Barracuda Championship: Defending champ the sole selection at 64/1

• Greens In Regulation the key stat in California

• Concentrate on young PGA Tour maidens

• Read my Open Championship preview here

• Bet £5 in our Birdie Bonus market and every first round birdie your selection scores=free bet

Tournament History

First staged in 1999 and known as the Reno-Tahoe Open, the Barracuda Championship has always been an opposite field event. 

It used to be played in the same week as one of the now defunct World Golf Championships, but this is the fourth year in-a-row that it's being played opposite the Open Championship.

Since 2012, the tournament has used the modified Stableford scoring system, which was also used at the now defunct International in Colorado - another event played at altitude.

Like last week's ISCO Championship, the Barracuda Championship is now co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour. 

This is the 27^th edition of the Barracuda Championship.

Format

Points are awarded depending on a player's score on each hole thus. 

Albatross: 8 points 
Eagle: 5 points 
Birdie: 2 points
Par: 0 points 
Bogey: -1 point
Double-bogey or worse: -3 points 

The player with the highest score after 72 holes will be the winner.

Venue

Old Greenwood Course, Tahoe Mountain Club, Truckee, California 

Course Details

Par 71 -7,480 yards 
Stroke Average in 2024 - 69.48

The Barracuda Championship switched venues in 2020 for the first time in its history, moving approximately 30 miles from the Jack Nicklaus designed Montreux Golf and Country Club to the Jack Nicklaus designed Old Greenwood Course at the Tahoe Mountain Club. We return to Greenwood for a sixth time in-a-row this time around. 

Like Montreux, Greenwood is at altitude, so it doesn't play anywhere near as long as its yardage suggests but it's a tough place to assess.

Richy Werenski was the first victor not to reach 40 points in the nine years that the Stableford format had been used when the course debuted in 2020 but with the rough an inch and half shorter than it had been in 2020 (3 ½ - 2), the 2021 winner, Erik Van Rooyen, who won by five points, now holds the record for the highest winning score with 50 points.

Last year's winner, Nick Dunlop, amassed 49 points.

Old Greenwood opened in 2004 and it's largely treelined with water in play on six holes. Like the majority of Nicklaus designs, there's plenty of room off the tee.

Weather Forecast 

TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 22:00 (UK time) on Thursday.

Last Eight Winners with Pre-event Exchange Prices

2024 - Nick Dunlap 49 points (Old Greenwood Course) 32.031/1
2023 - Akshay Bhatia 40 points (playoff) (Old Greenwood Course) 50.049/1
2022 - Chez Reavie 43 points (Old Greenwood Course) 70.069/1
2021 - Erik Van Rooyen 50 points (Old Greenwood Course) 60.059/1
2020 - Richy Werenski 39 points (Old Greenwood Course) 40.039/1
2019 - Colin Morikawa 47 points 13.012/1
2018 - Andrew Putnam 47 points 34.033/1
2017 - Chris Stroud 44 points (playoff) 80.079/1

What Will it Take to Win the Barracuda?

There were no Strokes Gained stats produced for this event until last year but looking at the traditional stats, hitting greens has been the key.

The 2022 winner, Chez Reavie, ranked first for Driving Accuracy and Scrambling but the other four course winners have only ranked 23^rd, 32^nd, 11^th and 27^th for DA and 28^th, 39^th, 48^th and 18^th for Scrambling.

All five course winners have putted nicely though- ranking between second and 17^th for Putting Average - and Greens In Regulation has been a key stat too.

The first three course winners ranked seventh or better for GIR and although the 2023 winner, Akshay Bhatia, ranked only 18^th, the man he beat in extra time, Patrick Rodgers, ranked third, and the first and third last year, Dunlap and Patrick Fishburn, ranked second and first for GIR.

As many as nine players inside the top-16 in 2020 ranked inside the top-10 for GIR, the first five home in 2021 ranked tied-third, first, second, seventh and tied-third, and the top-four three years ago ranked seventh, second, 11^th and fourth so GIR is the stat to concentrate on.

