The Zozo Championship, LIV Jeddah and more

The calendar may say October, however there’s nonetheless loads of good golf being performed all over the world.

Tom Kim gained once more on the PGA Tour. Jodi Ewart Shadoff gained for the primary time in her 11-year LPGA profession. And Dustin Johnson turned $18 million richer by ending Sixteenth in a LIV Golf occasion in Thailand.

After per week during which Max Homa nonetheless owned Twitter, and golf followers all over the world had been most likely doing one thing they by no means thought they’d — googling the MENA Tour — the PGA Tour heads to Japan, LIV Golf visits its homeland of Saudi Arabia and the LPGA takes a break earlier than enjoying in South Korea.

Here is a take a look at what’s coming subsequent in skilled golf:

What’s subsequent on the PGA Tour

Zozo Championship
When: Thursday-Sunday
The place: Accordia Golf Narashino Nation Membership, Chiba, Japan
Purse: $11 million
Defending champion: Hideki Matsuyama

Three storylines to look at:

Matsuyama goes dwelling: Matsuyama, the 2020 Masters champion, is one among Japan’s most revered athletes after changing into the primary Japanese man to win a serious championship. He gained the 2021 Zozo Championship by 5 photographs with a final-round 65. He was affected by again and neck accidents final season, however nonetheless managed to win twice and was solo fourth on the U.S. Open.

Schauffele’s return: Xander Schauffele, who’s ranked sixth on the earth, is the highest-ranked participant within the subject. He makes his return to Japan, the place he gained a gold medal on the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. His mom was raised in Japan and his maternal grandparents stay in Tokyo. He celebrated his Olympic victory along with his grandparents by having in-room eating on the similar lodge the place he stayed for the Zozo Championship. Schauffele stated his spouse, Maya, was born in Okinawa, and so they plan to go to her grandparents after the match. He plans to have dinner with about 30 relations on Tuesday night time. “It will likely be good to see all my grandparents, my uncles, aunts and my cousins,” Schauffele advised reporters in Japan.

Japan is prepared for @ZOZOChamp 🤩

The vary on Monday was all packed for @XSchauffele. pic.twitter.com/bzUopWJmSB

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 10, 2022

Worldwide illustration: The 78-man subject contains 10 of the 12 gamers who competed on the Worldwide group on the Presidents Cup, as Matsuyama is joined by Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Corey Conners, Cam Davis, Sungjae Im, Si Woo Kim, Tom Kim, K.H. Lee, Sebastian Muñoz and Mito Pereira. The 72-hole occasion will not have a minimize (do not inform LIV Golf).

What’s subsequent in LIV Golf

LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah
When: Friday-Sunday
The place: Royal Greens Golf & Nation Membership, King Abdullah Financial Metropolis, Saudi Arabia
Purse: $25 million

Three storylines to look at:

House recreation for LIV: The LIV Golf Invitational Collection has been closely criticized by some for being financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, with 9/11 protestors at occasions and gamers going through questions in regards to the monarchy’s historical past of human-rights violations. This week will look completely different with the regular-season finale is being performed in King Abdullah Financial Metropolis, the most important privately funded metropolis on the earth, which is about two hours north of Jeddah on the Pink Coastline. Royal Greens has hosted the Saudi Worldwide and Saudi Girls Worldwide previously.

Race for second and third: Two-time main championship winner Dustin Johnson has already wrapped up the person title within the inaugural season of LIV Golf. He’ll accumulate one other $18 million. Runner-up will get $8 million and third place will get $4 million. South Africa’s Branden Grace is in second place with 79 factors. Patrick Reed is in third with 76 factors, 20 factors forward of Cameron Smith, who has one victory and a fifth-place end in two LIV begins. Winners are awarded 40 factors, whereas runner-ups get 30.

Introducing your 2022 LIV Golf Particular person Champion 🇺🇸🏆#LIVGolf pic.twitter.com/WCNHcBX7cK

— LIV Golf (@LIVGolfInv) October 10, 2022

Crew race heats up: The highest 4 groups within the factors standings after Sunday’s ultimate spherical in Saudi Arabia will obtain a first-round bye within the $50 million LIV Golf group championship, which shall be performed at Trump Nationwide Doral Miami on Oct. 28-30. The 4 Aces (Johnson, Reed, Talor Gooch and Pat Perez) gained 4 of six occasions and are assured of a first-round bye with 140 factors. Bryson DeChambeau‘s Crushers are in second with 80 factors, Louis Oosthuizen‘s Stinger GC is in third with 72, and Sergio Garcia‘s Fireballs are fourth with 69. Lee Westwood‘s Majestics are 10 factors again from a bye.

