MIAMI: Fans attending LIV Golf Miami will get a sneak peek of the year’s first major as defending Masters champion Jon Rahm and six other past winners take on the Blue Monster at Trump National Doral, April 5-7.
The event — LIV Golf’s fifth tournament of the 2024 schedule — will feature 13 LIV Golf players scheduled to compete at Augusta National the following week, including past champions Phil Mickelson (2004, 2006, 2010), Charl Schwartzel (2011), Bubba Watson (2012, 2014), Sergio Garcia (2017), Patrick Reed (2018) and Dustin Johnson (2020).
Additionally, red-hot Joaquin Niemann, who has already captured two LIV Golf individual titles this season, will compete that week alongside five-time major winner Brooks Koepka, 2022 Open Champion Cameron Smith, 2020 US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, English star Tyrrell Hatton and 2023 DP World Tour Player of the Year Adrian Meronk in their quest for a green jacket.
The field at Doral will not only feature the reigning Masters champion, but four of the top six finishers from 2023, including Koepka and Mickelson, who finished tied for second, and Reed, who tied for fourth. Rahm’s elite performance has continued in his debut season with LIV Golf, where he currently sits second in the individual standings behind Niemann, the Chilean star and Torque GC captain who is excited for the test ahead in Miami.
“It’s a great track,” said Niemann of the Blue Monster. “It’s one of the toughest courses we play around the world. It has everything – you’ve got to hit it long, you’ve got to hit it straight, you’ve got to hit greens and you’ve got to do everything right to have a great week. It pushes you a lot.”
Third in the individual points race is Johnson, who will look to replicate his title success in Las Vegas while being chased closely by a pack of global stars including Paul Casey, Abraham Ancer, Talor Gooch, DeChambeau, Smith and Louis Oosthuizen.
“We’re playing Trump National Doral, which is a fantastic golf course,” Johnson said. “I feel like it will be good preparation going into Augusta — it’s tough, it’s long and you have to use all your clubs in your bag. Anytime you’re playing a challenging golf course going into a major, it’s going be good prep.”
In the team standings, Crushers GC — winners of the last two team events — sit in first place ahead of Torque GC, Smash GC, Legion XIII and Stinger GC as they get set to return to Doral, site of the Crushers’ 2023 Team Championship victory.
As fans gear up for the League’s star-studded event in Miami, LIV Golf is offering its LIV X members a direct say in who plays together. Fans can currently vote on which three of LIV Golf’s seven Masters champions they want to see grouped together for Round One of LIV Golf Miami. Fans may sign up for free to receive an email invitation to select their preferred player groupings, with the top three player selections to play together on April 5.
Reigning champion Jon Rahm to lead field of Masters winners at LIV Golf Miami
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Reigning champion Jon Rahm to lead field of Masters winners at LIV Golf Miami
- Seven Masters champions with a combined 10 green jackets to tee off April 5-7
- The field at Doral will not only feature the reigning Masters champion, but four of the top six finishers from 2023
Yuka Saso survives brutal starts of US Women’s Open that sent Korda to an 80
- Saso: I made really good putts. I think I was more lucky than playing good
- The wind was swirling at some of the higher points on the course, and the greens were firm and bouncy, just how the USGA likes it
LANCASTER, Pennsylvania: Former champion Yuka Saso leaned on her putter to survive a brutally tough start to the US Women’s Open on Thursday, an opening round that featured Nelly Korda making a 10 on her third hole and only four players barely beating par.
Saso had three big par putts to start the back nine at Lancaster Country Club, rolled in two medium-length birdie putts toward the end of her round and finished with three putts from the collar of the 18th green for bogey and a 2-under 68.
It felt even lower than that considering all the carnage around her. The leading 10 players from the women’s world ranking had an average score of 75.5 — including Korda’s 80 — and only two-time major champion Minjee Lee was not over par.
“It’s a US Open. It’s a major. It’s the biggest major championship, and I think it’s one of the most difficult weeks that we’ll play,” Saso said. “I don’t tell myself to be confident or anything like that.”
