A quarter-century tradition will end this week in men’s professional golf.
The World Golf Championships, which debuted in 1999 and at one point consisted of four events on the major pro tours’ calendar, will conclude with the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas.
After Greg Norman’s bid for a world tour was turned down by golf’s leaders in the 1990s, the International Federation of PGA Tours created a series of individual and team events in stroke and match play. The tournaments – WGC Championship (1999-2021), WGC Match Play (1999-2023), WGC Invitational (1999-2021), WGC World Cup (2000-2006) and WGC Champions (2009-2019) – were co-sanctioned by the PGA, European, Asian, Japan, Sunshine and Australasian tours. Tiger Woods racked up 18 of his record-tying 82 PGA Tour victories in the WGCs, including the 2003, ’04 and ’08 Match Play titles.
This week’s WGC Match Play, which typically attracts the top 64 players in the Official World Golf Ranking, has gone deeper into the world order to complete its field. Eleven LIV Golf signees, led by No. 5 Cameron Smith, the reigning Open champion, were ineligible for the Match Play because they have been banned to compete on the PGA Tour. Also, No. 10 Justin Thomas, who has advanced out of round-robin play only once in six starts, will skip the event, as will No. 32 Justin Rose.
“Nothing against the course,” Thomas said of Austin Country Club. “I’ve played it six times, and I’ve played it really bad five of them.”
The WGC Match Play, with its $20 million purse and elevated status as one of the PGA Tour’s “designated events,” will be the tour’s only match-play format during a Ryder Cup year. The DP World Tour staged the Hero Cup in January for 20 candidates for Europe’s team.
The 16 four-man groups for Wednesday’s start of the three-day pool play will be determined today after the OWGR’s update. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who won the recent Players Championship, returns to his home state to defend his title. READ MORE
Douglas P. DeFelice, Getty Images
The LIV nightclub at the famous Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, has blocked an attempted trademark registration by LIV Golf.
The opposition was filed March 11 in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Both entities derive their names from the Roman numeral LIV, or 54. For LIV Golf, the Saudi-funded second-year tour, 54 represents a perfect score in golf: 18 birdies, or a 54 on a par-72 course. For the LIV nightclub, the location was built in 1954, and the venue is known as Miami’s Studio 54, in a nod to the former New York City discotheque. READ MORE
A judge has ordered a stay pending closer review of a recent ruling that would subject Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the financiers behind LIV Golf, to discovery in their antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. READ MORE
TAP-INS
In court documents filed in response to a lawsuit by his former domestic partner, Tiger Woods characterized Erica Herman as a “jilted ex-girlfriend” who has taken her “specious” claims public. Herman, a former manager at Woods’ Florida restaurant who had a six-year romantic relationship with the golfer, filed two lawsuits – against Woods and a trust he controls – seeking more than $30 million in damages. Woods asked the Circuit Court of Martin County, Florida, not to invalidate a non-disclosure agreement Herman signed upon moving into Woods’ Jupiter mansion in 2017 and to use arbitration to settle the dispute. The showdown could test new federal laws enacted in the wake of the #MeToo movement. READ MORE and MORE
Augusta National Golf Club tweeted the menu for the annual Champions Dinner, to be hosted Tuesday, April 4, by defending champion Scottie Scheffler before the 87th Masters. Scheffler, who grew up in Texas, is going with a beef-and-sea theme throughout the evening, with cheeseburger sliders “Scottie style” and firecracker shrimp for the first course and ribeye steak or blackened redfish as the main course.
Rickie Fowler will be the 12th PGA Tour player to join TGL, the tech-infused golf league being launched by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach was the first to report the news, ahead of TGL’s announcement. TGL will field six three-man teams in a virtual match-play format in prime time on Monday nights. READ MORE
Jim Ferree, who won the 1958 Vancouver Open on the PGA Tour before winning twice on the Senior Tour, died March 14. He was 91. The nattily-attired Purvis Jennings “Jim” Ferree was picked by then-tour commissioner Deane Beman to be the model for a knickers-wearing player on the Senior Tour logo in the 1980s. READ MORE
The PGA Tour launched its Pathway to Progression program to help improve diversity in golf by developing talent at the junior and collegiate levels from diverse and historically underrepresented groups. READ MORE
Because of construction delays, the clubhouse at St. Andrews’ Old Course will not be ready in time for the Walker Cup in Scotland, according to a report by Michael McEwan in bunkered.co.uk, which cites a letter to club members. The biennial matches between the top male amateurs from the U.S. and their counterparts from Great Britain and Ireland are set for September 2-3. READ MORE
“The Long Game,” a movie based on the true story of Mexican-American golf trailblazers in Del Rio, Texas, in the 1950s, premiered during the annual South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. READ MORE
The Senior LPGA Championship will return to Indiana this year after a one-year absence from the Hoosier State. Sultan’s Run Golf Club in Jasper will host the 54-hole event June 29-July 1. The Senior LPGA, which originated in 2017 and was played for the first four editions at French Lick Resort, was played last year at Salina (Kansas) Country Club. READ MORE
With today’s World Amateur Golf Ranking update, Rose Zhang has broken Lydia Ko's record for most consecutive weeks at world No. 1. Zhang, a sophomore at Stanford University and two-time USGA champion, has owned the WAGR’s No. 1 spot for 131 straight weeks, marking the longest streak across both the men's and women's rankings. Should she remain at No. 1, Zhang, 19, of Irvine, California, would pass Leona Maguire for most total weeks at No. 1 on April 19, at 136. READ MORE
The USGA has modified the World Amateur Golf Ranking exemption criteria for its amateur championships to provide earlier notification for eligible competitors, effective immediately, the association announced. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon