Author: lenz

Men’s pro golf faces another year of turmoil

 

It’s most appropriate to wish all our golf enthusiasts a happy holiday season.  This is a season-ender is like no other, however.

Only the much-debated “Framework Agreement,’’ that is to bring together the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Tour, is left among major golf developments in 2023.   The agreed upon deadline for this agreement is Dec. 31, but I don’t expect anything substantial to be announced. Men’s professional golf is, sadly, in for another year of turmoil.

Jon Rahm’s late-season jump to the LIV Tour was monumental, and Viktor Hovland’s comments in the immediate aftermath of it suggest that peace in the wonderful world of golf is a long way off.

Hovland may be the best young star in the game. At least he has my vote as player-of-the-year.   Hovland says he won’t leave the PGA Tour like Rahm did, but he’s not happy either.

“The (PGA Tour) management has not done a good job,’’ said Hovland.  “They almost see the players as labor, and not part of the members.  After all, we are the PGA Tour.  Without the players there is nothing.’’

Being more specific about tour management, Hovland says  “They are not professional golfers, after all.  They are businessmen…There is a great deal of arrogance behind it all.’’

Rahm’s jump to LIV may not be the last.  LIV boss Greg Norman says “eight to 12 guys’’ are interested in filling the last two or three available positions on LIV’s 2024 roster thanks to the interest Rahm’s jump created.

“Since Jon signed I know he’s been inundated by players saying ~I want to play on your team.  How do I do that?’’ said Norman. But he didn’t say who those players are.

ANYWAY, these things also bother me:

BULLET There’s a growing call for PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan to resign.  He did  a terrific job bringing the circuit through the pandemic but the competition with LIV is another matter.  I was stunned to see Sportico’s report that the PGA Tour’s legal fees jumped from $2 million in 2021, when the PGA-LIV battle began, to $20.7 million in 2022 and Monahan’s overall compensation climbing from $13.9 million in 2021 to $18.6 million in 2022. The 2022 numbers for Monahan cite a $1.8 million base salary, $9.2 million in bonuses and incentive compensation and an actuarial estimate of $7.4 million for non-cash benefits Monahan will receive after he retires. Do those figures make sense to you?

BULLET Then there’s the return of Angel Cabrera.  Winner of two major titles, he spent 30 months in jails in Brazil and Argentina in gender violence cases again two ex-girlfriends. Cabrera was released on Aug. 4 and competed on the PGA’s Latinoamerica Tour three months later. Seems odd that a 54-year old who last played on PGA Tour Champions before doing all that jail time (and fathering a child while he was incarcerated) could be back in action while two young players on the Korn Ferry circuit are serving suspensions for violating the tour’s gambling rules.

BULLET On a positive note, the PGA Tour found a sponsor to replace the Honda Classic, a fixture on the Florida Swing at PGA National, and is finally putting a tournament in the golf mecca of Myrtle Beach, S.C.  The Cognizant Classic will replace the Honda with Feb. 29-March 3 dates.  The new sponsor, a New Jersey-based personal services company, has a six-yer agreement. Honda ended its 42-year sponsorship run in 2023.  The new Myrtle Beach Classic will be held May 9-12 at The Dunes course. My only thought on both is, why did it take so long?

BULLET The Masters, of all tournaments, needs more players.  The first major championship of the year is in April, and it’s an invitational. Generally the membership wants to hold the field under 100 (it last went over that number in 1966 when 103 competed).  Usually the field is  between 85 and 100 but this year the likely number of starters is only 77 unless the club revises its invitation policies.

BULLET And, finally, there’s the rollback announcement from the U.S. Golf Association and R & A to revise golf ball test conditions.  That won’t begin until 2028.  Do you think the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV can reach an agreement before that?

 

 

Rahm’s jump to LIV puts the golf world in a tizzy

What? Jon Rahm has jumped to LIV?  Who woulda thunk it?’’

Certainly not me, at least not until the rumors of his signing dragged on long enough to make the actual event almost anticlimactic. This development made it emphatic that the Saudi-backed circuit is here to stay.

So, how big was it? Too big for it to be just considered a sports event.