Saso, who seized on a Lexi Thompson meltdown in 2021 to win the Women’s Open at Olympic Club, led by one shot over Andrea Lee, Wichanee Meechai of Thailand and recently crowned NCAA champion Adela Cernousek of France.
Cernousek, a junior at Texas A&M, had company among amateurs. Three of them were in the group at even-par 70 — US Women’s Amateur champion Megan Schofill, Catherine Park and 15-year-old Asterisk Talley, who is coming off her first USGA title at the US Women’s Amateur Four-ball Championship.
Lee, who picked up her second major in the Women’s Open at Pine Needles two years ago, holed out from 15 feet just off the green at the par-3 17th to get back to even par.
“Just come back and try and beat the course again,” she said.
The rest of the LPGA Tour’s biggest stars took a beating, none as bad or as shocking as Korda. The No. 1 player in women’s golf, Korda arrived at Lancaster having won six of her last seven tournaments. Three holes into her opening round, she was sent reeling.
Korda hit from a back bunker into a stream on the par-3 12th hole, and then pitched into the stream from the other side twice on her way to a 10. She added four bogeys over the next 15 holes and signed for an 80, matching her highest round as a professional.
“Not a lot of positive thoughts, honestly,” Korda said. “I just didn’t play well today. I didn’t hit it good. I found myself in the rough a lot. Making a 10 on a par 3 will definitely not do you any good at a US Open.
“Yeah,” she concluded, “just a bad day at the office.”
It was a bad day for so many others. Rose Zhang, who ended Korda’s five-tournament winning streak three weeks ago in New Jersey, looked to be shellshocked when she walked off the 18th green with yet another three-putt bogey and a 79.
Lydia Ko and Brooke Henderson each shot 80. The average score for the field was 75.2.
The wind was swirling at some of the higher points on the course, and the greens were firm and bouncy, just how the USGA likes it. The 156-player field produced just over 900 scores of bogey or worse — in Korda’s case, a septuple bogey.
Thompson, likely playing in her final US Women’s Open after announcing she will no longer play a full schedule after this year, started her back nine by going from bunker to bunker to bunker to thick rough and taking triple bogey. She shot 78.
Saso picked up 5.7 shots on the field with her putter, and it carried her to the lead.
“I made really good putts. I think I was more lucky than playing good,” Saso said.
She has a shot at a peculiar slice of victory this week if she were to win and become the only Women’s Open champion to play under two flags.
Saso won as a Filipino at the Olympic Club and the following year — before turning 21 — declared her citizenship to be Japan (her father is Japanese). A big week could also thrust her into position to get back to the Olympics under a different flag.
That feels like a long way off, especially after such a hard day of work.
“There’s so much golf left,” Saso said. “The golf course is very difficult and the conditions are very tough, especially with the wind with it swirling and when it’s blowing 15 mph with the firm greens and fast greens.”
It didn’t seem to hurt the amateur, particularly Cernousek. She dropped only two shots, one of them on a three-putt from 40 feet on the 14th hole, and held her nerve to break par. She was amazed seeing her name on every scoreboard.
“I was like, ‘Wow!’ I was watching every leaderboard on the course,” she said.
Talley is one of two 15-year-olds in the field at Lancaster and played well above her years with smart decisions when she got out of position. Her one gaffe came on the par-5 seventh hole when she only advanced her second shot about 50 yards out of the thick rough, laid up and then put it in the water fronting the green. She made a triple bogey.
But Talley — her mother says Asterisk is Greek for “Little Star” — followed with a nine-hole stretch of three birdies and six pars, not dropping another shot until the 17th,
“I feel like I could have done a lot better today, but I’m not mad at all about my round,” Talley said. “I was hearing everybody even par is a good round today. I wish I could have been a couple under par.”
Nelly Korda faces her toughest test at US Women’s Open
- The 79th edition of the Women’s Open gets started on Thursday, and Korda is as big an attraction as the course itself
- Among those who could challenge is Rose Zhang, the decorated amateur at Stanford who won in her LPGA debut as a professional last year
LANCASTER, Pennsylvania: No matter how easy Nelly Korda has made golf look over the last two months, not even the best player in her sport can expect an easy time at the US Women’s Open.
