Barracuda Champion Chez Reavie - What You Need to Know

CHEZ REAVIE took advantage of the absence of the world’s best players to win the Barracuda Championship on Sunday, holding on in the final round of the PGA Tour’s modified Stableford scoring event to secure his third title.

Six points ahead entering the day, Reavie finished with a one-point victory over Alex Noren on Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood layout.

The 40-year-old Reavie became the first winner aged 40 or over since Lucas Glover a year ago in the 2021 John Deere Classic. He finished with 43 points.

“I’ve been working hard,” Reavie said. “I’ve been hitting the ball and I knew I could do it. I just kept grinding, and here we are.”

With the event also sanctioned by the DP World Tour, Reavie earned spots on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour through the 2024 seasons.

“I’ll get over there,” Reavie said. “I had no idea that that was on the table until I finished. I’m excited. I would love to go to Europe and play and maybe go play in the BMW PGA Championship or something. I’d enjoy that a lot."

He also won the 2008 RBC Canadian Open and 2019 Travelers Championship.

Reavie had four birdies and two bogeys in his final round. Players get five points for eagle and two for birdie, while a point is deducted for bogey and three taken away for double bogey or worse.

“It was stressful out there today with the wind and missing some putts early,” Reavie said. “Was fortunate to make some good putts coming in and pull it off.”

Reavie birdied the par-5 12th and made his last birdie on the par-4 16th, holing a 15-footer after his flop approach hit a seam in the grass and shot forward. He got up-and-down for par from a greenside bunker on the par-3 17th, holing a 5-footer, and tapped in for par on the par-4 18th.

“I just stayed patient,” Reavie said. “I knew I was going to have to. I knew some guys were going to make a lot of birdies early. I was hoping to be one of those guys, but the putter was kind of letting me down early. Just tried to keep it as close as I could to the hole and give myself some good looks.”

Noren had a 14-point round. “I love this course,” he said. “It was pretty tricky today with the wind. It’s been a roller-coaster of a week, obviously, but when you make the cut, you think, well, this is a great week anyway, and then I played good on the weekend and had a blast today.”

Scotland’s Martin Laird was third.

WHO IS CHEZ REAVIE?

Reavie was born in Wichita, Kansas in November 1981. He has won three times on the PGA Tour, once on the DP World Tour and twice on the Korn Ferry Tour. Reavie played on the Nationwide Tour from 2005 through 2007, winning the Knoxville Open in 2007 and securing his PGA Tour card.

He won the Canadian Open in 2008, which secured his card for two years. He then suffered a number of injuries, requiring knee surgery and lost his card in 2012. He battled his way through Q-School but was then sidelined by injury again. In 2015 he topped the Web.com Tour money list, earning him his PGA Tour card for the 2015-16 season.

In 2018 he finished runner-up at the Waste Management Open and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. In 2019 he was third at the US Open and the following week he won the Travelers Championship, 11 years after his maiden victory.

His victory at the Barracuda took him to 49th place in the FedEx Cup standings - he had managed just two other top-10 finishes in 2022.

He is one of the shortest hitters in tour, averaging just 281.2 yards, but he hits 70.93% of fairways - only three players are more accurate. He hits 65% of greens in regulation and averages 3.38 birdies per round and 29.04 putts per 18 holes.