Tag Archives: PGA

PGA Tour and LPGA Tour Pros team up at the Grant Thornton Invitational

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This weekend I watched the inaugural event of the Grant Thornton Invitational which was a joint PGA Tour and LPGA Tour event with 16 teams. I really enjoyed the format of the event and seeing the camaraderie within and among the teams. Not to mention the fact that there was some great golf played.

The format was three days of golf. Day one was a scramble, day two were foursomes (alternate shot), and the final day was a modified four-ball where both players tee off, and then they switch balls for their second shots and play that same ball until it is holed. The lower score of the partners is then counted as the team score for the hole.

There were low scores and great shots. After day one the team of Nelly Korda and Tony Finau were leading, day two Lydia Ko and Jason Day shot 66 to take the lead and although other teams came on strong Lydia Ko made a clutch birdie putt on the 18th hole to win the event for team Ko/Day with a 26 under par.

The Canadian team of Brooke Henderson and Corey Conners finished second moving up the leader board by shooting an impressive 9 under, 63 total. And the Swedish team of Madelene Sagström and Ludvig Åberg shot 12 under to move up six places to finish third.

There were teams that every golf fan could get excited about whether it was because they were representing a fan’s country or whether it was a team with two of the most popular pros on each tour; and they did not disappoint. For example, the team of Lexi Thompson and Rickie Fowler gave the crowd a fun moment at the Par 3, 16th when Lexi made a hole-in-one.

I used to watch a ton of golf on TV but this year I just got turned off by the PGA tour/LIV news and really spend more time watching the LPGA, the Majors, Amateur golf (including college golf); and as I mentioned in a previous post YouTube golfers. I really don’t miss watching the weekly PGA tour events.

This mixed tour event is exactly what professional golf needs and I hope that the Grant Thornton Invitational continues for many years. For me, next year, it will be a must watch golf event.

September 2021 is Match Play Month – Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup!

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Last week the Curtis Cup, the amateur competition between USA and GB&I (conducted by the USA and R&A), took place. If you missed it and want to watch, it was streamed live on YouTube and is still available. The USA started out poorly but came back with a furry and won seven of the eight singles matches the last day to retain the cup. This is the first time the USA Curtis Cup team has won on European soil since 2008. As a person that enjoys watching match play, this got me really excited for the professional match play events coming in September.

In September we will be treated with The Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup. Normally theses events do not fall in the same year, but because of the COVID-19 Pandemic the Ryder Cup did not take place in 2020.

September 4 – 6: The Solheim Cup – How to Watch

There may be ways to stream the coverage online but I could not find it so I am sharing the broadcast information. The Solheim Cup can be viewed (in the USA) on Golf Channel (GC) and NBC. Here is the schedule from the Golf Channel website.

TV schedule: Saturday, Day 1 foursomes and fourballs: 7:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (GC), 12:30-2:30 p.m. (NBC), 2:30-6 p.m. (GC); Sunday, Day 2 foursomes and fourballs: 7:30 a.m. – noon (GC), noon-1:30 p.m. (NBC), 1:30-6 p.m. (GC); Sunday, Day 3 singles: noon-6 p.m. (GC)

Will the USA Win?

In 2017 it was an exciting cup in Scotland at Gleneagles, it appeared the USA was going to win until Suzanne Peterson made a memorable putt and won the cup for Europe (and then announced her retirement on the green as she celebrated.) Europe won 14 1/2 to 13 1/2.

The USA has a strong team! The number one player in the women’s game, Nelly Korda is playing well and her sister is back too. In 2017 Nelly and her sister Jessica won both their matches so I assume we will see that winning duo again. Overall, with great players and a home field advantage the USA are heavy favorites to win at Inverness in Ohio.

September 24 – 26: The Ryder Cup – How to Watch

According to the Ryder Cup Website, featured matches will be streamed live on the site. The broadcast schedule listed on the Ryder Cup site is as follows:

Friday, Sept. 24GOLF8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 25GOLF8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Saturday, Sept. 25NBC9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 26NBCNoon to 6 p.m.

In 2018 the Ryder Cup was in France and Europe beat the USA 17 1/2 to 10 1/2. Who will win in 2021at Whistling Straits? On paper the USA has the edge but golf analyst’s are questioning if the USA can come together as a “team” given the personality issues (e.g., Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau). I think the men should be able to put aside their egos for one week for the good of the team. The big question, will team Europe do as they have in the past and rise to the occasion and win on US soil?

As they say in broadcasting “stay tuned!”

The Spirit International – Watch if You Love Amateur Golf

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The Spirit International Amateur Golf Championship has been around since 2001 but many people that love golf don’t know about it.  The video below is a nice overview of the championship.

I learned about it because I follow Paige MacKenzie on Twitter and Paige is the captain of the 2013 United States team. Paige is also a former Spirit International competitor.  I watched the last hour of coverage on Thursday and Friday online and really enjoyed it. I wish I could have seen more but it is impossible to watch this type of event during a work week.  You can watch it Saturday (November 2, 2013)  via the live webcast at the Spirit International Website.

There are only four players for each country (20 Countries represented by 2 men and 2 women).  It may be a small field but the golfers are some of the best young players in the world and it is a nice preview of what we can expect to see in the coming years on the professional tours.  Past Spirit International competitors include US stars like Brandt Snedeker and Paula Creamer; as well as international stars such as Jason Day, Charl Schwatzel, Lorena Ochoa, and Ya-Ni Tseng. As they say, the list goes on and on.