The biggest and richest event in women’s golf prides itself on being the toughest test, and Lancaster Country Club has all the trappings with its hilly, tree-lined terrain, partially blind shots into some of the greens and a routing in which holes constantly change direction.
“A beast,” Korda called it.
Whether the toughest test identifies the best player is up for debate.
Since the women’s world ranking began in 2006, only two players at No. 1 captured the US Women’s Open — Annika Sorenstam in 2006 at Newport (an 18-hole playoff win over Pat Hurst) and Inbee Park in 2013 at Sebonack Golf Club on Long Island, the year Park won three straight majors.
Now it’s Korda’s turn, and she arrived at Lancaster on a stretch of winning not seen since Lorena Ochoa in 2008, the last person to have six victories before the calendar turned to June.
“It just tests every aspect of your game,” Korda said. “It’s tight off the tee. Visually it looks so much shorter than it is. There’s bunkers that visually you see that you think you’re going to carry that you end up maybe 10 yards short.
“If you’re in the rough and you miss fairways, the greens are very small and very slopy, and the rough is thick around the greens, too.”
The 79th edition of the Women’s Open gets started on Thursday, and Korda is as big an attraction as the course itself, which previously hosted the Open in 2015.
Korda tied an LPGA record by winning five straight tournaments, a streak capped off at the Chevron Championship in the first major of the season. She is coming off a win in her most recent tournament — that makes six wins in seven starts — at the Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National in New Jersey.
“Right now I think Nelly is just in a league of her own,” said Allizen Corpuz, the defending champion who picked up her first major — and first LPGA title — last year at Pebble Beach.
There has been plenty of buzz around Lancaster beyond Korda. The purse is $12 million, and the USGA decided to follow the model of the PGA Tour’s elevated events by paying 20 percent of the purse to the winner — $2.4 million.
This also figures to be the last US Women’s Open for Lexi Thompson, who is playing it for the 18th time and she still is only 29. Thompson said she is retiring from a full schedule after this year. Barring a high finish, she won’t be eligible next year and is unlikely to get a special exemption because she has never won.
Among those who could challenge is Rose Zhang, the decorated amateur at Stanford who won in her LPGA debut as a professional last year, and then ended Korda’s winning streak with a victory at the Cognizant Founders Cup.
Zhang just turned 21 and has not even spent a full year as a pro. She still can appreciate what Korda is doing, and how tough the 25-year-old American will be to beat.
“I’m witnessing some crazy history, and it’s really, really inspiring to see her,” Zhang said. “She’s almost looking unfazed. ... Even though she’s not acting like a human being right now — or playing like it — I think she has a lot of pressure on her. And that’s why I’m saying she’s so incredible, because she’s able to handle all that pressure.”
Korda has two majors among her 14 titles on the LPGA, the other coming in 2021 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship that first elevated her to No. 1 in the world.
In the two years that followed, there was a revolving door at No. 1 among five players. Korda had a health scare with blood clot in 2022. She now is back to full strength and dominating.
“Nelly is almost what we are trying to aim for, because if you beat her you’re probably going to have the trophy in your hands,” said Hannah Green, the only other multiple winner on the LPGA Tour this year.
But the Women’s Open can have a mind of its own, and there have been plenty of surprises over the years, from Corpuz at Pebble Beach last year to A-lim Kim at Champions in Houston during the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2020, even back to Hilary Lunke in 2003.
Korda has only two top 10s in the Women’s Open — a tie for 10th at Shoal Creek in 2018 and a tie for eighth at Pine Needles in 2022. Both times, she finished 11 shots out of the lead.
The US Women’s Open doesn’t discriminate. It’s tough for everyone.
“It’s important not to get ahead of yourself and just think, ‘Oh, I have to beat Nelly.’ You’ve got a lot more people out here who are really just as driven,” Zhang said. “Because to get to the US Open, it doesn’t just take a lucky chance. It requires a lot of years of playing and being able to practice for this moment. I mean, Lancaster is a difficult place.”
