Coming into the week at Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood course, Beau Hossler sat 73rd in the FedEx Cup standings.
With the new rules, only the top 70 are guaranteed spots in the Playoffs. Counting this week, there’s only three events left for players like Hossler to lock up their spots in the field at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis.
After the first round of the 2023 Barracuda Championship, Hossler is doing his best to make sure he’s well inside the cut line.
Hossler, in a Modified Stableford scoring format, is +17 after the first round in Truckee, California, and sits on top of the leaderboard. The highlight of his day came on the par-3 third, when he recorded an ace for the first time in his Tour career.
“I was kind of in between clubs,” Hossler said. “I think it was like 211, but at altitude it’s playing like 190. I hit a 7-iron and it landed in a good spot and it went in. It looked like it was the only hole on Tour this year that had no camera.”
In addition to his ace, Hossler also made an eagle on the par-5 sixth. Two holes, +10 (as eagles are worth five points) on the scorecard and a first-round lead.
He shot 7-under 64 in stroke play with four birdies (worth two points each), the two eagles and a lone bogey (golfers lose a point for bogeys). Hossler hasn’t won in his Tour career but does have two runner-up finishes.
“My game feels probably the best it’s felt in years right now, which is good,” Hossler said. “Maybe the results haven’t quite been there the last few weeks, but I feel like I’m working on some good stuff with my golf swing. Starting to see some a lot better iron play the last probably two weeks. So, hopefully, I can keep doing that and get the putter hot.”
Alexander Levy sits second after the morning wave at +16. Carson Young and Patrick Rodgers are at +15. The Barracuda is the only event on the Tour schedule to use the Modified Stableford scoring system.
Story originally appeared on GolfWeek