PGA Tour

Clark Takes U.S Open Over McIlroy

June 19, 2023 by PGA Tour Brunch

LOS ANGELES – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Wyndham Clark posted an even-par 70 to outlast Rory McIlroy and announce himself on the major stage, claiming the 123rd U.S. Open for the first major championship of his career on Sunday at the Los Angeles Country Club.

With a 10-under 270, Clark edged the Northern Irishman desperate to end his nine-year major drought by a single shot. Clark two-putted the 72nd hole from 60 feet for par, his winning tap-in unleashing a fount of emotion amid his celebration.

McIlroy also shot a 70 and didn’t make a birdie after the first hole, never putting enough pressure on the less experienced Clark.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (70) placed third at 7 under, Australia’s Cam Smith (67) was fourth at 6 under and Rickie Fowler shot a 75 to drop into a tie for fifth at 5 under with Tommy Fleetwood of England (63) and Min Woo Lee of Australia (67).

In his fifth full season on the PGA Tour, Clark won his first tournament last month when he beat a strong field at the Wells Fargo Championship. The 29-year-old from Denver nonetheless flew under the radar entering the week, especially after Fowler and Xander Schauffele opened the championship with the first two rounds of 62 in U.S. Open history.

Embed from Getty Images

After a birdie-bogey start, Clark stuck his tee shot at the par-3 fourth to 5 feet and his approach at the par-4 sixth to 4 1/2 feet, converting both birdies to reach 12 under. At the par-5 eighth, he couldn’t punch out of some grass nearly as tall as him on the first try and wound up with a bogey.

The par-3 ninth was the first of five enormous par saves in a row before the pivotal 14th. He gave an emphatic fist pump as a 7-foot par putt dropped.

McIlroy made a messy bogey at the par-5 14th hole and Clark followed behind him with a birdie, effectively a two-shot swing that gave Clark a three-shot cushion with four holes to play.

U.S. Open Headed for Grand Finale

June 17, 2023 by PGA Tour Brunch

LOS ANGELES – At 10-under (200), Wyndham Clark and Rickie Fowlershare the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open. Rory McIlroy sits one back.

Fowler holds the 54-hole lead/co-lead for the 10th time on Tour and the first time in a major. He is only 2-for-9 to date in converting into victory.

Clark holds the lead/co-lead for the third time in individual stroke-play events on Tour and the first time in a major. Overall, he is 1-for-2 to date in converting into victory.

Four-time major champion and World No. 3 McIlroy opened his 15th U.S. Open with three rounds in the 60s for the fifth time. He went on to win three of the previous four times he accomplished that feat.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler holed out from 196 yards for eagle on the par-4 17th then followed with a birdie on No. 18 for a 2-under (68). He trails the leaders by three strokes after 54 holes.

This week marks just the third time in the last 20 years that two of the top three players in the world rankings will be in the Top 4 on the leaderboard entering the final round of the U.S. Open. The others: 2006 – Phil Mickelson/Vijay Singh and then 2022 – Scheffler/Jon Rahm).

History Lesson: The eventual champion has been within four shots of the lead heading into the final round of the last 24 U.S. Open tournaments.

The largest come-from-behind victory in the final round of the U.S. Open is seven strokes, an accomplishment by the great Arnold Palmer in 1960.

No. 15 played at 80 yards in the third round, making it the shortest par-3 in U.S. Open history.

123rd U.S. Open Leaderboard After 54 Holes

Wyndham Clark 64-67-69—200 (-10)

Rickie Fowler 62-68-70—200 (-10)

Rory McIlroy 65-67-69—201 (-9)

Scottie Scheffler 67-68-68—203 (-7)

Harris English 67-66-71—204 (-6)

Full Leaderboard: (link)

U.S. Open: Ready for Hollywood

June 14, 2023 by PGA Tour Brunch

LOS ANGELES – Defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick earned his first PGA TOUR title at the 2022 U.S. Open, becoming the first player to do so in a major since Danny Willett at the 2016 Masters Tournament. The last player to successfully defend a major championship title was Brooks Koepka at the 2019 PGA Championship.

