RIYADH: Visitors to this year’s Saudi Open golf tournament will also be able to enjoy live music and fireworks at the Riyadh Golf Club.
The four-day championship starts on Wednesday and as well as top-class sport promises plenty of family fun.
LIV Golf captain Henrik Stenson will headline the field, which also includes some of the leading players on the Asian Tour, like last year’s Saudi Open winner Denwit Boriboonsub.
Each day of the tournament, from 4-11 p.m., visitors will be able to visit the Sajah Bazaar where they can buy local goods like textiles and jewelry.
There will also be lots to do in the fan zone, including golf driving and putting challenges, Panna soccer, Teqball, food and drink from around the world and a children’s area.
There are also some great prizes up for grabs, with Al-Rajhi Takaful donating 50 car insurance vouchers worth SR1,000 ($267), while two lucky ticket holders will see their general admission tickets upgraded to hospitality tickets and get the chance to watch world class golf from the best seats in the house.
Two winners will be randomly selected daily, while each person who takes a photo of a golfer on the Al-Rajhi teebox and posts it to social media with #Golf&More will be entered into the prize draw to win car insurance.
The fan zone opens on Wednesday and Thursday from 1-11 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Vibrant Sajah Bazaar, live music as Eid meets golf to entertain 2024 Saudi Open fans
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Vibrant Sajah Bazaar, live music as Eid meets golf to entertain 2024 Saudi Open fans
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- Sajah Bazaar to headline 2024 Saudi Open fan zone at Riyadh Golf Club
- Fan zone will provide food, drinks from around the world
Scottie Scheffler closes in on $25 million FedEx Cup prize with late burst of birdies
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- Scottie Scheffler is one round away from capping off this astonishing season with a FedEx Cup title and its $25 million prize
- Sahith Theegala might have been two shots closer except for calling a two-shot penalty on himself on the third hole for lightly touching the sand with his club out of a bunker
ATLANTA: The most PGA Tour victories in 15 years. A Masters green jacket and an Olympic gold medal. And now Scottie Scheffler is one round away from capping off this astonishing season with a FedEx Cup title and its $25 million prize.
Scheffler had four birdies over his last five holes Saturday for a 5-under 66 to extend his lead to five shots over Collin Morikawa in the Tour Championship at East Lake.
He also knows the work is not done.
Two years ago, Scheffler finished the third round of a rain-delayed Tour Championship on Sunday morning by building a six-shot lead. He fell apart that afternoon with a 73, and watched Rory McIlroy race past him to capture the PGA Tour’s big prize.
The task for Scheffler is simple.
“Keep doing what I’ve been doing, staying in the moment, staying patient out there,” Scheffler said. I’ve bogeyed the first hole two of the last three days, and both times when I bogeyed the first hole I didn’t make any bogeys after that. So that’s kind of good momentum for me.”
It was even better moment at the end, with Morikawa (67) staying on his heels. Morikawa birdied three of his last four holes, but still ended up falling one more shot behind than the four-shot deficit he faced at the start of the third round.
“Not exactly the moving day that I needed, but I knew this entire week I was going to need something special to come out on top and I’m going to need something very special,” Morikawa said. “But I believe in myself, and hopefully that comes out tomorrow.”
Scheffler, who started at 10-under par and with a two-shot lead — six shots ahead of Morikawa, the No. 7 seed — was at 26-under par.
No one else was closer than nine shots.
Sahith Theegala might have been two shots closer except for calling a two-shot penalty on himself on the third hole for lightly touching the sand with his club out of a bunker. Video was not entirely clear, but Theegala informed officials and his par turned into a double bogey.
“Pretty sure I breached the rules, so I’m paying the price for it, and I feel good about it,” Theegala said. “I’m not 100 percent sure. But I’d say I’m 98, 99 percent sure that some sand was moved.”
He responded with seven birdies on the back nine and shot 66, leaving him nine shots behind.
Morikawa got within two shots of the lead when he holed a birdie putt from just inside 10 feet on the par-5 sixth hole. But that was as close as he got.
On the next hole, Scheffler holed a 15-foot birdie putt while Morikawa came up short of the green, lagged a putt to just outside 3 feet and missed it, a two-shot swing that restored Scheffler’s lead to four.
They also played in the final group at the Masters, where Scheffler pulled away to win by four. Morikawa knows by now what to expect.
