In this Issue

1. ⛳ LIV Golf 2024 Kick Off

2. 🏆 Results Recap

   • Pavon wins the Farmers Insurance

   • Olesen gets it done on the DPWT

3.  🍴Quick Bites

   • The Match - who’s up next

   • Dunlap turns Pro

   • Stinky exemptions into this week’s AT&T

4.  📅 Schedule for the Week

⛳ LIV Golf 2024 Kick Off

The 2024 LIV Golf season kicks off this week at Mayakoba in Mexico. It is a somewhat puzzling venue to commence the season and one would have thought Adelaide or Andalucia would have ensured the opening tournament of the year for LIV was a complete firecracker - Adelaide is sold out and will be bigger than last year as the Aussies go all-in on the event, and we can expect the same with Andalucia where the Spaniards are certain to turn out in droves to support their hero and explosive new LIV signing Jon Rahm. Nonetheless, LIV must have their reasons for opening with Mayakoba at the Greg Norman designed El Cameleon Golf Course (Shankers might recall its signature “cave bunker” on the 7th hole, called the Devil's Mouth).

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Like it or not, it has to be said that the off season has been successful for LIV with a number of keynote signings, some of which have been released in the final few days before the commencement of the season. Notable signings for LIV include:

• Jon Rahm - ranked #3 on the OWGR (for what they are now worth 🤯), signed for a reported $600m. Will be the captain of his new team, Legion XIII.

• Tyrell Hatton - ranked #16 and signed for a reported $60m. Will join Rahm’s team.

• Adrian Meronk - ranked #42 and winner of 4 DPWT events in the last 18 months, no details on his contract value. Will become a member of the Cleeks, captained by Martin Kaymer.

• Lucas Herbert - ranked #68 and recruited to replace Jed Morgan on the all-Aussie Ripper GC team.

• Caleb Surratt - ranked #10 amateur in the world, Walker Cup winner and former Junior US PGA Champion. Also joining Legion XIII.

Speculation has been hot (although now cooling) around the possibility of U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark and European Ryder Cup hero Viktor Hovland signing with LIV. Particularly in the last week, social media has also been buzzing at the prospect of Anthony Kim making a surprise return from his reclusive forced retirement. For those that have forgotten or don’t know much about Anthony Kim, he was touted as being the next Tiger Woods - a flashy player that liked to live life in the fast lane but was forced into an early retirement by injury and a subsequent claim on a sports insurance policy. Golf journalist, Alan Shipnuck, wrote a very interesting piece a decade ago which gives you all the key details about AK, and why he would be a perfect fit for LIV (assuming he still has his game).

But all of this hype about signings has mainly been on social media, so who knows that is real and what is fake. There has certainly been a lot of shit stirring by both the “LIV Bots” and the “PGA Tour Stans”. So, what do we actually know for sure about the 2024 LIV season? Here goes:

1. There will be 14 events across the year from February to October 2024, with at least 7 events held outside the US.

2. The number of teams/players will be increasing from 12/48 to 13/54. Rahm's new team of four increases the old field size from 48 to 52, plus there will be an additional two individual players (not part of the team format) allowing for 18 groups of three (54 players in total) to tee off together at the shotgun start.

3. The individual players will be Hudson Swafford, Laurie Canter or possibly Anthony Kim if the rumours regarding him are true.

4. There are 3 newly promoted players from LIV’s qualifying event held in December last year - Keiran Vincent, Kalle Samooja and Jinichiro Kozuma.

5. LIV’s Las Vegas tournament is scheduled the same week as the Superbowl, which will also take place in Sin City. This provides an extraordinary opportunity for LIV to attract new American and global eyeballs and put on a real show to grow its viewership.

6. LIV will be back in Adelaide again this year at The Grange Golf Club, which was the scene of LIV’s most successful tournament to date. The event will be held over the ANZAC Day long weekend and current plans for the 12th Watering Hole (where Chase Koepka binned an ace last year that went viral) show a massive increase in seating capacity around the party hole.

With the above said, there are still many unknowns about the 2024 LIV season. For example, the dates and venues for final 2 events of the year remain outstanding, and it has to be said that the communications and PR strategy in the lead up to the start of the season has been significantly lacking. For fans to buy into the LIV product and commit to supporting the season, they need information about players, teams and events well ahead of time to build anticipation and excitement.

The last-minute signings were probably a difficult thing for LIV to avoid as it certainly does have a complicated landscape to navigate at the moment - word is that Clark and Hatton both played hard ball in the negotiations and obviously the Framework Agreement is the elephant in the room. But LIV will need to lift its game this year, in what will be its 3rd season. LIV has moved from being a start-up business, where initial teething problems and mistakes can be readily forgiven, to now a serious golf league that wants to be considered in the same stratosphere as the PGAT. With this ambition comes a commensurate increase in expectations of LIV from both players and fans alike.