Rahm, who is probably the best-paid athlete of 2023 now, bypassed the golf media to make his personal comments in a  Fox News interview with Bret Baier, a veteran news anchor. No sports media were involved in this one.

Shortly after the Rahm signing was announced officials of the Wells Fargo Championship, one of the PGA Tour’s best events, announced that the tournament would be discontinued after its staging in 2024.  Just a coincidence that the Wells Fargo announcement came on the heels of the PGA Tour losing one of its biggest young stars?  Just asking.

Until the the 29-year old reigning Masters champion took the jump the most significant LIV Golf League post season development was the trade of Talor Gooch, the circuit’s 2023 individual champion, from the RangeGoats to Smash.  Within LIV circles that was huge.  Imagine a Major League Baseball or National Basketball Association team trading its Most Valuable Player.  That’s how Smash captain Brooks Koepka saw it.

“There couldn’t have been a stronger offseason move for us,’’ said Koepka.  “It goes from making us a contender to a juggernaut.’’

Well, maybe.  The signing of Rahm could enhance LIV’s increasingly interesting team format.  In addition to signing for – reportedly –somewhere between $400 and $600 million Rahm also got his own team in the deal. So who is Rahm bringing with him as teammates?

The LIV crowd takes the team competition seriously, as shown by other offseason moves.  The 4Aces got Harold Varner III from the RangeGoats for Peter Uihlein.  Koepka also revised his roster by adding Graeme McDowell, a former U.S. Open champion, and Jason Kokrak before nabbing Gooch.

Of course the reported Dec. 31 deadline for a framework settlement with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour is still out there, but player movement is more interesting now. So, who will go next?

Best bet is Tony Finau. Not only is he a friend of Rahm’s, he’s facing some lawsuits that could be expensive. LIV money could be helpful.

Finau was asked about a move to LIV while he was competing in the Grant Thornton Invitational, a new mixed team event at Tiburon, in Naples FL.  Finau certainly didn’t rule it out.

“I haven’t heard anything yet,’’ he said.  “I haven’t let anything marinate other than just playing, but I’m happy for Jon.  He  made the best decision he felt was right for his family and himself.’’

Another Rahm friend, Englishman Tyrrell Hatton, was reportedly in negotiations with LIV.  While his signing wouldn’t have nearly the impact of Rahm’s signing or Finau’s (if indeed it materializes), Hatton was on the victorious European Ryder Cup team.

The Ryder Cup is already a consideration with no less a LIV critic than Rory McIlroy quick to declare that the DP World Tour must change its rules.  The DP World Tour ruled out the use of LIV players in the last Ryder Cup, meaning Rahm would be ineligible, but Euro captain Luke Donald may not have that problem in getting his next squad ready for the 2025 matches at New York’s Bethpage Black. The Euros will need Rahm.

It might a stretch at this point, but another PGA star – Patrick Cantlay – might also be a LIV candidate.  He’s reportedly taken on a very active role on the PGA Tour policy board’s planning for the framework negotiations.  If he doesn’t get his way he might consider the LIV alternative and good friend Xander Schauffele could conceivably follow him.

LIV concluded its exciting Promotion event Sunday in Abu Dhabi with the winner, Kalle Samooja, giving the circuit its first player from Finland. LIV  still has some loose ends to take care of before its third season tees off in February.  The TV coverage needs an upgrade and three tournaments, including the two biggest ones at the end of the season, still don’t have sites lined up yet but the player roster is critical.

Given the offseason developments, especially the Rahm signing, there are likely more than a few PGA Tour players second-guessing themselves for not heading to the Saudi circuit sooner. We’ll see how many take the plunge now.

 

PGA Tour Champions now has its own World Cup

 

BRADENTON, Florida — Who says who can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

In the case of the wonderful world of tournament golf the “old dog’’ is PGA Tour Champions, and the 50-and-over circuit has never been reluctant to try something new. This week, though, it may have gone overboard with its World Golf Champions Cup.

It’s a team competition, which triggers thoughts of the Ryder Cup, President’s Cup and Solheim Cup — but it’s unlike any of those.  They only have two teams competing. The World Golf Champions Cup has three so – while it’s a match play event – it is in reality a “teams’’ competition.

