Celebrities got things started last week with a raucous party-type atmosphere at Edgewood Tahoe. Now, golf in the area gets a little more serious as the professionals are at Truckee for the 24th annual Barracuda Championship.

The four-day PGA Tour event begins Thursday at the Tahoe Mountain Club on the Old Greenwood course.

Six former Barracuda champions are in the field this week: Richy Werenski (2020), Andrew Putnam (2018), Chris Stroud (2017), Greg Chalmers (2016), JJ Henry (2012) and Scott Piercy (2011).

And local standout Ollie Osborne, a Bishop Manogue graduate who is now a pro golfer after graduating from SMU, is in the field on a sponsors’ exemption.

David Longmire, who won the 2022 Reno Open in early June, also earned a spot in the tournament.

One player who will not be at the Barracuda is defending champion Eric van Rooyen, South Africa, who earned his first career PGA Tour win at the 2021 Barracuda Championship.

His win last year earned him a spot in the British open this week

He became the first player with a winning score of +50 since the Modified Stableford scoring system was introduced in 2012. He is the sixth consecutive first-time winner of the Barracuda Championship and the first player since Collin Morikawa in 2019 to win the tournament in his debut.

Van Rooyen’s score of +50 (+7/+17/+10/+16), set a record for the Modified Stableford format event (Geoff Ogilvy finished the 2014 Barracuda Championship with +49). 

The Barracuda is the only PGA Tour event held opposite a major championship.

The field includes 50 players from the DP World Tour, the main men’s professional golf Tour of the European Tour group.

Top players to watch this week: Maverick McNealy, who has top-20 finishes in back-to-back events, and is the 12-1 favorite per Caesars Sportsbook.

Other top contenders this week in latest 2022 Barracuda Championship odds include Alex Noren, Cam Davis, Mark Hubbard and Taylor Pendrith.

McNealy, besides having one of the best names in the field, ranks third in eagles, 18th in birdie average and 34th in scoring average this year.

Hubbard is coming off his best finish of the season with a third-place at the Barbasol Championship. He has made 14 cuts with six top-25 finishes in 18 events.

Noren, 39, from Sweden, has 11 wins as a professional, none on the PGA Tour, with most in Europe. He finished ninth in the Barracuda in 2020.

He’s coming off a 30th-place finish at last week’s Scottish Open, which ended a streak of missed cuts in three straight tournaments.

Matthias Schwab could be another top player to watch this week, although he is listed at 35-1 odds.

He’s coming off a 16th-place finish at the John Deere Classic and was in eighth place after three rounds before shooting one-over-par in the final round. Schwab earned his PGA Tour card last year and has three top-10 finishes in his rookie year.

He has made 14 of 18 cuts, with five top-25 finishes this season.

More top contenders this week include Rasmus Hojgaard, who finished tied for 10th at the Genesis Scottish Open last week.

He has only missed one cut through 12 starts on the DP World Tour and ranks 11th in driving distance for the season.

Cam Davis is coming off an eight-place finish with four rounds in the 60s at the John Deere Classic.

(Information and stats are from Sportsbookreview.com and CBSsportsline.com.)

Tee times: Begin approximately 7 a.m. Thursday-Friday and 8:30 a.m. Saturday-Sunday after the 156 player field is cut to the top 65 and ties.

Modified Stableford scoring: The Barracuda is the only PGA Tour event to use the scoring system, in which players earn points for aggressive play.

A double eagle is worth 8 points, an eagle is 5, a birdie is 2. Par is 0 points, bogey is minus-1 and double bogey or worse is minus-3.

Purse: The purse is $3.7 million with $666,000 going to the winner.

TV broadcast: The Golf Channel will televise the Barracuda on Thursday and Friday from 1 to 3 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m.

Tickets: Prices range from $35 to $50 daily. Children 15 and younger are free with an adult.

Crypto: The Barracuda Championship will become the first PGA Tour event to accept cryptocurrency payments, joining other pro sports teams from the NBA, NHL and MLB to embrace digital currency.

Spectators can purchase tickets, hospitality and sponsorship packages with over 300 different cryptocurrency options including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin.

Prohibited items

  • Coolers or bags larger than 6” x 6” x 6” — Includes folding chair bags
  • Outside food and beverages
  • Cameras or video cameras
  • Firearms
  • Radios
  • Signs and banners

Additionally, phones must be on silent mode and only used in designated mobile phone areas.

