“Full Swing,” the Netflix docuseries that touts a behind-the-scenes view of life on the PGA Tour in 2022 during golf’s most controversial season, will premiere next month.
According to a 56-second trailer that was released last week on Twitter, “Full Swing” will debut Feb. 15 in the first of eight episodes on the streaming service.
LIV Golf, which poached Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and other PGA Tour stars for its debut season, raised the stakes in its challenge to the tour in August when it filed an antitrust suit in federal court in California.
As Ian Poulter, who was among the tour members to sign with the Saudi-funded upstart and subsequently be banned indefinitely by the PGA Tour, told an interviewer in the promotional trailer: “You picked a hell of a year to start following the PGA Tour.” READ MORE
LIV Golf promised more of just about everything for its second season: notably, more high-profile players, more tournaments, more TV coverage. Two weeks into the new year, not much of it has materialized for the Saudi-funded rival tour, which as of late Sunday had yet to secure a TV deal or even release its full 2023 schedule.
However, LIV Golf reportedly has at least one more player in its pipeline. Chile’s Mito Pereira will join the rival tour, according to James Corrigan in The Telegraph of London. Pereira, 27, a non-winner in his lone season on the PGA Tour who contended in the 2022 PGA Championship until a 72nd-hole double bogey before tying for third, ranks 44th in the world.
After competing in the Presidents Cup in the fall, Pereira (pronounced puh-RAY-ruh) has made three cuts in as many starts on the PGA Tour in the fall season, including a T4 at the Shriners Children’s Open. He would join countryman Joaquín Niemann on the Saudi-funded rival tour, which begins play next month in Mexico. READ MORE
LIV Golf denied a PGA Tour publicist’s claim that it is using discovery in its federal antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour to build a file on 9/11 families critical of the Saudis’ involvement in the rival tour, Bloomberg reported, citing a recent court filing. READ MORE
BEN JARED, PGA TOUR VIA GETTY IMAGES
TAP-INS
Streamsong Resort, a 54-hole complex on a former phosphate-mining site in central Florida, has been sold by founder Mosaic Co. to a subsidiary of Kemper Sports Management. The $160 million purchase by Lone Windmill LLC includes 7,000 acres and a 228-room hotel. The sale originally was reported by FirePitCollective.com’s Matt Ginella. READ MORE
BigShots Golf intends to open four new U.S. locations in 2024, expanding the tech-driven entertainment business to 11 domestic sites plus one in the U.K. READ MORE
Storms that lashed California swept ashore on golf courses across the Monterey Peninsula were not expected to affect the PGA Tour’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in two weeks, David Stivers of the Pebble Beach Co. told the Monterey Herald newspaper. At least 19 deaths and more than $1 billion in damage have been reported in a series of atmospheric rivers that have roared across drought-stricken California in the past two weeks. READ MORE
Winged Foot Golf Club’s West Course in Mamaroneck, New York, was selected to host the 2028 U.S. Open, the USGA announced. Winged Foot West, a 1923 A.W. Tillinghast design that was restored by Gil Hanse in 2018, has played host to six U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship, among other big events. READ MORE
Meghan Stasi, a four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion, was named captain of the 2024 U.S. Curtis Cup team, the USGA announced. The biennial matches between the top American female amateurs and their counterparts from Great Britain and Ireland will be played at Sunningdale (England) Golf Club’s Old Course, with the dates to be determined. READ MORE
Jody Brothers, a former PGA Tour executive, was named chief business and operations officer of the Epson Tour, the LPGA’s developmental tour. READ MORE
Scottie Scheffler, Lydia Ko and Steven Alker have been voted 2022 players of the year in the men’s, women’s and senior divisions, respectively, by the Golf Writers Association of America. They will be honored April 5 during Masters week in Augusta, Georgia. READ MORE
The NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship will increase to 30 teams and 156 players, mirroring the size of the men’s event, the NCAA announced. The news comes just two months after the women’s tournament was bumped from 24 teams to 27, prompting calls for uniformity with the men’s event. The NCAA women’s tournament will be played May 19-24 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, one week before the men’s tournament on the same course. READ MORE
The 2024 Latin America Amateur will be held January 18-21 at Santa María Golf Club in Panama City, Panama, organizers announced. The champion will earn exemptions into the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship. READ MORE
Paul Levy, a past president of the PGA of America, will captain the U.S. Junior Ryder Cup team for the biennial matches against Europe on Sept. 26-28 at Marco Simone in Rome, Italy, the PGA announced. The U.S. team of six boys and six girls is expected to be finalized Aug. 8, after the Junior PGA Championships. READ MORE
Miriam Hernandez-Kakol, Jose Tomás and Lynette Vanderwarker have been elected to the LPGA Foundation Board of Directors, the LPGA announced. READ MORE
Bonnie Bell McGowan, who spent much of her life helping mother Peggy Kirk Bell and family run Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club, died Jan. 12 at age 68 in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Among her survivors is her husband, former PGA Tour player Pat McGowan, with whom she often gave lessons at Pine Needles. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon