LIV Golf’s Lee Westwood is at US Senior Open for over-50 tour debut

Lee Westwood, the two-time Masters runner-up and former No. 1 golfer in the world, is at the Newport Country Club this week for the US Senior Open, making his over-50 tour debut a year late in part because of a PGA Tour ban on LIV Golf defectors. (AP)
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Updated 26 June 2024
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LIV Golf’s Lee Westwood is at US Senior Open for over-50 tour debut

  • The 51-year-old Westwood received an invite to the Senior Open, which is run by the USGA, as a recent Ryder Cup participant
  • Richard Bland has also earned an invitation for winning the Senior PGA Championship
  • Westwood: We need to somehow figure a way that we can get the best players playing against each other more often

NEWPORT, R.I.: Lee Westwood wants golf’s powers to stop fighting so players like him can get back on the course, where the fans want them.

The two-time Masters runner-up and former No. 1 golfer in the world is at the Newport Country Club this week for the US Senior Open, making his over-50 tour debut a year late in part because of a PGA Tour ban on LIV Golf defectors.

The 51-year-old Westwood received an invite to the Senior Open, which is run by the USGA, as a recent Ryder Cup participant. Richard Bland has also earned an invitation for winning the Senior PGA Championship. The only other LIV golfer over 50 is Phil Mickelson.

“At the end of the day, we’re in the entertainment industry,” Westwood said on Tuesday after a practice round at the course on the mouth of the Narragansett Bay.

“No matter what the level of golf is, I think if the best players at every level don’t come together and play, there’s only one loser, and that’s the fans watching,” he said. “We need to somehow figure a way that we can get the best players playing against each other more often.”

Westwood ascended to the No. 1 ranking in 2010 after finishing in the top three in four of the previous five majors. That ended Tiger Woods’ record run of 281 weeks as the world’s top-ranked golfer; the Englishman held the No. 1 ranking for 22 weeks.

Although Westwood has never won a major, he has finished in the top five a dozen times.

Seems like the perfect candidate for a tour that was designed to give fans another chance to root on their favorites. But the PGA Tour’s policy is that LIV golfers have to wait one year from their last appearance on the Saudi-backed circuit to play in PGA Tour or PGA Tour Champions events.

In addition, the European tour has fined Westwood £850,000 – more than $1 million – a fine he repeated on Tuesday he has no intention of paying. “We’ll have to find a way around that,” he said.

“At any level, it’s disappointing they can’t resolve it,” Westwood said. “The Champions Tour for me is important because people have watched myself play and other guys out here play for the last 30, 40 years, and they build relationships with those players and they’ve seen us grow as players and people.

“Yes, people want to see the youngsters, the new guys on the block coming through and contending,” he said. “But they also want to see the guys they’ve made a bond with over the last 30, 40 years.”

Westwood is coming off a tie for third at last week’s LIV event outside of Nashville, Tennessee — his best result of the season. He said he didn’t feel like he needed a strong performance in Newport to make his larger point.

“Everybody that I talked to said it’s great to see myself and Richard playing here,” Westwood said, adding that he thought the victory by LIV’s Bryson DeChambeau in the US Open was good for the sport.

“It’s basically getting all the best players together in one tournament to compete against each other, and that’s what you want at the highest level,” Westwood said. “You want all the best players there.”

One of five founding members of the USGA, the 7,024-yard, par-70 Newport Country Club was originally supposed to host the Senior Open in 2020 that was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve been looking forward to this event now for quite a few years,” said Ernie Els, a four-time major champion who has five victories on the senior tour. “I was really looking forward to it in 2020, and I’m glad it’s come around now.”

Golfers out for practice rounds said the seaside course reminded them of a British links-style track — especially in the way the wind has such a big effect on how it plays. On Tuesday morning, the wind was blowing in their faces on the first tee; by the afternoon, it had swung around 180 degrees.

“We played with some big winds yesterday and some different winds today,” said Brett Quigley, a native Rhode Islander and sort of unofficial host of the tournament. “It’s going to play significantly different depending on the wind direction. That will be part of the great challenge.”


Patrick Reed leads by two, DeChambeau’s Crushers GC show way in team race at LIV Golf Miami

Updated 05 April 2025
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Patrick Reed leads by two, DeChambeau’s Crushers GC show way in team race at LIV Golf Miami

  • In LIV Golf’s first US event of 2025, it was fitting that the top four players are all past major champions, three of them with at least one green jacket to their name with the Masters a week away
  • DeChambeau’s team, Crushers GC, also holds a narrow two-shot lead in the team competition through one round

MIAMI: Despite a double bogey on his closing hole, Patrick Reed shot a 5-under par 67 and grabbed the first-round lead at LIV Golf Miami on Friday at Trump National Doral.