“Five shots is a lot, but two-shot swings happen. I think I’ve seen a couple over the past few days,” Morikawa said. “Look, I’ve just got to play my game. I’ve got to go low. I know that. I’ve got 18 holes left to the season. I keep talking about that, but I’m going to put everything I have into these next 24 hours.”
His raw score was 17-under 196, one shot better than Scheffler.
Scheffler didn’t hit as many fairways and greens as he did the opening two rounds, but he was ranked No. 2 in the key putting statistic on Saturday. And he has kept his distance over every challenger so far this week.
“I feel like I’ve done a lot of stuff well and played solid, so I’m looking forward to the challenge of trying to finish off the tournament tomorrow,” he said.
British Open and PGA champion Xander Schauffele never got on track. Starting the day five shots behind, he had two bogeys in the opening four holes and failed to birdie the three par 5s in his round of 71. He was 10 shots behind.
He has never hit more than seven fairways each of the three rounds, and it has cost him at a time when he needed to go low to stay in the game.
“I was just not playing well enough to shoot consecutive 7-under pars,” Schauffele said. “You’ve got to be hitting at least 12 fairways to give yourself some serious looks and then obviously do a lot of good after that, but it starts with your ball on the short stuff.”
For everyone else, it’s a race for cash.
The FedEx Cup winner gets $25 million, with second place worth $12.5 million and third place paying $7.5 million.
Scottie Scheffler leads by 4 at East Lake as Morikawa and Schauffele try to keep it close
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- At stake for Scheffler is a chance to win the FedEx Cup and its $25 million prize, which he failed to do as the top seed each of the past two years
- Scheffler’s lone mistake was going bunker-to-bunker on the par-4 13th and missing an 8-foot par putt
ATLANTA : Scottie Scheffler put on another clinic from tee-to-green at East Lake on Friday for a 5-under 66 and a four-shot lead at the Tour Championship that didn’t seem as big as it looked.
Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele had something to do with that.
In a second round that brought a sense of urgency for those chasing the No. 1 player in golf, Morikawa responded with nine birdies, two on the final two holes after a 93-minute storm delay, for an 8-under 63.
Schauffele finished with a pair of 12-foot putts — one for par, one for birdie, both feeling just as important as the other — for a 64.
“This course right now with how firm the greens are, it’s a ball-striking type deal where you have to be in the fairways and hit your number, and he’s been killing everyone at that all year,” Schauffele said. “I know he’s not going to let up, so there’s only one way to get him.”
Morikawa has laid out a plan for the week. Still, he was seven shots back to start the day and has seen enough of Scheffler this year to know what to expect.
“He’s going to continue to make birdies,” Morikawa said. “He’s driving it really, really well here and you’re giving yourself enough wedges to make some scoring opportunities out there. For me, it’s just bringing energy and just kind of staying alive out there.”
They still have their work cut out for them.
Scheffler is the No. 1 seed in the FedEx Cup and began the finale with a two-shot lead. He also is playing as well as he has all year, and those immediately behind him in the FedEx Cup were not at their best in the opening round. That accounted for Scheffler having a seven-shot lead at the start of the day.
He returned from the storm delay with a pair of birdies over his final three holes and reached 21-under par. Morikawa was at 17 under and Schauffele was another shot behind.
No one else was closer than nine shots to Scheffler.
At stake for Scheffler is a chance to win the FedEx Cup and its $25 million prize, which he failed to do as the top seed each of the past two years. But he looks more comfortable on an East Lake course that has been overhauled — “This is not the same course,” he said when he arrived Monday for his first look — and everyone has a big task chasing him.
Scheffler began the round with a 7-iron that he thought was going to leave him a 20-foot look at birdie, except that it caught the wrong side of the ridge and rolled off the green, down a severe slope and settled 90 away against a collar of rough.
He holed a 20-foot par putt, a good start that sent him on his way. Even with Morikawa and Schauffele scoring early, Scheffler still led by six shots early on the back nine until he made his first bogey in 29 holes and Morikawa chipped in for birdie, a two-shot swing.
Morikawa had four birdies in a five-hole stretch around the turn, only to see his tee shot to the 11th bounce hard and roll off the back of the green, leading to bogey. But he recovered well enough, particularly with his two closing birdies.
Schauffele, who started the tournament two shots behind as the No. 2 seed, lost ground with a 70 on the first day. He sorted out most of his swing issues and had a bogey-free day.
Scheffler tried not to get caught up in his seven-shot lead — a product of his 65 on Thursday and the next five players behind him in the FedEx Cup doing no better than 69 — though it was unusual to see a six-shot lead on the front nine on a Friday.
“Today was a day where I had a big lead, but there was a huge group of guys right there, so obviously some guys are going to play pretty well,” Scheffler said. “But I did a good job of staying in my own world out there and put up a good round of golf.”
He went out in 32. Morikawa and Schauffele had to keep making birdies just to keep this from turning into a runaway. Scheffler’s lone mistake was going bunker-to-bunker on the par-4 13th and missing an 8-foot par putt.
Scheffler is driving it so well — he missed only three fairways — that he didn’t have more than a 7-iron into a par 4 and is setting a tough target for everyone to chase.
Adam Scott (67), Wyndham Clark (67) and Sahith Theegala (66) were nine shots behind. Sam Burns, Scheffler’s best friend on tour, birdied his last two holes for a 68 and lost so much ground he stopped looking at the leaderboard. He was 10 shots behind.
“He’s the best golfer on the planet. He’s really good with leads,” Burns said. “It’s not a great thing for us.”
Haeran Ryu shoots bogey-free 62 to open up big lead at TPC Boston
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- Ryu was at 13-under 131, with Bianca Pagdanganan, Yealimi Noh and Robyn Choi tied for second at 7 under
- Birdie runs are nothing new for Ryu, a five-time winner on the Korea LPGA before earning her LPGA card as the medalist at its Q-Series
NORTON, Mass.: Haeran Ryu kept making birdies and wanted to post her lowest round on the LPGA Tour on Friday. She accomplished that with a 10-under 62 that gave her a six-shot lead in the FM Championship.
Ryu had a run of four straight birdies on the front nine and the back nine at the TPC Boston with its small targets and firm greens. And she had a simple explanation for them.
“Just an amazing day because my shots, everything next to the hole. And my putts, everything get in the hole,” said Ryu, the 23-year-old from South Korea who was LPGA rookie of the year last season. “Amazing day, yeah.”
Even more amazing was the size of her lead. Ryu was at 13-under 131, with Bianca Pagdanganan, Yealimi Noh and Robyn Choi tied for second at 7 under. Pagdanganan had a 66, and Noh and Choi each shot 68.
Jin Young Ko (67) and US Solheim Cup player Lauren Coughlin (69) were 6 under.
Marina Alex, who had the 18-hole lead after a bogey-free 68, followed that with a 72 that left her nine shots behind.
Birdie runs are nothing new for Ryu, a five-time winner on the Korea LPGA before earning her LPGA card as the medalist at its Q-Series. She won the Walmart NW Arkansas Open last year with a 29 on the back nine.
She started her big run with a birdie on the par-4 fourth and then birdied the next three holes to seize control. She had two birdies in three holes to start the back nine, and then made four in a row starting on the 14th hole.
Ryu was hitting it so well that she thought she might have holed out for an eagle on the par-4 15th because of the cheer. Turns out there was one person in her cheering section that might have been over the top for a ball that settled about 4 feet away.
“My mom’s reaction is almost getting the eagle, but the ball still on the green,” Ryu said. “Just fun facts for today. My mom is really happy ... just the ball is next to the hole. Yeah, just for 10 seconds I just think, ‘Oh, I got an eagle.’ Just birdie.”
The 62 was her low round by two shots on the LPGA. She previously had rounds of 64 on three occasions.
Noh played bogey free on the TPC Boston, the course that previously hosted the PGA Tour for two decades. She managed only one birdie on the par 5s.
Megan Khang, who was born in nearby Brockton, had the biggest cheering section. She had a 71 and was at 4-under 140.
Khang was seen talking to Ryu outside scoring and someone asked if she had given the South Korean any advice about the TPC Boston.
“I didn’t give her any advice. I was like, ‘What did you do?’ That was a super phenomenal round she put together — flawless, I believe. It’s hard to ignore that. You’ve got to give credit where credit is due. I might go ask her for some advice after this.”
The FM Championship is in its first year, and the company already raised the prize money to $3.8 million from when it first announced it would sponsor the LPGA event. FM also has offered free lodging to the players and is giving a $1,000 stipend to anyone missing the cut.
Aramco Team Series confirms Shenzhen’s Mission Hills Resort as fourth stop of season
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- Ladies European Tour returns to mainland China for the first time in over seven years
- Organized by Golf Saudi, the Aramco Team Series presented by PIF is a series of five events on the LET
SHENZHEN, China: The Aramco Team Series presented by PIF and organized by Golf Saudi has today confirmed Mission Hills Resort in Shenzhen as its fourth stop of the season, as the Ladies European Tour (LET) returns to mainland China for the first time in over seven years.