Past winners

YEAR, WINNER SCORE, RUNNER UP SCORE

  • 1999 Notah Begay III, 274; Chris Perry, 277; David Toms, 277
  • 2000 Scott Verplank, 275; Jean Van de Velde, 275
  • 2001 John Cook, 271; Jerry Kelly, 272
  • 2002 Chris Riley, 271; Jonathan Kaye, 271
  • 2003 Kirk Triplett, 271; Tim Herron, 274
  • 2004 Vaughn Taylor, 278; Steve Allan, 278; Hunter Mahan, 278; Scott McCarron, 278
  • 2005 Vaughn Taylor, 267; Jonathan Kaye, 270
  • 2006 Will MacKenzie, 268; Bob Estes, 269
  • 2007 Steve Flesch, 273; Kevin Stadler, 278; Charles Warren, 278
  • 2008 Parker McLachlin, 270; Brian Davis, 277; John Rollins, 277
  • 2009 John Rollins, 271; Martin Laird, 274; Jeff Quinney, 274
  • 2010 Matt Bettencourt, 277; Bob Heintz, 278
  • 2011 Scott Piercy, 273; Pat Perez, 274
  • 2012 J.J. Henry, +43; Alexandre Rocha, +42
  • 2013 Gary Woodland, +44; Jonathan Byrd, +35; Andres Romero, +35
  • 2014 Geoff Ogilvy, +49; Justin Hicks, +44
  • 2015 J.J. Henry, +47; Kyle Reifers, +47
  • 2016 Greg Chalmers, +43; Gary Woodland, +37
  • 2017 Chris Stroud, +44; Greg Owen, +44; Richy Werenski, +44
  • 2018 Andrew Putnam, +47; Chad Campbell, +43
  • 2019 Collin Morikawa, +47; Troy Merritt, +44
  • 2020 Richy Werenski, +39; Troy Merritt, +38
  • 2021 Erik van Rooyen, +50; Andrew Putnam, +45

The field

Aphibarnrat, Kiradech; Armour, Ryan; Atwal, Arjun; Baddeley, Aaron; Bae, Sangmoon; Baldwin, Mark; Barjon, Paul; Barnes, Ricky; Bertasio, Nino; Bjerregaard, Lucas; Blixt, Jonas; Boneta, Albert; Bramlett, Joseph; Broberg, Kristoffer; Brown, Scott; Brun, Julien; Bryan, Wesley; Byrd, Jonathan; Cabrera Bello, Rafa; Cañizares, Alejandro; Chalmers, Greg; Chappell, Kevin; Coetzee, George; Cook, Austin; Crane, Ben; Creel, Joshua; Crocker, Sean; Davis, Cam; Drewitt, Brett; Dufner, Jason; Gainey, Tommy; Garcia Rodriguez, Sebastian; Garcia-Heredia, Alfredo; Garnett, Brice; Garrigus, Robert; Gavins, Daniel; Ghim, Doug; Gligic, Michael;

Gómez, Fabián; Gouveia, Ricardo; Gutschewski, Scottl; Haas, Bill; Hadley, Chesson; Hagy, Brandon; Hahn, James; Hanna, Chase; Hansen, Joachim B; Hardy, Nick; Hearn, David; Hebert, Benjamin; Helligkilde, Marcus; Hend, Scott; Henry, J.J.; Hensby, Mark; Higgs, Harry; Highsmith, Joe; Hoag, Bo Hoffman, Charley Hojgaard, Rasmu; Hubbard, Mark; Huh, John; Jaeger, Stephan; Jamieson, Scott Johnson, Tom; Kang, Sung; Knous, Jim; Kodaira, Satoshi; Kofstad, Espen; Kohles, Ben; Kraft, Kelly Lagergren, Joakim; Laird, Martin; Laporta, Francesco; Lebioda, Hank; León, Hugo; Lingmerth, David; Long, Hurly; Longmire, David; Lorenzo-Vera, Michael; Lower, Justin; Martin, Ben; McGreevy, Max; McNealy, Maverick; Moller, Niklas Norgaard; Moore, Ryan; Moore, Taylor; Morrison, James; Mullinax, Trey; Murray, Grayson; NeSmith, Matthew; Noh, Seung-Yul; Noren, Alex;

Norlander, Henrik; O’Hair, Sean; Paratore, Renato; Paul, Yannik; Pavan, Andrea; Pavon, Matthieu; Pendrith, Taylor; Percy, Cameron; Piercy, Scott; Points, D.A.; Putnam, Andrew; Ramey, Chad; Reavie, Chez; Redman, Doc; Reeves, Seth; Ryan, Matt; Schmid, Matti; Schwab, Matthias; Seiffert, Chase; Siem, Marcel; Sigg, Greyson; Sloan, Roger; Smotherman, Austin; Snedeker, Brandt; Soderberg, Sebastian; Streb, Robert; Stroud, Chris; Stuard, Brian; 

Tarren, Callum; Tarrio, Santiago; Taylor, Vaughn; Thompson, Curtis; Thompson, Michael; Trahan, D.J.; Trainer, Martin; Tway, Kevin; Uresti, Omar; van der Walt, Dawie; Van Pelt, Bo; Veerman, Johannes; Villegas, Camilo; Von Dellingshausen, Nicolai; Wagner, Johnson; Walters, Justin; Watney, Nick; Werenski, Richy; Whaley, Vince;Whitnell, Dale; Wilson, Andrew; Wu, Ashun; Wu, Dylan

156 players in field

Alternates: Ernst, Derek; Davis, Brian; Merrick, John; Stadler, Kevin; Every, Matt; Potter, Jr., Ted; Choi, K.J.; McNeill, George; Romero, Andres; Beljan, Charlie; Bohn, Jason; Lamely, Derek; McLachlin, Parker; Axley, Eric; Wi, Charli.

Jim Krajewski covers high school and youth sports for the Reno Gazette Journal. Follow him on Twitter @RGJPreps. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com