TRUCKEE, Calif. – Adam Schenk held the lead with 38 points after three rounds of the Barracuda Championship at Old Greenwood Golf Course. He had five birdies and two bogeys in Saturday’s third round.
Andrew Putnam, the 2018 tournament winner, was the only player in the field bogey-free until he double-bogeyed on No. 16 Saturday.
Putnam, 32, from Tacoma, Washington, was in second place late Saturday afternoon with 34 points in the Stableford format. He was tied with Eric van Rooyen, 31, from South Africa.
Putnam said he just had one bad swing on No. 16.
“I wasn’t feeling 100 percent. It’s kind of hard playing in the smoke. You get a little headache and you’re just a little bit out of it,” Putnam said. “Obviously didn’t have any bogeys up until then. I was playing pretty perfect golf. Just a tough cross wind, just kind of came out of it and was in a bush, and from there it was kind of tough to make a bogey.”
Schenk, 29, is making his third appearance at Barracuda Championship. He sits No. 113 in FedEx Cup and is seeking to advance to the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the third consecutive season.
Scott Piercy and Joel Dahmen are next with 33 points each.
Spectators are back
Players say the fans are a huge component of playing on the PGA Tour, and the first Barracuda Championship at Old Greenwood last year was a bit surreal without spectators.
But the energy is back as spectators are allowed at the course this year, albeit in limited numbers.
Tournament director Chris Hoff did not say what that number is, but added that the course covers a huge space outside Truckee with plenty of room for distancing.
Since there were no spectators in 2020, Hoff and his staff will use this week’s Barracuda Championship to help plan for better spectator viewing areas next year.
He said it usually takes about 14-15 months to plan for the region’s annual PGA Tour stop. They had about five months to prepare for this month’s Barracuda as guidelines were changing frequently this year.
Guidelines on people gathering outdoors were not known until June, and the tournament staff tried to keep up with evolving California COVID-19 mandates.
“There was a lot of things going on in a very short time,” Hoff said of preparing for this year’s Barracuda.
Hoff said learning how to direct which way spectators will move is a big lesson they are taking from this week.
“The terrain is different from our former site so things change with that, but we’re thrilled with the way things have turned out and how the golf course is coming across on TV,” Hoff said.
He said having fans and the energy they bring, including crowd noise, helps fire up the players.
Golfers agreed.
Mark Anderson said the golfers are there for the fans.
“That’s why we play really. It kind of makes it exciting for us to see everybody else,” Anderson said. “We’ve gotten back to that this year. It’s exciting to see people come out and be enthusiastic about the golf. It’s a really nice, positive change.”
He said golfers are there to entertain the spectators saying, “hitting great shots and seeing people appreciate that is fun.”
Hoff pointed out the tented area between the green on No. 16 and the tee box on No. 17, called “The Lookout,” where fans can congregate and see both holes in either direction.
“I’d imagine we’d look at that and say what more can we do here,” Hoff said.
And as for Grillo?
Emiliano Grillo held the lead after two rounds with 29 points. He finished with two points on Saturday to total 31 points through three rounds.
There have been seven second-round leaders or co-leaders to win the Barracuda Championship. The most recent was Greg Chalmers in 2016.
Chalmers finished with 12 points on Saturday and has 27 for the tournament.
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