Koepka is also the last player to win the U.S. Open in back-to-back years (2017, 2018). Fitzpatrick, who won the RBC Heritage earlier this season, enters the week at No. 28 in the FedEx Cup standings.

Canada’s Taylor Takes His National Open

June 11, 2023 by PGA Tour Brunch

TORONTO – Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, British Columbia defeated England’s Tommy Fleetwood in a four-hole playoff Sunday to become the first Canadian to win the RBC Canadian Open since 1954 (69 years).

Taylor won the playoff with a 72-foot, 6-inch putt for eagle (longer than any putt in his career) and is the first Tour player to win a playoff with an eagle since Hideki Matsuyama at the 2022 Sony Open in Hawaii.

TL’s Sunday Sports Notes: June 11th

June 11, 2023 by Terry Lyons

By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – From the perspective of a present day columnist and former PR practitioner there’s a problem when a press release – dropped out of thin air – has been written by the lawyers.

Yes, this week, the good folks at the PGA Tour and LIV Golf decided to drop a little news on the sports world. They did so with an early morning news release that was grabbed by CNBC News, questioned as to its validity by The Dan Patrick Show a few minutes after 9:00am on the morning of June 6, 2023. It was verified by this publication when the third source was the homepage of PGATour.com itself.

You’d have thought they were trying to bury the story in quick sand.

From this columnists’ viewpoint, the news release had these qualities, of lack thereof:

It was a major story but dropped on the global media as if it were a minor story, ready to be put out with the trash.
It created more questions than it provided answers.
After it was issued, instead of one solid spokesperson (a la PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan), it prompted conflicting commentary from a minimum of six people, including: PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, players such as Phil Mickelson (LIV), Rory McIlroy (PGA Tour), and PGA TOUR Policy Board member Jimmy Dunne.
Every player hitting golf balls at the Pro-Am and practice rounds at the RBC Canadian Open was thrust into a barrage of questions – most Tour members left not knowing exactly what was going down.
LIV Golf Commissioner Greg Norman was apparently “caught by surprise” and unavailable.
The news release ended with a paragraph that said nothing and everything about the announcement. It read: “All parties will work in the months to come to finalize terms of the agreement, with details to be announced in due course.”

Ya think?

Here are just a few storylines created – including business reporters digging into the Tour’s longtime structure and Congress diving into the study as well – as the story advanced and more and more people felt the need to comment:

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund which oversees LIV Golf and dozens of investments in sports and acquiring talent to play in Saudi-based sports interests will potentially invest in the PGA Tour as an exclusive investor. The PGA Tour is currently registered as a charity with separate business arms. The Tour has four related 501(c)(3) organizations—PGA Tour Charitable & Education Fund, PGA Tour Charities Inc, PGA Tour Employees Emergency Relief Fund and Pro Caddies Assistance Foundation—whose assets cannot be transferred to any for-profit entity.
According to Laura Neal, Senior Vice President of the PGA Tour, as told to “InsideSources” that the PGA Tour organization “is a membership-based nonprofit” that complies with IRS rules, including making large charitable donations. A securities industry executive called the Tour a walking contradiction as its core business is registered with the IRS as a ‘business league’ but operates under nonprofit status. As has been reported over the years, that status allows the PGA to avoid hundreds of millions in taxes over the last few decades as its stages tournaments in locales where volunteers help stage the tournament and a significant dollar amount is targeted towards local charities in the city of each tournament. That has resulted in the PGA Tour donating some $3.64 billion to charity. (Way back in 2013, Forbes examined the PGA Tour structure – (link)
It was said – prominently in the “news” release that “separately, PGA TOUR Inc. will remain in place as a 501(c)(6) tax exempt organization and retains administrative oversight of events for those assets contributed by the PGA TOUR, including the sanctioning of events, the administration of the competition and rules, as well as all other “inside the ropes” responsibilities, with Jay Monahan as Commissioner and Ed Herlihy as PGA TOUR Policy Board Chairman. PIF’s Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan will join the PGA TOUR Policy Board. The DP World Tour and LIV Golf will retain similar administrative oversight of events on their respective Tours.”
It was said a few days after the “news” broke that “the loyal” PGA Tour players would “get equity” in the new structure. Seemingly, that would be a “make-good” for the loyal players who turned down the tens of millions and multi-million offers to jump ship and play a year of 54 (LIV) golf.
The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets, it was said that the PGA Tour claimed “it could not afford to keep battling the billions of dollars PIF could place behind LIV Golf and its continuing efforts to lure more players to the renegade tour.
Commissioner Monahan reportedly told employees of the Tour that they “were outmatched” by the Saudi investments.
On Friday, PGA Tour honcho Jimmy Dunne felt it necessary to explain some of the intricacies of the new deal to ESPN.com, stating, “The new [company] would grow, and the [current PGA Tour] players would get a piece of equity that would enhance and increase in value as time went on,” Dunne said. “There would have to be some kind of formulaic decision on how to do that. It would be a process to determine what would be a fair mechanism that would be really beneficial to our players.”
Other players started getting into the act, most notably Bryson DeChambeau said, “I do feel bad for the PGA Tour players because they were told one thing and something else happened. On our side, we were told one thing and it’s come to fruition.” DeChambeau went on to address the deepest of issues in the relationship of the sport of golf to the 9/11 Families United, stating to CNN’s Caitlin Collins in a live, two-way interview, “I think we’ll never be able to repay the families back for what exactly happened just over 20 years ago and what happened is definitely horrible,” said DeChambeau. “I think as time has gone on, 20 years has (sic) passed, we’re in a place now where it’s time to start trying to work together to make things better together as a whole. I don’t know exactly what they’re feeling. I can’t ever know what they feel, but I have a huge amount of respect for their position and what they believe. Nor do I ever want anything like that to ever occur again. I think as we move forward from that, we have to look toward the pathway to peace and forgiveness, especially if we’re trying to mend the world and make it a better place. I think this is what they’re trying to accomplish, LIV is trying to accomplish, PIF is trying to accomplish. We’re all trying to accomplish a better world for everybody with entertainment for everybody around the world.
DeChambeau was asked by Collins about human rights violations and the CIA verified killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, an act that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered for assassination of the provocative and critical journalist. “It’s unfortunate what has happened and something I can’t necessarily speak on. I’m a golfer,” DeChambeau added. “But what I can say is that what they’re trying to do, what they’re trying to work on is to be better allies because we are allies with them. I’m not going to get into politics, I’m not specialized in that. What I can say is they’re trying to do good for the world and showcase themselves in a light that hasn’t been seen in a while. Nobody’s perfect, but we’re all trying to improve in life,” said the man who pocketed $150 million in a signing bonus to play LIV Golf.
Said Vox’ Jonathan Guyer on the overall impact and resulting aspect of the (PGA Tour claims not to call it a) merger: “The golf course is perhaps not the arena that immediately comes to mind when you’re thinking about geopolitics. But with one proposed golf business deal, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, just hit the geopolitical equivalent of a hole-in-one.”

And, so, the story goes.

See you at next week’s U.S. Open in Los Angeles where there will be more than 100 new spokespeople for the continuing saga of “How the PGA Tour & LIV Worlds Turn.” Surely, the USGA is thrilled with the consequences of staging a major 10 days after the world of professional golf was turned inside out, upside down and sideways without any clear path made public.

After all, nobody’s perfect, right?

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: How about a few Red Sox notes to begin? … Since the start of 2022, 11 of 20 games between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees have been decided by one run, including six of 11 at Yankee Stadium. … Boston 3B Rafael Devers hit his 11th career Home Run at Yankee Stadium Saturday night. The only other Red Sox players to hit as many as nine homers against the Yankees in New York prior to the age of 27 are Babe Ruth (10) and Ted Williams (9). … The Sox are in a stretch of playing 13 games in 12 days from June 3 to June 14, including the scheduled day-night doubleheader against Tampa on June 3. … They are scheduled to play 23 games in 23 days from June 3-to-25.