And that’s not all.  The team scores are determined by holes won, not matches. I can’t recall any big-time pro golf event with a concept as different as this one, which tees off on Thursday (DEC 7) at Concession Club in Bradenton, FL.

It won’t even be held over consecutive days. There’ll be eight nine-hole matches each tournament day, featuring team formats and singles but the traditional pro-am will be on Saturday and without spectators.

Matches begin on Thursday after the 9 a.m. opening ceremonies and resume on Friday with ESPN providing broadcast coverage. After the pro-am the event concludes with two waves of singles matches on Sunday. ESPN and ABC will share broadcast coverage on that day.

Unlike traditional match play there’ll be no close-outs if one player leads by more than the number of holes remaining. Every hole matters.

The three teams are Team USA, captained by Jim Furyk; Team Europe, captained by Darren Clarke; and Team International, captained by Ernie Els.  Each team has six players and their leaders will all be playing captains with their rosters filled with recognizable tour stars of the past.

While the event is unusual, it is a big-time event as evidenced by the names of the players, the network TV coverage and the prize money.  The purse is $1.35 million with each player on the winning team getting $100,000.  Each player on the runner-up team gets $75,000 and each one on the last place unit gets $50,000.

I found the team scoring format on the LIV Tour difficult to follow. This one – because it’s so different – might be even more tricky than that, but it’s certainly worth a try. I’m all for pro golf trying new things and this attempt is certainly at the perfect venue.

Concession Club’s leadership has never been reluctant to try new things.  I was among about 20 media members invited to a two-day visit in 2013.  We all arrived and wondered why we were there for a while.  The program started late, suggesting a big announcement might be in the offing.

It came once club member Paul Azinger arrived.  He spelled out the details of the Concession Cup, a biennial team event that brought together the best mid-amateur, senior and super senior players from the U.S. and Great Britain/Ireland  two weeks before the next Masters. It was something different back then.

Later on the Bradenton club also hosted the 2015 men’s and women’s NCAA Division I Championship and the 2021 PGA Workday World Golf Championships.

Concession has my favorite logo in golf – one that honors Jack Nicklaus’ concession of a putt to Tony Jacklin in the 1969 Ryder Cup.  It was a controversial gesture then, some feeling Nicklaus made a great display of sportsmanship in allowing the matches to end in a tie while others thought the spirit of competition was compromised because Jacklin didn’t have to putt out with the critical match on the line.

Jacklin is a Concession member and Nicklaus designed the course. Former PGA and Champions Tour star Peter Jacobsen is chairman of the World Golf Champions Cup and he guarantees that – while the event has an untested format – it will be played at a worthy venue.

“The Concession is a fabulous match play course,  a ball strikers’ paradise,’’ said Jacobsen.  “Missed greens here put a lot of pressure on your game.  There is no way to coast, and you never can take a moment off.’’

 

 

Price, Leadbetter will be a great team in creating Soleta course

Nick Price (top) and David Leadbetter are working together on a new Florida course.

 

MYAKKA CITY, Florida – When you put Nick Price and David Leadbetter together on a golf project you most likely will have a winner.

This week those two were in the spotlight at the ground-breaking for the Soleta Golf Club on the outskirts of Sarasota, FL.  Soleta’s expected opening is in late 2024 and will be the centerpiece for a private residential golf community that will include 93 residences and other amenities.  Needless to say, it’ll be highly upscale with the initiation fee for a full golf membership set at $100,000.

Both Price and Leadbetter are long-time Floridians. Price lives in Hobe Sound and Leadbetter has lived in the Sarasota area for the past eight years. Both were closely involved in the planning stages at Soleta and will be on site frequently during the course’s construction phase. Price is the course designer while Leadbetter is designing a 30-acre practice facility called Field of Dreams and an indoor center that will include a biomechanics studio, club fitting, a putting studio, simulators and other advanced training technologies.

“My buddy Nick and I go back a long way,’’ said Leadbetter. “I designed a course once, but it was in China.  I figured it was far enough away that nobody would know about it.  I thought Nick and I could be co-designers here, but he was afraid I’d screw it up.’’

