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19th Hole

Patrick Reed hits out at ‘insulting’ Rory McIlroy

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After his impressive showing at the BMW PGA Championship where he finished in a share of fifth place, Patrick Reed added his name to the ever-growing list of players who are involved in the war of words surrounding the PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf saga.

Prior to the event, a handful of golfers including Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, and Billy Horschel had some harsh words for the LIV golfers who were in the field at Wentworth.

McIlroy’s comments referenced the fact that LIV golfers only play 54 holes in their events and claimed that they “shouldn’t be” at Wentworth and said that their inclusion in the event would be “hard to stomach.”

“They shouldn’t be here, but again that’s just my opinion. But we are all going to tee it up on the 1st tee [Thursday] and we are all going to go play 72 holes, which is a novelty for them at this point, and then we’ll go from there,” McIlroy said last week.

Billy Horschel, who’s been perhaps one of the most outspoken PGA Tour players in opposition to LIV Golf, didn’t mince words either.

“My stance on this is that when those guys were trying to figure out whether they were going to go to the LIV Tour or stay with PGA Tour, DP World Tour, they had to factor in that they knew that world ranking points were going to maybe not come right away or not come in at all.”

Reed, who is no stranger to controversy, took exception to the dig made by his former Ryder Cup opponent, in a recent interview with The Times.

“I feel like [Rory] making those types of comments is insulting. Let’s be honest, I’ve [played the DP World Tour] more consistently than some of the Europeans on the PGA Tour, so for them to take shots at other guys, especially Billy and Rory taking shots at the LIV guys saying they shouldn’t be here.”

Reed has certainly made an effort to play fairly consistently on the DP World Tour throughout his career.

“I’ve done more for this Tour than Billy has, and I’ve played almost as much as Rory has for the past five years.”

Reed also said he hopes that both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour do “the right thing” and allow them to play on multiple tours in addition to LIV.

“At the end of the day, I hope all the tours work something out and get together. There’s no point in all this going back and forth and people smearing other people because it does nothing for us, does nothing for the brand and does nothing for golf. We need to allow the guys to play, be competitive and do what we do best. That’s play golf and allow us to take care of ourselves.”

“I’ve played on two tours my whole life, my whole career,” he insisted. “I’ve played on the PGA Tour and European Tour at the same time. I don’t see any difference between me playing the PGA Tour and here and playing on LIV and here. LIV only have 14 events next year, which means I’ll be over here more. Guys are like, oh, you joined LIV to play a lesser schedule. Well, I’m a guy that’s played 31 to 34 events a year. So if I played 14 on LIV and I play six here, that’s 20 and 11 to 14 extra weeks I can spend time with my family. As a player, I hope the tours do the right thing and allow us to play but at the end of the day that’s not our decision.”

As it stands, LIV Golf members are not allowed to play on the PGA Tour but can play on the DP World Tour temporarily due to a court injunction.

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19th Hole

3-time PGA Tour winner calls for LIV to buy Champions Tour to fix ‘joke’ purses

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While speaking on the Subpar podcast, former PGA Tour winner and current PGA Tour Champions player Chris DiMarco said he hopes LIV buys the Champions Tour.

“We’re kind of hoping that LIV buys the Champions Tour,” he said.

“Let’s play for a little real money out here. I mean this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2 million. There were like seven guys last week from TPC (Sawgrass, at the $25 million PLAYERS Championship) that made more money than our purses.”

In 2024, the Champions Tour had a total of $67 million in prize money over the course of 24 events.

DiMarco also defended LIV players for taking the money and said he would take it also.

“They wanted to play for a lot of money, and they deserve it. They have had some great careers, why not go and get some money?”

DiMarco also offered insight on Graeme McDowell’s move to LIV.

“I saw Graeme McDowell at the Old Memorial Pro Member, and he goes, ‘Listen, I went up to Jay Monahan and said I love the tour but I am struggling to keep my card and these guys are offering me all this money and less golf. I’m sorry, I’m going.’ And I do not blame him one bit, and I said I would have too.”

DiMarco was ranked as high as 6th in the world in 2006.

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19th Hole

‘It won’t win you golf tournaments’ – Golf analyst rips Charley Hull’s course management

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Charley Hull came just short of her third LPGA Tour victory over the weekend at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship when she played her last two holes at 3 over to slip all the way to 10th on the leaderboard.

After the round, Hull was blasted by Sky Sports commentator and former LPGA Tour player Trish Johnson for her lack of golf course management.

While speaking on the Sky Sports Golf podcast, Johnson spoke harshly of Hull.

“I’m probably her harshest critic, because I know how good she is. She doesn’t win anywhere near enough for her talent, and she doesn’t get involved enough, in all honestly.

“The thing with Charley is that you’re never going to change her. I read something the other day that said how much she loves the game and it’s her love of the game [that costs her]. She’s never going to change and she’s just going to go for every pin.

“In theory that’s great, but it won’t win you golf tournaments, it just won’t because she’s not that much better than anybody else. If you put Charley against Nelly Korda, then I’m picking Nelly every single day of the week.”

Johnson also made a fascinating comparison between Hull and a famous male golfer, John Daly.

“Golf-wise that’s the way she plays the game and it’s a little bit like watching John Daly I suppose.”

“There’s something that John Daly had that made him a major winner and a winner, but Charley is kind of lacking that. Her talent is not in question, but maybe her application is. Maybe it’s just the case of her never changing and that will cost her golf tournaments, there’s no two ways about it. You cannot go for every pin because that’s the way you play and it being fun, as other players are better than that and you have to have course management.”

Hull is still only 27, and therefore has plenty of time to work on her flaws to achieve the success her talent should allow.

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19th Hole

Former agent lifts lid on being fired by ‘zombie’ Tiger Woods

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Discussing his new book “Rainmaker” with the Daily Mail, Tiger Woods’ former agent, Hughes Norton, recounted the events leading up to and after his split with the 15-time major champion.

Norton was abruptly fired by Woods in 1998 after his 1997 Masters win and monster deal with Nike.

In the book, Norton talks about the way Tiger views his relationships, calling him a “zombie.”

The solace I can take, which doesn’t provide much, is this: He was an equal opportunity zombie with relationships, his swing coaches, his lawyer, the guy negotiated the IMG representation deal, with caddies, When it’s over, it’s over.”

Norton added:

“It is the way he terminates relationships with everyone. Whether it’s girlfriends, whether it’s his former golf coaches. It’s ironic, really. In a way he’s so good at confrontation on the golf course. If he’s playing you, he will beat your brains out every single time.

“But when it comes to confronting things like me and other people that are in his life, he has no social skills whatsoever. It’s maddening, actually.”

After he was fired by Woods, Norton was let go by IMG, which he believes was due to Woods’ influence.

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