Davis Riley grabs two-shot lead at Colonial tournament
- Riley is seeking his second PGA Tour title, having teamed with Nick Hardy to win the 2023 Zurich Classic two-man team event in New Orleans
LOS ANGELES: Davis Riley made six birdies in a 6-under par 64 on Friday to take a two-shot lead in the US PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
The 27-year-old ranked 250th in the world was 10-under and in the lead but facing a par putt at his final hole when play was halted for more than an hour because of thunderstorms in the area.
“Luckily, it was a three-footer straight up the hill, so (there) wasn’t too much to stress about,” Riley said. “I knocked in about five three-footers before walking over there to cap off the round — hit it center cut and made it.
“It was nice to finish the day and made for a good, pretty stress-free six-under.”
Hayden Buckley returned from the delay to card the fifth of his five birdies at the sixth — his 15th hole of the day — posting a five-under par 65,
He was tied for second, two shots back on 8-under 132 alongside Pierceson Coody.
Coody had an eagle and six birdies in his 5-under 65, surging to his share of second with three straight birdies to end his round.
South Korea’s Im Sung-jae had seven birdies in his 6-under 64 to join a group sharing fourth on 134. He was joined by American Keegan Bradley and Austrian Sepp Straka, who both shot 66.
Riley is seeking his second PGA Tour title, having teamed with Nick Hardy to win the 2023 Zurich Classic two-man team event in New Orleans.
One off the lead to start the day, he teed off on 10 and rolled in birdies at 15 and 16 before launching a run of three straight birdies at the 18th.
He got up and down from bunkers for birdies at both the first and second, and rolled in a 10-footer for birdie at the sixth to reach 10-under.
Reigning Open champion Brian Harman headlined a group on 135 and former US Open champion Gary Woodland, back on tour this season after surgery for a brain lesion, was in a group on 136 after a six-under 64.
“I just put everything together,” said Woodland, who said he doesn’t have the same debilitating symptoms he had last year but is “still battling, still on medication.”
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was a further stroke back on 137 after a 5-under par 65 that featured five birdies — four in a row from the 18th through the third.
Scheffler was in danger of seeing his cuts made streak end at 36 after his two-over opening round.
But a week after his arrest in a traffic incident before the second round of the PGA Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, Scheffler turned things around.
Scheffler, who put together a run of four wins in five events — including a second Masters title in April — is still facing multiple charges in Louisville that include felony assault of a police officer after allegedly trying to go around a traffic jam as police investigated an earlier fatal road accident.
Scheffler has called the incident “a huge misunderstanding,” with his lawyer saying he “did not do anything wrong but was simply proceeding as directed.”
Olympics hopefuls Hull and Hall set to play Aramco Team Series in London
- Georgia Hall aims to retain her 2023 team title in Britain
- World No. 8 Charley Hull gearing up for potential gold at 2024 Paris Olympics
LONDON: The Aramco Team Series presented by PIF – London in July is shaping up as a preview for the 2024 Paris Olympics, with Great Britain’s Charley Hull and Georgia Hall leading the early field announcements.
The two are sure to be a hit with the home crowds, and with further announcements set to follow on a strong field, both are looking to build on outstanding 2023 outings at the tournament.
Last year, Hull came up just short to American Nelly Korda in the individual competition, while Hall was able to captain her team to victory in extremely difficult conditions, edging out Hull’s team by just one stroke.
Now England’s dynamic duo, who are also long-time best friends, are aiming to secure their places at the 2024 Paris Olympics and become the first to win a medal for Team GB in a women’s golf event.
The golf at the Olympics, where Korda is set to defend her gold medal from Tokyo 2020, tees off a little over a month after the Aramco Team Series London event, and the Major-like event at Centurion Club will provide the pair the perfect opportunity to prepare for the grand stage of the sport.
Hull has recently achieved a career-high Rolex Women’s Golf World Ranking of seventh following her impressive T2 finish at the Aramco Team Series presented by PIF – Tampa in March 2024.
Reflecting on her preparations for the summer, Hull commented: “At the start of the season I sat down and thought about how I wanted this year to pan out. I knew that there would be an important summer of golf ahead with the Olympic Games, Solheim Cup and chasing down my first Major title.
