| By Ben Alberstadt with Gianni Magliocco.
For comments: [email protected]
Good Thursday morning, golf fans, as day one of the Sanderson Farms Championship gets underway. |
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1. Lexi to tee it up at Shriners Open
Michael Collins for ESPN…”Lexi Thompson has accepted a sponsor invitation to play in the Shriners Children’s Open, which begins Oct. 12 in Las Vegas.”
- “I’m hopeful that my ability to play with the men next week at the Shriners Children’s Open sends a great message to the young women that you can chase your dream regardless of how hard it is,” Thompson said in a statement Wednesday announcing her entry. “I’m grateful to Shriners Children’s for this opportunity to spend the week alongside these inspirational kids.”
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2. How the Americans can do better in the Ryder Cup, volume 100
Suggestions from Global Golf Post’s Ron Green, Jr…”Go back to more qualifiers. The pendulum has swung too far in favor of letting the captain craft his own team. Either make it 12 captain’s picks and do away with the points list or go back to 10 automatic qualifiers. Base it entirely on the calendar year of the Ryder Cup. Sure, having six picks worked brilliantly for European captain Luke Donald, but having more automatic qualifiers would be better”
- …”Find a way to get American Ryder Cup players to tee it up before the event. The month-long gap didn’t hurt the U.S. team two years ago, but it seemed to make a difference this year. Assuming that the PGA Tour schedule is similar to what it is now, the U.S. captain should insist on his players teeing it up in the Fortinet Championship the way Donald got his players to the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship before going to Rome.”
- …”Find new voices at the top. Maybe Tiger Woods captains the next U.S. Ryder Cup team, and that would be a good thing. But it’s time to move past the same set of vice captains being recycled. As much as they like being part of the Ryder Cup, at least a few of them probably think it’s time to let someone else do it. Webb Simpson was introduced at the Presidents Cup. Stewart Cink saw how it worked in Rome. What about Kevin Kisner?”
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3. Ryder Cup viewership, US vs. Europe
Our Matt Vincenzi…”Potentially as a result of the lopsided affair, the NBC viewership was down compared to the last Ryder Cup in Europe (France 2021).”
- “Sports Business Journal reported a significant drop…Friday coverage drew 516,000 viewers on USA (1:30am-12:30pm)…Friday in 2018: 886,000 on Golf Channel (6am-12:20pm).
- …”However, the Ryder Cup did much better numbers in Europe on SkySports.”
- “According to Bunkered, Sky broke all of the previous Ryder Cup viewing records.
- “Across the three days, there was an average of 785k viewers, up 38% on 2021 and 25% on 2018. Noticeably, more under-35s (14%) watched the 2023 Ryder Cup than in 2021, demonstrating the sports ever-growing appeal to younger fans.”
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4. Ben Griffin on players’ weekly expenditures
Our Matt Vincenzi…”The former North Carolina Tar Heel concluded that most golfers are spending a minimum of $6,000 a week in order to compete on Tour. The expenses include paying caddies, tipping, hotels, airfare, and food.”
- “So, hotels are always expensive more than generally, and as a player, we kind of face that on our own. Now we get to play for a lot of money, and there’s a lot of really good times, but sometimes you might miss a few cuts and you kind of feel it in your pocket, so it really helps to, I’m very fortunate to have sponsors and people that believe in me and have supported me, and I’m in an awesome position financially to be able to afford some of these things, and I’m very blessed.
- “But the reality is that guys on tour are spending at least five, $6,000 a week, and a lot of guys are a lot more. I’m pretty much, I don’t have a family. I don’t have kids or anything like that, so it cuts costs down for me a little bit, but other guys are having their physical therapists with them every week, and prices can kind of go up from there.”
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5. Swag takes on $10 million in funding
Eben Novy-Williams…”Club and apparel startup Swag Golf has raised a $10 million round, led by Verance Capital, that includes Olympic gold medalist Shaun White and NBA All-Star Zach LaVine.”
- “The company plans to use the money to bolster multiple parts of its business by growing existing product lines, launching new ones and expanding manufacturing capacity. It is also prioritizing growth in Asia and Oceania.”
- “It’s the first real outside funding for Swag, which was founded in 2018 with about $1 million in seed capital from friends and family. While the valuation in this deal was not provided, the company is profitable, and on pace for about $25 million in sales this year, according to someone familiar with the numbers. It has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 100% since its founding.”
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6. Yasir Al-Rumayyan reportedly playing Alfred Dunhill Links Championship under false name
Adam Woodard for Golfweek…”LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan will play in this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the DP World Tour under a false name, according to a report on Wednesday in the Scotsman.”
- “Al-Rumayyan, the 53-year-old governor of Saudi Arabia’s lucrative Public Investment Fund (PIF), was invited by Johann Rupert, the South African billionaire and man behind the pro-am event held annually at Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and St. Andrews. Listed under the pseudonym Andrew Waterman, Al-Rumayyan will play alongside LIV Golf’s Peter Uihlein and in the same group as R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers. Fellow LIV players Laurie Canter, Talor Gooch and Louis Oosthuizen are also in the field as non-members playing on sponsor invites.”
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7. 579-yard drive
Jake Nichols for Cowboy State Daily…”On Monday, Berkshire hit a golf ball farther than any human being has ever hit one in recorded history at nearly 580 yards. Later in the day he topped that off with a record ball speed off the club — an astounding 241.7 mph.”
- No one in the world of golf has ever done what Kyle Berkshire can do. And at 26, he’s still getting stronger, longer and better.
- “I’m far from peaking,” Berkshire said.
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8. Homa commits to ‘Africa’s Major’
Ben Fleming for Golf Monthly.”Max Homa has become the latest high-profile name to join the field for next month’s Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa.”
- “Fresh off his stellar rookie performance in the Ryder Cup, which saw him top score for the United States team with 3.5 points, Homa will make his first appearance in the tournament, dubbed “Africa’s Major,” from November 9-12.”
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9. Sanderson Farms Championship photos
- Check out all of our galleries here
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19th Hole2 weeks ago
19th Hole1 week ago