Is There an Identikit Winner?

The Barracuda field is made up of a smattering of low-ranking DP World Tour players hoping to make the gigantic leap to the PGA Tour and lots of players that don't usually get a start in some of the stronger PGA Tour events. That classic blend of youth and experience, with a few players whose form has dropped off a cliff.

Some of them are new to the PGA Tour and only just finding their feet, some are players that have lost their form quite badly recently, and the rest are veterans that have trickled slowly down the rankings.

The older out of form pros used to dominate the event but it's young PGA Tour maidens that we need to be concentrating on now if recent history is anything to go on.

Last year's winner, Dunlap, had won once before, as an amateur at the The American Express exactly six months earlier, and Chez Reavie, in 2022, was winning his third PGA Tour title but the 2023 winner, Akshay Bhatia, was winning for the first time and the six winners before Reavie were all PGA Tour maidens too.

As many as five of the last seven winners have been in their 20s and three of them have been very young and extremely talented.

Dunlop was 20, Bhatia was only 21, and Collin Morikawa was 22.

Morikawa is now a two-time major winner, Bhatia looks destined for the very top, and Dunlap was the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil Mickelson 31 years earlier so they're three huge talents.

River Highlands form a plus

Although out of form, Reavie had finished eighth at the Travelers Championship two starts before he won here, and he's not the only recent winner with form at TPC River Highlands.

Reavie loves it there and he has recent form figures at the Connecticut layout reading 1-46-45-8-4, Bhatia was fifth there last year on debut, and although Morikawa only has River Highlands for figures reading 36-MC-MC-13-42, he sat sixth at halfway on debut and he was sitting second through 36 holes there last year.

Chris Stroud and JJ Henry won this event at Montrêux Golf and Country Club so their River Highlands form isn't so relevant but Stroud, whose sole career win was this event, lost in a playoff at the Travelers and Henry only won three times on the PGA Tour. This event twice and the Travelers Championship in 2006.

In-Play Tactics

Reavie trailed the first-round leader, Mark Hubbard, by four points after the opening round but he soon went clear when he racked up 19 points on Friday - leading after rounds two and three - but the other four course winners started slowly so a mediocre first round can be overcome. 

Dunlap sat tied for ninth and seven points back after round one, Bhatia was as far adrift as tied for 48^th and 17 points behind the clear first round leader, Noh Seung-yul, Werenski sat tied for 38^th and eight points off the lead and Van Rooyen sat tied 14^th and nine points back.

From a trading perspective, liquidity won't be great given the tournament is up against the Open Championship, but we've witnessed plenty of drama here.

Patrick Rodgers hit a low of just 1.061/18 two years ago before Bhatia birdied the last to force the event into extra time, the 2020, Werenski, eagled the par four 16^th and birdied the last to snatch victory at the death, and Van Rooyen caught an amazing break four years ago when his tee-ball on the 72^nd hole hit a tree and found the fairway instead of going out of bounds.

The third round leader, Mac Meissner, hit a low of 1.68/13 during round four last year and Dunlap, who trailed by nine points with 18 to play, was a 46.045/1 chance after three rounds.

Defending champ the sole selection

Class acts, Kurt Kitayama and Max Homa, are looking to get their illustrious careers back on track here after sizable slumps but the one I like is the defending champ, Nick Dunlap.

The Alabama-born 21-year-old, who now lives in Florida, clearly loves California given his first victory on the PGA Tour was also in the Golden State at LA Quinta and he looks over-priced following his fast finishing tied 11^th at the John Deere Classic two weeks ago.

Dunlap has lost his way after last year's victory and his only top-ten this year came in the Sony Open way back in January but if he putts as well as he did at Deere Run last time out, where he ranked first for Strokes Gained: Putting and second for Putting Average, a successful title defence could be on the cards.

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