No Ryder Cup? No problem.
While the trans-Atlantic tiff simmers between biennial editions, 2024 offers plenty of other big-time events that Global Golf Post will be watching. It is an Olympics year, meaning that the summer cadence has been altered to accommodate the fortnight in France.
Here are some dates worth circling on your calendar:
February 2-4: LIV Golf plants its flag on another former PGA Tour host when it visits Mayakoba Resort on the Yucatán Peninsula for its season opener. Though LIV will be playing opposite the PGA Tour’s annual stop at Pebble Beach, expect plenty of “golf, but louder” during the week.
February 15-18: Tiger Woods, who played a couple of exhibition events last month near his former home in Orlando, Florida, likely will return to the PGA Tour at Riviera in the Genesis Invitational, which benefits his foundation. Woods said he hopes to play monthly as he emerges from another round of surgeries and rehab.
Feb. 21-24: The inaugural Africa Amateur will be played in South Africa and grant the winner a spot in the Open Championship. Yes, the R&A truly knows how to “grow the game.”
March 14-17: The 50th Players Championship will be held at the PGA Tour’s headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. It’s a tournament that continues to be “better than most.”
April 3-6: It’s only 5 years old, but the Augusta National Women’s Amateur serves as a wonderful undercard for the following week’s main event.
April 11-14: The Masters at Augusta National. Recent LIV Golf recruit Jon Rahm will be the defending champion. Let the golf season truly begin.
April 18-21: The LPGA will stage its first major event of the season, returning to The Woodlands, Texas, for the Chevron Championship. The former Dinah Shore event in the California desert is a long way from home.
May 16-19: The PGA Championship returns to Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky, 10 years after a 25-year-old Rory McIlroy won his fourth (and most recent) major title. Valhalla also served as the stage for the Americans’ epic 2008 Ryder Cup victory and Tiger Woods’ stirring PGA triumph in a playoff against Bob May. Is more magic in store?
May 17-29: Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California, will host two consecutive weeks of NCAA Division I championships – the women and the men – for the first of three consecutive years on the Gil Hanse-renovated Champions Course. A Masters berth awaits the men’s winner.
May 30-June 2: The USGA visits Pennsylvania Dutch Country for the U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club. If you can find an Amish entrant with good odds, bet her.
June 13-16: Pinehurst Resort, the home of golf in America and a newly christened anchor site for the USGA, gets the nation’s biggest championship on its famed No. 2 course. On the 25-year anniversary of the late Payne Stewart’s signature triumph, North Carolina’s Sandhills is certain to add to its lore.
June 20-23: The KPMG Women’s PGA heads west, to Sahalee in Washington state. Only three Americans – Cristie Kerr (2010), Danielle Kang (2017) and Nelly Korda (2021) – have won this LPGA major title since Juli Inkster claimed back-to-back victories in 1999-2000. Is this the year when the Stars and Stripes wins a home game?
July 18-21: The Open Championship returns to Royal Troon in Scotland, site of Henrik Stenson’s stirring duel against Phil Mickelson to win the Claret Jug in 2016. Troon has a tendency to produce one-hit major wonders, with Mark Calcavecchia (1989), Justin Leonard (1997) and Todd Hamilton (2004) as its other recent winners. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Aug. 1-4: Le Golf National in Guyancourt in the far western Paris suburbs will host the first of two consecutive Olympic golf tournaments, with the men followed by the women. With all of the bribery scandals, cost overruns and national protests associated with these games, perhaps Olympic golf can help smooth out the rough spots for the French hosts.
Aug. 22-25: The AIG Women’s Open will visit St. Andrews’ Old Course for the third time, with the world’s top female golfers seeking to join a short but distinguished list of winners at the home of golf: Lorena Ochoa (2007) and Stacy Lewis (2013).
Sept. 12-15: Golf fans can enjoy a bonus this year as the Solheim Cup will be played in consecutive years. The women want to get their premier match out from under the massive Ryder Cup shadow and return to even-numbered years after the pandemic jumbled the calendar. The Americans will look to use a home advantage at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia, to defeat the Europeans for the first time since 2017.
Sept. 26-29: On its 30th anniversary, the biennial Presidents Cup will visit Royal Montreal for the second time. The Americans posted a five-point victory in the 2007 edition in Quebec, and in a series in which the Yanks have dominated the Internationals – a nine-match winning streak and an overall 12-1-1 advantage – more of the same is to be expected.
E-MAIL STEVE