Reed began his round on the 10th hole and put seven birdies on his card, reaching 7 under with a tap-in at the par-5 eighth. But at the par-3 ninth, he missed the green wide left and compounded the mistake by putting his second shot into a bunker.

Reed came back to the pack a bit, but he still held a two-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson (3-under 69).

“I mean, the first 17 were great,” Reed said. “No, as a whole I played solid. I hit the ball pretty well off the tee, hit some quality iron shots and made some putts, and I think that’s what you have to do around this place.

.”.. Yeah, for the back tee with this kind of wind direction here on 9, I don’t know what to do. I don’t have a club for it that I feel like I can hit a straight shot, and it’s hard to start it over the water and get it turning back. It was just an unfortunate finish, but at the end of the day, it’s still a solid round of golf.”

In LIV Golf’s first US event of 2025, it was fitting that the top four players are all past major champions, three of them with at least one green jacket to their name with the Masters a week away.

Reed won the Masters in 2018, Mickelson has captured three green jackets and Dustin Johnson won the 2020 edition that was delayed to November.

“Obviously I was playing really good at the end of 2020,” Johnson said Friday. “But the game I feel like it’s getting pretty close to that. Obviously it’s a really fine line to being that good or just a little bit off, but yeah, I’ve got a lot of confidence in my game right now.”

Johnson had a three-birdie run at Nos. 14-16 late in his round to get to 3 under, while DeChambeau was steady with four birdies and just one bogey.

DeChambeau’s team, Crushers GC, also holds a narrow two-shot lead in the team competition through one round. The four-man team of DeChambeau, Charles Howell III, Englishman Paul Casey and India’s Anirban Lahiri combined to go 2 under par, with Johnson’s 4Aces GC sitting second at even par.

“There’s a reason we won here (at the LIV Team Championship) in 2023,” DeChambeau said. “They like this golf course. They like a tough, challenging golf course where you can strategically play and let everybody kind of mess up on their own, and we just plot along and make a couple birdies where we can and move along when it’s a really brutal hole.”

 

 

 

 

 


Ariya Jutanugarn maintains group lead over Nelly Korda at T-Mobile Match Play

Updated 04 April 2025
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Ariya Jutanugarn maintains group lead over Nelly Korda at T-Mobile Match Play

  • Jutanugarn, of Thailand, won 2 and 1 against Altomare to continue to lead Group 1, though she will face Korda in the final leg of the round robin Friday
  • Angel Yin (1-0-1) leads Group 10, and Russia’s Nataliya Guseva (1-0-1) is on top in Group 15

LAS VEGAS: World No. 1 Nelly Korda avoided a second straight collapse, but Ariya Jutanugarn maintained her advantage in Group 1 play Thursday at the T-Mobile Match Play in North Las Vegas, Nevada

Korda built a lead and held on to finish 1 up on Jennifer Kupcho, who fell to 0-2 in the event. That marked an improvement from Wednesday for Korda, when the defending champion settled for halving her match after losing a late lead to Brittany Altomare.

“Golf doesn’t necessarily bring out (head-to-head competitiveness) unless you’re in a playoff or whatnot,” Korda said. “(It) just makes you a little bit more aggressive of a player.”

Jutanugarn, of Thailand, won 2 and 1 against Altomare to continue to lead Group 1, though she will face Korda in the final leg of the round robin Friday. A win there would give either player the group.

The 64-player field is divided into 16 four-player groups competing in three days of round-robin matches. A win earns one point, a tie earns a half-point and a loss is zero points. The winner of each group moves on to a 16-player, single-elimination bracket beginning Saturday. In the event of a tie for first place in a group, a playoff will determine which player advances. The quarterfinals will be played on Saturday, with the semifinals and final on Sunday.

Overall, 12 golfers are 2-0 through two days of play at Shadow Creek Golf Course, putting each in a strong position to win her group and advance to the 16-person field Saturday.

Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul defeated Mexico’s Gaby Lopes 2 and 1 to get to 2-0 in Group 2. South Korea’s Sei Young Kim upended Japan’s Yuna Nishimura 4 and 2 to advance to 2-0 in Group 4.

Group 5 features Australia’s Stephanie Kyriacou leading the way at 2-0 after her 4-and-2 victory over Japan’s Ayaka Furue.

