RENO, Nev. — For the second time in his career, and the first time since his rookie season on the PGA Tour, William McGirt will play in the Barracuda Championship.
The tournament is the only Modified Stableford format event on the Tour schedule, and allows those players not in the field for this week’s World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational to get FedEx Cup points in the crunch time of the season.
McGirt idled this week in the FedEx Cup standings at 120th after his tie for 29th finish at the RBC Canadian Open. The top 125 in the standings after the Wyndham Championship qualify for the Northern Trust, the first of the four events in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
In his first appearance in the tournament in 2011, when it was the Reno-Tahoe Open, he missed the cut after finishing his first two round at 2 over. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the event held at the Montrêux Golf and Country Club. Following the 2011 edition of the tournament, the Barracuda Championship changed formats from stroke play to Modified Stableford.
The scoring for the tournament awards eight points for an albatross, five points for an eagle, two points for a birdie and zero points for par. One point is taken away for a bogey and three points are deducted for a double bogey or worse.
The Fairmont native starts the tournament on Thursday from the 10th tee at 7:33 a.m., with Mackenzie Hughes and Martin Laird.
Chris Stroud is the defending champion of the event.
