The First Look: Barbasol Championship

J.T. Poston returns to the Barbasol Championship to try to avenge a six-hole playoff loss to Seamus Power a season ago. In order to do it he’ll have to top an field with international flare, as 2022 marks the first season the Barbasol Championship will be co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour. FIELD NOTES: Past winners including Jim Herman, Grayson Murray, and Aaron Baddeley are teeing it up… J.T. Poston, who held the 36-hole lead at the John Deere Classic, will be back in Kentucky looking to take the Barbasol Championship across the finish line after last season’s late Sunday stumble. Poston is the highest-ranked golfer in the field… Local legend Josh Teater, a Kentucky native who is from about 40 minutes away from Keene Trace, is in the field on a Sponsor Exemption… Teater is one of six golfers who have Kentucky ties – whether it be high school or otherwise – who are teeing it up… There will be 50 places available for DP World Tour members to kick it over to Kentucky. Those places go to the top 50 available players from the DP World Tour category ranking to a floor of Category 17… Chase Hanna, an All-American in 2016 at Kansas, will make his PGA TOUR debut. He’s currently ranked 35th on the DP World Tour… If Taylor Pendrith didn’t have bad luck, he’d have no luck at all. After notching a solid T13 at THE PLAYERS Championship it was discovered he had broken his rib. Pendrith was ramping up to return at the John Deere Classic last week but tested positive for COVID-19 and was forced to withdraw. He’s set to (finally) make his return at Keene Trace. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 300 FedExCup points. COURSE: Keene Trace Golf Club (Champions), 7,328 yards, par 72. The 1987 Arthur Hills layout will host the PGA TOUR for the fourth time. Located just south of Lexington, Kentucky, Keene Trace is one of the top-ranked courses in the state. Laid out through the rolling hills of Central Kentucky, the drama of Keene Trace hits its apex on the par-4 finisher, a dramatic closer that’s built around the edge of a lake. Seventy-six bunkers will challenge some of the TOUR’s best, while big greens will place less of an emphasis on ball-striking and more on putting. STORYLINES: The winner of the Barbasol Championship, if he is not already qualified, will earn the final spot in The Open Championship… For the first time, the Barbasol Championship will be played as a co-sanctioned event with the DP World Tour. While plenty of TOUR winners – including two past FedExCup champions in Brandt Snedeker and Bill Haas – will be teeing it up, keep an eye out for the international star power that has come across the pond to play the PGA TOUR this week… With only four events left in the PGA TOUR’s 2021-22 season after the Barbasol Championship, this is a key time for guys on the FedExCup bubble earn some valuable FedExCup points. Max McGreevy is one of those golfers – he sits 126th on the FedExCup standings, just one point behind No. 125. 72-HOLE RECORD: 262, Jim Herman (2019) 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Kelly Kraft (3rd round, 2019) LAST TIME: Seamus Power captured his first PGA TOUR title in a six-hole playoff. Poston was in the driver’s seat through most of Sunday’s finale in Kentucky until he made a double bogey on the par-5 15th and followed that up with a three-putt bogey on the very next hole. Power shot a 5-under 67 in the final round to Poston’s 2-under 70. The pair played No. 18 four times and No. 9 twice in the playoff, but Poston launched his drive on the sixth extra hole into the water and couldn’t scramble to match Power’s par. Anirban Lahiri and Sam Ryder shot the rounds of the day Sunday, 7-under 65, and fell just one shot short of the playoff. They finished tied for third. Six golfers finished tied for fifth including Mito Pereira in just his third TOUR start since earning PGA TOUR status via a Three-Win Promotion on the Korn Ferry Tour. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Saturday, 4 p.m.-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Sunday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Golf Channel).

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