KY's Barbasol Championship moved to week before The Open in 2022

(Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Nicholasville’s Barbasol Championship got some exciting news today when the PGA TOUR announced modifications to the tournament schedule for the 2021-22 season.

The Barbasol got bumped up a week in the summer rotation of PGA TOUR events, meaning it will no longer be played concurrently with the British Open, one of golf’s four major championships. In past years, the Barbasol was considered an alternate event, held on the same weekend as the Open.

With the new schedule, the fourth running of Kentucky’s Barbasol Championship will be played July 7-10, 2022, the weekend before The Open. The Barbasol will now be played opposite of the PGA’s new Genesis Scottish Open in Scotland, part of the TOUR’s new “Strategic Alliance” agreement with the European Tour to co-sanction both the Barbasol and Scottish Open events on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

“We are thrilled with the PGA TOUR’s decision to move the Barbasol Championship up one week and serve as the last US tournament prior to the British Open,” said Barbasol Championship Tournament Director Bryan Pettigrew. “This positions us to attract an even more dynamic field and generate more excitement around professional golf in Kentucky.”

Unfortunately, the stars of the game will still likely choose overseas to play in the Genesis Scottish Open to get accustomed to links golf and Scottish food and ale before The Open is held the following week in the same timezone. However, the aforementioned Strategic Alliance between the PGA and European tours will allow the Barbasol access to 50 European Tour players for the first time, plus those PGA TOUR regulars who are competing in The Open but would rather play another week on American soil over an extended stay across the pond. However many that is, it’s more than would choose the Barbasol over playing in a major.

Combined, the addition of the Europeans and the larger pool of full-time PGA TOUR members will make for a big upgrade to the Barbasol Championship field.

This is some of the best sports news out of Jessamine County since Jarrod Polson committed to Kentucky.