The Masters — the primary main championship of the lads’s skilled golf season — is barely 35 days away, and it may’t get right here quickly sufficient.
The beginning of the 2024 PGA Tour season has been stricken by inclement climate and suffering from not-so-familiar names on the high of leaderboards. Positive, the winners have been among the recreation’s rising stars and performed higher than everybody else, however Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Viktor Hovland are the golfers who convey eyeballs to TV units on Sundays.
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Will a famous person lastly carry a trophy on Sunday on the Arnold Palmer Invitational — the fourth signature occasion of the season with a large purse and restricted area?
The LIV Golf League heads to Hong Kong for the primary time, and Joaquin Niemann will attempt to win in a distinct time zone. He has already gained in Australia, Mexico and Saudi Arabia since December. He is arguably the preferred golfer on the planet and may need his sights set on successful a inexperienced jacket in Augusta, Georgia, in April.
Here is what to look at in skilled golf this week, together with the LPGA Tour returning to China for the primary time in six years.
What’s subsequent on the PGA Tour
Arnold Palmer Invitational
When: Thursday-Sunday
The place: Bay Hill Membership & Lodge, Orlando, Florida
Defending champion: Kurt Kitayama
Purse: $20 million ($4 million to winner)
Puerto Rico Open
When: Thursday-Sunday
The place: Grand Reserve Nation Membership, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico
Defending champion: Nico Echavarria
Purse: $4 million
One other first-timer?
There have already been 4 first-time winners in 9 PGA Tour occasions this season: Nick Dunlap (American Specific), Matthieu Pavon (Farmers Insurance coverage Open), Jake Knapp (Mexico Open at Vidanta) and Austin Eckroat (Cognizant Basic).
Dunlap, Pavon and Knapp are rookies and their three victories match the entire for the variety of rookie winners throughout the whole 2022-23 season. There have not been 4 or extra rookie winners on tour since there have been 5 in 2018-19.
The common Official World Golf Rating of the eight winners moreover Dunlap, who was an beginner when he completed first at LaQuinta Nation Membership in California on Jan. 21, was 73rd. Solely reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark was ranked within the high 50 — he was tenth when he captured the AT&T Pebble Seashore Professional-Am on Feb. 3.
“We have had fairly just a few first-time winners on tour this yr,” Will Zalatoris mentioned. “You have bought some tenured guys which might be contending week in, week out. The official World Golf Rating is what it’s proper now. I additionally assume that the competitors that we now have is fairly stiff.
“It is actually good to see guys like Nick [Dunlap] particularly come up, and it simply exhibits you the golf local weather that we’re in, with children in faculty arising and enjoying that nice. I feel that whenever you have a look at over the previous few years and seeing the first-time winners and enjoying in addition to they’ve, I feel that is one thing that I am extra enthusiastic about, as a result of on any given week you possibly can see somebody simply pop off a win.”
Kurt Kitayama picked up his first PGA Tour victory eventually season’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. Will one of many tour’s superstars lastly carry a trophy on Sunday?
Schauffele getting shut
Xander Schauffele is enjoying among the finest golf of his profession. He’s ranked fifth on this planet and already has 4 top-10 finishes in 5 begins on tour this season, together with a tie for third on the American Specific, ninth on the Farmers Insurance coverage Open and fourth on the Genesis Invitational.
Victory has eluded Schauffele for greater than 19 months — his final win got here on the Genesis Scottish Open on July 10, 2022.
“Just a bit little bit of a consolation issue,” Schauffele mentioned. “I do know I’ll be uncomfortable, it is fairly arduous to really feel tremendous snug. I feel the instances you see guys win by six to eight pictures coming down the stretch, they’re fairly snug. I have not had that second but.”
Schauffele, 30, began working with swing coach Chris Como in December. Como has coached Tiger Woods, Jason Day, Bryson DeChambeau and others. It was a dramatic change for Schauffele, who had labored together with his father, Stefan, for many of his profession.
“I feel he is simply type of been attempting to get a few of my swing patterns again to type of 2017-2018, after which including in just a few issues that he likes to see,” Schauffele mentioned of Como. “Whether or not it is type of, I do not know, one thing so simple as steepening my shoulder airplane or issues of that nature. Robust for me to do, however after I can appear to know it, it appears to assist.”
The early outcomes have been promising: Schauffele ranks fifth in pictures gained whole (1.630), tenth off the tee (.672) and twelfth in strategy (.707).
The alternative-field occasion
Practically twice as many golfers (132) might be competing in an opposite-field occasion this weekend on the Puerto Rico Open for a $4 million purse.
Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre — a member of the successful European Ryder Cup staff at Marco Simone in September — is the highest-ranked participant within the area at 68th on this planet. Aaron Sensible, who hasn’t competed on tour for the reason that U.S. Open in June, can be again. Echavarria, the defending champion, Daniel Berger, Camilo Villegas, Brandt Snedeker and Kevin Kisner are additionally competing in Puerto Rico.
The winner earns a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour and an invite to subsequent week’s Gamers Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Seashore, Florida.
What’s subsequent within the LIV Golf League
LIV Golf Hong Kong
When: Friday-Sunday
The place: Hong Kong Golf Membership, Sheung Shui, Hong Kong
Purse: $20 million particular person ($4 million to winner); $5 million staff ($3 million to successful staff)
Niemann’s scorching streak
Niemann, the Torque GC captain, has picked up three worldwide victories since early December, together with the Australian Open and LIV Golf League occasions in Mexico and Saudi Arabia. He was the chief after 5 of the 9 rounds in LIV Golf tournaments this season.
