Despite the lack of teamwork between the PGA Tour and the LIV Golf League over the past two seasons, it’s all about the team in men’s professional golf this week.
The PGA Tour is heading to New Orleans for the Zurich Classic, the only two-man team event on the schedule.
The LIV Golf League is heading to Australia for its first ever Down Under event.
Here’s what to watch in men’s professional golf this week:
What’s next on the PGA
Classic Zurich tour in New Orleans
when: Thursday – Sunday
where: TPC Louisiana, Avondale, Louisiana
Defend the heroes: Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schavelli
preservative: 8.6 million dollars
Storylines to watch:
No “I” in the team: The PGA Tour’s only two-man team event kicks off for the sixth time outside New Orleans this week. Teams will play four-ball (best ball) in the first and third rounds, and four-ball (alternate shot) in the second and final rounds. There are 80 teams competing in the field and each winner will receive around $1.2 million. Winners will not receive Official World Golf Ranking points or an invitation to the 2024 Masters, unlike winners of other full-point PGA Tour events.
Both captains of the upcoming Ryder Cup team play with their vice-captains. US captain Zack Johnson meets Steve Stricker and European team captain Luke Donald meets Eduardo Molinari. Max Homma and Colleen Morikawa, both Cal Berkeley alumni, are on a team together.
“You see partnerships,” Homa said. “A lot of people don’t know who [are] friends here. You’re just watching us play, so now you can kind of see through that. So it’s different.”
Brothers in arms: Following his playoff triumph at the RBC Heritage, Matt Fitzpatrick is playing with his younger brother, Alex, who is making his second PGA Tour start. He missed the cut at the 2022 Valspar Championships. Alex played for Wake Forest and is ranked 705th in the world. He was a member of four Walker Cup and Palmer Cup teams.
If the Fitzpatrick brothers get a win this week, Alex will get a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour. He is currently playing on the Challenge Tour in Europe.
“I would say we are very close,” Matt said. “I think we’re polar opposites. I’m organized and unstructured. He’s happy, I’m miserable. Yeah, maybe that’s a really good way to put it.”
Matt said Alex would probably have a better iron and short game, while on the tee and on the green he fared better.
“Hopefully I’m kind of on the back this week, and yeah, we’re kind of ham and eggs and hopefully we’ll do well at the end of the week,” Alex said.
“Its meat and eggs,” Matt said to his brother, who grew up in Sheffield, England. “Wow, you’ve become so American in the four years I’ve been in college.”
It’s hard to beat: Canali and Schauffelli, the defending champions, were tough to beat in team formation. They are 6-3-1 as team members for the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. They were the winners of the Zurich Classic in 2022, making tournament records after 18, 36, 54 and 72 holes. They are only the second team to comprise two of the top five world-ranking players in the event’s six-year history.
While Cantlay and Schavel may be good at golf, they are apparently not very good at talking trash.
“I don’t think Pat talks trash,” Homa said. “I don’t think he’d be the greatest person to get into a fight to talk to. Xander is the most underrated person here when it comes down to it. Pat’s pretty quiet, so I guess you could say the meanest thing ever and he’d just shake his head at you and keep walking.”
What’s next in LIV Golf League
Life Golf-Adelaide
when: Friday – Sunday
where: The Grange Golf Club, Adelaide, Australia
preservative: 20 million dollars
Three story events worth watching:
Down: The LIV Golf League holds its first tournament in Australia this week, and league officials are anticipating huge crowds at CEO Greg Norman’s home country — so much so, that there’s even talk of adding a second event in Australia in 2024.
“I think it will happen,” Australian Mark Leishman told The Sydney Morning Herald. “You have to go where the subsidy is. I know they were limiting the crowds in America because of the disruption, but that’s super subsidized. If you can get 30,000 a day in a golf tournament, and that’s where you’ll make your money, I don’t get it.” Why don’t you go to the market that supports you.”
Leishman said he would like to see LIV Golf tournaments in South Africa, South America and other parts of the world. The circuit heads to Singapore next week.
“You don’t want to drown it out too much,” Lishman said. “Three weeks away is a long time, especially if you have kids. I think it’s two.” [a year] It would be a great number to start with and see how the support goes and then see what happens in the future. There are a lot of other markets that we haven’t hit yet.”
welcome home: The all-Australian team, Ripper GC, will undoubtedly be strong favorites this week. Besides Lishman, captain Cameron Smith, two-time Australian Open winner Matt Jones and Jed Morgan are also playing at home this week.
For the first time, the captains of the LIV Golf team will play together in threes, while the team members will play together in threes as well. Smith will play Brooks Koepka and Ian Poulter. Former world No. 1 golfer Martin Kaymer, the Cleeks GC captain, will return this week after missing the first three events while recovering from wrist surgery.
“Obviously, I would pretty much say everyone is going to be rooting for them, and that’s a good thing, right?” Koepka told reporters in Australia. “They have to. They have to have a hometown advantage, support, and have everyone there cheering for them, which would be nice to see, just like at a league level. I think that would be great.”
