LIV Golf Goes To School On Recruiting Talent
LIV Golf hasn’t limited its efforts at recruiting talent from the top tier of the professional ranks. The Saudi-financed tour also has taken aim at elite college golfers, with mixed results last week.
Shortly after Texas star Pierceson Coody disclosed that he turned down “a crazy amount of money” to sign with LIV Golf, Oklahoma State’s Eugenio Chacarra said he will make his professional debut this week on the rival tour. Chacarra, who had planned to return to Stillwater for a fifth year, instead will be at Pumpkin Ridge near Portland, Oregon, for the LIV series’ first U.S. event.
“My position is that of a player who is not a member of the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour, and I have not earned money while I have been an amateur, so I can play in this league without problems,” Chacarra told the Spanish sports daily newspaper Marca.
Chacarra, 22, is believed to have signed a three-year agreement worth “life-changing money,” according to a source close to the situation.
Chacarra has been mentored by countryman Sergio García, who has left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf. García is represented by GSE Worldwide, a talent-management agency that represents several professional golfers who have signed with LIV Golf, including Bryson DeChambeau, Abraham Ancer, and Louis Oosthuizen.
Chacarra was a two-time first-team All-American at Oklahoma State and is No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. He was one of three finalists for the 2022 Ben Hogan Award, given each year to the nation’s top male collegiate golfer.
By contrast, Coody, who helped the Longhorns win the recent NCAA team title, intends to play his way onto the PGA Tour after turning down a “multimillion-dollar offer” from LIV Golf, according to a Golf.com report. Coody, the grandson of 1971 Masters champion Charles Coody, said he will focus on Korn Ferry Tour starts earned by his first-place finish in the PGA Tour University rankings. On Sunday, in his third start this month as a professional on the developmental tour, Coody won the Live and Work in Maine Open by five shots.
Meanwhile, LIV Golf announced that four-time major champion Brooks Koepka has joined the rival tour and will compete at Pumpkin Ridge. He will be one of 10 major champions expected to compete. Matthew Wolff and Carlos Ortiz, each of whom has won once on the PGA Tour, were expected to be introduced Monday as LIV Golf signees, according to a report in SI.com. The news comes amid the backdrop that the DP World Tour will sanction defectors to LIV Golf, but the R&A will allow those same players to compete in next month’s Open Championship, citing established qualifying criteria.
Residents of North Plains, Oregon, and members at Pumpkin Ridge shared sharply divided opinions about the pending arrival of LIV Golf and its Saudi backers, according to a report Saturday in The Washington Post.
Nick Faldo, a six-time major champion who became a fixture on CBS Sports’ golf telecasts during the past 16 years, will retire from his role as chief analyst, the network announced.
The move will take effect at the end of the PGA Tour’s 2021-22 season, CBS said.
Faldo, who will turn 65 next month, will sit next to anchor Jim Nantz for the final time in August at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina, where the Englishman made his PGA Tour debut in 1979. In a statement, Faldo called it “a great run” and “the second best and highly coveted seat in golf, sitting next to Jim Nantz.” Faldo will be replaced by another former Masters champion, Trevor Immelman, CBS said. Immelman, who has worked on CBS’ golf telecasts since 2019, will captain the International team in the Presidents Cup in September.
“Nick brought the same passion and dedication that propelled him to the world’s number-one golfer to our broadcasts,” CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said. He lauded Immelman’s “terrific chemistry and relationships with our entire team” in the transition.
A potential new 13th tee is under construction at Augusta National Golf Club, according to a photo tweeted last week by Eureka Earth. The 510-yard par-5 at Amen Corner typically plays among the easiest holes in relation to par at the Masters, with the longest drivers having only a short- to mid-iron second shot into the green at the dogleg left that hugs a tributary to Rae’s Creek.
Augusta National, which measured 6,700 yards in 1934 for the inaugural Masters Tournament, grew by only 285 yards into the 21st century. However, after Tiger Woods romped to a 12-stroke victory in 1997 on the strength of 300-yard-plus drives and added green jackets in 2001 and 2002, club officials sought to “Tigerproof” the course. To counter the assault of modern distances, the course has undergone dozens of design modifications, stretching the yardage to 7,510 for this year’s Masters.
How much longer will Augusta National play in April for the 87th Masters? That could depend on the extent of the facelift at the hole known as “Azalea.”
TAP-INS
Bet365 will become the PGA Tour’s betting operator in Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom through 2024, the tour announced (READ MORE).
The DP World Tour will return to Singapore next year when Laguna National Golf Resort Club plays host to the $2 million Singapore Classic on Feb. 9-12, 2023. It will be the tour’s first tournament in the Southeast Asian city/state since 2014 (READ MORE).
Streamsong Resort in Bowling Green, Florida, disclosed the name and routing of its new course. The Chain, an 18-hole short course to be designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, will offer holes ranging from 90 to 275 yards and play to 2,925 yards. It will join Streamsong’s three full-length courses, one of which was designed by Coore-Crenshaw, and a two-acre putting course to be known as The Bucket that also is under construction (READ MORE).
Architect David McLay Kidd will design Graybull, an 18-hole private course in Maxwell, Nebraska, near the Platte River in the Sandhills of the western part of the state, the Dormie Network announced. The course, which will be Dormie Network’s seventh, is expected to open in 2024 (READ MORE).
American Mitchell Meissner failed to win on the 12-stop PGA Tour Latinoamerica this season, but he emerged with the top prize Sunday. With the Totalplay Cup, which signifies the season points champion on the developmental tour, Meissner earns an exemption to the Korn Ferry Tour, where he will join younger brother Mac, a KFT member, for next year (READ MORE).
Staff and Wire Reports