’ve been doing every Friday the last few weeks,” Norlander said. “But yeah, it’s a lot of pressure. I’m going to be nervous, but I believe I’m ready for it. … That’s why I practice, and I’m ready for the challenge.”
Under the Modified Stableford scoring system, players receive eight points for albatross, five for eagle and two for birdie. A point is deducted for bogey and three taken away for double bogey or worse.
Kevin Tway is in fourth with plus-21 points, followed by Nino Bertasio, Maverick McNealy and Martin Trainer, each on the leaderboard with plus-19 points.
The cut was at plus-7 points with 70 players making it to keep playing on the weekend.
Noren was been the first alternate for the British Open this week, but decided to fly to California instead to play in the Barracuda.
When Justin Rose withdrew from the British Open, the final major of the year, that opened a spot that would have gone to Noren. Instead that spot went to Rikuya Hoshino.
Noren played nine holes of a practice round at St. Andrews, before flying to California.
“I didn’t think anybody would withdraw. They actually did, and sad for them, but also I wanted to play this,” Noren said. “I wanted to get some more points. I’ve got three weeks of training after this before the playoffs, and I wanted to play this week, and maybe that mindset made me have a little less patience that I needed this time. Golf is a long career, and I’ve played a lot of British Opens, and I’ll get to play it again.”
Erik van Rooyen, who won the Barracuda Championship last year, also withdrew from the British Open.
