Barbasol Championship Power Rankings: Top 10 at Keene Trace

AUBURN, AL - JULY 20: A tee marker is seen during the first round of the Barbasol Championship at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Grand National on July 20, 2017 in Auburn, Alabama. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
AUBURN, AL - JULY 20: A tee marker is seen during the first round of the Barbasol Championship at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Grand National on July 20, 2017 in Auburn, Alabama. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images) /
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The PGA Tour’s alternate field event to the Open Championship, the Barbasol Championship, moves to a new venue and state in Keene Trace Golf Club in Kentucky

After three years at Grand National in Alabama, the Barbasol Championship is heading north to a new venue to the PGA Tour, Keene Trace.

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The Champions course at Keene Trace is a 7,328-yard par-72 layout is in Nicholasville, Kentucky, about 20 miles southwest of Lexington. The traditional parkland style course features bentgrass throughout most of the course and a bent/bluegrass mix in the three-inch rough. The Arthur Hill design is in its 30th year and once hosted the 1994 U.S. Senior Amateur and is distinct in ending in a par-3.

Keene Trace will also host the 2019 Division III NCAA Championship.

This will be the first PGA Tour event, excluding majors, in Kentucky since 1959.

With much of the world’s best in Scotland for the Open Championship this week, the field is limited to just a handful of top-100 players.

The biggest draw may be Brittany Lincicome. The eight-time winner on the LPGA will be the first woman to tee it up on the PGA Tour since Michelle Wie at the 2008 Reno-Tahoe Open.

Lincicome is a two-time major champion as well as a winner of the last two Pure Silk-Bahamas Classic. She is sponsored by Pure Silk, a division of Barbasol.

Early forecasts project for temperatures in the mid-80s, which should be a reprieve from the oppressive heat at past editions in Alabama.

Without any course history to fall back on and not many players in peak form (that’s why they’re here and not Europe), this will be a bit of a crapshoot.

Performance in the past two weeks will go a long way in my judgement this week. This event tends to produce some low scores, so guys who can rack up birdies are ones to watch. Here are 10 players who could contend this week in the Bluegrass State.