An shoots 8-under 64 to lead THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES

NICHOLASVILLE, Kentucky – The Champions Course at Keene Trace Golf Club is an unknown commodity for nearly all the pros teeing it up at the Barbasol Championship. The first three years of the tournament had been held at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Opelika, Alabama. So players have been scrambling this week to learn the intricacies of this scenic Arthur Hills design. “Obviously new excitement for this tournament,” World Golf Hall of Famer Davis Love III said. “New golf course and new town and nobody really has an advantage here, so we’re all trying to figure it out.” Billy Horschel, though, feels good vibes at the course nestled among sprawling horse farms that has hosted a U.S. Senior Amateur, SEC Championship and an NCAA tournament, among other events. “Knowing the history of it, that the Florida Gators won the 1993 national championship here is also a little good luck, so …,” Horschel said, grinning as his voice trailed off. Until this week, the PGA TOUR hadn’t played an annual event in the Bluegrass State since 1959 when the third and final Kentucky Derby Open was played in Louisville. (Yes, we know Valhalla in Louisville has hosted three PGAs and a Ryder Cup but those aren’t TOUR-run events or played at the same place every year.) In fact, only one player competing this week at Keene Trace was even alive when that final Kentucky Derby Open trophy was handed out. But Jay Don Blake, born seven months earlier, was still in diapers – and he’s here this week making his 499th start. The field for the Barbasol Championship, which is played opposite The Open Championship at Carnoustie, has topped out at 132 players. The tournament offers 300 all-important FedExCup points to the winner and is one of just seven events remaining to earn a spot in the 125 who make the FedExCup Playoffs. Horschel, who won the FedExCup in 2014, enters the week solidly in the postseason at No. 45 in the standings. But the recent Zurich Classic of New Orleans winner is hoping to build on the work he did last month with swing coach Todd Anderson and set the stage for a big finish to the year. “Obviously the British Open Championship is going on this week, but I wanted to play some golf and I wanted to compete,” he said. “I feel like my game is in a really good spot, and I just wanted to build off some momentum that I’ve had the last few months … and get ready for the last half, stretch of the season with the PGA Championship and the four Playoff events. “So I didn’t want to take three weeks off. I wanted to come play. I’m grateful there was an opposite event to The Open Championship, and Barbasol puts on a great event.” THREE PLAYERS TO PONDER Brittany Lincicome: The 32-year-old from Florida is just the sixth woman to play in a PGA TOUR event. The eight-time winner on the LPGA Tour came to Kentucky on the heels of a playoff loss on Sunday. She is known for her length off the tee and is hoping to become the first woman since Babe Didrikson Zaharias at the 1945 Phoenix Open to make the cut. Joel Dahmen: The 30-year-old from Washington enters the Barbasol Championship on a hot streak after ties for fifth and second in his last two starts. All but two of his last 12 rounds have been in the 60s and he is 31 under the last two weeks. William McGirt: The North Carolinian finds himself on the FedExCup bubble at No. 125 so a good finish at Keene Trace could go a long way toward relieving the pressure of the final five weeks. WEATHER CHECK From PGA TOUR meteorologist Willis Young: High pressure will provide us with dry and pleasant weather through Thursday, with comfortable humidity levels. Low pressure will develop over the northern plains and push into the Great Lakes region by early Friday. A warm front will lift northward over the state Thursday night through Friday, resulting in showers and thunderstorms over or near the golf course first thing Friday morning. Very moist and unstable air will allow storms to redevelop during the afternoon/evening hours. An unsettled weather pattern will persist through the weekend.   For the latest weather news from Nicholasville, Kentucky, check out PGATOUR.COM’s Weather Hub. SOUND CHECK I had to play on the boys’ golf team when I was younger, and back then, 14, 15 years ago, there wasn’t as many girls as there is now that played, so for me back in the day it was great because the guys were better, their games were better, and it pushed me to want to be better. So I think playing with the guys, even this week, I’ll learn a few things. I can take things from this week out into my LPGA events. I think it’ll help my game for sure.I played when Annika played. It’s fun for us to see them out. My generation loved playing in the mixed team and competing alongside the LPGA players. … No matter what she does this week, it inspires the younger generation, both men and women, to play golf. So I think it’s great. It’s fun. BY THE NUMBERS 182 – Number of combined PGA TOUR victories among players in the field. 14 – Number of Bank One Classics, on PGA TOUR Champions, played in nearby Lexington, the last in 1997. 