The only group with a pair of 2-0 golfers is Group 9, as South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim and Sweden’s Maja Stark are still perfect and face off Friday.

Other 2-0 golfers after two days include Japan’s Mao Saigo in Group 7 (the only debut golfer at 2-0), Canada’s Brooke M. Henderson in Group 8 (having played only playing 27 holes — the fewest in the field), France’s Celine Boutier in Group 11, South Korea’s A Lim Kim in Group 12, Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom in Group 14 and South Korea’s Narin An in Group 16.

Group 3 and 13 each have a four-way tie for first place at 1-1-0, while England’s Charley Hull and South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai co-lead in Group 6 at 1-0-1.

“I love this format and it’s been a lot of fun,” New Zealand’s Lydia Ko said after winning her Thursday match 6 and 5 over Australia’s Gabriela Ruffels to get into that four-way tie in Group 3. “Yesterday I came off the day not feeling like defeated. I still had a great time.”

Angel Yin (1-0-1) leads Group 10, and Russia’s Nataliya Guseva (1-0-1) is on top in Group 15.


Trump hopeful of ‘great’ PGA-LIV golf merger

Updated 04 April 2025
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Trump hopeful of ‘great’ PGA-LIV golf merger

  • Trump: You’ve got the PGA Tour, you’ve got the LIV tour. And I think having them merge would be a great thing
  • PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said earlier this month that Trump’s intervention in ongoing negotiations had “significantly bolstered” hopes of reunifying the sport

MIAMI: President Donald Trump said Thursday he is optimistic of an eventual merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf following a new report of a stalemate in negotiations to reunify the game.

Speaking on Air Force One as he traveled to Florida ahead of this weekend’s LIV Golf Miami event at Trump National Doral, the US leader said he believed a merger was inevitable.

“Ultimately, hopefully the two tours are going to merge,” Trump told reporters. “That’ll be good. I’m involved in that, too, but hopefully we’re going to get the two tours to merge.

“You’ve got the PGA Tour, you’ve got the LIV tour. And I think having them merge would be a great thing.”

Trump, a keen golfer, has hosted two rounds of recent talks at the White House between leaders of the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia-financed LIV as the sport attempts to move on after LIV’s entry in 2021.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said earlier this month that Trump’s intervention in ongoing negotiations had “significantly bolstered” hopes of reunifying the sport.

However, a report in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper on Thursday said negotiations had reached an impasse after the PGA Tour failed to deliver “serious concessions” in exchange for a $1.5 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund which bankrolls LIV.

The Guardian report citing unidentified sources said PIF had sought assurances from the PGA Tour that the LIV circuit would continue following any deal, and that the fund’s governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, would be appointed as co-chairman of PGA Tour Enterprises.

However, the PGA Tour rejected both of those requests in a response to LIV sent on Monday, according to The Guardian.

News of the deadlock comes ahead of the first major of the year at next week’s Masters at Augusta National, where 12 players from LIV Golf will tee off against top rivals from the PGA Tour.

Five-time major winner Brooks Koepka, one of the highest-profile players to defect to LIV Golf, admitted this week that he was disappointed that the Saudi-funded circuit had not progressed further in its four seasons.

“I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that’s no secret,” he said. “But they’re making progress and it seems to be going in the right direction.”


Altomare hangs on to tie defending champ Korda at LPGA Match Play

Updated 03 April 2025
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Altomare hangs on to tie defending champ Korda at LPGA Match Play

  • Korda’s Match Play victory last year was part of a spectacular seven-title campaign
  • This year’s tournament features 64 players drawn into 16 groups for round-robin match play, with one player from each group advancing to the knockout rounds

LOS ANGELES: Nelly Korda’s LPGA Match Play title defense got off to a sluggish start Wednesday as Brittany Altomare rallied from 2-down to tie the world No. 1 on the opening day at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“To end up in a tie was a win for me,” said Altomare, who is working her way back after taking time off to have a baby last year.

“Nelly is a great player. Obviously world No. 1 and a great person. It was a lot of fun out there.”

On a day when cold, gusting winds ramped up the level of difficulty, Korda opened with three bogeys as Altomare took an early 1-up lead.

Korda’s first birdie of the day at the par-three fifth put her 1-up and she was 2-up with four to play before a bogey at 15 cut her lead to one.

Altomare nabbed her first birdie of the day at the par-five 16th to level the match.

“I reached that green in two, and I think those two shots really felt good,” Altomare said.

“I was 2-down, so I felt like that was kind of a turning point for me to keep the match going.”

