Rory posts 62, leads Koepka by 1 at St. Jude

For the first time in its 22-year history, the Barracuda Championship has a second home in the land of second homes. Situated about 17 miles west as the bald eagle flies from its aerie at Montrêux Golf & Country Club in Reno, Nevada, about 500 feet higher and across the state line into Truckee, California, Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood Course debuts as host of the final additional event of the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season. The Jack Nicklaus Signature design opened in 2004. It’s a par 71 with three par 5s and, even more interestingly, as many as three drivable par 4s. That’ll get the juices flowing given that the Modified Stableford scoring system is being used for the ninth consecutive edition of the tournament. For more on the course, the format and the tournament, scroll past the projected contenders and others to consider in the field of 132. RELATED: Preview the Barracuda Championship’s new host| The First Look POWER RANKINGS: BARRACUDA CHAMPIONSHIP OTHERS TO CONSIDER • Pat Perez … Pieced together a nice week at TPC Twin Cities for a T23 to go 4-for-5 in the restart. Modified Stableford scoring meshes so well with his swashbuckling approach at golf and at life. • Nick Watney … Got off the schneid with a T12 and four sub-70s at the 3M Open. The Sacramento, California, native now gets to enjoy a virtual home game. It’s been a while, but he went for three top 10s at Montrêux. • Brandon Harkins … The former PGA TOUR member might have the most experience at Old Greenwood. He’s also gone 7-for-7 with three top 25s on the Korn Ferry Tour since its season restarted. • MJ Daffue … He’s not quite Patrick Reed or T.J. Vogel, but Daffue isn’t a slouch, either. He’s in the field on a sponsor exemption, but perhaps he should have declined it in favor of open qualifying. See, as noted by Ryan French in his recap of the open qualifiers for the Workday Charity Open, Daffue is 6-for-10 in the one-round races for a chip and a chair. In all six(!), he’s finished inside the top 30 in the tournament proper, including a T22 at the Workday. He’s built for the Modified Stableford scoring system, and vice versa. True to Nicklaus’ stamp on most properties, there’s room to move it off the tee on the 7,390-yard test, but there are strategic slots and spots from a handful that will separate seriously valuable drives from pedestrian fairway splitters. The entire course is blanketed with a blend of bentgrass and Poa annua not dissimilar to what many in the field experienced on most or all of a handful of recent sites where the PGA TOUR has set up shop. Of course, the big difference between locales such at TPC River Highlands, Detroit Golf Club and Muirfield Village is the altitude. At about 6,000 feet above sea level, conversions to compensate will be necessary to capitalize on scoring opportunities. Greens average 5,300 square feet, but Nicklaus-esque undulations will make them feel even smaller. Primary rough rising to three-and-a-half inches reinforces the goal to get the math right. Despite the customary challenge of the course, the overarching narrative concerning it and the week in general is to have a good time. It’s a resort community where countless locals are summering. With majestic vistas, clean and dry air, and nothing but sunshine all week with daytimes highs in the 80s, it’s golf for the soul ahead of an intense stretch of action on the horizon. Contributing to the thrill are par 4s measuring 357 yards, 345 yards and 396 yards at the eighth, 11th and 16th holes, respectively. However, with two of the par 5s and the shortest two par 3s on the front side, contenders in the final round probably will have built a foundation early in the day, and then take whatever they can coming home. Modified Stableford totals points (like a fantasy league), so positive numbers are good for the only time all season. The worst a golfer can score on any hole is minus-3 points for a double bogey (or worse). ShotLink is not used to measure performance. In addition to 300 FedExCup points and a two-year PGA TOUR membership exemption, the winner will qualify for next week’s PGA Championship. As of midday Tuesday, only nine golfers in the field are exempt into the major. Incidentally, fields for additional events entering this season were reduced to 120, but this week’s field was reset to 132 to help compensate for playing time missed due to the pandemic. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings (WGC-St. Jude) TUESDAY*: Power Rankings (Barracuda), Sleepers (WGC-St. Jude), Fantasy Insider * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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HOUSTON - Brooks Koepka's health is no longer an issue. His driver was a problem at the Vivint Houston Open, however. Koepka struggled to hit fairways in the first two rounds at Memorial Park after switching to a new driver. After barely making the cut, Koepka changed back to the old club and charged up the leaderboard. "The first two days that driver was terrible, just flat out. I don’t know why we switched," Koepka said. "It's a shame. I know I would have won it if I just would have stuck with it." Koepka shot 130 in the final two rounds of the Vivint Houston Open, the second-lowest weekend score of his career. A chip-in birdie on the 72nd hole gave him a second consecutive 65. He finished in fifth place at 8 under par, five shots back of winner Carlos Ortiz. RELATED: Final leaderboard | Winner’s Bag: Carlos Ortiz, Vivint Houston Open Koepka isn't the only runner-up from last year's Masters who will head to Augusta National with some momentum after a close call in Houston. Dustin Johnson tied for second with Hideki Matsuyama despite struggling with his putter on the weekend. Johnson and Matsuyama finished two back of Ortiz, who birdied two of the final three holes. Like Koepka, Johnson made a run after a poor start at Memorial Park. Johnson, making his first start since the U.S. Open, made five bogeys on his first nine holes of the tournament en route to a first-round 72. He was 13 under par in the next three rounds, shooting 66-66-65. He will rue several missed birdie opportunities on the back nine Sunday. Johnson failed to birdie the drivable 13th and the par-5 16th, the latter after leaving himself just 208 yards for his second shot. He missed a 7-foot birdie putt on 17 and a 21-footer on the final hole. Johnson hit 16 greens Sunday but missed all but one of the seven putts he faced from 10-20 feet in the final round. Outside of the 60-foot birdie putt he made on the 11th hole Sunday, Johnson lost strokes on the greens over the weekend. Johnson, the reigning FedExCup champion and World No. 1, has now finished first or second in five of his last six starts. A sixth-place finish at the U.S. Open is his lone exception. Koepka was actually one shot outside the cut line with five holes left in the second round, but made two birdies to make the weekend. He played his final 27 holes in 9 under par, hitting 13 of 19 fairways in that span. "If you’re going to drive the ball in the fairway, you’re going to have a lot of scoring opportunities," Koepka said. Koepka started Sunday six shots off the lead but came out swinging. He made five birdies on the front nine to pull within one of the lead. He birdied the 13th hole to reach 9 under par, but bogeyed two of his next four holes before making birdie on 18. Koepka, who has struggled with injuries this year, still collected just his third top-10 of this calendar year. After withdrawing from the FedExCup Playoffs and U.S. Open because of his ailing hip, Koepka declared this week that he feels "as good as ever." Now he heads to Augusta National with his health, and his old driver back in the bag.

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