With most of the golf world’s attention
firmly on Ohio and the WGC event this week the opposite field Barracuda
Championship presents a big opportunity for several Australian PGA TOUR
players.

It was at this event two years ago that
2006 US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy surprised everyone, including himself, when
a last minute decision to play the tournament resulted in a victory.

Ogilvy said at the time that the modified
stableford format helped his cause that week, the break from regulation
strokeplay enough of a distraction to allow him to just ‘play golf’.

The 39-year-old will be one of several
Australians hoping that formula can work again this year as crunch time on the
PGA TOUR fast approaches.

Rhein Gibson, Rod Pampling, Greg Chalmers,
Aaron Baddeley, Stuart Appleby, Cameron Percy John Senden and Mark Hensby will
join Ogilvy in the field in Las Vegas.

Of those only Baddeley and Senden presently
sit inside the top-125 on the FedEx Cup standings, the rest in desperate need
of some good results and quickly.

Appleby has three events left of a major
medical extension to earn another $229,000 and get back his Tour card while the
rest are outside the top-150, Gibson and Chalmers outside the top-200.

Pampling is the only one of the group with
much in the way of positive memories to call on at the tournament having
finished fifth in 2014 and boasting two other top 10’s going back more than a
decade.