NEGRO LEAGUE MOTION PICTURE: (Report from Official News Release) – Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Sam Pollard, working with executive producer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the Oscar-winner of “Summer of Soul,” Tariq Trotter of Descendant, and produced by RadicalMedia, THE LEAGUE celebrates the dynamic journey of Negro League baseball’s triumphs and challenges through the first half of the twentieth century.

The story is told through previously unseen archival footage and interviews with legendary players like Satchel Paige and Buck O’Neil – whose early careers paved the way for the Jackie Robinson era in Major League Baseball. They all created a platform for celebrated Baseball Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Hank Aaron who started their baseball careers in the Negro Leagues.

From entrepreneurial titans Cumberland Posey and Gus Greenlee, whose intense rivalry fueled the rise of two of the best baseball teams ever to play the game, to Effa Manley, the activist owner of the Newark Eagles and the only woman ever admitted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, THE LEAGUE explores Black baseball as an economic and social pillar of their local communities and a stage for some of the greatest athletes to ever play the game.

MOST BELOVED USA ATHLETES: The mention of both Hank Aaron and Willie Mays calls for a listing of many of the Most Beloved Athletes to Ever Play Sports:

Jack Nicklaus
Jackie Robinson
Willie Mays
Michael Jordan
Arthur Ashe
Babe Ruth
Bobby Orr
Hank Aaron
Roberto Clemente
Arnold Palmer
Jesse Owens
Julius Erving
Lou Gehrig
Joe DiMaggio
Wilma Rudolph
John Havlicek
Muhammad Ali
Ernie Banks
Wayne Gretzky *Canada
Mark Spitz
Althea Gibson
Richard Petty
Eric Heiden
Chris Evert
Tiger Woods
Michael Phelps
Roger Federer
“Babe” Didrikson Zaharias
Reggie White
Walter Payton
Jerry Rice
Cal Ripken, Jr.
Barry Sanders
Pele *Brazil
Serena Williams
Cathy Rigby
Guy LaFleur *Canada
Dorothy Hamill
Sugar Ray Leonard
Simone Biles
Rod Laver *Australia
Annika Sörenstam
Kerry Strug
Olga Korbut *Russia
Dale Earnhardt, Sr.
Charles Barkley
Mickey Mantle
Kathy Whitworth
Lee Trevino

TID-BITS: With the recent news of Angel Salcedo being hired by Channel 5 (Boston) as the newest sports reporter in this city, there’s cause to reminisce as we witness the changing of the guard for many of Boston’s local sports anchors. Salcedo fills a slot vacated by longtime anchor/reporter Bob Halloran’s retirement. The WCVB mainstay who recovered from a scary brain aneurysm seven years ago is the latest to retire from the local nightly newscasts. … Joe Amorosino, a sports reporter and anchor with WHDH Channel 7 for 25 years, is leaving the station after his contract expires at the end of June. In a decision entirely made by the 53-year old, Amorosino will focus on his family’s business and real estate interests. … Back in 2014, WCVB-TV’s Mike Dowling moved on after 28 years of sports reporting, many of those riding shotgun with the great Mike Lynch who decided to step-away from the nightly broadcasts in 2019. Lynch, too, suffered a stroke in 2022. He fully recovered from the episode but decided to step aside from the nightly grind after 38 years on the job.

On Friday, Lynch was inducted to the Massachusetts Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

CH-CH-CHANGES: Duke Castiglioni now heads up the sports desk at WCVB-5. The Marshfield High School and Stonehill College grad started at the station in 2018, working weekends. Duke’s father is the long-time voice of the Boston Red Sox, Joe Castiglione. … In January of this year, WBZ-TVwent so far as to run their weekday 6pm newscast without a sports segment. Sports director and anchor Steve Burton had his report nixed for some additional news and weather. Add to the mix the changing of the guard at WEEI-Radio where Glenn Ordway worked afternoon drive-time. Now, FM 98.5 dominates the morning and afternoon radio in Boston.

