Barbasol Championship (and Scottish Open)
Overview
Dates: July 7, 2022 to July 10, 2022
Location: Kentucky, USA
Course: Keene Trace Golf Club
Course Par: 72
Course Length: 7328 yards
Prize Purse: $3700000
The Barbasol Championship gets underway this week in Kentucky and will sport a field comprised of players from both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. Meanwhile, the Scottish Open takes place at the Renaissance Club, where many of the world’s top players will be completing their preparation for The Open. We’ll be providing pointers towards both events.
Results
Despite some fair performances from several of our selections, it was a small loss for us overall on the week. Mark Hubbard securing 3rd spot in the Barbasol was the highlight, recovering half our total stakes, but he just left himself with a little too much to do on Sunday. Chris Gotterup was a big disappointment, playing himself out of the tournament in his first 12 holes before recovering somewhat but still falling short of the cut mark. While Ryan Moore and Conrad Schindler safely made the weekend but never really featured towards the top of the leaderboard.
Over in Scotland, Tyrrell Hatton and Christiaan Bezuidenhout performed with credit, both securing top 25 finishes but never really threatening to make the top 8. Onwards to the main event with just a few days to wait until The Open starts.
Preview
It’s the week before the final major of the season and we have two co-sanctioned events running in parallel, both of which will have a mixture of PGA Tour and DP World Tour players competing. While the Scottish Open certainly has the stronger field, we feel that the value is easier to find in Kentucky and will be focusing most of our selections there, although we’ll also be recommending a couple of players to go well in Scotland.
Starting with the Barbasol, what stands out is that this may well be the weakest PGA Tour field assembled this season. Only nine players in the field are in positive True Strokes Gained territory in the last 6 months. When Kevin Streelman is arguably the big name, you know that it represents a huge opportunity for a relative unknown to get their hands on some silverware. More than anything, our strategy for this event revolves around finding some players who come into the event with some reasonable recent results behind them, albeit they are hard to find.
Outrights
| Player | Points | Type | UK Odds | Places | Outright US Odds |
| Chris Gotterup | 4 | each way | 20/1 | 7 | +2000 |
| Mark Hubbard | 2 | each way | 25/1 | 7 | +2500 |
| Ryan Moore | 2 | each way | 45/1 | 8 | +6000 |
| Conrad Shindler | 1 | each way | 175/1 | 6 | +18000 |
| Tyrrell Hatton | 1.5 | each way | 50/1 | 8 | +5000 |
| Christiaan Bezuidenhout | 1.5 | each way | 66/1 | 8 | +8000 |
Chris Gotterup (4pts each way, 20/1, 7 places) has burst onto the tour in recent weeks and all the signs are that he has everything required to become a star of the future. In just a few weeks he has proven that he can compete in far stronger fields than he will face this week and he will undoubtedly be feeling that this is a golden opportunity to get his maiden win ticked off. I couldn’t believe the early quotes of 33/1, which disappeared quickly, but even at 20/1 I am very happy to get involved. He should be a clear favourite and I’d be fairly surprised if he doesn’t make the top 10 at the very least.
Mark Hubbard (2pts each way, 25/1, 7 places) has been in decent form for a while now and although he doesn’t possess the star potential of Gotterup, certainly has the form to go very close in such a weak field. We recommended him last week and although he didn’t quite cash for us he went very well in a far stronger event and I’m happy to give him another chance.
Another player we’ll give another chance to is Ryan Moore (2pts each way, 45/1, 8 places). Moore has better historical form than most of this field and last week’s performance gives some confidence that he could be on the cusp of putting together four rounds that would make him very competitive in this event.
Finally, Conrad Shindler (1pt each way, 175/1, 6 places) is the last to make the list (sorry, couldn’t resist!) for the Barbasol, purely on the basis of having posted some strokes gained numbers in his few tour starts that could give him a chance. Of course he’s a much riskier proposition than our other selections, but that’s compensated for in the price.
Others who received serious consideration for the Barbasol were Austin Smotherman, Lee Hodges, Michael Gligic and Taylor Pendrith.
Moving on to the Scottish Open, although a stellar field has been assembled, I want to use this as an opportunity to watch the likely protagonists for The Open warm up, in order to inform our selections for the main event next week, rather than getting involved too heavily. A further complication is that several of the big names also took part in the two-day pro-am at Adare Manor earlier in the week and won’t have had much breathing space between the two events. That said, there are a couple who I feel are worth a small investment in the shape of Tyrrell Hatton (1.5pts each way, 50/1, 8 places) and Christiaan Bezuidenhout (1.5pts each way, 66/1, 8 places). I’m not sure either is a likely winner, hence keeping stakes small, but Hatton may just be sparked into a return to form by the change to links golf, while Bezuidenhout is hugely talented on his day and quietly snuck into a high finish at the John Deere. Both may be a touch over-priced.
Despite some fair performances from several of our selections, it was a small loss for us overall on the week. Mark Hubbard securing 3rd spot in the Barbasol was the highlight, recovering half our total stakes, but he just left himself with a little too much to do on Sunday. Chris Gotterup was a big disappointment, playing himself out of the tournament in his first 12 holes before recovering somewhat but still falling short of the cut mark. While Ryan Moore and Conrad Schindler safely made the weekend but never really featured towards the top of the leaderboard.
Over in Scotland, Tyrrell Hatton and Christiaan Bezuidenhout performed with credit, both securing top 25 finishes but never really threatening to make the top 8. Onwards to the main event with just a few days to wait until The Open starts.