Category: Golf

In recent weeks, the push to globalize golf has ignited discussions involving PGA Tour standout Rory McIlroy and the departing DP World Tour CEO, Keith Pelley.

McIlroy’s “dream scenario” includes tapping into markets such as Australia, South Africa and Japan.

Pelley, who announced last week that he is leaving his post to join Maple Leaf Sports in Toronto, told reporters in Dubai on Tuesday that American golfers have to look beyond their own borders when they think about growing the game.

Part of the delay in finalizing the PGA Tour’s framework agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund [PIF] and the DP World Tour is the Saudis’ insistence that team golf remain a part of the game. Team events could be played in locations around the world.

“PIF certainly understands the importance of being global,” Pelley said, according to a report by the Guardian of London. “This is a global game. Every business now that is growing wants to be global. What I would like to see is the game becoming unified with a global strategy. I think the PGA Tour is coming to the realization [that being global] is the key for the growth. They have heard me say it once or twice.”

As the professional game cranks up this week with the first event of the PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing and the LPGA Tour’s season opener, eyes will also be on other parts of the world.

McIlroy and other PGA Tour stars are competing in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, the first Rolex Series event on the DP World Tour. Top amateurs from Latin America will be playing in Panama with invitations to three of this season’s majors going to the winner.

Here’s what to watch in professional golf this week:

What’s next on the PGA Tour

The American Express
When: Thursday-Sunday
Where: La Quinta Country Club, La Quinta, California
Defending champion: Jon Rahm
Purse: $8.4 million

No defending champion: For the second time in three events this season, the defending champion isn’t in the field. Rahm jumped to the LIV Golf League on Dec. 7. He was also the defending champion for The Sentry, the season opener in Hawaii, which Chris Kirk won on Jan. 7. Last year, Rahm captured The American Express for the second time with a one-stroke victory over Davis Thompson.

It’s the second straight season in which The American Express’ defending champion isn’t around to defend his title. Last year, Hudson Swafford was absent after joining LIV Golf.

Rahm will make his LIV Golf debut Feb. 2-4 at El Camaleon Golf Club in Quintana Roo, Mexico. He will captain his own team, Legion XIII GC, as the 13th four-man team in the league.

LIV Golf officials haven’t yet announced the other players who will compete on Rahm’s squad. Asian Tour golfer Kieran Vincent has been linked to Rahm’s team in recent weeks, as has University of Tennessee sophomore Caleb Surratt. Surratt is the 10th-ranked amateur in the world and represented the U.S. in the Walker Cup in September.

A strong field: Even with Rahm absent, there’s a strong field at The American Express. It’s not a signature event with an increased purse, but that didn’t stop 22 of the world’s top 50 players from entering.

World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler, No. 5 Patrick Cantlay, No. 6 Xander Schauffele and No. 10 Wyndham Clark are in the field.

Former U.S. Ryder Cup team member Daniel Berger is also making his first start in more than 18 months. The four-time PGA Tour winner hasn’t competed since the 2022 U.S. Open because of a serious back injury. He tried to play through the pain; the injury was later diagnosed as a slight bulge in a lower disc and deep-bone sensitivity.

“That was the worst six months of my life,” Berger told the Associated Press last year. “I’ve had a pretty easy life. I play golf for a living – it’s not that stressful. But there was a point that I would have given up golf for the rest of my life not to feel like that.”

Another Block party: California club pro Michael Block, who captured the sport’s imagination with his performance (and ace) at the PGA Championship last season, is in the field at La Quinta Country Club.

In September, Block won the Southern California PGA Professional Championship at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks. He captured the tournament by four strokes to earn spots in The American Express and next week’s Farmers Insurance Open. Last year, Block carded a 7-under 65 in the first round at the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course, but missed the 54-hole cut at The American Express. .

After tying for 15th at the 2023 PGA Championship, Block received sponsor’s exemptions into the Charles Schwab Challenge and RBC Canadian Open and made the World Wide Technology Championship field as a PGA section champion. He missed the cut in each event. Block is currently ranked 602nd in the world.