PGA Tour & LIV Golf = Partners Forever?

June 10, 2023 by PGA Tour Brunch

Embed from Getty Images

By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – From the perspective of a present day columnist and former PR practitioner there’s a problem when a press release – dropped out of thin air – has been written by the lawyers.

You’d have thought they were trying to bury the story in quick sand.

From this columnists’ viewpoint, the news release had these qualities, of lack thereof:

It was a major story but dropped on the global media as if it were a minor story, ready to be put out with the trash.
It created more questions than it provided answers.
After it was issued, instead of one solid spokesperson (a la PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan), it prompted conflicting commentary from a minimum of six people, including: PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, players such as Phil Mickelson (LIV), Rory McIlroy (PGA Tour), and PGA TOUR Policy Board member Jimmy Dunne.
Every player hitting golf balls at the Pro-Am and practice rounds at the RBC Canadian Open was thrust into a barrage of questions – most Tour members left not knowing exactly what was going down.
LIV Golf Commissioner Greg Norman was apparently “caught by surprise” and unavailable.
The news release ended with a paragraph that said nothing and everything about the announcement. It read: “All parties will work in the months to come to finalize terms of the agreement, with details to be announced in due course.”

Ya think?

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund which oversees LIV Golf and dozens of investments in sports and acquiring talent to play in Saudi-based sports interests will potentially invest in the PGA Tour as an exclusive investor. The PGA Tour is currently registered as a charity with separate business arms. The Tour has four related 501(c)(3) organizations—PGA Tour Charitable & Education Fund, PGA Tour Charities Inc, PGA Tour Employees Emergency Relief Fund and Pro Caddies Assistance Foundation—whose assets cannot be transferred to any for-profit entity.
According to Laura Neal, Senior Vice President of the PGA Tour, as told to “InsideSources” that the PGA Tour organization “is a membership-based nonprofit” that complies with IRS rules, including making large charitable donations. A securities industry executive called the Tour a walking contradiction as its core business is registered with the IRS as a ‘business league’ but operates under nonprofit status. As has been reported over the years, that status allows the PGA to avoid hundreds of millions in taxes over the last few decades as its stages tournaments in locales where volunteers help stage the tournament and a significant dollar amount is targeted towards local charities in the city of each tournament. That has resulted in the PGA Tour donating some $3.64 billion to charity. (Way back in 2013, Forbes examined the PGA Tour structure – (link)
It was said – prominently in the “news” release that “separately, PGA TOUR Inc. will remain in place as a 501(c)(6) tax exempt organization and retains administrative oversight of events for those assets contributed by the PGA TOUR, including the sanctioning of events, the administration of the competition and rules, as well as all other “inside the ropes” responsibilities, with Jay Monahan as Commissioner and Ed Herlihy as PGA TOUR Policy Board Chairman. PIF’s Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan will join the PGA TOUR Policy Board. The DP World Tour and LIV Golf will retain similar administrative oversight of events on their respective Tours.”
It was said a few days after the “news” broke that “the loyal” PGA Tour players would “get equity” in the new structure. Seemingly, that would be a “make-good” for the loyal players who turned down the tens of millions and multi-million offers to jump ship and play a year of 54 (LIV) golf.
The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets, it was said that the PGA Tour claimed “it could not afford to keep battling the billions of dollars PIF could place behind LIV Golf and its continuing efforts to lure more players to the renegade tour.
Commissioner Monahan reportedly told employees of the Tour that they “were outmatched” by the Saudi investments.
On Friday, PGA Tour honcho Jimmy Dunne felt it necessary to explain some of the intricacies of the new deal to ESPN.com, stating, “The new [company] would grow, and the [current PGA Tour] players would get a piece of equity that would enhance and increase in value as time went on,” Dunne said. “There would have to be some kind of formulaic decision on how to do that. It would be a process to determine what would be a fair mechanism that would be really beneficial to our players.”
Other players started getting into the act, most notably Bryson DeChambeau said, “I do feel bad for the PGA Tour players because they were told one thing and something else happened. On our side, we were told one thing and it’s come to fruition.” DeChambeau went on to address the deepest of issues in the relationship of the sport of golf to the 9/11 Families United, stating to CNN’s Caitlin Collins in a live, two-way interview, “I think we’ll never be able to repay the families back for what exactly happened just over 20 years ago and what happened is definitely horrible,” said DeChambeau. “I think as time has gone on, 20 years has (sic) passed, we’re in a place now where it’s time to start trying to work together to make things better together as a whole. I don’t know exactly what they’re feeling. I can’t ever know what they feel, but I have a huge amount of respect for their position and what they believe. Nor do I ever want anything like that to ever occur again. I think as we move forward from that, we have to look toward the pathway to peace and forgiveness, especially if we’re trying to mend the world and make it a better place. I think this is what they’re trying to accomplish, LIV is trying to accomplish, PIF is trying to accomplish. We’re all trying to accomplish a better world for everybody with entertainment for everybody around the world.
DeChambeau was asked by Collins about human rights violations and the CIA verified killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, an act that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered for assassination of the provocative and critical journalist. “It’s unfortunate what has happened and something I can’t necessarily speak on. I’m a golfer,” DeChambeau added. “But what I can say is that what they’re trying to do, what they’re trying to work on is to be better allies because we are allies with them. I’m not going to get into politics, I’m not specialized in that. What I can say is they’re trying to do good for the world and showcase themselves in a light that hasn’t been seen in a while. Nobody’s perfect, but we’re all trying to improve in life,” said the man who pocketed $150 million in a signing bonus to play LIV Golf.
Said Vox’ Jonathan Guyer on the overall impact and resulting aspect of the (PGA Tour claims not to call it a) merger: “The golf course is perhaps not the arena that immediately comes to mind when you’re thinking about geopolitics. But with one proposed golf business deal, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, just hit the geopolitical equivalent of a hole-in-one.”

