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Former PGA President delivers verdict on whether he thinks LIV pros will play Ryder Cup

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Second at the Masters and first at the PGA Championship.

Pretty hard to beat, and surely the player obtaining those results is a gimme for the Ryder Cup in just four months time? Apparently not, as all and sundry give their view on qualification for Team USA.

Brooks Koepka, now a five-time major champion, finds himself in 13th place on the OWGR despite none of his efforts on LIV gaining any ranking points and, futhermore, has moved through to second place in Ryder Cup qualifying lists.

The latest table shows the 33-year-old well behind Scottie Scheffler, but in front of Max Homa, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay and Cameron Young, all of whom making up the current six automatic qualifiers.

Of course, there will be plenty of changes over the next 12 weeks of qualifying, a period that ends with the second Fedex play-off event, the BMW Championship on 20th August. The problem for Koepka supporters (and there are now many more than there were just a few months ago) is that he is unlikely to be able to play that many more points-gaining events than the two remaining majors – US Open in June and The Open Championship a month later.

He is, of course, a major machine. Two wins, one second, and two further top-fives at his home Open, and a top-five and four top-10s at The Open suggest he could pull this one out of the bag. Amazingly, though, he may need to do even better to make the decision for current USA captain, Zach Johnson, and avoid any ‘captain’s pick’, and start another petty argument.

Soon after Brooks Koepka’s historic two-shot victory at Oak Hill on Sunday, viewers witnessed a tense stand-off between Brad Faxon and Brandel Chamblee, each taking a wildly different view on whether the LIV player should be permitted to play at the Marco Simone in September.

Chamblee was widely viewed as having a very aggressive viewpoint, something used by ex-colleague Lisa Cornwell as evidence for her view that, “he’s a bully, plain, and simple.” 

Now, Ted Bishop, the ousted 38th chairman of the PGA of America, has tweeted that he felt Ryder Cup players must be members of the organisation he previously ran, or they are ineligible.

Given the same organisation permitted all LIV players to take part in their own major, switching rules for a competition they also run (in conjunction with Ryder Cup Europe) seems bizarre.

If Koepka was left out for political reasons, heading the race for next in would currently be either Jordan Spieth, Sam Burns or Justin Thomas.

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19th Hole

‘F*** around and find out’ – Phil Mickelson fires warning shot over LIV’s access to majors in since-deleted tweet

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On Sunday, the social media account “Flushing It” made a post about the importance of LIV Golf ensuring that their players have major championship eligibility going forward.

“LIV can have the grandest of plans for their future but getting players access to major championships should be their number 1 priority. Especially with the major exemptions running out fast and nearly all player contracts up for renewal this year and next.”

Phil Mickelson then responded to the post, warning the golf world that excluding LIV players from majors will have unintended consequences, saying “FAAFO” which means “f*** around and find out”.

“Maybe some LIV players won’t be missed. But what if NONE of the LIV players played? Would they be missed? What about next year when more great players join? Or the following year? At some point they will care and will have to answer to sponsors and television. FAAFO”

His post has since been deleted, but there are plenty of screenshots out there.

It will be easier said than done, but it does appear that some sort of agreement between LIV and the majors could be coming in the future if the PGA Tour and LIV aren’t able to mend fences.

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Greg Norman reveals plan for LIV to own all their golf courses and each team to have a home venue

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In an interview with Bloomberg, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman discussed the current state of LIV and what it means for the future of professional golf.

In the interview, Norman said he believes that LIV has been welcomed with “open arms.”

“Our product is received with open arms by many, but a few want to try and stop us for all the wrong reasons. They haven’t been able to sustain their position in the game of golf. What we have done brilliantly is injected more capital. Golf is finally looked upon as an asset class.”

Interestingly, Norman also revealed future plans for LIV to own all the courses they play and have home courses for each team.

“Man United owns their stadium. Indian Premier League, they own their stadiums. NFL, they own their stadiums. Think about LIV owning all their own golf courses, each team having a home venue and they host. And now you can build out around that. It’s not just a golf course. You bring in education, you bring in hospitality, you bring in real estate, you bring in merchandise, you bring in management, you bring in all these other different opportunities that the game of golf has to deliver to a community, to a region. We are gonna be doing that.

“The Philippines are very keen to get us there. Golf in the Philippines is doing very well. We are not just sport, we’re sports and entertainment and culture. So no matter where we go in the world, we adjust what we need to deliver from an entertainment standpoint.”

Norman also talked about his time as the number one player in the world when the best players in the world didn’t always play on the same tour.

“That never happened anyway. Right? I was number one player in the world. Very seldom did I go and play in the United States or Europe or Asia or anything. Did I play against the best in the world outside the four majors and maybe the TPC? They’re the five, right? So very, very seldom did that happen. We got all paid appearance money to go play somewhere.”

Norman added that LIV “isn’t going anywhere.”

“My boss told me LIV is not going to go anywhere. It will be well and truly in operation, running well past his death – he’s a young guy.”

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“Is it a Titleist?” – Jerry Seinfeld shares never-before-heard details of iconic scene

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On Thursday, legendary comedian Jerry Seinfeld joined the Rich Eisen Show and shared an awesome story from a “Seinfeld” episode titled “The Marine Biologist.”

In the episode, a golf ball goes into the blow hole of a whale. According to Seinfeld, that was never in the episode’s script.

Seinfeld recalls saying the night before the filming of the episode, “What if what puts the whale in distress is Kramer’s golf ball?”

“He’s hitting golf balls at the beach. George is at the beach with a girl, we haven’t connected them!”

“We write that speech the night before at two o’clock in the morning…The sea was angry that day my friend.”

 

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A post shared by Rich Eisen (@richeisen)


Kramer finishes the iconic scene by asking “Is it a Titleist?” Seinfeld told Eisen the show sought Titleist’s permission to mention its name, saying the ball had to be a Titleist. Fortunately for lovers of the iconic show, the company agreed.

If (somehow) you’re unfamiliar with the scene, check it out below.

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