Clearly they enjoy working together. Though the Soleta home sites will be worth a look, the most interesting aspect at this stage of the project is the pairing of Price and Leadbetter. Leadbetter was once Price’s swing coach.  Leadbetter’s tutelage helped Price make a swing change in 1982 and that worked out so well that another Nick, this one named Faldo, underwent the same treatment a few years later and achieved even greater success.

Though Price is in the World Golf Hall of Fame, his playing career is not be as appreciated as it should be.   That’s my perception, and I was up close and personal in witnessing just how good Price was. Being a Chicago-based writer then, I was most impressed by his back-to-back victories in the 1993 and 1994 Western Opens.  In the first he beat Greg Norman by five strokes. Price had a shot at a third Western title in 2000 but lost in a playoff to Robert Allenby.

Sadly that late, great Western championship – first played in 1899 — was shut down in 2006 when the PGA Tour and Western Golf Association opted to convert it into a FedEx Cup Playoff event called the BMW Championship. Golf in Chicago hasn’t been the same since.

I was also on hand to watch Price win two PGA Championships, at Bellerive in St. Louis in 1992 and Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oka., in 1994. Oh, yes, there was also that eye-opening day in 1986, when I covered the Masters for the first time.  Price set the tournament record with a 9-under-par 63.  It’s a record that still stands, though Norman tied it in 1996. Throughout his playing career Price was a class act on and off the course.

Now 66, he notched the last of his 18 PGA Tour victories in 2003 at a time when he was just getting involved with golf course architecture. Not all great players turn out to be good course designers, but Price has held his own. His design website lists a portfolio of 13 courses, the first five of which were outside of the United States.  One of those, TPC Cancun in Mexico, is the only TPC layout outside of the U.S.

Price plays out of one of McArthur Golf Club in Hobe Sound, a course he co-designed with Tom Fazio. The only Price course I’ve played is Grande Dunes – one of the very best layouts in the golf mecca of Myrtle Beach, S.C.

So what will Soleta be like?  Other than the fact that it’ll be separated from the home sites, Price could give only an inkling.

“We’re here to create a special place for golfers to play, spend time with friends and have fun,’’ he said.  “The property has wetlands, uplands, open grassland and some great trees.  We’ve laid out the course to take advantage and incorporate those natural features into the design of the holes. I’m really happy that no wetlands have been impacted or eliminated anywhere on the property.  These natural elements will be part of what gives the course its natural look and feel.’’

 

 

CDGA gives Illinois Women’s Amateur a big boost

The Chicago District Golf Association won’t announce its 2024 tournament schedule until Dec. 6 but it will include two major additions.

For 90 years the Illinois Women’s Golf Association, a group based downstate, conducted the Illinois Women’s State Amateur as well as its state championship for senior players.  With IWGA membership dwindling, those events would likely have been discontinued had the CDGA not stepped in.

The Women’s State Amateur will be switched from a match play format to a 54-hole stroke play event.  It’ll be held June 10-12 at The Grove, in Long Grove. In addition, changes in the U.S. Golf Association’s exemption process means that the champion of both the Illinois women’s and men’s state amateur championships will receive exemptions into the U.S. Amateurs.

While The Grove also hosted last year’s Illinois Women’s State Amateur, the men’s version will make a rare departure from the Chicago area in 2024.  It’ll be held July 16-18 at the Atkins Golf Club at the University of Illinois in Champaign.

LIV IN LIMBO:  Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove, hosted well-received tournaments on the LIV Tour the last two years, but a return in 2024, is uncertain.  LIV owner Jerry Rich invited the circuit back, but the latest LIV schedule didn’t include a Chicago stop.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be one, though.  The circuit plans another 14-tournament international schedule and three dates are still open. An April 5-7 event is planned at a U.S. facility and the season-ending individual and team championships, like held in late August or early September, don’t have announced sites yet either.

BROZEK’S BACK:  Casey Brozek, a former Illinois PGA president, has landed the director of golf position at Medinah Country Club. He replaces Marty DeAngelo,, who took a position in Naples, FL.

Brozek was head professional at Crystal Lake Country Club for 16 years before moving to a director’s position at Quail West in Florida. Brozek arrives at Medinah as the club prepares to re-open its No. 3 course, which has undergone a year-long renovation, and is scheduled to host the President’s Cup matches in 2026.