And, so, the story goes.

After all, nobody’s perfect, right?

Pro Golf: LIV and Let Die

June 6, 2023 by Digital Sports Desk

NEW YORK/RIYADH/PONTE VEDRA BEACH – Staff Report with references from Official News Release – In a move to reunite the disparate and desperate worlds of professional golf, the feuding entities of the touring pro golf circuits reached agreement to unify the business of golf.

In an early morning news release sent to the tour’s media contacts and posted on PGATour.com then reported publicly by CNBC-TV, the PGA Tour and LIV tour seem to be merging after the 2023 season. Although the news release was vague and noted much to come as details are worked out in the future, the remaining concept to become a part of the regular golf scene will be “team golf.”

The agreement will end all pending litigation between LIV and the PGA Tour.

The face-saving news release for LIV golf read as follows:

The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund announced an agreement to unify the game of golf, on a global basis. The parties have signed an agreement that combines PIF’s golf-related commercial businesses and rights (including LIV Golf) with the commercial businesses and rights of the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour into a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from a model that delivers maximum excitement and competition among the game’s best players.

In addition, PIF will make a capital investment into the new entity to facilitate its growth and success. The new entity – with a name to be determined – will implement a plan to grow these combined commercial businesses, drive greater fan engagement and accelerate growth initiatives already underway. With LIV Golf in the midst of its second, groundbreaking season, the PGA TOUR, DP World Tour and PIF will work together to best feature and grow team golf going forward.

Notably, today’s announcement will be followed by a mutually agreed end to all pending litigation between the participating parties. Further, the three organizations will work cooperatively and in good faith to establish a fair and objective process for any players who desire to re-apply for membership with the PGA TOUR or the DP World Tour following the completion of the 2023 season and for determining fair criteria and terms of re-admission, consistent with each Tour’s policies.

