Central Kentucky’s annual PGA Tour event will be back under new name in 2024

Central Kentucky’s annual PGA event, which seemed doomed after being initially left off the Tour schedule for 2024, will be back for its seventh year at Champions at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville.

The event, previously known as the Barbasol Championship, will now be known as the Kentucky Championship and take place July 11-14, the PGA Tour announced Monday morning.

As usual, the tournament will again provide the platform for players from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour to compete for benefits on both Tours.

The Kentucky Championship was first played in 2015 in Alabama before moving to Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville in 2018. The event has been contested in Kentucky five times in its six previous years, with the 2020 Barbasol canceled because of the pandemic.

The Kentucky Championship, won in 2023 by PGA Tour Rookie of the Year nominee Vincent Norrman, will feature a field of 156 players vying for a $4 million purse. The winner will receive 300 FedExCup points and 500 Race to Dubai Ranking Points.

More information, including website, social media channels, volunteer opportunities, tournament staff, partnerships and tournament enhancements will be available soon.

The event hung in the balance since its sponsorship deal with Barbasol, an American shaving brand, expired after the 2023 tournament. The unclear future of PGA Tour golf in Kentucky became even more apparent in August, when the Tour released its initial 2024 season schedule.

That schedule featured a slot for the dates the Barbasol Championship would normally be contested, but that slot for 2024 contained the words “TBA” with relation to the event name, golf course and location.

Dan Koett — the director of media and public relations for what was known as the Barbasol Championship — told the Herald-Leader in August that local organizers still held out hope.

“We are hopeful,” he said at the time. “We’ve left the door open that professional golf, PGA Tour golf, can remain here in the commonwealth.

“Will (the event) remain in Nicholasville, Kentucky? We’re very hopeful for that. But the possibility exists that it could move somewhere else.”

Monday’s announcement ended that uncertainty for this year but made no mention of a new sponsor, which Koett figured would be key to maintaining the tournament long-term.

Koett said the Kentucky stop remained attractive to the PGA Tour because it consistently gained momentum.

“We saw incremental growth each year,” Koett said in August. “We’ve had an increase in revenue, in attendance, in ratings, and then volunteer participation.”

Barbasol Championship history in Kentucky

Since it moved to Kentucky from Alabama in 2018, the Barbasol Championship had been contested five times at Keene Trace.

When the tournament arrived in Kentucky, it became the state’s first regular-season PGA Tour event since the Kentucky Derby Open was held in Louisville from 1957-59. (The 2024 PGA Championship will be contested in May at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville.)

Several changes occurred to the tournament structure since it moved to the commonwealth, most notably with the event’s field makeup and what the winner received.

The 2018, 2019 and 2021 editions of the Barbasol were all opposite field events played at the same time as a major championship: the British Open.

That changed in 2022, and the winner of that year’s Barbasol — Trey Mullinax — received the final spot into the British Open field. Mullinax finished in a tie for 21st in the 150th edition of the British Open, which was played at historic St Andrews in Scotland.

Vincent Norrman, who won the 2023 Barbasol in a playoff, didn’t receive a spot into the British Open.

Herald-Leader Staff Writer Cameron Drummond contributed to this article.