Here’s who’ll be playing in Kentucky’s PGA Tour event next week
The official field for the PGA Tour’s Barbasol Championship, to be held at Champions at Keene Trace in Nicholasville next week, was announced Friday. There were some additions — and a few subtractions — from the list of previously announced players for the tournament, which will be played the same days as the British Open.
Davis Love III, Brittany Lincicome and Billy Horschel are the headliners for the Barbasol Championship, which will be played for the first time in Central Kentucky on July 19-22.
Love III, a Hall of Fame player who has won 21 times on the PGA Tour including the 1997 PGA Championship, tops a field that represents 182 victories on golf’s top tour. Stuart Appleby has won nine times, Hunter Mahan six times and five players have five wins on the PGA Tour, including Horschel, the 2014 FedExCup Champion.
Lincicome, the first woman to compete in a PGA Tour event since 2008, owns eight wins on the LPGA Tour, including two majors.
“To have this field in our first year as an event, we could not be more pleased,” Brooks Downing, the executive director of the Barbasol Championship, said in a news release. “There are so many storylines embedded within this field of 132. And of course we’ll crown a winner next Sunday who will earn a two-year exemption on the tour and an automatic berth in the PGA Championship next month in St. Louis.”
The deadline to enter a PGA Tour event is 5 p.m. on the Friday before tournament week. A few of the previously announced players have since withdrawn, including Retief Goosen, who qualified for the British Open; Angel Cabrera, who is injured; and rookie Beau Hossler.
“Changes right up to the deadline are common on tour,” Downing said. “As an example, we picked up two two-time winners today with Brian Gay and Harris English. With this field and the party we’re planning on throwing, we cannot wait until tournament week starts.”
While the field, which is still subject to change, doesn’t include former Taylor County and University of Kentucky star J.B. Holmes, who also hasn’t qualified for the British Open, there will be several Kentuckians taking part.
Those include Matt Atkins (Apollo), Derek Fathauer (University of Louisville), Grover Justice (Pikeville, UK), Tyler “Chip McDaniel (Clay County, UK), Cooper Musselman (St. Xavier, UK) and Josh Teater (Henry Clay, Morehead State).
Pro-am
Former University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith, country music star John Michael Montgomery, Kentucky Sports Radio founder Matt Jones and radio legend Rick Dees will be playing alongside a PGA Tour pro as the celebrity team when the Barbasol Championship Pro-Am is played next Wednesday at Champions at Keene Trace.
PGA Barbasol Championship schedule of events
At Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville
Monday, July 16
▪ Player practice (Course closed to the public)
Tuesday, July 17
▪ Gates open: 7 a.m.
▪ Player practice (Free admittance to the public)
Wednesday, July 18
▪ Gates open: 7 a.m.
▪ Player practice (Free admittance to the public)
▪ Tournament Pro-Am
Thursday-Sunday, July 19-22
▪ Gates open: 7:30 a.m.
▪ Barbasol Championship (tee times TBA)