Out of the Rough: Barracuda Championship (2025)

As the final major of the season is taking place at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, the unsung players of both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour will have their chance to shine state-side.

Like last week’s Scottish Open and ISCO Championship, this week’s Barracuda Championship is co-sanctioned between the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour.

Again, like last week’s fixtures, this week offers another test, opposite of The Open Championship, for golfers to secure valuable FedEx Cup points and in some instances, secure a PGA TOUR card.

There are just three weeks remaining before the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the time is now for bubble players to put together good results to improve their season-long standing positions.

This week’s venue will be the Old Greenwood Course at Tahoe Mountain Club in the Reno-Tahoe region of California.

The Barracuda Championship was first held in 1999 as the Reno-Tahoe Open and has always served as an opposite field event.

What is unique about this week’s event is the scoring style, which will play as a Modified Stableford scoring format with points awarded to scoring relative to par-per-hole. Golfers are looking for the highest score this week, opposed to the traditional lowest score winning.

Scoring Format

As previously mentioned, this week offers a change-of-pace to what we typically see on both the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour.

Rather than counting the total number of strokes taken in typical stroke play, this week’s Modified Stableford format is based on a points system relative to the number of strokes taken at each hole.

Good play results in added points as bad play results in negative points compared to the number of strokes to par on each hole.

Additionally, a golfer cannot record worse than a double-bogey on any given hole. If a golfer gets to double bogey, they can pick up their ball and move to the next hole. 

In the end, the golfer with the highest number of points across all four days will claim victory. 

Here is a breakdown of the points per play per hole:

• Albatross - 8 Points

• Eagle - 5 Points

• Birdie - 2 Points

• Par - 0 Points

• Bogey - -1 Point

• Double Bogey - -3 Points

This scoring format can create some very fun golf as the strategy can be summed up by the phrase, go for it. It’s a very risk-reward favored format as the worst possible outcome is a double-bogey.

In other words, golfers will oftentimes choose to risk it on shots they typically would not in standard stroke play.

The Field

This week’s field is headlined by California native Max Homa, who finds himself not qualified for The Open Championship and instead is looking to find form back on home soil.

He’ll be joined by Davis Riley who is the highest ranked golfer within the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) in this week’s field at 65th.

Other notable golfers of the PGA Tour teeing it up this week include Joe Highsmith, Ryan Gerard, Austin Eckroat, Nick Dunlap, Cam Davis, Erik van Rooyen, Ryo Hisatsune, Emiliano Grillo and Kurt Kitayama.

Callum Hill (163rd) comes in as the highest ranked full-time member of the DP World Tour in this week’s field. He’ll be joined by the likes of Nicolai Von Dellingshausen, Sam Bairstow, Jacques Kruyswijk, Dan Bradbury, Brandon Robinson-Thompson and Marcus Armitage as notable members of the DP World Tour playing this week.

Dunlap comes in as the defending champion, having come-from-behind on the back nine to top Vince Whaley by two points. This came as the second victory in Dunlap’s first season on the PGA Tour after winning The American Express as an amateaur earlier in the 2024 season.

Other former winners of this event at Tahoe Mountain Club  teeing it up this week include Chez Reavie (2022) and Rooyen (2021.)

The Course

The Barracuda Championship switched venues in 2020. It was first played between 1999 and 2019 at the Jack Nicklaus designed Montreux Golf and Country Club just 30 miles away from the current venue, Old Greenwood Course at the Tahoe Mountain Club. The Old Greenwood Course was also designed by Jack Nicklaus

This will be the fifth consecutive year that the event is played at the Old Greenwood Course.

This week’s track plays as a par-71 at 7,480 yards but sits 6,000 feet above sea level. Therefore, it does not play as long as the scorecard suggests.

The elevation allows for the long-hitters off-the-tee to go even further. Although that may suggest that long-bombers off-the-tee may see an advantage, history has shown that finding the fairway and in turn, setting up a quality second shot has been key to victory here.

