TRUCKEE, Calif. (AP) – Erik van Rooyen won the Barracuda Championship on Sunday for his first PGA Tour title, finishing with 50 points in the modified Stableford scoring system.
Canadian Roger Sloan climbed 10 points on Sunday after finishing the third round tied for 16th. Sloan completed the fourth round with an eagle and 6 birdies to rocket him up to the 6th spot. Richmond Hill, Ont.’s Taylor Pendrith joined fellow Canadian inside the top 15, completing the fourth round with 34 points.
Van Rooyen, the 31-year-old former University of Minnesota player from South Africa, eagled the par-4 eighth and closed with a birdie on the par-4 18th for a five-point victory over Andrew Putnam at Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood Course.
Players receive eight points for an albatross, five for eagle, two for birdie and zero for par. A point is subtracted for a bogey, and three points are taken away for a double bogey or worse.
Van Rooyen had a 16-point final round, making the eagle, six birdies and a bogey.
Putnam scored 11 points on the first four holes with an eagle on the par-5 second and three birdies, then had two birdies and a bogey on the final 14 holes. He won the 2018 event for his lone PGA Tour title.
Scott Piercy was third with 44 points after an 11-point day. Third-round leader Adam Schenk had a five-point round to finish with 43.
Van Rooyen jumped from 139th to 78th in the FedEx Cup standings, with the top 125 after the Wyndham Championship next week earning spots in the playoff opener at Liberty National. He earned a spot in the PGA Championship next year but not the Masters because the event is being played opposite a World Golf Championship the FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis, Tennessee.
Putnam went from 104th to 75th, Piercy 144th to 126th and Schenk 113 to 95th.