INDIA APOLOGIZES: Deerfield’s Vince India, the reigning Illinois Open champion, regrets having  violated the PGA Tour’s Integrity Program and plans to continue competing after his six-month suspension expires on March 17, 2024.

A regular on the Korn Ferry Tour, India admitted gambling on golf tournaments in which he did not compete. He issued his apology on social media outlets.

“I’m confident I’ll grow from this….and ultimately come out a better person and player and continue my goal to play golf at the highest level,’’ said India.

JDC PAYOFF: The John Deere Classic, Illinois’ only annual PGA Tour event, announced that its Birdies for Charity program produced a record $14.1 million payoff for its 478 participating charities from its July staging at TPC Deere Run in downstate Silvis.

 

 

 

LPGA changes are imminent as season winds down

Linking up with Annika Sorenstam changed the atmosphere at Pelican.

BELLAIR, Florida – Changing times on the LPGA Tour are unlike the PGA-LIV soap opera on the men’s circuit, but the women are in the progress of some adjusting, too – starting with the name of the season’s penultimate tournament.  Instead of using the name of the host club in the title, what was the Pelican is now The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.

It honors Annika Sorenstam, one of golf’s all-time greats.  It’s the first time an LPGA tournament has been named in honor of a player, and more legends might be recognized down the road.

“It’s important to have history involved in the game,’’ said Stacy Lewis, the U.S. Solheim Cup captain.  “It’s important for these girls to know the players that have come before them.  Fortunately, everybody knows Annika. I wish we had more of them because there are a lot of players that played even before Annika that we probably haven’t done a good job of honoring.  There needs to be more of it.’’

Betsy King, Nancy Lopez and Kathy Whitworth have been similarly honored at tournaments, but not quite like Sorenstam. The Annika has a bigger purse ($3.25 million, biggest on the LPGA circuit minus the majors and CME event) and a better field than was the case in the event’s three seasons as the Pelican. The signage and décor very much highlighted Sorenstam’s connection to the event.

One difference was evident even before Thursday’s first round was over when darkness set in at 5:48 p.m. with one player still to finish.  Nelly Korda, the champion the last two years, had a less-than-ideal start. Though she shot a 67 on the par-70 Donald Ross design course, Korda trailed nine of the players who also had morning starting times and she was tied for 31st when Thursday’s play ended. Canadian Brooke Henderson was the leader with an 8-under-par 62.

Two-time defending champion Nelly Korda wasn’t at her best in The Annika’s debut at the Pelican, but the colorful atmosphere was refreshing.

Lexi Thompson, runner-up twice in the previous three years, started in the afternoon and posted a 64 with a lot of added pressure.  The CME Group Tour Championship, the biggest money event in women’s golf with $7 million on the line, is coming up Nov. 16-19 to conclude the season.  Only 60 players will qualify for the CME at another Florida facility, Tiburon in Naples. (Tiberon will also be the site of a new December event in which some LPGA players team up with players on the PGA Tour).

Thompson, who has missed the cut in eight tournaments this year and had only two top-10 finishes, stands 88th in the point standings so she needs to climb the leaderboard before the tourney ends on Sunday.  New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, another top player for many years, is also on the outside of the CME field, too.  She stands 101st.

Stacy’s Solheim Cup team is also smarting from a 14-14 tie in Spain, which enabled their European counterparts to retain possession of the trophy.

“I hate how it finished because I felt we played good enough to win,’’ said Lewis, who will return as the American captain the next time the bi-annual event is played.  “There are definitely some changes to be made.’’

 

Illinois Golf Hall of Fame will get six new members

The Illinois Golf Hall of Fame will induct its 20th class on Friday, Nov. 10, and selection committee chairman Tim Cronin says “it couldn’t be more diverse or vibrant.’’

Heading the six-member class are two long-time club professionals, Tim O’Neal and Bruce Patterson, and Dr. Randy Kane, who served as the first Chicago District Golf Association turfgrass director from 1985-2006.

Also headed for enshrinement are Taylorville’s Dave Ryan, who has dominated the state’s senior amateur competition for more than a decade; Margaret Abbott Dunne, the first woman to win an Olympic competition in 1900; and Harry Collis, who excelled as a player, club professional, course architect, superintendent and turfgrass innovator over a 40-year career spent mostly at Flossmoor Country Club.