6 – Players with Kentucky ties in the field — Josh Teater, Grover Justice, Cooper Musselman, Chip McDaniel and Matt Atkins grew up in the Bluegrass state while Derek Fathauer attended the University of Louisville. 2 – Number of LPGA majors won by Brittany Lincicome. SCATTERSHOT The front and back nines of the par-72 Champions Course have been flipped to create a more exciting finish. So for the second time in three weeks, the final hole is a par 3 – this one a 205-yarder, while the 17th is a par 5 and No. 16 a par 4. Horschel thinks the back nine will be a little more generous since the greens are less undulating. “The greens are in absolutely incredible shape,â€� he said. “Course is in pretty good shape with all the rain they’ve had. I think the scores will be really low. I think it’s going to allow some guys to be aggressive into the greens. I think you’ll have to go low, so 18-, 20-, 22-under par is I think the winning score.â€� Josh Teater grew up in nearby Lexington and remembers attending the Bank One Classic on PGA TOUR Champions when he was a kid. “My interest in golf had already been sparked,â€� Teater said in an article on the Barbasol Championship website. “But that probably took it to another level.â€� Teater, who is playing the Web.com Tour this year in hopes of regaining his TOUR card, was given a sponsor’s exemption for this week’s event. He’s one of the few pros who has played the Champions Course in competition – shooting 7 under to finish third at the 2004 Kentucky Open, three strokes off the pace set by J.B. Holmes.

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As it was announced in late September, the Farmers Insurance Open is scheduled to start on Wednesday and finish on Saturday. The adjustment yields many benefits, including an impactful precedent, for it allows the third annual Advocates Pro Golf Association Tour’s Farmers Insurance Invitational to expand to two rounds and conclude on Sunday. Furthermore, like all four rounds of the PGA TOUR’s event at Torrey Pines, the APGA’s final round on the South Course also will be televised. For details of the annual TOUR stop in La Jolla, California, scroll past the projected contenders. The American Express champion Hudson Swafford, Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, Daniel Berger, Scottie Scheffler and Dustin Johnson will be among the notables reviewed in Tuesday’s Draws & Fades (formerly the Fantasy Insider). The last time that Torrey Pines was in the spotlight, Jon Rahm was posing with the U.S. Open trophy in his possession. That was seven months ago. Only the South Course hosted, and it played to a par of 71 measuring 7,685 yards, but it returns to its customary stock par of 72 for the Farmers Insurance Open. And at 7,765 yards, it’s the longest course under the jurisdiction of the PGA TOUR. Every golfer in the field of 156 will have one pass at Torrey Pines North. It’s also a stock par 72, but it’s tipped at just 7,258 yards since Tom Weiskopf’s renovation in advance of the 2017 edition. Once the 36-hole cut of low 65 and ties falls, all who survive will play only the South Course in the third and final rounds. In last year’s first two rounds, the North averaged 70.131 to the South’s 73.955. The South would retreat to 73.340 by the conclusion of the tournament to establish a five-year high – it can’t be ruled out that the setup was more challenging because of early preparation for the U.S. Open – but that disparity proves why it’s imperative to go low on the North. Since it was renovated, the winners of the tournament have averaged 65.6 on the course. All five have scored lower than 70. Strictly for the record (because the trends likely have more to do with wind and weather than the rotation of tee times), after eight consecutive winners who played the North in the second round, each of the last three opened on the easier of the tandem. Saving the possibility (likelihood?) for a marine layer in the mornings, conditions will be favorable throughout the tournament, so only darkness could prevent the cut from occurring as scheduled on Thursday. Daytime highs in the 60s will govern the distance balls can fly, but wind isn’t forecast to be a primary threat. Primary rough could be as tall as 3½ inches. The combination bent/Poa greens are ready to roll to 12½ feet on the Stimpmeter. En route to reaching 14-under 274 for a five-stroke victory in 2021, Patrick Reed averaged just 11 greens in regulation per round to rank T63. However, in vintage fashion, he led the field in putts per GIR (1.591) and converting those chances into par breakers (20 of 44). (ShotLink is used only on the South, so cumulative Stroked Gained statistics and other lasered data applies to at most three rounds.) In addition to pacing the field in par-4 scoring, he finished T3 in par-5 scoring, the latter a fixture of success on par 72s. While next week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am isn’t an open, professionals who finish inside the top 10 at the Farmers will gain entry via the top-10 provision. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Draws & Fades SATURDAY/SUNDAY: Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Rookie Ranking * – 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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