Old Greenwood is largely tree lined with water in play on six holes, adding to the importance of accuracy off-the-tee opposed to distance.

In all, there hasn’t been stat-tracking at this event and course so historical data is hard to find but we can access what to expect by the naked eye and other Jack Nickalus designs.

As for the scoring, the five winners here at Old Greenwood have gone 39 points (Richy Werenski in 2020,) 50 points (Erik Van Rooyen in 2021,) 43 points (Chez Reavie in 2022,) 40 points (Bhatia in 2023) and 49 points (Dunlap in 2024.)

Golfers will be forced to ‘go-for-the-green’ as one may say in this risk-reward scoring format. 

A strong all-around game, favoring tee-to-green and greens in regulation percentage statistics, seem to be the key to success here. Any hopeful winner too will have to get it done on the greens as a bad week with the flat stick will leave points on the table.

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, there is a zero-percent chance of precipitation across all four days this week. Temperatures are set to range between 80-degrees and 82-degrees across all four days as well. Winds are set at ten miles-per-hour for Thursday through Saturday before peaking at 11 miles-per-hour on Sunday. In all, a perfect four days for golf. 

Key Stats

• Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (SG: TTG)

• Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)

• Greens in Regulation Percentage (GIR%)

• Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (SG: OTT) / Driving Accuracy

• Sand Saves Percentage

• Birdie or Better Percentage

• Bogey Avoidance

• Scrambling

• Strokes Gained: Putting (SG: PUTT)

Betting Card

Vince Whaley (+2500)

I was on Whaley last week in a much better field at a similar number as he went on to finish fourth at the ISCO Championship. I’m going back to the well this week. Outside of last week, he also placed 33rd at the John Deere Classic, 32nd at the Rocket Classic, 52nd at the RBC Canadian Open, 11th at the Charles Schwab Challenge, 37th at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic, 15th at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson, 26th at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and seventh at the Corales Puntacana Championship. He was also the runner-up here a season ago to Dunlap. He also placed 31st here in 2022 and ninth in 2021. Whaley is currently third on Tour in bogey avoidance, 11th in scrambling, 45th in SG: PUTT, 54th in sand saves percentage, 65th in GIR%, 70th in SG: OTT, 86th in SG: TTG, 92nd in birdie-or-better percentage, 126th in SG: APP and 160th in driving accuracy.

Lee Hodges (+3500)

To me, Hodges is one of the cream-of-the-crop within this field so I’m happy to take him at +3500. He is currently tenth on Tour in bogey avoidance, 11th in GIR%, 13th in SG: APP, 21st in scrambling, 33rd in SG: TTG, 46th in both driving accuracy and birdie-or-better percentage, 88th in SG: OTT, 91st in SG: PUTT and 103rd in sand saves percentage. He missed the cut last week at the Genesis Scottish Open but prior to that placed 21st at the John Deere Classic, 34th at the Rocket Classic and ninth at the RBC Canadian Open. He last played this event in 2021 where he placed 11th.

Ben Kohles (+10000)

Kohles brings elite accuracy off-the-tee with an above-average approach game and that is enough for me to back him at such a big number. He is currently third on Tour in driving accuracy, tenth in GIR%, 18th in bogey avoidance, 31st in SG: APP, 52nd in both SG: TTG and scrambling, 76th in SG: OTT, 102nd in birdie-or-better percentage, 149th in sand saves percentage and 154th in SG: PUTT. He placed eighth last week at the ISCO Championship, 44th at the John Deere Classic and 78th at the Rocket Classic as of late as well. He last played this event in 2022 where he finished 50th. 

Paul Peterson (+15000)

Peterson is fresh off a runner-up performance last week at the ISCO Championship. He’s also made the cut in three-of-his-last-four events. He’ll be making his tournament debut this week. Peterson is currently first on Tour in driving accuracy, 24th in sand saves percentage, 26th in bogey avoidance, 33th in both scrambling and SG: PUTT, 57th in birdie-or-better percentage, 68th in GIR%, 97th in SG: APP, 135th in SG: TTG and 157th in SG: OTT.