What’s next on the LPGA Tour

Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions
When: Thursday-Sunday
Where: Lake Nona Golf & Country Club, Orlando, Florida
Defending champions: Brooke M. Henderson
Purse: $1.5 million

Only winners: The 35-player field for the Tournament of Champions includes only winners from the LPGA Tour the past two seasons. The field includes three women who captured four of the five major championships last season: Lilia Vu (Chevron Championship and The Women’s Open), Ruoning Yin (Women’s PGA Championship) and Allisen Corpuz (U.S. Women’s Open). France’s Celine Boutier, who captured the Evian Championship, is the only major championship winner from 2023 not in the field.

The field includes 20 of the top 50 players in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, including Nelly Korda, Rose Zhang, Charley Hull and Jennifer Kupcho.

Celebrities are out: A group of 46 celebrities and amateurs from sports, music and entertainment will compete in a 72-hole tournament at Lake Nona with modified stableford scoring. Celebrities will receive one point for bogeys, two for pars, three for birdies, five for eagles, eight for hole-in-ones and 10 for double-eagles. There’s a $500,000 purse for celebrities, including $100,000 to the winner.

Former tennis player Mardy Fish, who won the celebrity event last year, is back in the field. Pro Football Hall of Famers Marcus Allen, Charles Woodson and Emmitt Smith, NBA All-Stars Ray Allen and Vince Carter and baseball greats Roger Clemens, John Smoltz and Albert Pujols are also scheduled to compete.

“Almost every year I get at least a couple people that I’m pretty nervous on the first tee,” Henderson said. “But a few years ago I played with Vince Carter and I said to myself, ‘If I can play in front of Vince Carter, I can play in front of anybody.’ So after that it’s been a little bit easier.”

Former U.S. men’s soccer star Landon Donvoan has only been playing golf for about a year.

“I don’t have any goals this week except to have fun, stay out of the way, get invited back, and hopefully make a few good shots,” he said. “This format is unique. I’ve tried to play a lot more stroke play at home because it just makes you a better player, but this format is unique. If you have a double, triple, quad, bogey, doesn’t matter. You just move on to the next hole.”

Locked in: The lack of women’s lockers at last year’s event at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club caused a bit of controversy. The permanent women’s locker room at the club was damaged by a storm, so the LPGA planned to have temporary ones delivered. The tour changed its mind, but the lack of privacy and security didn’t sit well with some players. The LPGA eventually had 36 temporary lockers delivered to the course.

This year, players and celebrities will have designated locker rooms.

“Similar to other LPGA tournaments, select tournament sponsors and staff will also have access to the clubhouse and this includes the restroom facilities within the locker rooms,” Aaron Stewart, VP of sports marketing at Hilton Grand Vacations, said in a statement to Golfweek.

“LPGA players and female celebrities will also have private restroom facilities for players-only in the upstairs area of the clubhouse adjacent to their player-only dining room. We have worked closely with the LPGA to ensure all appropriate security and access policies are followed.”

PGA Tour stars in the Middle East

A handful of PGA Tour stars, including McIlroy, Brian Harman, Cameron Young, Adam Scott and Tommy Fleetwood, are competing this week in Dubai. The 72-hole event starts Thursday at Emirates Golf Club and has a $9 million purse, with $1.53 million going to the winner.

McIlroy has won the event three times, including a one-stroke victory over Patrick Reed last season, which was preceded by the “tee gate” incident on the practice range.

Last week, McIlroy had a 1-shot lead over Fleetwood heading to the 72nd hole of the inaugural Dubai Invitational. McIlroy pulled his drive into the water and was forced to take a drop. Fleetwood made birdie to collect his seventh DP World Tour victory and his first since November 2022.

Fleetwood, who has won more than $20.3 million on the PGA Tour, is still searching for his first victory on the circuit. The Englishman now lives in Dubai with his family.

“Keep playing to a high standard, practicing to a high standard, putting yourself in those positions all the time, and then you get a chance of winning,” Fleetwood told reporters in Dubai Tuesday. “It’s not going to work out all the time, and it’s very, very hard and there are always players that play great and that are going to be hitting great shots. You just have to be there, and like I say, your times will come.”

Amateurs playing for majors

The opening round of the Masters is 85 days away, but an amateur can earn an invitation to Augusta National Golf Club by winning this week’s Latin American Amateur Championship at Santa Maria Golf Club in Panama City, Panama.

The winner, as long as he remains an amateur, would also receive exemptions into the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina and The Open at Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland.