“After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “This transformational partnership recognizes the immeasurable strength of the PGA Tour’s history, legacy and pro-competitive model and combines with it the DP World Tour and LIV – including the team golf concept – to create an organization that will benefit golf’s players, commercial and charitable partners and fans. Going forward, fans can be confident that we will, collectively, deliver on the promise we’ve always made – to promote competition of the best in professional golf and that we are committed to securing and driving the game’s future.

“We are pleased to move forward, in step with LIV and PIF’s world-class investing experience, and I applaud PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan for his vision and collaborative and forward-thinking approach that is not just a solution to the rift in our game, but also a commitment to taking it to new heights. This will engender a new era in global golf, for the better.”

“Today is a very exciting day for this special game and the people it touches around the world,” said PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan. “We are proud to partner with the PGA Tour to leverage PIF’s unparalleled success and track record of unlocking value and bringing innovation and global best practices to business and sectors worldwide. We are committed to unifying, promoting and growing the game of golf around the world and offering the highest-quality product to the many millions of long-time fans globally, while cultivating new fans.

“There is no question that the LIV model has been positively transformative for golf. We believe there are opportunities for the game to evolve while also maintaining its storied history and tradition. This partnership represents the best opportunity to extend and increase the impact of golf for all. We look forward to collaborating with Jay and Keith to bring the best version of the game to communities around the world.”

Under the terms of the agreement, the Board of Directors of the new entity will oversee and direct all the new entity’s golf-related commercial operations, businesses and investments. The new entity will work to ensure a cohesive schedule of events that will be exciting for fans, sponsors and all stakeholders. PIF will initially be the exclusive investor in the new entity, alongside the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour. Going forward, PIF will have the exclusive right to further invest in the new entity, including a right of first refusal on any capital that may be invested in the new entity, including into the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and DP World Tour. The PGA Tour will appoint a majority of the Board and hold a majority voting interest in the combined entity.

Separately, PGA Tour Inc. will remain in place as a 501(c)(6) tax exempt organization and retains administrative oversight of events for those assets contributed by the PGA Tour, including the sanctioning of events, the administration of the competition and rules, as well as all other “inside the ropes” responsibilities, with Jay Monahan as Commissioner and Ed Herlihy as PGA Tour Policy Board Chairman. PIF’s Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan will join the PGA Tour Policy Board. The DP World Tour and LIV Golf will retain similar administrative oversight of events on their respective Tours.

The Board of Directors of the new commercial entity will include Al-Rumayyan as Chairman and Monahan as Chief Executive Officer; the new entity’s Board will also include an Executive Committee comprising Al-Rumayyan, Monahan, Herlihy and PGA TOUR Policy Board member Jimmy Dunne. The full Board will be announced at a later date, and it is anticipated that all three founding members will have representation.

Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the DP World Tour, said “This is a momentous day. We are delighted to be able to not only reignite our relationship with PIF, but also to have the opportunity to build on our current Strategic Alliance partnership with the PGA Tour. Together we will be stronger than ever and well positioned to continue to bring the game to all corners of the globe. To partner in this new entity and influence the growth of the game for all our DP World Tour members is energizing and exciting.”

All parties will work in the months to come to finalize terms of the agreement, with details to be announced in due course.

Hovland Takes The Memorial

June 4, 2023 by PGA Tour Brunch

DUBLIN, Ohio – Viktor Hovland defeated Denny McCarthy in a playoff to win the 2023 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, earning his fourth career PGA Tour title. Hovland has won on Tour in each of the last four seasons (only other players to do so are Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm)

Embed from Getty Images

Runner-up Denny McCarthy earned the best finish of his Tour career, moving inside the Top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings (No. 26) and the Top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking (career-high No. 35).

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler carded a 5-under (67), three strokes better than any other player in the final round, to finish solo third place. Scheffler’s Strokes Gained: Tee to Green total of 20.692 is the second-highest mark in a 72-hole event in the ShotLink era behind only Vijay Singh at the 2004 Deutsche Bank Championship (21.140).