The induction ceremony will be held at The Glen View, in Glenview, which is the home of the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame. The Hall inducted its first class in 1989 and selections are made by a state-wide committee every two years.

O’Neal spent most of his career at North Shore Country Club, in Glenview, and Patterson was the long-time director of golf at Butler National, in Oak Brook. Patterson was instrumental in creating the Illinois PGA Foundation and O’Neal is its current president.

A SMALL MILESTONE: Mike Small, the University of Illinois’ men’s coach, finished third  in last week’s Senior PGA Professionals Championship in Florida and earned one of the 35 berths in next May’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, which includes touring professionals, at Harbor Shores, in Michigan.

Small’s most recent success came after he claimed two Illinois Section PGA titles in August. He took the Illinois PGA Championship for the 14th time and the Illinois Senior PGA crown for the sixth time.  The latter made Small the winningest PGA professional across all of the organization’s 41 sections.

SETBACK FOR INDIA: Deerfield’s Vince India, the reigning Illinois Open champion, was hit with a six-month suspension by the PGA Tour for violation of its “Integrity Program.’’ The program, updated in 2021, is designed “to mitigate betting-related corruption in PGA Tour competitions.’’

India, 34, was suspended for betting on PGA Tour events in which he was not a competitor.  He has been on the Korn Ferry Tour since 2015, has made 176 starts and has career earnings on all levels of the PGA Tour of $662,823.  His suspension started on Sept. 18 and will end on March 17, 2024. India declined to comment on the matter.

HERE AND THERE: Though the LIV Tour hasn’t announced its 2024 schedule yet a tentative version did not include a return to Rich Harvest Farms or any other Chicago area course.  Rich Harvest hosted tournaments in the first two seasons of the fledgling circuit with Cameron Smith winning in 2022 and Bryson DeChambeau this year.

The CDGA has announced its Players of the Year.  Mac McClear, of Hinsdale, and T.J. Barger, of Bloomington, were named co-players of the year and Mike Henry, of Bloomington, won in the Senior division.  All three were first-time honorees in the CDGA competition.

Mike Scully, former head professional at Medinah when the club hosted the 2006 PGA Championship and 2012 Ryder Cup, has moved on to Kinsale, in North Naples, FL.  Scully will be the new club’s general manager and director of golf.  It’s scheduled to open in the fall of 2024. Scully, a member of Illinois’ 1984 Rose Bowl team, is coming to Kinsdale from Streamsong Resort, another Florida venue.

 

 

 

 

LIV’s second season is over; now the fun begins

 

LIV Tour’s second season is history.  The team championship at Doral created great drama and was an appropriate ending to the 2023 campaign.

Now, however, the real fun begins.

LIV chief executive officer Greg Norman took at least a brief look ahead during lulls in the action at Doral..  He started by confirming that he hasn’t been a part of the mysterious negotiations between LIV, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour and still declaring that he’s not worried about his job.

There’s no reason he should be. LIV made progress in Year 2 and Norman was a big reason, but there’s so much more to do.

“Our next couple months are probably going to be my most exciting time,’’ Norman told a small but select media contingent.  “We’re going through the relegation process, the trade process, building out the teams to a position that each captain wants to negotiate. All that stuff is really going to energized it.’’

True, but there are some things that concern me and should concern others who have closely followed this changing world in golf:

WORLD RANKINGS:  Something has to change, for the good of the game as a whole and not just for LIV, which continues to be snubbed by the Official World Golf Rankings.  The OWGR are a joke without LIV players being recognized. Limiting their appearances in the major championships only denigrates those tournaments, all of which should want the strongest fields possible.  How do you get that with a LIV presence?

LIV players can try to qualify for the U.S. Open and British Open but won’t be eligible for the Masters or PGA Championship.  Those are basically the only opportunities for the best players in the world to compete against each other. How should Talor Gooch, for instance, be kept out of anything after winning three times on the LIV and have seven other top-15 finishes – and winning over $33 million – this season? Oh, yes.  Gooch’s current world ranking is No. 201. Ridiculous!