Three golfers from Mexico, Omar Morales (No. 74), Santiago De la Fuente (No. 89) and Jose Islas (No. 115), are among the highest-ranked players in the amateur world rankings in the field, along with the Cayman Islands’ Justin Hastings (No. 97) and Trinidad and Tobago’s Chris Richards Jr. (No. 106)

Aaron Jarvis, the Latin American Amateur Championship winner in 2022, is also in the field. The UNLV sophomore was the event’s first winner from the Caribbean. Last year’s champion, Argentina’s Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira, turned pro and competed on PGA Tour Canada last year.

HONOLULU — Grayson Murray is a PGA Tour winner again and feels better than ever about his future. The gold trophy he won Sunday at the Sony Open with a 40-foot birdie putt in a playoff is only a small reason for that.

Murray has been sober for eight months, tired of alcohol fueling his arrogance in public and making him feel like a failure for wasting talent in his private moments.

He feels renewed through Christianity and is getting married in April to a woman who became a big part of a small support group.

No, winning didn’t change his life. But it sure provided a big boost to his career.

“My story is not finished. I think it’s just beginning,” Murray said. “I hope I can inspire a lot of people going forward that have their own issues.”

Murray always looked like the odd man out in a three-way battle at the end of the Sony Open until he delivered the goods.

His wedge into a breeze to a back pin to 3 feet gave him a birdie on the par-5 18th for a 3-under 67 and allowed him to join a three-way playoff with Keegan Bradley and Byeong Hun An. And then he buried a birdie putt from just inside 40 feet with An facing a 4-foot birdie.

Bradley missed from 18 feet. An’s short putt grazed the lip. Murray had another PGA Tour title, the other coming more than six years ago at an opposite-field event when he was a rookie.

The timing couldn’t be better.

Murray, who earned his way back to the PGA Tour with two wins on the Korn Ferry Tour last year, now can bank on his first trip to the Masters in April and a spot in the seven remaining signature events with their $20 million purses.

“I knew today was not going to change my life,” he said. “But it did change my career.”

As big as the win was for Murray, it was a tough loss for An and Bradley.

An hit a 3-iron to just inside 15 feet on the 18th in regulation, the best shot of the day on Waialae’s closing hole, and two-putted for birdie an a 64 to be the first to post 17-under 263. In the playoff, he hit a superb pitch from the thick collar below the green to 4 feet, only to miss.

“Just a poor putt and poor read at the end which could have happened on any holes during 73 holes,” An said. “It’s a shame it ended that way. It hurts, but what are you going to do?”

Bradley broke away from a five-way tie for the lead with a 20-foot birdie on the 15th, but he had to settle for pars the rest of the way. He missed the fairway on the 18th and had to lay up, hitting a pedestrian wedge to 20 feet. The winning putt in regulation narrowly missed.

In the playoff, he was in the best position in the fairway. But he pulled his fairway metal into the grandstand, chipped only to 18 feet and missed after Murray had made birdie.

“I played good enough to win. But sometimes it’s just not quite good enough, and that was one of these weeks,” said Bradley, who called it one of the toughest losses of his career.

Murray, who earned $1,494,000, moves into the top 50 for the first time and has reason to believe the path leads only higher.

He ran into trouble with PGA Tour discipline three years ago in Honolulu. He later took to social media to criticize the tour for not helping him with his drinking. There also was a social media spat with Kevin Na when Murray poked fun at Na’s pace of play.

He was angry and his career was going nowhere. The winner’s lei around his neck Sunday was a sweet smell and allowed time to reflect even in the immediacy of winning.

“It’s not easy, you know?” he said. “I wanted to give up a lot of times — give up on myself, give up on the game of golf, give up on life at times. When you get tired of fighting, let someone fight for you.

“My life is so good right now. I wouldn’t trade anything,” he said. “Everyone in my life right now who is close to me who has been through the struggles with me. All of them are part of this. I think this is just the start of something really special.”

Carl Yuan and Russell Henley each closed with a 63 and had their chances.

Henley was at 17 under until he pulled his tee shot left on the 16th, made a strong recovery but ultimately missed a 4-foot par putt. On the closing par 5, his drive went into such a deep lie in the rough he had no chance to get near the green and missed a 10-foot birdie chance.

