The primary ladies’s main championship of the season is within the books. The second males’s main, the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, is three weeks away.
There’s loads of skilled golf to observe this week, with the PGA Tour in Mexico, the LIV Golf League in Singapore and the LPGA Tour in Los Angeles.
World No. 1 golfer Jon Rahm, enjoying for the second time in three weeks since successful a inexperienced jacket on the Masters, will attempt to defend his title in Mexico.
This is what to observe in skilled golf this week:
What’s subsequent on the PGA Tour
Mexico Open
When: Thursday-Sunday
The place: Vidanta Vallarta, Villa Hidalgo, Mexico
Defending champion: Jon Rahm
Purse: $7.7 million
Storylines to observe:
Rahm’s protection: Rahm gained the 2022 Mexico Open by one shot over Brandon Wu, Tony Finau and Kurt Kitayama. He opened with a 7-under 64 and led after every spherical. It was Rahm’s lone PGA Tour victory final season and ended his practically 11-month winless drought.
The defending champ has arrived.@JonRahmPGA | @MexicoOpenGolf pic.twitter.com/eCDQDQZkP1
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 25, 2023
A lot has modified since then. The Spaniard has already gained 4 instances on tour this season (and 6 extra instances worldwide), together with selecting up his second main championship on the Masters. He tied for fifteenth in his final begin on the RBC Heritage. Rahm would develop into the primary participant since Justin Thomas in 2016-17 to win 5 instances in a season.
Rahm leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained: complete (2.421), birdie common (5.08) and scoring common (68.823). Nobody is enjoying higher than Rahmbo proper now.
Weaker area: With the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hole, a delegated occasion, developing subsequent on the schedule, it is not precisely a loaded area in Mexico.
Together with Rahm, Tony Finau (sixteenth on this planet) is the one different participant within the 144-man area who’s ranked within the prime 20 of the Official World Golf Rating. Sweden’s Alex Noren (forty ninth) is the one different participant within the prime 50.
There might be 17 Latin American gamers competing in Mexico’s nationwide championship, together with Arkansas senior Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira, the reigning Latin American Beginner Championship winner, UCLA sophomore Omar Morales and Oregon sophomore Jose Islas.
Do not look down: You will most likely hear various instances throughout this week’s TV broadcast that Vidanta Vallarta, which opened in 2015, is residence to the world’s longest golf suspension bridge. Vidanta Vallarta, on the Pacific coast, hosted the Mexico Open for the primary time final 12 months.
For gamers to achieve the Norman Signature Golf Course, they will need to make a visit throughout a 560-foot lengthy bridge, which extends throughout the Ameca River. In keeping with the resort’s web site, the bridge is 6 ft huge. Its architects have been impressed by the Golden Gate Bridge whereas designing the sloping helps. The course’s tenth gap was eighth hardest when it comes to scoring common on the PGA Tour final 12 months.
What’s subsequent within the LIV Golf League
LIV Golf Invitational Singapore
When: Friday-Sunday
The place: Sentosa Golf Membership (Serapong Course) Sentosa Island, Singapore
Purse: $25 million ($4 million to particular person winner)
Storylines to observe:
One other first: Final week’s LIV Golf occasion in Australia was most likely probably the most profitable in its two-year existence, with tens of 1000’s of golf-starved followers flocking to Adelaide to observe favourite son Cameron Smith and others compete within the 54-hole occasion. There’s discuss of bringing a second LIV Golf event to Australia sooner or later.
“I actually hope it is greater to be trustworthy,” Smith advised reporters in Australia on Sunday. “I feel we do extra stuff, get extra folks in right here. There’s clearly a need in Australia, I feel, for actually high-quality golf, and I feel the followers right here actually loved what LIV affords. Yeah, there isn’t any purpose why we will not make it greater.”
🐨 @BKoepka holding a koala. That is the content material.
🎥: @SmashGC #LIVGolf pic.twitter.com/CXNEjbBdD8
— LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) April 25, 2023
Smith, the reigning Open Championship winner, mentioned bringing a event to his native nation was one of many causes he left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf. Having two within the Land Down Below can be even higher.
“I feel if we come down right here, simply given the journey, it must be back-to-back weeks,” Smith mentioned. “However yeah, I assume we simply wait and see. I feel this can be a excellent time of 12 months to play golf in Australia. The climate is ideal. The greens are beginning to get these sorts of winter browns and get actually agency and quick. I feel it is an ideal time to play.”
This week’s event is LIV Golf’s first in Singapore, and Greg Norman‘s circuit guarantees to “deliver the world’s finest golfers to Asia, an enormous market deserving of the game’s prime competitors and occasion experiences.”