Korda’s Match Play victory last year was part of a spectacular seven-title campaign.

But she has yet to win this season, with two top-10 finishes in three starts.

The tie left Korda and Altomare half a point behind Ariya Jutanugarn in group one after the Thai star rallied late to beat Jennifer Kupcho 3 and 2.

This year’s tournament features 64 players drawn into 16 groups for round-robin match play, with one player from each group advancing to the knockout rounds.

If there is a tie for first in a group, the winner will be determined by a playoff.

It is a change from last year, when the top eight players after three rounds of stroke play advanced to weekend match play.

Among other day-one matches, Canada’s Brooke Henderson came up with a big victory, winning 6 and 5 over Ireland’s Leona Maguire, who was runner-up to Korda last year.

“First hole Leona stuffed it to two feet so I had to make maybe an over 20 feet birdie putt to halve the hole. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is going to be hard.’

She holed it and never trailed, taking a 2-up lead through three after a couple of Maguire miscues and pushing it to 3-up with a birdie at the par-five fourth.

Henderson said getting off to a strong start was important not only because of the challenging conditions but also because of Maguire’s match play credentials, which include a strong Solheim Cup resume.

“Playing with Leona, I knew it was going to be really, really tough because she has such a great track record with match play and she is such a great player.

“She was playing well. It was just a really tough day out there.”

World No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand led all the way in a 6 and 5 victory over American Danielle Kang.

But third-ranked Lydia Ko of New Zealand suffered a shock defeat, falling 6 and 4 to Australian world No. 140 Hira Naveed — who made it into the field as the first alternate.


Lee holds off Scheffler to clinch maiden PGA Tour victory at Houston Open

Updated 31 March 2025
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Lee holds off Scheffler to clinch maiden PGA Tour victory at Houston Open

  • The 26-year-old from Perth withstood ferocious pressure down the stretch from Scheffler, who posted a 63 to finish tied for second alongside Gary Woodland
  • Finland’s Sami Valimaki finished alone in fourth place on 17 under, three off the lead, after a course-record 62

HOUSTON: Australia’s Min Woo Lee held off a final day charge from world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler to clinch his first PGA Tour title on Sunday with a one-shot victory at the Houston Open.

Lee, who had opened up a four-stroke lead with a dazzling 63 in Saturday’s third round, carded a closing 3-under par 67 to finish on 20-under at Memorial Park.

The 26-year-old from Perth withstood ferocious pressure down the stretch from Scheffler, who posted a 63 to finish tied for second alongside Gary Woodland.

“It’s hard, really hard,” a relieved Lee said after his triumph. “Scottie is a wonderful golfer and he keeps you on your toes.

“This is my first time being in front and trying to hold a lead. I’m glad I got it done, but man, I’m just very exhausted.

“It was a lot of mental grind. I’m so proud of the way I handled myself.”

Lee, who has won four times on the European and Asian tours, had looked to be cruising to victory after going bogey-free through 15 holes to lead by three shots with three to play.

But after a flawless round to that point, Lee wobbled on the par-five 16th, slashing his tee shot into the water before salvaging a bogey.

Scheffler, playing in the group immediately ahead of Lee, had meanwhile missed an eagle putt on the 16th that would have given him a share of the lead. Instead the two-time major champion settled for a birdie to move within one of the Australian with two holes remaining.

Woodland, meanwhile, had entered the equation with a scintillating eight-under-par 62, equalling the course record which Scheffler had matched in Friday’s second round.

Former US Open champion Woodland had moved to within one of Lee with a brilliant birdie on the par-four 18th, drilling a 199-yard second shot to two feet of the hole to tap in for three.

Scheffler still had a chance to force his way into the reckoning on the 18th.

But desperately needing a birdie to put the pressure on Lee, Scheffler under-hit his second shot to leave himself just off the green and 77 feet from the pin.

He recovered to make par, but it left Lee heading to the 18th with a one-shot lead and knowing that a par would be enough for victory.

Lee had to work hard to seal his win though.

Lee’s tee shot on 18 went wide of the fairway before he went through the back of the green with his second, which left him 53 feet from the hole.

But with the tension building, Lee produced a brilliant putt to within inches of the hole, allowing him to tap in for par and victory.

Finland’s Sami Valimaki finished alone in fourth place on 17 under, three off the lead, after a course-record 62, while Rory McIlroy, Wyndham Clark and Taylor Pendrith were tied for fifth on 15 under.

McIlroy closed with a six-under-par 64 which included six birdies and an eagle.