What’s subsequent on the LPGA

BMW Girls Championship
When: Oct. 20-23
The place: Oak Valley Nation Membership, Busan, South Korea
Purse: $2 million
Defending champion: Jin Young Ko

Three storylines to look at:

Korean dominance: Jin Younger Ko rallied from a four-shot deficit within the ultimate spherical to pressure a playoff and win the 2021 BMW Girls Championship, the primary occasion of the LPGA’s Asian swing. She turned the second Korean-born participant to win the occasion. Ha Na Jang gained the inaugural occasion in 2019, and the championship was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ko’s victory was the 2 hundredth by a Korean-born participant on the LPGA Tour.

One other first-time winner?: Parity at the moment reigns on the LPGA Tour, as England’s Jodi Ewart Shadoff turned the twenty fourth completely different winner by claiming final week’s LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship. Essentially the most completely different winners in a single LPGA season is 26, which occurred in 1991 and 2018. Ewart Shadoff went wire-to-wire because the chief to win for the primary time in her 246th occasion. She was the tenth first-time winner this season, which ties for second most in LPGA historical past. There have been 11 first-time winners in 1995.

A monumental second for this champion.

In her 246th begin, @Jodi_Ewart earns her first LPGA win on the @MEDIHEALChamp. 🏆 pic.twitter.com/N4zFaECBEL

— LPGA (@LPGA) October 10, 2022

Up-and-comer: China’s Xiaowen Yin, 17, was amongst 10 gamers who earned their LPGA playing cards for subsequent season by ending within the high 10 of the Epson Tour cash record. The season concluded Sunday with the ultimate spherical of the Epson Tour Championship. Yin, who turns 18 in December, earned her card in late August. She travels to tournaments along with her mother and father due to her youth.

Contained in the Official World Golf Rankings

Cameron Smith, winner of the a hundred and fiftieth Open Championship at St. Andrews, jumped again to No. 2 on the earth on Monday, behind Scottie Scheffler. Smith, now enjoying on the LIV Golf circuit, swapped locations with Rory McIlroy, who fell to 3rd. Smith rose a spot, though LIV golfers did not obtain OWGR factors within the first six occasions. LIV Golf shaped an alliance with the little-known MENA Tour final week, creating what it believed was a loophole that will permit its gamers to obtain factors instantly, however the OWGR’s governing board stated a ruling would not be made earlier than this week’s occasion in Saudi Arabia. Listed below are a few of the notables who moved up and down within the rankings this week.

Transferring up

Tom Kim
Present rank: 21
Earlier rank: 15

The South Korean continued his impressed play from the Presidents Cup along with his second victory on the Shriners Youngsters’s Open. He joins Tiger Woods as the one gamers to win twice on the PGA Tour earlier than turning 21.

Historical past made.

Tom Kim is the primary participant since Tiger Woods to earn two PGA TOUR wins earlier than turning 21 years previous. pic.twitter.com/cTUvjSFsdZ

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 10, 2022

Tom Hoge
Present rank: 35
Earlier rank: 42

Hoge was the first-round chief in Las Vegas and tied for fourth, 4 photographs behind Kim. He’s 1-for-9 when holding an 18-hole lead or co-lead.

Mito Pereira
Present rank: 41
Earlier rank: 49

Pereira, from Chile, is believed to be heading to the LIV Golf Invitational Collection sooner or later. However he is enjoying on the PGA Tour for now and tied for fourth in Las Vegas.

Si Woo Kim
Present rank: 73
Earlier rank: 79

One needed to marvel if Kim’s sturdy displaying on the President’s Cup would jump-start his profession. He tied for eighth on the Shriners Youngsters’s Open, after recording only one top-10 in 29 Tour begins final season.

Matthew NeSmith
Present rank: 98
Earlier rank: 162

NeSmith, from North Augusta, South Carolina, jumped a whopping 64 spots within the rankings after he tied for runner-up in Las Vegas, his finest end on Tour. NeSmith loves TPC Summerlin — he has 16 consecutive rounds within the 60’s in 4 begins.

