Truckie, Calif. (AP) – Ben Martin scored 16 points Thursday, leading David Lipski and Nick Watney two points, and is the only PGA Tour event to use the revised stableford scoring system in the first round of the Barracuda Championship.
Players receive 8 points for Double Eagle, 5 points for Eagle and 2 points for Birdie. Bogeys are deducted points, while double bogeys are deducted three.
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Nos. Nos from Bogeys 6-7. He rebounded from the Bogeys with a birdie 8-9 and closed the morning round at Tahoe Mountain Club, a treeline layout at 6,000 feet altitude.
“To be honest, I’m warming up in this morning’s range and it’s cold. I’m getting older. It’s hard to stay physically active,” said Martin, 37, who came to Las Vegas’s only PGA tour in 2014. ”
The tournament, which takes place on the other side of the British Open, is jointly approved by the European Tour. The winner will enter the PGA Championship, but not the Masters.
Lipski scored 15 points on the first nine holes, then dropped three points in par 4 seconds after his approach bouncing off the greenside sprinkler.
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“It bounced over the greenery,” Lipsky said. “It was tough to even make a bogey from there, so it’s a bit unfortunate, but overall it was a good day.”
He birded the third of the par 5 and interpreted the final six. On the opening nine, he took 15th par 5 and won five birdies at 7 under 29.
Watney, 44, won the last of five PGA Tour titles in 2012.
The Cameron champions scored 13 points with Rico Hoy, Joel Damen, Danny Walker, Dale Whitnell and Todd Clements. The 2018 winner, Andrew Putnam, was 12 years old with Jackson Suber, Ute Katsuragawa and Vince Wheelie.
Max Homa lost points and struggled in the afternoon with Mississippi State defending champion Nick Dunlap and NCAA champion Michael La Sasso. Dunlap lost six points and Sasso played on sponsor exemption – 7.
German twins Yannik and Jeremy Paul also dropped off a top-slow start. Yannik had zero points and Jeremy lost two points. They played at a university in Colorado.
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AP Golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
