We are officially a week out from the Open Championship festivities in Scotland, as the PGA Tour is splitting its duties this week. Here in the U.S., the Barbasol Championship will serve as an alternative event. Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Ky., will host the week’s events.
Let’s take a closer at this week’s field of 156, Keen Trace Golf Club and who might come out on top with most of the world’s best across the pond already in Scotland.
Previous Winners of the Barbasol Championship
- 2021: Seamus Power
- 2020: N/A
- 2019: Jim Herman
Course Preview: Keene Trace Golf Club – Champion Trace Course
Coming in at a hair over 7,100 yards, Keene Trace is the Tour’s stock Par 72 and will play just shy of the 7,200-yard average. With this year being the tournament’s seventh edition, Keene Trace has hosted it since 2018, so there will be some course history in this year’s field.
Designed by Arthur Hills and opened in 1988, the professionals have torn up this course, with the last three winners coming in at -23, -26 and -21. As you’d expect with those scores, there are very few commonly found hazards here, and the greens are larger than average. If players’ approaches are dialed in, they should fair just fine here at Champion Trace.
Relevant Betting Stats
- Driving Accuracy
- SG: Approach
- Birdie Average
Outright Betting Pick
Hayden Buckley (+4000 on DraftKings Sportsbook)
Still, just a rookie looking for his first win, Hayden Buckley has been playing some terrific golf as of late, and in a weaker-than-average field, this might be the week. In his first full season on Tour, Buckley has made 12 cuts in 25 tournaments, with five top 25s to show for, including two top 10s.
After qualifying for the U.S. Open, Buckley shot a pair of 68s out of the gate. He stumbled on Saturday with a 75 and ultimately finished T14 on the week. He comes into the week 14th on Tour in SG: Off-the-Tee and, week after week, has been turning in some of the best ball-striking of any young player on Tour.
He also enters the week inside the top 20 in Driving Accuracy (17th) and Greens in Regulation (16th). If his putter starts dropping putts, he certainly has the stuff to get it done. While he doesn’t have any course history here, with just a max of 12 rounds possible for anyone in the field, I don’t think that hurts Buckley too much.
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