Tremendous sub: England’s Laurie Canter, who crammed in for injured Cleeks GC captain Martin Kaymer earlier this season, is again within the 48-man area, this time as a alternative for injured Majesticks GC member Sam Horsfield.
Horsfield was pressured to withdraw from the Australia event after the second spherical due to an undisclosed damage. Canter performed with Majesticks co-captains Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood within the inaugural occasion exterior London and within the first U.S. occasion in Portland, Oregon final 12 months. He was changed by 2016 Open Championship winner Henrik Stenson and completed the season with the Cleeks.
It has been a battle to this point for the Majesticks, who’re final amongst 12 groups within the season-long standings with solely 4 factors. They completed final in Tucson, Arizona, next-to-last in Mexico and Australia and sixth in Orlando, Florida. Dustin Johnson‘s 4Aces GC, the defending workforce champions, picked up their first workforce victory of the season at Adelaide. They’ve 96 points-44 factors higher than Joaquin Niemann‘s Torque GC.
Uihlein to me?: Former Oklahoma State star Peter Uihlein struggled to make it on the PGA Tour, with 10 profession top-10 finishes in 126 begins. To say he is discovered new life within the LIV Golf League can be a gross understatement.
After ending third within the season-long particular person factors race in 2022, Uihlein is the factors chief after 4 occasions this season. He completed second in Mexico, tenth in Tucson, eighth in Orlando and seventh in Australia. He is the one LIV Golf League participant who completed within the prime 10 in all 4 tournaments, and he has an eight-point cushion over Charles Howell III within the factors standings. Talor Gooch and Carlos Ortiz are tied for third with 52 factors.
What’s subsequent on the LPGA Tour
JM Eagle LA Championship
When: Thursday-Sunday
The place: Wilshire Nation Membership, Los Angeles
Purse: $3 million
Storylines to observe:
New world No. 1: Regardless of a disappointing Sunday end on the Chevron Championship, Nelly Korda overtook Lydia Ko to return to No. 1 on this planet. Korda, who missed a lot of final season with a blood clot in her arm, completed third within the first main of the season. Ko missed the minimize and fell to No. 2 within the Rolex Girls’s World Golf Rankings.
It’s the fourth time in Korda’s profession that she has been ranked No. 1. The final time was in November.
Again to #1 within the World 👏
After her solo third end at The Chevron Championship, @NellyKorda returns to the highest of the @ROLEX World Golf Rankings! pic.twitter.com/EXdcppRU5G
— LPGA (@LPGA) April 24, 2023
“Yeah, I imply, wonderful,” mentioned Korda, who carded a 1-under 71 within the ultimate spherical and missed a playoff by one stroke. “It could have been clearly very good to win the key, as effectively, however I feel being world No. 1 may be very rewarding. All my onerous work has paid off, and hopefully [will] proceed constructing, however the No. 1 rating retains bouncing backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards.”
Going residence: Contemporary off her first victory in a significant championship and her second win of the season, Lilia Vu is headed residence for this week’s JM Eagle LA Championship. Vu, 25, grew up within the L.A. space and performed collegiately at UCLA. Wilshire Nation Membership was one of many Bruins’ residence programs.
It will likely be fairly the homecoming for Vu, who defeated Angel Yin in a sudden-death playoff to win the Chevron Championship. The 2018 Pac-12 Convention Participant of the Yr made one minimize in 9 begins as a PGA Tour rookie in 2019. She earned $3,830 and practically give up golf to attend legislation college.
Thanks for the welcome, Texas 👏
We’ll see you subsequent 12 months 🏆 pic.twitter.com/GA789Ysk5B
— LPGA (@LPGA) April 24, 2023
After spending two seasons on the Epson Tour, Vu regained her LPGA Tour card. She completed within the prime 15 in every of her 5 begins this season. She is now ranked fourth on this planet.
Acquainted place: Together with UCLA, USC’s ladies’s golf workforce additionally claims Wilshire Nation Membership one among its residence programs. There are six former UCLA and 7 former USC gamers within the area this week.
“Wilshire was all the time Wilshire Wednesdays,” mentioned former UCLA star Alison Lee, who attended elementary college across the nook from the membership. “We’d go early within the morning on Wednesdays making an attempt to beat visitors within the morning. We’d try to get there by 7:00 a.m. and be out by round 10:00 a.m., and try to make it again to campus for exercises.”
Whereas the LPGA has performed occasions at Wilshire Nation Membership since 2018, it is the primary 12 months of the JM Eagle LA Championship. The presenting sponsor, Plastpro, the world’s largest plastic pipe producer, doubled the purse measurement from $1.5 million. The winner will acquire $450,000. The elevated cash on the road has attracted eight of the highest 10 gamers on this planet; Ko and Lexi Thompson are the one ones not enjoying.
LIV Golf stars within the Ryder Cup?
When Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka jumped to the LIV Golf circuit final 12 months, it was extensively assumed they’d not be eligible for the Ryder Cup, which is staged by the PGA of America and Ryder Cup Europe.
To be eligible to take part on the U.S. Ryder Cup workforce, a participant must be a member of the PGA of America, which elite gamers acquire by way of their memberships on the PGA Tour.
The PGA of America not too long ago clarified its guidelines, noting there is a grace interval that permits LIV Golf League members to maintain their memberships by way of June 2024. So, Johnson, Koepka and different LIV Golf gamers are literally eligible to compete within the 2023 Ryder Cup, which is scheduled to be performed close to Rome from Sept. 29-Oct. 1.
“Below the PGA of America membership guidelines there are classifications that at the moment permit LIV Tour members to retain their PGA of America membership standing,” the PGA of America assertion mentioned. “PGA Tour members are thought of A3 classification. As a result of the LIV gamers paid their membership dues earlier than June 30, 2022, they are going to retain their membership by way of the tip of June 2023 after which by way of a grace interval that runs by way of the tip of June 2024. After that, below our present guidelines, they might apply for PGA’s Reserve Member classification. A3 members who resigned or are not PGA Tour Members (suspended) are nonetheless PGA of America members.”
Any of the LIV Golf gamers would most likely should be one among U.S. workforce captain Zach Johnson‘s six captain’s selections. The highest six within the U.S. workforce factors standings earn automated spots; Scottie Scheffler, Max Homa, Cameron Young, Jordan Spieth, Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay at the moment have probably the most factors.
Koepka and Phil Mickelson, who tied for second on the Masters, are ranked seventeenth and twenty third, respectively. Dustin Johnson is thirty second. They’re going to solely obtain factors within the three remaining main championships, they usually may need to win one to develop into an automated qualifier.
Johnson gained every of his 5 matches within the U.S. workforce’s 19-9 victory over the Europeans at Whistling Straits in 2021.
“I do not know [if I’ll be eligible] and it is less than me so I am unable to make that call,” Koepka advised the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. “But when they select us, we’ll be able to go.”
It wasn’t me!
Johnson’s agent, David Winkle, despatched an e-mail to golf media shops Monday morning, disputing feedback that DJ reportedly made about PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan following his workforce’s win on the LIV Golf occasion in Australia.
“We do not give a rattling how he feels,” Johnson reportedly mentioned, in keeping with the Australian Related Press. “We all know how he feels about us, so it is mutual.”
In keeping with Winkle, Johnson declined remark when requested about Monahan by a reporter.
“I spoke with Dustin from Singapore this morning at which era he emphatically denied making any such assertion,” Winkle wrote on Monday. “He elaborated by saying his precise response to the query was ‘no remark.’ Dustin stays grateful for his time on the PGA Tour and has the utmost respect for Commissioner Monahan.”
Johnson, who gained 24 instances on the PGA Tour and earned practically $75 million on the course throughout his tour profession, has tried to remain out of the LIV Golf-PGA Tour fray. His 4Aces GC teammate, Pat Perez, hasn’t been so quiet about his former circuit.
So it may not have been a shock to study that it was really Perez who made the feedback about Monahan, in keeping with LIV Golf spokesperson Jane MacNeille. Perez confirmed he made the feedback in a textual content to Sports activities Illustrated.
Dustin did not say it, Pat did. AAP reported it incorrectly.
— Jane MacNeille (@TheRealJaneSays) April 24, 2023
Twitter wars
Chase Koepka‘s ace on the par-3 twelfth gap at Adelaide, which was dubbed the “Watering Gap,” sparked a Twitter warfare between English golfers Richard Bland and Eddie Pepperell on Sunday.
Pepperell in contrast the scene to the well-known sixteenth gap on the WM Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Arizona.
“This has been taking place at Scottsdale for years now, so unsure how a lot LIV is absolutely altering issues right here,” Pepperell wrote on Twitter.
LIV Golf’s Richard Bland responded: “Ed.. inform me the place on DP World there’s been a gap like this? As a result of in 22yrs of enjoying the tour I am unable to consider any. However perhaps your quarter-hour on tour you realize completely different.”
Pepperell, one of many extra outspoken golfers on Twitter, could not maintain again.
The place to start out…
Suppose it is easy; in my quarter-hour I gained extra occasions than you probably did in 22 years.
What the Tour has accomplished (simply to call a number of);
GolfSixes
Heineken gap at Himmerland
Beat the Professional in HollandThe Tour, which you spent 22 years on did okay for you mate.
— Eddie Pepperell (@PepperellEddie) April 23, 2023
The pair made up the following day. Bland wrote that he had been consuming and “ought to know higher to not tweet below the affect.” On Tuesday, Bland shut down his Twitter account.