“I’m in the best place I’ve ever been in my career, mentally and physically. Sticking to the gym in those early hours and achieving 5 km personal bests was a way to ground myself and clear my head, and this is really helping me out on the course.
“To have the Aramco Team Series at home is the best way to open the intense summer ahead. Playing in a field with some of the players I’ll face in Paris, and at a tournament like this that has that Major-like feel, will be a great dress rehearsal for me to aim for that gold medal.”
Hall, looking to defend her Aramco Team Series London team title, sees the event as a crucial step in her 2024 campaign, which could well feature the Solheim Cup in September.
“The Aramco Team Series in London will be my first appearance in the event this year and I’m buzzing to get back into playing with a team which will hopefully be a great transition to the Solheim Cup in September,” Hall said.
“Competing against Charley as a team captain again, so close to home, will add an extra layer of excitement, especially with friends and family cheering us on. I’ve played my fair share of Majors and outside of those, the Aramco Team Series matches the energy and field the best. It’s always a great competition with the top players out there.”
Joining Hull and Hall will be a competitive Ladies European Tour field, including Anne Van Dam of the Netherlands, Singapore’s Shannon Tan, and India’s Diksha Dagar — all using the event as a platform to fine-tune their skills ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
2024 LIV Golf Team Championship heads to Dallas
- Fans throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex will welcome LIV Golf’s star-studded teams for the season finale
- LIV Golf CEO: ‘Our LIV Golf players are looking forward to playing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with its great golf tradition’
LONDON, NEW YORK, WEST PALM BEACH: LIV Golf announced on Wednesday the details for the league’s 2024 Team Championship, scheduled to take place Sep. 20-22, 2024, at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas.
Fans throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex will welcome LIV Golf’s star-studded teams for the season finale, with the excitement of head-to-head competition featuring both match play and stroke play that will determine the 2024 LIV Golf League Team Champions.
“Our LIV Golf players are looking forward to playing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with its great golf tradition,” LIV Golf Commissioner and CEO Greg Norman said in a media statement.
“Texas is legendary for producing and hosting great golfers who set a high bar while competing for championships. Our LIV Golf Team Championship at Maridoe Golf Club will be a great experience for our players and all the fans in attendance,” added Norman.
“This year’s Team Championship at Maridoe Golf Club holds special significance for me as we make our Dallas debut and our team strives to defend our title in front of a home crowd,” said Bryson DeChambeau, Crushers GC captain.
“I’m excited to play this course and compete in front of Texas fans for our closing event and can’t wait to bring LIV Golf’s electrifying energy and fierce competition to Dallas,” DeChambeau added.
Meanwhile, Maridoe Golf Club founder Albert Huddleston, said: “Maridoe has been honored to previously host the Southern Amateur, Trans-Mississippi Amateur, East West Cup Matches, USGA Women’s Four-Ball Championship as well as two 2020 COVID tournaments won by Scottie Scheffler and Brandon Wu.”
Maridoe is designed to be an enjoyable but demanding member’s club, according to Huddleston, while always ready to provide a great test for elite golfers to entertain golf enthusiasts.
Maridoe Golf Club, located just 20 miles from downtown Dallas, was ranked by Golf Digest among the top three new private courses in 2018. Built on the site of the old Columbian Club and designed by Steve Smyers, the course is considered among the most difficult in the Metroplex, tipping out at 7,817 yards, and will be the host for LIV Golf’s 2024 finale — a three-day, survive-and-advance tournament featuring team match play and stroke play.
For the LIV Golf Team Championship, teams will be seeded 1-13 based on the final regular season team standings following the 13th event, LIV Golf Chicago, taking place Sep. 13-15 at Bolingbrook Golf Club. Adjustments to the Team Championship format have been implemented to enhance the competition across the three days at Maridoe.
In addition to hosting world-class competition, the LIV Golf Team Championship will feature live music entertainment and family-friendly fun for all ages. Fans can secure the ultimate tournament experience with LIV Golf’s renowned hospitality packages, each delivering an array of amenities.
Tickets for the Team Championship are on sale now at LIVGolf.com