Not surprisingly, Niemann leads the person factors standings and has gained almost twice as a lot cash ($8.2 million) as almost some other participant.
“He is extra repeatable and he is not making errors,” Bryson DeChambeau advised reporters in Hong Kong. “He is not making dumb errors. So simple as it may be. He is in a terrific place, and I am very glad for him and all of the accolades that include which have been nice. I hope that extra continues to come back as a result of he deserves each little bit of it, and he is among the finest gamers on this planet.”
Niemann certified for The Open in Scotland in July by successful the Australian Open. He has acquired particular invites to play within the Masters in April and the PGA Championship in Might. He mentioned he intends to aim to qualify for the U.S. Open in June as properly.
It is a brief course
Hong Kong Golf Membership’s Fanling composite course is a par-70 course at solely 6,710 yards. It is the shortest course that the LIV Golf League has utilized prior to now three seasons. The Trump Nationwide Golf Membership in Bedminster, New Jersey, was the one different course shorter than 6,800 yards with its setup in 2022.
“It is a course which units up, I feel, for us as some oldies that do not hit it 350 yards,” Majesticks GC co-captain Ian Poulter mentioned. “It is fairly refreshing to come back to a course the place for probably the most half we can’t actually be utilizing driver. There’s solely a few holes most likely on the course that lends itself to hitting driver. Accuracy is one thing hopefully Group Majesticks can lean on this week.”
Legion XIII captain Jon Rahm mentioned he’d most likely “by no means” performed a 6,700-yard course in competitors.
“The factor is it performs longer than this simply because on quite a lot of tee pictures you are merely not allowed to be hitting drivers, so that you’re enjoying it to a spot,” Rahm mentioned. “It performs a little bit bit longer. You could have the choice of hitting driver if you need, however you are going to must be extraordinarily correct.”
No LIV Golf gamers at Presidents Cup
It wasn’t a lot of a shock, however Worldwide Group captain Mike Weir confirmed throughout a video convention Tuesday that LIV golfers will not be allowed to compete within the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal Golf Membership on Sept. 27-29. Because the PGA Tour organizes the biennial match, there appeared to be little hope that LIV golfers can be a part of the match.
“I have been advised they are not eligible,” Weir mentioned. “They are not gonna be eligible however hopefully going ahead, perhaps in Chicago in 2026, they’re. It’s a disgrace. I imply, we might need the perfect gamers, however I like our staff. Our staff seems nice proper now, however yeah, I feel as a captain, we would like the perfect worldwide gamers from around the globe to be enjoying in opposition to the perfect U.S. guys.”
That takes Niemann, Cameron Smith, Abraham Ancer, Louis Oosthuizen and Sebastián Muñoz out of the combination for the Worldwide Group.
The U.S. staff gained 17 ½- 12 ½ at Quail Hole Membership in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2022, its ninth straight victory within the worldwide competitors.
What’s subsequent on the LPGA Tour
Blue Bay LPGA
When: Thursday-Sunday
The place: Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course, Hainan Island, China
Defending champion: Gaby Lopez
Purse: $2.2 million
Again in China
The ultimate leg of the Asian swing will happen on Hainan Island in China, the place an LPGA occasion might be performed for the primary time since 2018. The match debuted in October 2014 and was performed for 5 straight seasons. It was canceled in three of the previous 4 years due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Mexico’s Gaby Lopez was the newest winner in 2018. 5 of the highest 10 gamers in Rolex Girls’s World Golf Rankings are within the area, together with world No. 1 Lilia Vu, Celine Boutier (No. 3), Ruoning Yin (No. 4), Minjee Lee (No. 5) and Lydia Ko (No. 7).
The 108-player area additionally consists of greater than two dozen golfers from the China Golf Affiliation. There might be a 36-hole reduce with the highest 65 scores plus ties enjoying the final two rounds.
Ko on cusp of LPGA Corridor of Fame?
Together with her victory on the season-opening Hilton Grand Holidays Match of Champions in Orlando on Jan. 21, Ko moved to inside one level of the required 27 for LPGA Corridor of Fame induction.
The 26-year-old can earn one other level together with her twenty first LPGA victory, successful an Olympic gold medal, being named Rolex Participant of the 12 months or claiming the Vare Trophy, which fits to the golfer with the perfect scoring common.
Ko almost picked up victories in consecutive begins to start the season, dropping to Nelly Korda in a playoff on the LPGA Drive On Championship in Bradenton, Florida, on Jan. 28. She tied for thirty fourth eventually week’s HSBC Girls’s World Championship in Singapore.
Solheim Cup stars in Florida
Most of the finest performers from final yr’s Solheim Cup in Spain will meet once more this week within the first spherical of the Aramco Group Sequence Introduced by PIF, which begins Friday on the Feather Sound Nation Membership in Clearwater, Florida. It is a part of the Women European Tour schedule.
The professionals will compete in a 54-hole particular person match, in addition to a 36-hole staff competitors. The 2 finest scores will depend. Every captain will choose one teammate and is given one other one by way of a random draw. The 28 four-player groups will even embody an beginner.
The sphere consists of Megan Khang and Lexi Thompson from Group USA, and Charley Hull and Carlota Ciganda from Group Europe.