Yuan made his mistake on the par-3 17th, missing the green left and missing a 4-foot par putt to fall out of the lead. And he appeared to get a break on the 18th when his second shot sailed into the hospitality area.

The ball was never found, but officials interviewed spectators and determined with “virtual certainty” it was in a large part of a compound that included tents and restrooms and other structures. He got a free drop and escaped with par.

J.T. Poston finished alone in sixth with the round of the week. He closed with a 61 and was among seven players who had a share of the lead at one point.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Tommy Fleetwood surged into the lead of the Dubai Invitational after shooting an 8-under 63 in the third round Saturday to overtake Rory McIlroy by 1 stroke.

Fleetwood made eight birdies in a flawless round, including four over his first six holes, to move to a 15-under total of 198.

McIlroy had been out in front since opening with a 62 on Thursday and led by 2 strokes going into the third round. But he settled for a 67 that left him in sole possession of second place.

Thorbjorn Olesen was another 2 shots back in third after a 66.

Fleetwood has six wins on the European tour but was surprised when he was told that this is the first time since 2014 that he is going into the final round with the lead.

“That’s a strange stat,” Fleetwood said, adding that his early birdies gave him momentum with the putter. “It’s funny really when you get a day like that and you’re just looking at them and you feel like … even the putts that miss come close.”

His approach shots weren’t bad either. He came within a few inches of holing out for eagle from 147 yards on the par-4 sixth hole.

McIlroy found himself 3 shots behind Fleetwood at one point but had four birdies on the back nine to stay in contention. That included a 34-footer on the 11th after hitting his tee shot into a bunker.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Rory McIlroy is playing the Dubai Invitational as a favor to a friend and to get in some early-year practice in pleasant weather conditions.

The way he has started, McIlroy might end up taking home the trophy.

The No. 2-ranked Northern Irishman made nine birdies in a bogey-free, 9-under 62 to take a two-shot lead after the first round of the European tour event Thursday.

“Surprised myself a little bit,” McIlroy said, “but hopefully more of the same over the next few days.”

Yannik Paul (64) was alone in second place at Dubai Creek Resort, with Thriston Lawrence (65) a further stroke back and Tommy Fleetwood and Thorbjorn Olesen tied for fourth place after 66s.

McIlroy sees the Dubai event — a tournament in a relaxed setting, with no cut and a 60-man field — as a gentle way to ease into 2024. He certainly looked at home back in Dubai, where he once lived and a place he often visits early in the year to fine-tune his game.

In the team part of the event, he partnered with Abdullah Al Naboodah, a non-executive director at the European tour who helped set up the Dubai Invitational and is someone McIlroy counts as a good friend.

Starting at No. 10, McIlroy made six birdies in eight holes around the turn during a spell where he made six straight 3s.

He took the lead outright at 8 under with a birdie from 5 feet at No. 7 then made another at his last hole after a great approach from the rough to the right of the fairway to inside 8 feet.

“I didn’t expect that,” McIlroy said after tying the lowest first round of his career on the European tour. “It didn’t feel quite as good as that the first couple of days when I was here and hitting balls and playing the course.

“But it was nice to get a card in the hand again and sort of feel the competitive juices flowing.”

Tiger Woods announced Monday that his longtime partnership with Nike has ended after 27 years, closing one of the most iconic brand relationships in professional sports history.

From the moment Woods turned pro in August 1996, he was decked in Nike swooshes from head to toe. The partnership included 15 major championship victories, 82 PGA Tour wins, and numerous comebacks from injuries and personal setbacks.

Over more than a quarter-century, Woods’ traditional Sunday attire of a red Nike shirt, black hat and black pants became synonymous with men’s professional golf.

“Over 27 years ago, I was fortunate to start a partnership with one of the most iconic brands in the world,” Woods said in a statement posted to his X account. “The days since have been filled with so many amazing moments and memories, if I started naming them, I could go on forever. Phil Knight’s passion and vision brought this Nike and Nike Golf partnership together and I want to personally thank him, along with the Nike employees and incredible athletes I have had the pleasure of working with along the way.”

In the statement, Woods, 48, didn’t say what apparel brands he planned to wear in future events. He has been wearing FootJoy golf shoes since returning to competition from injuries he suffered in a car wreck outside Los Angeles in February 2021.

