Barbasol has FedExCup implications
For at least 132 golfers in Nicholasville, Kentucky, a world away from the British Open and the final major of 2019 in Northern Ireland, the Barbasol Championship will be golf ’s epicenter starting Thursday.
An alternate event to the British Open since 2015, the Barbasol Championship has FedExCup Playoff implications with three weeks left in the regular season as well as a $3.5 million purse.
In a field featuring four former major winners and more than 90 competitors who currently rest outside the top 100 in the FedExCup standings, the 300 points available to the winner could be the difference between a start at The Northern Trust, the first playoff tournament, or a premature end to the 2018-19 season. The top 125 players in the standings qualify for the playoffs and earn PGA Tour cards for the following season.
For Zack Sucher (136), Bill Haas (142) and Harris English (146), among others, the Barbasol Championship offers a key opportunity to climb closer to playoff contention. At Keene Trace Golf Club, a par-72, 7,328-yard course that’s hosting the tournament for the second year in a row, Matt Every is the highest-ranked player included in the field, slotting in at No. 66 in the FedExCup standings.
Sucher is without a PGA Tour win since turning professional in 2009 but finished as a runner-up in the Travelers in June, earning $633,600. Haas won the 2011 FedExCup and is now searching for a late push back into the playoffs with only one top-10 finish this season. And English, who last won a PGA Tour event in 2013, is without a top-10 finish in the 2019 season.
Last year’s Barbasol Championship winner, Troy Merritt, returns to defend his title and sits at No. 108 in the FedExCup standings, with three top-10 finishes this year.
Plus, there’s John Daly, one of four previous major winners included in the field, alongside Jason Dufner, David Toms and Y.E. Yang. Daly won the British Open in 1995 but was denied the use of a cart for this year’s edition. The 53year-old withdrew from the Open field at Royal Portrush, citing complications from a spider bite, and will use a cart at the Barbasol.