SCHEDULE:  At this time LIV hasn’t announced its 2024 schedule.  Sports Illustrated presented an unofficial version a few weeks ago, and it concerns me. It listed only 14 events – the same as this year.  I would have expected a bigger schedule in Year 3. The SI version – if accurate – didn’t include a return to Chicago.  That strikes home with me, of course, as my long-time home base has been short-changed by the PGA Tour regarding annual tournaments in recent years. LIV’s stop at Rich Harvest Farms in the suburb of Sugar Grove helped alleviate the problem and that event was generally recognized as one of LIV’s most popular stops the first two years.  So what happened?  It’s a story that I’ll be following, to be sure.

TEAM ASPECT:  I’ve been on hand at three LIV events and each time the team aspect was improved.  Having a Brooks Koepka-Phil Mickelson matchup to start play at Doral was terrific.  Still, the teams need to be differentiated better.  Same color team shirts each day perhaps?

RELEGATION:  LIV is doing it right.  A three-day Promotions event was announced at Doral.  It’ll be played Dec. 8-10 in Abu Dahbi — a 54-hole event, a $1.5 million purse and a cut to the low 20 after 36 holes. Size of the field and identity of the participants will be key.  It should provide some meaningful offseason drama.

SCOREBOARDS:  I’m still not happy with what I see, either at the courses or on the TV telecasts.  The scoreboards are hard to follow, which may be inevitable given the shotgun start format. On TV the score list with players names abbreviated in some instances makes for difficult reading, as the type is inevitably small to accommodate all the information that is bring provided.  While I don’t have all the answers to this one, more thought is needed to upgrade the situation.

That sums up 2023, an overall good year for this fledgling circuit.  Let’s see some significant new player signings, some eye-catching trades and a bigger schedule.  That “framework agreement’’ with the PGA can wait.  It’s not much of an “agreement’’ anyway.

Norman and Bubba Watson revealed that numerous  inquiries to purchase teamwould be  were already in the works.  Phil Mickelson has been talking to more PGA Tour players and “knows’’ more will be making the jump to LIV.

Gooch and Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers  are now the champions to beat in what promises to be LIV’s best season yet in 2024.  Bring it on!!

 

The Annika will give a big boost to more than just the LPGA

Ready for The Annika’s November debut are (from left) sponsor exemption Louise Rydqvist, executive director Marci Doyle, host Annika Sorenstam and Pelican member and recent LPGA winner Elizabeth Szokol. (Pat Eastman Photo)

 

BELLEAIR, FL. — Annika Sorenstam was a legendary player before she stepped away from the LPGA Tour in 2008. Now she’s back again in a variety of roles, most notably as the host of a revitalized tournament called The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.

The Pelican Golf Club, on the outskirts of Tampa, hosted the LPGA circuit for tournaments beginning in 2020. It was called the Pelican Women’s Championship then and Nelly Korda goes into the revised version as the two-time defending champion.

Sorenstam’s presence changed the event considerably from when Pelican was the title sponsor. This year’s penultimate event on the LPGA schedule has an elevated purse of $3.25 million, the largest outside of the major championships and the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples. Marci Doyle has come from the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational to assume the executive director’s role at The Annika.

The Annika effect also showed in the field. Eight of the world’s top 10 and 16 of the top 20 in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings  are scheduled to compete this time around, headed by Korda and world No. 1 Lilia Vu. Also in the stacked field  are major championship winners Brooke Henderson, Lydia Ko, Danielle Kang and Lexi Thompson.

So, why is Sorenstam here?

“When I stepped away in 2008 it was a step away from competitive golf, but I wasn’t stepping away from the game,’’ said Sorenstam.  “It was more what can I do to share my passion and knowledge or inspire the next generation.  It started with the foundation, then a few things all connected.  I’m still here, and I want to do things.  I want to inspire.  I want to grow women’s golf, and all the things that this tournament stands for are things that I stand for personally.’’

At the Media Day she shared the spotlight with Elizabeth Szokol, a Pelican member who won for the first time on the LPGA circuit this year, and Louise Rydqvist, a Swedish player who is a junior at the University of South Carolina.  She will make her first LPGA appearance as a sponsor’s exemption at The Annika.

