While the stars fly across the pond, an alternate-field event is taking place this week in Kentucky.
It’s the Barbasol Championship and it is returning to Keene Trace Golf Club for the third time.
The field sits at 132 golfers which is the normal size for alternate-field events. The top 65 and ties will advance onto the weekend, so a relatively high percentage will get to play all four rounds this week.
Let’s jump right in and talk about the course.
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The Course
Keene Trace Golf Club made its debut on the PGA TOUR back in 2018 when it took over hosting duties, previously played at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama.
This course has quickly established a reputation for being wet and sloppy during tournament week.
Whether it is bad luck or poor planning by the TOUR, rain is going to be hanging around again this week. The course is already getting soaked in the lead-up to the event and the threat of precipitation is very real, all week long. More on that in the weather section.
As for the actual course, it’s a par 72 that plays to 7,328 yards during tournament week.
Both of the previous editions played here have yielded field scoring averages under 70 strokes so it’s one of the easiest courses they’ll play all year. It’s tough to say whether that’s a product of the weather or if it’s easy in all conditions. Realistically, the soft conditions play a huge part in that easy scoring environment.
Just how easy has it played? During the 2019 edition, the field averaged 1.1 eagles per 72 holes played which is more than three times the PGA TOUR average.
We shouldn’t expect a repeat of those eagle numbers but we should plenty plenty of birdies and eagles to be flying off the shelf this week.
For turf types, they’ll see bentgrass fairways, Kentucky bluegrass rough, and V8 bentgrass greens. The greens don’t run too speedy, especially with rain keeping them soft all week.
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The Weather
Thursday: Sunny with a high of 87 degrees. Winds at 5 to 8 MPH.
Friday: Sunny with a chance of rain late in the day. Winds at 6 to 10 MPH.
The threat of storms really ramp up over the weekend and it looks like they’ll be lucky to finish on Sunday if the current forecast holds true. Let’s hope the forecast gets more promising as the weekend draws nearer.