Brian Stuard leads at the end of start-stop day at Barbasol Championship

When the focus turned away from the British Open late Thursday afternoon, it shifted back stateside to Kentucky. Unfortunately, right about the time the first round of the year’s final major was wrapping up, the Barbasol Championship was stalling out.

Two weather delays at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, prevented the first round from coming to a tidy close on Thursday, and when darkness stopped play for a third time, some players had as many as six holes left.

At the top of the leaderboard, however, Brian Stuard had managed to get in a full round. He came out of the gate with five birdies in his first six holes and had a perfect round going until he got to No. 18, where he made his only bogey of the day. He finished with an 8-under 64 and leads by one shot.

“I think it’s one of those courses where you feel like if you kind of get it going, you can make some birdies,” he said of Keene Trace. “The greens are rolling great and they’re soft, so you can attack. Like you said, it’s just one that you know you’ve got to make a bunch of birdies and just try to have at it.”

That’s a good thing considering that 2019 Barbasol champ Jim Herman won at 26 under. Last year’s tournament fell victim to COVID-19.

“It was a good start, but in all honesty, it doesn’t really mean much,” Stuard said of the round. “I need three more good rounds to put myself in contention, I guess. It’s nice to start off well. Yeah, I need three more, so just got to keep going.”

The chasers are plenty. Eight men stand at 7 under, with three of them still needing to finish the first round: Patrick Rodgers, Will Grimmer and Stephen Stallings Jr.