Looking forward to the US Open: LIV Golf League players Sergio Garcia, Harold Farner III, Matthew Wolfe and Lichman were among the 10,187 entries for the US Open, scheduled for June 15-18 at the Los Angeles Country Club. The local qualifiers started this week.
LIV Golf players who have not registered to attempt to qualify for the US Open include Paul Casey, Charles Howell III, Poulter, Charles Schwartzl, and Lee Westwood.
At least seven players from LIV Golf will be eligible to compete in the US Open: Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Kaymer and Koepka have been US Open champions in the past 10 years; Phil Mickelson as a PGA Championship winner of the past five years; Smith for winning the championship last year. and Joaquin Nyman for qualifying and qualifying for the Tour Championship last year.
OWGR’s top 60 players on May 22, the Monday after the PGA Championship, will receive exemptions. Abraham Unser is currently ranked 36th, Patrick Reed is 44th, Thomas Peters is 46th, Mito Pereira is 55th and Tallor Gooch is 57th. Since they will not have world ranking points for finishing LIV, PGA Championship contenders will likely have to To play well to maintain their ranking.
As the tours turn
McKenna & Associates, the nonpartisan company hired by LIV Golf to help it revolutionize the world of professional golf, is retracting a third-party subpoena it received from the PGA Tour as part of the circuits ongoing legal battle in federal court.
According to court documents, McKenna & Associates asked the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to set aside or amend the subpoena. Among other things, the PGA Tour solicited documents and communications related to the Company’s “research and analysis … to uncover weaknesses and stress points of the PGA Tour” and the Company’s analysis regarding the PGA’s “tax status, Diversity and Inclusion Claimant, lobbying status and financial structure.” and contracts with players, sellers, and others.”
The PGA Tour is also seeking documents and communications related to “an alleged investigation into [PGA Tour commissioner] Jay Monahan,”[mobilizing] interest groups aligned with the theme of inclusivity (women, minorities, and broader socioeconomic groups),[mobilizing] Players and agents are not satisfied with the status quo, and the PGA is limiting their winnings potential.[creating] General discussions not attributable to golf’s sphere of influence, [including] With sports media, equipment manufacturers, course and course owners, sponsors, golf trade associations and more.”
After months of efforts to convene and confer, the PGA subpoena still includes sixteen document requests and thirteen filing specifications, many of which have no material connection to the underlying allegations in the antitrust litigation between the PGA and LIV Golf, Inc., and/or seeking information that could just as easily be obtained from the LIV itself,” McKenna & Associates attorneys wrote in the motion. “The PGA has so far refused to justify its failure to follow up on this discovery which it claims needed directly from LIV prior to burdening McKenna; and the PGA has not engaged in any meaningful effort to narrow the immediate subpoena to search for only those materials relevant to the underlying litigation and not available elsewhere.” “.
McKenna & Associates, a nine-employee advisory firm in Arlington, Virginia, has been hired by Performance 54, an international golf advisory firm that helped secure billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to launch LIV Golf. Andrew McKenna, the company’s president and CEO, previously worked in the administration of US President George W. Bush.
watering hole
Borrowing a page from the WM Phoenix Open, the LIV golf course will have its first “ceremonial hole” on the 12th at The Grange Golf Club. LIV Golf hopes about 5,000 fans will be in stadium-like seating. Each player will have their own music. Koepka went on with Meek Mill’s Dreams and Nightmares.
“I just love him,” Koepka said. “I love when the fans get a little rowdy. They yell, they yell for you when you hit a bad putt and they cheer for you when you hit a good one. That will make this hole exciting. I think I should bring a different atmosphere, it would be great.”
The twelfth hole in @tweet It is the right place for your next weekend 😏#lifegolf #Repjk pic.twitter.com/nEdKjmnZ29
– Ripper GC (@rippergc_) April 13, 2023
Shark goes diving
Norman, known as Shark during his playing days, went cage diving off the Eyre Peninsula on Tuesday. Norman said he saw four great white sharks. In a video posted to the LIV Golf website, Norman said the type had been called badly unfairly since the advent of “Jaws” in 1975.
Kupka said he was going with Norman until he knew it was an all day ride.
Great white shark 🤝 Great white shark pic.twitter.com/CMwbapJKli
– Greg Norman (@SharkGregNorman) April 19, 2023
stumble again
Quarterback Russell Wilson, who had a difficult first season with the Denver Broncos, avoided injury when his golf cart flipped near a bunker at Arrowhead Golf Course in Littleton, Colorado, on Saturday.
Wilson confirmed reports of the incident in a tweet on Tuesday — and added that he’s had “equal ups and downs.”
The real question is have we moved from the dugout to the green #PAR 😂🤣😂⛳️
happy times! 😆 https://t.co/bTzGR34QE6 pic.twitter.com/0ilVN3QbUo– Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson) April 18, 2023