“I played the Annika Cup in Sweden and then I played her Annika Invitational in Europe,’’ said Rydqvist.  Then I came to college and I played her intercollegiate event.  Now, all of a sudden, it’s kind of closing the full circle.  It’s very surreal, and I’m super, super thankful to be here.’’

Sorenstam has made a few tournament appearances and her husband-caddie Mike McGee says she’s also become the main swing coach for their son Will.  The 13-year old, who plays daily with the sons of Henrik Stenson and Ian Poulter at Lake Nona, made a big splash playing in the PNC event in Orlando last year.  Annika and Will were paired with Tiger and Charlie Woods. Mike has also been a go-between for Annika’s projects involving the LPGA.

“I have a long wish list of things I want to achieve at the Annika Foundation,’’ she said.  “We started at the end of 2007, and 15 years later we have seven global tournaments.  We are in different parts of the world.  We do different initiatives, whether it’s six year olds to 12 year olds to 22 year olds. We started with different initiatives this year.  It’s a development program for young players who just left college and are now turning professional.’’

What Sorenstam has done for women’s golf is nothing short of terrific – and much needed if the game is to grow.  Her role at the inaugural Annika hasn’t been clearly defined yet.  She was asked if she’d hit the ceremonial first tee shot. Surely she’ll do much more than that.’’

“I am playing in the pro-am.  I’m committed to that’’ she said.  “I look forward to that, but I’m a host and I’m up for anything to make this tournament great.’’

The pro-am is on Wednesday, Nov. 8.  Then there’ll be four rounds of tournament play on the private course, a Donald Ross original design that has been redesigned by Beau Welling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mistwood’s Mickelson is Illinois PGA’s Player of the Year

 

Andy Mickelson, the director of golf at Mistwood in Romeoville, is the Illinois PGA’s Player of the Year.  He did it with only one win, in the section’s first stroke play event, but his consistency in 10 other competitions earned him enough Bernardi Player of the Year points to win the prestigious honor.

“Winning the Illinois PGA Player of the Year is a huge accomplishment for me,’’ said Mickelson.  “I put a lot of time and effort into my game, and it’s cool to see it pay off.  It seemed like I had a lot of top-10s to go along with the one win but a couple of second place finishes and good runs at our majors helped put me over the edge.’’

Mickelson clinched Player of the Year with a tie for fifth-place finish in the season-ending IPGA Players Championship.

The Assistant Player-of-the-Year award went to Rockford’s Kevin Flack who finished into the top 10 in all nine assistants competitions and won four of them.

BIG YEAR FOR THE HAWK: Brian Carroll, head pro at The Hawk in St. Charles, won, the IPGA Players title for the second straight year at Twin Orchard, in Long Grove.  He had to hold off one of his teaching staff members, Roy Biancalana, and Kevin Flack, from Rockford’s Mauh-Nah-Tee-See Country Club, to get that win.

Biancalana, though, had a great season as well.  He defended his IPGA Senior Match Play title at Chicago’s Ridge Country Club in Chicago and now stands tied with Jim Sobb, the former pro at Ivanhoe, as the only player to win that event three times.  Biancalana took his trio of titles in consecutive years.

LEADER OF THE ARCHITECTS: Michael Benkusky, of Lake in the Hills, has been elected president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects.  He’ll serve in that capacity through the fall of 2024.

Originally from Iowa, Benkusky’s design portfolio includes two prominent Illinois courses, Canyata, in Marshall, and St. Charles Country Club.  His other credits include Point O’Woods, in Michigan, and Palm Aire’s Champions Course in Florida.

GOULD JOINS CDGA:  Robbie Gould, who played 11 of his 18 National Football League seasons for the Bears, has joined the Chicago District Golf Association as its Brand Ambassador.

A prominent NFL kicker, Gould holds a 2.7 handicap as a golfer and competes on the Celebrity Tour.

“Robbie epitomizes what it means to be Better Through Golf,’’ said Robert Markionni, the CDGA executive director.  “Whether competing as a talented player himself, using the game to give back, or engaging with other golfers, we have long admired Robbie’s affinity for golf.  We look forward to joining forces with him in an effort to elevate the game we all love.’’