Tournament 54-hole co-leader Rory McIlroy (T-7) carded a painful 3-over (75), his highest final-round score on Tour since the 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard.

Andrew Putnam (T-5), Adam Schenk (T-7) and Lee Hodges (T-12) qualify for the 2023 Open Championship as the top-three finishers at the Memorial Tournament not otherwise exempt.

The Memorial | Final Leaderboard

Viktor Hovland 71-71-69-70—281 (-7)*

Denny McCarthy 71-72-68-70—281 (-7)

Scottie Scheffler 74-73-68-67—282 (-6)

Si Woo Kim 71-68-71-73—283 (-5)

Andrew Putnam 71-72-71-70—284 (-4)

Jordan Spieth 69-72-72-71—284 (-4)

Playoff: Hovland def. McCarthy with a par-4 on the first extra hole (No. 18)

Full Leaderboard: (link)

PGA Tour: McIlroy Tied for Lead

June 4, 2023 by PGA Tour Brunch

DUBLIN, Ohio – World No. 3 Rory McIlroy, bidding for his 24th career PGA Tour win and second win of the 2022-23 season (The CJ CUP in South Carolina) made 8-foot, 9-inch putt to save par on No. 18 and earn a share of the 54-hole lead. He shot a (70).

Four-time PGA Tour winner Si Woo Kim (T-1), who joins McIlroy in Sunday’s final pairing, is seeking his second win of the 2022-23 season (Sony Open in Hawaii) and his first multi-win season on the Tour.

Both players in Sunday’s final pairing (McIlroy, Kim) have won on Tour this season and are previous winners of THE PLAYERS Championship (2019/McIlroy, 2017/Kim).

At No. 160 in the Official World Golf Ranking, David Lipsky could become the first player from outside the Top 50 to win the Memorial Tournament since 2017 (No. 65 Jason Dufner).

Five of the 13 players standing T-9 or higher are seeking their first PGA Tour win – David Lipsky (T-1), Denny McCarthy (T-4), Lee Hodges (T-4), Mark Hubbard (T-4), Patrick Rodgers (T9).

There are 22 players within three strokes of the lead.

The 36-hole leader Justin Suh fell to T-14 and is three strokes off the lead after third-round (77), his highest score since a final round (78) earlier this season at The RBC Heritage.

The Memorial | Leaderboard After 54 Holes

Rory McIlroy 72-68-70—210 (-6)

Si Woo Kim 71-68-71—210 (-6)

David Lipsky 69-69-72—210 (-6)

Denny McCarthy 71-72-68—211 (-5)

Viktor Hovland 71-71-69—211 (-5)

Wyndham Clark 70-71-70—211 (-5)

Lee Hodges 72-69-70—211 (-5)

Mark Hubbard 69-70-72—211 (-5)

Full Leaderboard: (link)

PGA Tour: Grillo Wins in Texas

May 29, 2023 by PGA Tour Brunch

DALLAS/FORT WORTH – Emiliano Grillo won his second PGA Tour title almost eight years after winning his first, with both victories in playoffs.

Adam Schenk is now 0-4 when holding the 54-hole lead/co-lead in 171 starts.

Scottie Scheffler joins Harris English (second round) with an ace on the eighth hole this week and posts hisTour-leading 11th top-10 this season.

PGA Tour rookie Harry Hall held 18-, 36- and 54-hole leads/co-leads before posting a career-best T3 result.

Dallas native Paul Haley II sat T-96 after the opening round en route to a fifth-place finish.

Defending champion Sam Burns finishes T-6 at 5-under.

Charles Schwab Challenge | Final Leaderboard

*Emiliano Grillo 67-65-72-68—272 (-8)

Adam Schenk 66-67-67-72—272 (-8)

Scottie Scheffler 67-67-72-67—273 (-7)

Harry Hall 62-66-72-73—273 (-7)

Paul Haley II 73-68-66-67—274 (-6)

*Won playoff with a birdie-2 at the second extra hole (No. 16)

Full Leaderboard (Link)