Transferring down

Dustin Johnson
Present rank: 24
Earlier rank: 23

Johnson might need wrapped up the LIV Golf particular person title with a Sixteenth-place end in Bangkok, however he continues to slip down the OWGR standings. He was No. 3 on the earth on the finish of 2021.

Brooks Koepka
Present rank: 33
Earlier rank: 32

The previous world No. 1 golfer additionally continues to slip within the rankings after becoming a member of LIV Golf. It’s the four-time main champion’s worst rating since he was thirty fourth on the finish of the 2014 season, when he was enjoying on Tour as a non-member.

Louis Oosthuizen
Present rank: 38
Earlier rank: 34

One other LIV golfer, the South African was seventh on the earth after tying for seventeenth on the 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. He has 4 top-10s in 5 LIV Golf begins.

Daniel Berger
Present rank: 40
Earlier rank: 37

The four-time Tour winner hasn’t made a begin for the reason that U.S. Open in June due to a again harm. He was ranked thirteenth on the earth at the beginning of 2021.

Tiger Woods
Present rank: 1,206
Earlier rank: 1,195

Woods, who was ranked No. 1 on the earth for a file 683 weeks, performed in solely three majors final season after getting back from severe accidents suffered in a automotive wreck in February 2021. His present rating is seven spots decrease than the earlier worst in his storied profession.

On the file

PGA Tour rookie Taylor Montgomery is off to a scorching begin with three straight top-15 finishes in as many begins. The previous UNLV participant completed solo third on the season-opening Fortinet Championship, tied for ninth on the Sanderson Farms Championship and tied for fifteenth on the Shriners Youngsters’s Open. Montgomery spoke to ESPN this week:

Q: What was it like enjoying in your hometown this previous week?

A: It was good. I grew up watching the match, so it was actually cool to play in it. It is clearly very nice to sleep in your individual mattress. After you permit the golf course, it is such as you go do the belongings you usually do. You are not going again to a lodge room and watching films. You really get to go dwelling, loosen up and hang around with your loved ones.

Q: How a lot did the native information assist?

A: On this course, they redid all the greens, and I felt like I struggled on them fairly a bit. That is most likely probably the most putts I’ve missed inside 5 toes within the final three or 4 years I’ve had as a professional. They had been tough and so they simply have not settled but. There have been so many little breaks. Once you take a look at the stats, everybody was having the identical downside. They had been simply laborious to learn.

Q: What programs are you most trying ahead to enjoying on the PGA Tour?

A: Positively the West Coast swing at Hawaii and all the programs in California. I actually like Torrey Pines. I am excited for that one.

Q: How a lot transition has there been for you going from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA Tour?

A: To be trustworthy, I feel the Korn Ferry Tour does a tremendous job of getting ready you for the PGA Tour. Particularly this previous yr, the programs we bought to play had been an ideal check. It feels precisely like a PGA Tour occasion. I do know we’ve not performed the toughest PGA programs, the final three that I’ve performed, however I do know Torrey Pines is a tough one, and I like that place. When you’re enjoying nicely and enjoying constantly on the Korn Ferry Tour, I feel you are going to do the identical factor out right here on the PGA Tour.

Q: Is it true that you just weren’t even hitting a driver off the tee at one level in your faculty profession?

A: I met my swing coach, Jon Sinclair of Dallas, Texas, about 4 or 5 years in the past. I’ve all the time had a very good brief recreation. I imply, I needed to as a result of I performed from the timber my total life. School was simply so laborious as a result of I could not hit a driver wherever. I might swing it 134 mph, however location-wise it may go 80 yards left, down the center or 80 yards proper. I’ve really develop into a reasonably good driver of the ball during the last couple of years. It is actually all [thanks] to Jon Sinclair’s assist.

Q: What did Sinclair do that will help you dial it in?

A: We modified lots. I modified the best way that I launch the membership. I used to flip the membership, and I feel that is the place I bought all my velocity. However I had no face management. That is what Jon has helped me with. I by no means used to bow my wrist, however that has helped me with the best way I launch my membership now. He by no means taught me to bow my wrist; it was extra of a pure factor that I did as a result of I felt like the opposite manner was manner too laborious. It is the swing that I form of developed.

Q: Are you going to remain in Las Vegas?

A: I simply purchased my first home, and I feel it may be in-built seven or eight months. I have been in search of some time, however homes have been so costly in Las Vegas and all over the place. The final two or three begins positively helped out with the home [Montgomery has won $889,375]. I am staying with my mother and father proper now.