In this week’s edition, we celebrate team golf and the Zurich Classic, savor an all-time Twitter clash and consider how the majors should stand above the fray in professional golf.
The opposite to that issue is last week’s Zurich Classic, a two-man team event that uses fourball and alternate-shot formats that break up the monotony of the Tour’s stroke-play schedule and create compelling competitions.
Sunday’s finish at TPC Louisiana had a little bit of everything – from first-time winners Davis Riley and Nick Hardy rallying to shoot a tournament-record 30-under total to defending champions Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay’s attempting to pull off an improbable repeat.
In the age of designated events, it’s going to be increasingly difficult for those tournaments of the non-designated variety to stand out, but if last week was any indication, the Zurich Classic will be just fine.
Attorneys representing the Tour filed a flurry of motions Wednesday in an ongoing discovery dispute between the circuit and McKenna Advisors, a Virginia-based advisory and investment firm that serves as “outside consultant to LIV,” according to court filings.
Here are the five things you need to know about the ongoing antitrust litigation and various legal disputes.
The move forced the judge in the original anti-trust case to push the trial date back at least five months to May 2024, and even that is starting to look overly optimistic.
A case that was originally fast-tracked is now mired in not one, but five different courts with no end in sight.
“Ed.. tell me where on DP World [Tour] there’s been a hole like this? Because in 22 yrs of playing the tour I can’t think of any. But maybe your 15 minutes on tour you know different,” Bland’s tweet challenged.
Pepperell – whose Twitter bio now reads, “LIV golfer in the making. Been on DPWT for 15 minutes” – offered a bit of a walk-off in his response:
There are a few learning moments here: don’t drink and tweet (and if you do, follow Bland’s lead and own it) and never, ever pick a social media beef with Eddie Pepperell.
Three of the top six finishers at the year’s first major play for LIV and a total of 18 were qualified for the Masters, but that number is bound to wither as those players lose world ranking points.
Just six LIV players currently rank inside the top 50 and only one, No. 8 Cam Smith, remains inside the top 25. That number is only going to get smaller as the Official World Ranking board mulls whether to award ranking points at LIV events.
“It’s going to all iron itself out because if you’re one of the majors, if you’re the Masters, you’re not looking at, ‘We should keep these guys out.’ You’re saying to yourself, ‘We want to have the best field, we want to have the best players, and these guys added a lot to the tournament this year at the Masters. How do we get them included?’” said Phil Mickelson, prior to this week’s LIV event in Singapore. “We have to come up with a qualifying mechanism that is inclusive, and if the world golf ranking isn’t going to be inclusive, then they have to find another way.”
Talor Gooch might be frustrated he’s not currently in this year’s U.S. Open field, but the LIV player did apparently receive some good news Thursday evening.
While Mickelson and Gooch may sound self-serving, their points are valid. As the Masters proved, the majors should feature the best players regardless of which side of professional golf’s political divide they fall.