The Little Fish Are Hungry

Of course, the big tournament this week is the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and I'll be devoting some posts to it over the next few days. There are so many storylines -- Tiger, Phil, Graeme, Lee, and Poults trying to make their respective Ryder Cups, for instance, or the potential battle for #1 between Adam, Henrik, and Rory. And while I'm not doing a "My 5 to Watch" post this week, I do expect Rickie Fowler to make some serious noise.

But we have also were given some smaller fish to fry this week, so let's take a quick observe them.

The newly-renamed Barracuda Championship -- I sincerely like the new name, btw -- is better known at the previous Reno-Tahoe Open, the conventional change-field occasion for the WGC-Bridgestone. And when you consider that 2012 it is used the changed Stableford scoring machine formerly used at The International. You can get a full overview and records of the system at this PGATOUR.Com hyperlink, but right here's the fundamentals:

You don't rely strokes; you remember points:

• Double eagle (albatross): 8 points
• Eagle: 5 points
• Birdie: 2 points
• Par: 0 points
• Bogey: -1 point
• Double or worse: -3 points

You are rewarded for taking risks and penalized for playing safe. (Shoot 18 pars and you finish with NO points; shoot 9 pars and 9 birdies, you finish with 18 points. For the same score relative to par.) Plus, if you can't make double you just pick up because you can't get worse than -3 points.

Because the Montreux Golf Course is round a mile above sea level, gamers can hit the ball prodigious distances. Add that to the gambling mentality and the now-correctly named Barracuda Championship can get quite thrilling. Multiple eagles and double eagles in a round are very possible. (The International become performed at Castle Rock GC, additionally at intense altitude. Back in 2002, Steve Lowery shot birdie, eagle, bogey, albatross, par at the very last five holes to lose through a unmarried factor to Rich Beem. Almost anything's possible with this format.)

Since this is an change event, the winner would not get a Masters invitation. However, a win is still precise for OWGR factors, FedEx Cup points, a -yr excursion exemption, and entry into the PGA Championship next week. Not horrific for gamers who didn't qualify to move swimming in the huge pond this week!

So after you check out the sharks at the WGC-Bridgestone, you might want to check in and see what the little would-be Barracudas are doing. GC starts their coverage at 6:30pm ET today.