Woods seemed to indicate in his statement that he planned to play in the Genesis at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades (part of Los Angeles) Feb. 15-18, a tournament he hosts and that benefits his foundation.

“People will ask if there is another chapter,” Woods wrote. “Yes, there will certainly be another chapter. See you in LA!”

After Woods turned pro following a record-breaking playing career at Stanford, he signed endorsement deals with Nike and Titleist. The multiyear contract with Nike was reportedly worth $40 million, which was the richest endorsement deal for a professional athlete in history at the time.

When Woods showed up at the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open for his first PGA Tour event as a pro, he told reporters, “I guess, hello world, huh?” Two days later, Nike launched a “Hello, World” campaign, in which Woods and his father, Earl, appeared in TV commercials. Nike created a line of golf apparel and shoes branded with Woods’ name and logo.

Woods and Nike renewed their contract three times during his playing career. He signed a 10-year extension with the apparel giant in 2013, which was worth about $200 million, according to The Oregonian. He used Nike clubs and golf balls until the Oregon-based company closed its golf line in 2016. He has been using TaylorMade clubs and Bridgestone balls since then.

“Tiger, you challenged your competition, stereotypes, conventions, the old school way of thinking,” Nike said in a statement on Instagram. “You challenged the entire institution of golf. You challenged us. And most of all, yourself. And for that challenge we’re grateful.”

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In December, Nike announced it planned to cut $2 billion in costs over the next three years, which would include layoffs of hundreds of employees.

KAPALUA, Hawaii — Chris Kirk two-putted for birdie from just short of the 18th green at Kapalua on Saturday, giving him a 7-under 66 for a one-shot lead in The Sentry and hardly any room for error going into the final round of the PGA Tour’s season opener.

Low scoring has become the norm on the Plantation course at Kapalua, even with stronger trade wind. Different about this year is the number of players with a chance.

That includes 21-year-old Akshay Bhatia in his first full year on the PGA Tour and Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth, both past champions at Kapalua.

And it still includes Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player, who didn’t see many putts go in the hole and had to settle for a 71. Scheffler was still only three behind.

Kirk was at 21-under 198 in his first time back at Kapalua in eight years. He was the PGA Tour’s comeback player of the year in 2023 from winning the Honda Classic after having stepped away for a big part of 2019 to deal with alcoholism and depression.

He starts the new year with what feels like a sprint on the side of a mountain.

“You certainly can’t protect anything out here, that’s for sure,” Kirk said. “When it’s a shootout like this and the scores are really low, you just stay aggressive and just go do your thing.”

Bhatia, who secured his PGA Tour card through the minor leagues and then won the Barracuda Championship, took only 27 putts for the second straight day. His only lapse was three-putting from 60 feet for par on the 667-yard closing hole for a 66.

The group two shots behind included Schauffele (65), who closed with a 62 five years ago to rally for victory at Kapalua; and Spieth (67), who won by eight shots at Kapalua in 2016. They were joined by Byeong Hun An (68).

Schauffele and Spieth know the drill. Most leads are not safe no matter what the score shows, particularly because of a dynamic closing stretch of par 5s and a reachable par 4.

“Definitely keep your head down,” Schauffele said. “There’s really no point looking at a leaderboard early on a property like this.”

Spieth made birdie from a bunker some 40 yards short of the flag on the reachable 14th, one of the most difficult shots in golf, and closed with a 6-iron into the green for a two-putt birdie.

He first came to Kapalua a decade ago and understands the flow of scoring. The trick is to avoid bogeys on the tougher holes and try to pick up a few birdies before the action starts on the reachable par-4 14th.

“Then all of a sudden it’s a sprint and you see who makes four out of the last five,” he said. “That seems to be the case and it probably will be the case tomorrow.”

That was Kirk’s plan Saturday with one wrinkle. The different wind fooled him on his tee shot down the par-5 15th, and he played it too far to the right and into the weeds. He took a penalty drop, had to lay up short of the elevated green and then hit wedge a little too strong, onto the fringe facing a putt downwind, slightly downhill and with the wind at his back.

He holed the putt for a par, ending his streak of three straight birdies and yet still feeling that he had the wind in his sails.

“To make that one after a nice run of birdies before that definitely kept the momentum going,” Kirk said.

Scheffler never had much momentum at all. He made his first birdie on the par-5 fifth, the easiest hole at Kapalua. But he had a three-putt bogey on No. 7, and hit into a bunker below the green at the par-3 eighth that led to another bogey.

Scheffler finished with a three-putt par on the 18th from just under 40 feet. The upside was being only three shots out of the lead, along with Harris English (64), Jason Day (67) and Sahith Theegala (68).

Throw in Patrick Cantlay and Collin Morikawa, and 12 players were within four shots of the lead. That was different from last year, when Morikawa took a six-shot lead into the final round only to be caught by Jon Rahm; the year before, Rahm and Cameron Smith shared the 54-hole lead and were five clear of everyone else.

Now it’s anyone’s game Sunday.

“The back nine, anything can happen,” English said. “I remember getting off to a tough start the final round of that 2021 year and got it going on the back nine and played really well coming down the stretch. I think having some of that patience will help tomorrow.”

KAPALUA, Hawaii — Collin Morikawa already has won two majors and played in the opening session twice in the Ryder Cup. His opening tee shot Thursday at Kapalua felt as special as any moment.

Long before Sahith Theegala rolled in his 10th birdie for a 9-under 64 to lead The Sentry, the PGA Tour began a new year with a ceremony on the first tee. It featured a Hawaiian blessing and chants geared toward renewal and regrowth, with emphasis on the deadly Lahaina fires.

Morikawa has a deep connection to Maui and hit the opening tee shot.

Where it went — straight and so long it rolled through the fairway into the rough — was of little importance to him.

“As special as it’s ever going to get,” Morikawa said of the first of his 65 shots on Thursday. “I can talk about final rounds, last shots, first tee, final group and those in the majors, but that was as big of an honor as I could have had. Not because it was the first tournament of the year, but because it was out here in Maui, everything that this week represents for me.

“It just means that much more.”

He played like it meant more, with six birdies and one eagle when he carved a 3-wood up to the elevated green for eagle on the par-5 ninth.

On this glorious day of surprisingly little wind and typical magnificent views, Morikawa had plenty of company. His 65 was the best of the day until Theegala warmed up, starting the back nine with six straight birdies. He got up-and-down on the par-5 18th for one last birdie.

That gave him a one-shot lead over Morikawa, FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland, Sungjae Im, Camilo Villegas and Jason Day.

Theegala made his Kapalua debut last year by reaching the Tour Championship as a rookie. Now the field at The Sentry — for years limited only to PGA Tour winners from the previous year — has been expanded to winners and the top 50 in the FedEx Cup. Theegala would be there no matter what, thanks to his win in Napa, California, in September.

The 59-player field is the largest ever for Kapalua, and they all had their way on a forgiving Plantation course missing its great defense with only a tropical breeze.

Theegala still had to work — an 18-foot putt on No. 10, a tee shot to 2 feet on the par-3 11th, and then his favorite, a 10-foot birdie on a 12th hole with so much slope and grain he wasn’t sure how the putt was going to break.

“I just aimed it dead center and tried to hit it hard,” he said. “That settled me down a little bit more, because I knew 13, 14, 15 were very gettable, too.”

And he got them, capping his streak with a two-putt birdie from 20 feet on the par-5 15th.

It felt that way for everyone.

Eighteen players were at 67 or lower, and that was to be expected. The Plantation course’s biggest defense is the wind, and it laid down for much of the day. Even bad starts turned out well. Justin Rose went out in 40 and had six birdies on the back to salvage a 71.

Jordan Spieth hit the first foul ball of the year, pushing his tee shot well right on the third hole into the tall native grasses, leading to a double bogey. He answered with nine birdies and was in the group at 7-under 66 that included Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler, the two-time PGA Tour player of the year and No. 1 player in the world.

“I didn’t have to struggle too much for pars,” Scheffler said.

The wind arrived later in the afternoon, but so many players were dialed in.

“You’re playing golf on the side of a volcano. It’s pretty different than a lot of the golf we play,” Scheffler said. “It’s definitely a fun way to start the year, fun golf course to play. Even though the scores are low, I still feel like you’re challenged a lot because you got to keep the pedal down the whole time.”

That’s what Morikawa tried to do from the opening group, making his strongest move along the back nine with its two par 5s and two short par 4s.

But it was the start that meant so much.

His grandparents were born in Lahaina and long ago had The Morikawa Restaurant, which closed some two decades before he was born. But the 26-year-old Californian came to Lahaina during family vacations as a boy.

He was warming up during the ceremony but still heard the drums, the chants. It was chilling on a balmy day on the west end of Maui.

“It got a little bit emotional,” he said. “I think just because I know what everyone has gone through, you hear it from these families, and you meet everyone out here on the island that knows someone or has been affected firsthand. Maui’s small. Hawaii’s very, very small. People know everyone. Just got emotional.

“Being able to hit that first tee shot, it was an honor just to be able to do that and, yeah, it’s a great way to kick off the new year.”

There is a strong argument to be made that Mackenzie Hughes has benefitted as much as any player from Jon Rahm‘s departure from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf.

At No. 51 after last year’s Tour Championship, Hughes fell one spot shy of qualifying for all eight signature events in 2024. Then Rahm sent shockwaves through the professional golf world by flipping on his long-standing stiff-arm of LIV and signing with the Saudi-backed league on Dec. 7.

The PGA Tour reacted by immediately suspending Rahm. The net result for Hughes was a bump into the 50th spot. He is in Hawaii this week, competing in the first signature event of the year featuring a $20 million purse.

“Obviously, being the 51st guy I just needed one guy to go, I didn’t need 12 guys and a mass exodus, so I definitely thought there was a chance there,” Hughes said on Tuesday. “I was home for Thanksgiving. I heard the Rahm stuff start to circulate on Twitter. … It seemed like a long time those rumors were flying around for awhile, and we never really heard what was happening one way or the other.

“Then he finally announced it. I knew before, well before he announced that he was going, what was going to happen if he did go.”

Hughes said he appreciates the tour acting swiftly and providing clarity to his situation. As a player who has been outspoken about his concern for the game’s fans, clarity is something the Canadian would like to see far more of.

Hughes reminisced about 2019, before the pandemic interrupted professional golf, only to be followed by the disruption caused by LIV.

“(That year) to me was like the peak of, like, professional golf,” he said. “2019 was, like, all about golf, you know? Our economic model was sustainable. The LIV threat came along and all of a sudden we started to double the purses, and we’re asking sponsors to double their investment, and we’re giving them the same product.

“Fans also, I think, are left wondering, like, do guys even love playing golf anymore, or are they all just concerned about money? All these guys going to LIV have made it pretty clear that it’s all about money. I mean, growing the game, but also money.

“I just think that the product, I mean, while I think it’s great, it’s the same product. I just think fans are kind of left scratching their head thinking, like, ‘What is going on?'”

The day after Rahm officially signed with LIV, Hughes took to social media with a series of tweets detailing his views of the “sad place” men’s professional golf is in. He sympathized with the anger shared by many golf fans.

“They also don’t know where certain guys are playing and there’s spats between the LIV and the PGA Tour, and it’s not unified in any way, shape, or form,” he said Tuesday. “There’s negotiations going on that are unclear, they have been dragged on for a long time.

“The fan just wants to watch golf. I think you watch sports for an escape from other nonsense, but I think golf has brought a lot of nonsense onto its plate, and now you don’t get just golf, you get a lot of other stuff going on.

“It’s a bit of a circus.”

A two-time winner who enters 2024 ranked 66th in the world, Hughes is a member of the tour’s player advisory committee but has little insight into the negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. A journeyman of sorts, he does worry about the game’s fans.

And like the fans, Hughes hopes to see the game’s brightest stars competing on the biggest stages, whatever tour they might call home. But he also doesn’t know how realistic that vision for the future is, with the biggest sticking points being the lucrative offers several stars turned down to stay loyal to the PGA Tour.

“There is an outcome I root for, but I don’t know how we get there. I’m sure that’s what the tour is wrestling with as well,” he said. “The outcome I hope for is that there is a way for the tours to obviously co-exist, and there’s some sort of unity and there’s not a huge rift between ’em. There’s like some way that there’s, not a pathway, but there’s just sort of a little more of a free-flowing pass back and forth.

“The tour obviously misses guys like Brooks Koepka, Phil (Mickelson), (Dustin Johnson), Cam Smith. … There’s no doubt that the tour is stronger with those guys playing.

