Golfing News & Blog Articles

Golf organizations are generally territorial when it comes to crossing continents, so as troops amass on several borders this week, now we learn the Asian Tour is reportedly looking at an unthinkable incursion on DP World Tour territory this June.

Alister Tait reports that Aramco (eh em…) is going to sponsor an event the week before the U.S. Open. The site: Centurion Club north of London, just 31 miles from DP World Tour headquarters and formerly home to a couple of European Tour events. Tait writes:

Aramco appears set to run back-to-back men’s and women’s events at the course between St Albans and Hemel Hempstead. The $1 million Aramco Series London tournament on the Ladies European Tour is set for June 16-18, one of four Aramco sponsored tournaments on the LET along with Sotogrande, New York and Jeddah. The men’s tournament is pencilled into the week previous to the London date, clashing with the $1 million Scandinavian Mixed hosted by Henrik & Annika, a co-sanctioned event between the DP World Tour and LET.

It’s also no unreasonable to assume any event added to the Asian Tour is a placeholder of sorts for a tour run by LIV Golf/Greg Norman/Journalist Murder.

With Level 4 State Department status (“Do Not Travel”) you’d think going to Club de Golf de Panama might be low on the list of Korn Ferry Tour members. But every dollar counts when you’re trying to secure a PGA Tour card and money made at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am doesn’t mean a thing toward your season long effort so, not surprisingly, players are opting to take on the double whammy of crime and COVID over the Monterey Peninsula.

In that sense, this is a win for the KFT structure and speaks to the player determination to get their card. But passing up what was once a signature Tour event where the prominent and powerful gather is also quite surreal to see. Some good news: the worst crime areas cited by the Department of State are a decent distance from the KFT’s Panama Championship. They’ve got that going for them.

The AT&T has seen its field depleted by all the waivers granted to play the Saudi’s PIFSIPSIA stop on the Asian Tour. So with three courses and pro-am slots needing a pro, the opportunity exists to play Pebble Beach, Spyglass and MPCC like never before. Yet it appears the AT&T is headed toward a Charlie Beljan late-add at this pace. And some lucky big spender is guaranteed to get Grayson Murray for three rounds. Enjoy that!

We know the grow-the-games will be flying this week when top player descent on Saudi Arabia for the PIFSIPSIA cash grab and audition for those two peas in a pod, Greg Norman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. I anticipate some fabulous rationalizations. But I did not expect Monty earn the week’s first eye-roll.

Andrew Wright summed up Monty’s contribution from a BBC interview at the Dubai Desert Classic.

"It's a shame it's come to this,” Montgomerie told BBC Sport. “We used to work well with the Asian Tour and now we are at loggerheads because of money. It's a problematic issue. It's that horrible, evil word, money. The mighty dollar ruling people's hearts and minds. 

“We never played the game for money on the European Tour when I first started out. I was trying to see how much better I could get as a golfer. Now it's all about that evil word, money. Let's hope the European Tour is closer to the PGA Tour than we've ever been before and we can fight it off."

Highlighting world ranking status is not normally my thing but it’s mighty impressive to see Viktor Hovland win for the sixth time in less than two years and rise to No. 3 in the world upon winning the Dubai Desert Classic.

He had help from Rory McIlroy who needed to par 18 to join a playoff with Hovland Richard Bland. But found the water on his approach to the par-5 en route to a bogey six.

From Ewan Murray’s Guardian story:

Onlookers will speculate over whether McIlroy was correct to take on the last green from 260 yards. He had miraculously saved par from a bush on the previous hole, perhaps rendering a further dice with danger unwise. The counterpoints relate to McIlroy’s regular – and regularly successful – policy of being aggressive and that he was hardly planning to mis-hit a fairway wood. McIlroy did not become essential viewing by playing percentages.