Let’s see what Mayakoba brings this week. Hopefully the golf on LIV will be as interesting and entertaining as the off-season drama regarding signings, defections, funding sources and Framework Agreements.

🏆 Results Recap

Pavon wins the Farmers Insurance

Frenchman Matthieu Pavon has won the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, holding off fellow Europeans Nikolai Hojgaard and Stephan Jaeger. The win by Pavon and strong showing by the Euros left US commentators and podcasters pondering the international flavour of the leaderboard and ruminating if this was a sign of things to come on the PGAT following the influx of DPWT players under the strategic alliance set-up.

But Pavon’s win wasn’t without controversy - in the hours that followed his victory, “Stomp-gate” started to emerge. Footage of Pavon just before his incredible 3rd shot on 18 (which arguably was the shot of the tournament given the position of his ball in the rough) circulated on X, and that footage arguably showed him stomping down rough in the vicinity of his ball, possibly to give himself a better lie. Pavon was able to gouge his ball out of the thick rough, carry the pond immediately in front, and leave himself with a makable birdie putt, which he drained to claim the tournament win. Now you might say that his playing partners would have called him out if there was anything sinister about the stomp - which ordinarily would be true. However, Pavon was some 200 yards in front of the other players in his group when the stomp is alleged to have occurred. It seems very strange that he would be that far in front of his competitors, especially on the 72nd hole. The footage is below, so you can judge for yourself.

As for the Aussies, Min Woo Lee had his first look at Torrey Pines and finished 10 shots back at T43. Aaron Baddeley had a better week at T37, whilst Jason Day missed the cut.

Olesen gets it done on the DPWT

Thorbjorn Olesen took out the Ras Al Khaimah Championship held in the UAE, holding off another Hojgaard finishing second, this time brother Rasmus. This was Olesen’s 8th DPWT win and took him to 57th on the OWGR - certainly within reaching distance of the Top 50 mark which would get him a start in The Masters at Augusta. His 4-shot overnight lead was totally eroded within 7 holes of the final round, but the Dane steeled himself with a huge eagle on the 8th, which resulted in a 3-shot swing. From there, he largely cruised to victory, claiming the win by 6 shots in the end. Aussie Jason Scrivner finished a long way back at T47 (18 shots behind the winner).

🍴 Quick Bites

Here are some golf Quick Bites for you to snack on:

• The Match - who’s up next? Capital One’s The Match is back again for another installment on 26 February 2024. This time we will see a crossover of PGAT and LPGA players as Rory McIroy, Max Homa, Lexi Thomson and Rose Zhang fight it out under lights over 12 holes in West Palm Beach, Florida.

• Dunlap turns Pro - In last week’s issue, we outlined the conundrum that Nick Dunlap faced about whether to turn pro - he had already racked up a number of big-event exemptions on account of his amateur achievements, but his win last week at the American Express has been enough for him to pull the trigger and turn Pro. It means he relinquishes his spot in The Open Championship but given his PGAT win week saw him skyrocket some 4000 places on the OWGR to #68, he’ll back himself to get into most of the qualifying events and still play his way to Royal Troon by July 2024.

• Stinky exemptions into this week’s AT&T - this week’s PGAT Signature Event at Pebble Beach comes loaded with a $20m purse. So, plenty of players are itching at the chance to get a start in the field. However, entry came a little easier for the quartet of Adam Scott, Webb Simpson, Peter Malnati and Maverick McNealy. All of these guys missed out on automatic entry to the Signature Events (needed to finish within the Top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings last year), yet all have received a sponsor’s exemption to play in the AT&T Pro-Am. What’s the issue you ask? Well Scott, Simpson and Malnati are all members of the PGAT Policy Board, whilst McNealy is sponsored by AT&T. We have less of an issue with McNealy, but for the other 3, the stink of perceived favoritism given their positions on the PAC is quite prominent. Just not a good look at a time where a lot of eyeballs are on the governance and decision-making of the PGAT.

📅 Schedule for the Week

Your golfing schedule for the week, and how to watch is below:

• PGAT: AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am - Pebble Beach Golf Links (Monterey Peninsula, CA), $20m purse, Friday 2/2 to Monday 5/2 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, Main Coverage starts 6am AEST Friday, Featured Groups from 3.30am.

• LIV: Mayakoba - El Cameleon Golf Course (Mexico), $25m purse, Saturday 3/2 to Monday 5/2 - Coverage on 7+, starts 4.15am AEST Friday.

• DPWT: Bahrain Championship - Royal Golf Club (Bahrain), $2.5m purse, Thursday 1/2 to Sunday 4/2 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 6.30pm AEST Thursday.

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