A cornerstone of the LET, the second Asian leg of the 2024 Aramco Team Series presented by PIF will tee-up on the acclaimed World Cup Course at Mission Hills Resort in the vibrant city of Shenzhen, October 4-6. The Jack Nicklaus-designed course will welcome an array of the world’s top talent, as they bid to win individual and team trophies, and a share of the weekend’s $1 million prize fund.
Organized by Golf Saudi, the Aramco Team Series presented by PIF is a series of five events on the LET each year, adding an annual $5 million in prizemoney. With events in destinations across Europe, Asia, North America and the Middle East, the innovative format is loved by players and fans alike, as groups of three professionals and an amateur compete against each other in the Tour’s only recurring team event.
The series heads to Shenzhen in October following events in Florida, Seoul and London already this season, with the final leg of the season set for Riyadh in November.
Noah Alireza, CEO of Golf Saudi, said: “We’re thrilled to be taking the Aramco Team Series to Shenzhen. This move not only showcases elite women’s golf to a significant audience, but also offers us an opportunity to inspire future generations in this exciting market. Joining efforts with the world-renowned Mission Hills allows us to deliver a best-in-class event that meets the quality our golfers, fans and stakeholders alike all expect with the Aramco Team Series. Together, we are poised to deliver another truly unforgettable event.”
Khalid Al-Zamil, Aramco vice president of Public Affairs, said: “We are delighted that the Aramco Team Series will be hosted in Shenzhen. At Aramco, we believe sport provides a platform to create opportunity, improve lives and positively impact society. The Aramco Team Series aims to empower female athletes, elevating women’s golf globally, inspiring future generations of athletes.”
Following a successful event in Hong Kong last year, the move to Shenzhen represents an opportunity for the tournament to continue to engage with a diverse array of spectators and showcase the elite of women’s golf.
Mission Hills Resort Shenzhen, a sprawling golf and leisure resort located in the heart of southern China’s Guangdong Province, is renowned as the world’s largest golf facility, boasting a staggering 12 golf courses, making it one of golf’s premier global destinations.
Tenniel Chu, vice chairman of Mission Hills Group, said: “Bringing the Aramco Team Series to Shenzhen represents a significant milestone for both Shenzhen and Mission Hills, heralding the return of the Ladies European Tour to China for three days of thrilling elite competition. We take immense pride in hosting this esteemed event at Mission Hills and look forward to extending a warm welcome to the international community at our breath-taking resort. Our aim is to orchestrate a memorable tournament that captivates audiences and leaves a long-lasting positive impact.”
Since its inception in 2021, the Aramco Team Series presented by PIF has continued to grow at a rapid pace on the global stage.
Alexandra Armas, chief executive officer of the Ladies European Tour said: “Returning to China is an exciting prospect for the LET, as we continue to provide our members with valuable experiences on the world’s best courses. Our aim is to continue elevating women’s golf to new heights, around the globe, and in partnership with the Aramco Team Series.”
Solheim Cup veteran Georgia Hall among four captain’s picks for Europe team to face US
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- The 2024 Solheim Cup will be played Sept. 13-15 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia
- The US have not won since 2017, though still lead the series 10-8
LONDON: Georgia Hall will play in her fifth straight Solheim Cup after the English golfer was among four captain’s picks announced Monday for the competition against the US next month.
Hall, three-time major champion Anna Nordqvist of Sweden and Denmark’s Emily Kristine Pedersen all return from the European team that retained the trophy after a 14-14 tie in Spain last year.
Albane Valenzuela of Switzerland was the only debutant picked by captain Suzann Pettersen on Monday.
Eight players had already qualified automatically to represent Europe: Swedish trio Maja Stark, Linn Grant and Madelene Sagstrom, Charley Hull of England, Ireland’s Leona Maguire, France’s Celine Boutier, Carlota Ciganda of Spain and Esther Henseleit of Germany.
The 2024 Solheim Cup will be played Sept. 13-15 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia.
The US have not won since 2017, though still lead the series 10-8.
US captain Stacy Lewis is set to announce her three picks Tuesday.
Already qualified are Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu, Lauren Coughlin, Ally Ewing, Allizen Corpuz, Megan Khang, Andrea Lee, Rose Zhang and Alison Lee.