“If Brooks came back tomorrow, I would be all right. Because I wasn’t offered a huge amount of money to go play on LIV, and nor was I interested. But there were other guys that seriously entertained it and were probably told, ‘Hey, like, stay put. Like, it’s going to be fine over here. This is where you should be.’ Then now we’re doing a deal with the PIF and it’s, like, maybe those guys should have just done it.

“So, I don’t know how you make those guys feel as though this is the right thing to do. I think deep down they would know it’s best for the game they should be back over here, but how do you justify to them, like, ‘OK, they made $150 million, and now they’re going to come back and play on your tour like nothing ever happened.’

“I just don’t know how that gets navigated. But that’s the outcome I hope for … and it becomes about who is playing the best golf, who is playing the best golf in the biggest tournaments, and you start talking about major moments in golf, not just major moments in the headlines or on Fox News when Jon Rahm says he’s going to LIV Golf.

“How do you make everyone happy? You can’t. The way forward I hope is smoother, but I know it will be messy before it gets smooth again.”

The PGA Tour is working to extend its negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to form a new for-profit entity, tour commissioner Jay Monahan told golfers in a memo Sunday.

The surprising alliance, which was announced June 6, had a framework agreement that was scheduled to expire Sunday. Monahan, however, said in the memo that the sides are working to extend negotiations into 2024 based on progress made in the talks.

Monahan said the PGA Tour was close to finalizing a deal with Strategic Sports Group (SSG), a consortium of billionaire team owners that includes Tom Werner and John Henry (Boston Red Sox), Arthur Blank (Atlanta Falcons) and Wyc Grousbeck (Boston Celtics), and that the PGA Tour hopes to have SSG, the PIF and DP World Tour as minority investors in the new for-profit, PGA Tour Enterprises.

“As you know, the [PGA Tour policy board] unanimously directed management to pursue exclusive negotiations with SSG,” Monahan wrote in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN. “I am pleased to report that we have made meaningful progress and have provided SSG with the due diligence information they requested. As we move forward in our discussions, we are focused on the finalization of terms and drafts of necessary documents.”

ESPN previously reported that the deal with SSG would infuse more than $3 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, according to sources. If a deal is reached with both SSG and the PIF, more than $7 billion might be invested into PGA Tour Enterprises, which would combine the commercial assets of the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF, including the rival LIV Golf League.

Under the terms of the agreements, the PGA Tour would retain control of the new for-profit entity.

“Our goal for 2024 is to reach agreements with SSG, PIF and the DP World Tour, bringing them on board as minority co-investors in PGA Tour Enterprises,” Monahan wrote. “These partnerships will allow us to unify, innovate and invest in the game for the benefit of players, fans and sponsors.”

The potential deals would stabilize a fractured sport that has been stung by player defections, a federal antitrust lawsuit and skyrocketing operational costs as the rival circuits have battled for the best golfers in the world over the past two years.

The LIV Golf League poached Spain’s Jon Rahm on Dec. 7 with a multiyear contract worth more than $300 million, according to sources. Sources told ESPN that LIV Golf is actively recruiting other PGA Tour players to fill out a new team that will be captained by Rahm during the 2024 season.

LIV Golf League golfer Harold Varner III was arrested on a charge of driving while impaired in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday, according to Mecklenburg County court records.

Varner, 33, was arrested at 7:24 p.m. ET Thursday and charged with misdemeanor driving while impaired. According to court records, police said Varner’s blood alcohol content was 0.16%, twice the legal limit of 0.08% in North Carolina.

He was released on $500 bond and is scheduled to appear in Mecklenburg County District Court on Jan. 19.

Varner grew up in Gastonia, North Carolina, and lives in Charlotte. The former East Carolina star turned pro in 2012. He made 191 starts on the PGA Tour, earning about $10.7 million, before jumping to LIV Golf in August 2022. He reportedly received a guaranteed contract worth $15 million from the Saudi Arabian-financed circuit.

This past season, Varner earned another $4 million when he won the individual competition at LIV Golf’s tournament outside Washington, D.C., his first victory on that tour. He also tied for 29th in the Masters and PGA Championship.

Earlier this month, Varner moved from captain Bubba Watson‘s RangeGoats GC squad to Dustin Johnson‘s 4Aces.