Barracuda Championship 2015: Leaderboard Scores and Highlights from Thursday

The Barracuda Championship opened its first round Thursday, August 6 at the Montreux Golf and Country Club in Reno, Nevada. 

The PGA's only Modified Stableford event, scoring is a bit different in this tournament than traditional play. Instead of strokes being added or subtracted from a golfer's score, points are rewarded depending on the result of each hole.

This style of play implores golfers to play more aggressively. PGATour.com states that "the strategy in Modified Stableford formats can, in most instances, be summed up in three words: Go for it."

Here is the leaderboard after Thursday's first round with a look at the game's format and some of the day's most notable performers. 

Place	Golfer	1st Rd. Score
1	Zack Sucher	18
2	Patrick Rodgers	15
3	Ricky Barnes	14
T4	David Toms	13
T4	J.J. Henry	13
T6	Robert Garrigus	12
T6	Billy Hurley III	12
T6	Andres Romero	12
T6	Jonas Blixt	12
T6	Tom Hoge	12

The PGA Tour breaks down scoring for the Barracuda Championship like this:

• Double Eagle: 8 points
• Eagle: 5 points
• Birdie: 2 points
• Par: 0 points
• Bogey: -1 point
• Double Bogey or more: -3 points

With a number of players within touching distance of the top spot, it's Zack Sucher who paces the pack with 18 points on his first round, a tournament record. His birdie on 16 put him at the Stableford record-tying 18, as shown by the PGA Tour:

Sucher certainly went for it, and his aggressive play paid off, recording nine birdies during a clean outing that saw no bogeys. 

With averages well over the tournament mark with an 85.71 percent driving accuracy and 88.89 percent greens in regulation percentage, Sucher was able to gain 4.834 strokes in his putting game. 

Three points behind Sucher in second place is Patrick Rodgers at 15. With five points on the front nine, Rodgers tallied off four consecutive birdies from Nos. 11-14 before ending the day with another on the 18th hole. 

Rodgers' monster drives with an average of 332.5 yards put him in favorable positions and shorter approach situations, thus allowing him to rack up the points.

One of the bigger names in golf, John Daly, is nowhere near the leaderboard with just four points in his first round. He sits in a tie for 66th, but he delivered one of the shots of the day that could have rocketed him up the standings. The PGA Tour showed his narrow eagle miss on No. 14:

It's clear that after the first round of play, the bigger the swings and the more aggressive the play is, the better chance that big points can be won. If Rodgers' big drives are able to stay accurate, he will stay near the top of the Barracuda Championship leaderboard. But if Sucher can stay bogey-free throughout the rest of the tournament, he will be an unstoppable freight train toward the title.

Stats courtesy of PGATour.com