The format is interesting because they have multiple competitions which include:

  • International Team- combined best ball of the men’s team and women’s team.
  • Men’s Team- Best ball of two players (four ball stroke play)
  • Women’s Team- Best ball of two players (four ball stroke play)
  • Men’s Individual- Most holes under par.
  • Women’s Individual- Most holes under par.

So you can cheer for your favorite country, men’s team, women’s team, and individuals.  I want the United States and Canada to do well because I have lived in the United States most of my life and feel an allegiance to the US; but I was born in Canada and I have a soft spot for athletes from Canada.  I hope that Brooke Henderson (a young Canadian golfer whose career I follow) does well. I am happy to report that as of the end of the second round Brooke is in first place for the Women’s Individual competition.

The United States is leading the overall competition. Check out the Leaderboard to see the other country standings. And if you can’t watch the live webcast then the next best thing is following the championship updates on twitter @thespiritgolf.

UPDATE (November 3 2013) – USA wins overall and Brooke Henderson wins Women’s Championship.  See all results at the Spirit Website.

Weather impacts another PGA tournament

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For those of us that live in the Northeast the weather has been snowy and cold this March.  Normally as a golf fan I can get away from the drab cold days of winter by watching golf and day dreaming about the coming summer golf season.  This year even watching golf to escape the cold is not guaranteed.

Today, I was hunkering down to watch the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.  I was anticipating a great afternoon of golf with Tiger Woods (who I had picked for my fantasy team this week) and Rickie Fowler (one of the golf boys) in the final group.  But mother nature had a different plan in mind and the final round has been moved to Monday.  How bad was it?  Watch the video below…

Golf Analyst Mark Rulfing mentions in the video that it reminded him of Kapalua.  He was referencing the first tournament of the 2013 season, the Hyundai tournament of Champions, which was delay due to high winds (gusting 40 to 50 mph).  The Golf Channel has a great photo slide show of the windy tournament.

Another tournament impacted was the Farmers Open at Torrey Pines which was delayed due to Fog.  So rain, wind, fog all seem like expected reasons for golf to be delayed but how about snow?  Yup, the WGC Match Play in Arizona was delayed this year due to snow.  Snow in Arizona.  It was so bizarre that all the players were tweeting photos of it. Bubba Watson even posted a 30 second video of his snowball fight.

I don’t know if any other start to a golf season has had this many delays due to weather.  Certainly there have been memorable delays in previous years. Watch the PGA Tour “Top 10: Weather Interruptions on the PGA Tour” for their list.  One of my favorite golfers, Phil Mickelson, makes an appearance as he chips in the hail (2.35 second mark in video.)

Maybe I should be happy for the weather delay today because my fantasy pick for the Hyundai, tournament, Dustin Johnson, won.  So, if I were at all superstitious I would be thinking the weather delay is “a sign” that Tiger should win tomorrow.

Still I would rather have the final round played on Sunday so I could watch it live.

Kevin Na’s personal frustration translates to golf fan frustration with slow play

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The big story from the 2012 Players Championship was Kevin Na’s endless struggle with his pre-shot routine.  What I thought was fascinating was that the press was so empathetic and forgiving.  Normally, the press would be very critical but this time it was the fans that were outwardly critical.  The fans were respectful the first three rounds but by the 4th round, the fan frustration was evident with the haggling Na had to endure.

What led to this “gentler and kinder” press?  The answer appears to be in the fact that he did not hide from their questions.  Many reports stated Na “is refreshing” in his admission of his problem.  He not only apologizes to his playing partner but opens up in his press conference explaining:

“I’m trying to get comfortable with my waggles. It’s usually a little waggle, half waggle, little waggle, half waggle, and boom, supposed to pull the triggers. But if it doesn’t work, I’ve got to go in pairs.  So it’ll go four; and if it doesn’t work, it’ll go six; and after that, just — there’s a lot going on in my head. (Laughter).  And it’s not — I’m not being nice to myself, trust me. I’m ripping myself.”  See more of Kevin Na’s press conference at PGAtour.com

Now, I certainly have sympathy for any personal struggle but I must admit that more than once I was yelling at my TV — “just hit the ball.”  Eventually, I turned away from golf (something I rarely do on a Sunday of a big tournament).  I’m sure I am not the only fan that stopped watching.  My reaction is something golf cannot afford. The goal of the golf industry is growth (both in the fan base and in recreational play) and risking that a percentage of the current fan base might “walk away” from a telecast is going in the wrong direction.

Even though the tournament officials put Kevin Na on the clock (which added to his stress); it did not appear (to me) to quicken the pace of play.  Slow play is one of the biggest issues in golf today (both in professional and recreational golf).  If the professional golfers are role models for “how to play” then they need to send the message that playing slow is not acceptable.

Many tour players have expressed their dislike for slow play but it helps the cause when big name players take a stand.  Yesterday the biggest of big name players, Tiger Woods,  stated his opinion on how to fix slow play on tour.  Currently the fine for slow play is $5,000 up to $20,000 depending on the situation.  Tiger Woods said that he believes a penalty stroke should be accessed for slow play.  Woods explained:

“Strokes is money….what’s the difference between first and second [at the Players] right now?… $800,000…that’s one shot, and that’s the difference. That’s what people don’t realize, that one shot is so valuable out here.”

I completely agree with Woods, given the income of professional golfers a $5,000 fine is nothing but a stroke is significant.  A stroke not only impacts the wallet for the professional; but it could impact where they place in the tournament which can also carry over to Fed-Ex points and world rankings.  All of these combined make a stoke penalty a more meaningful deterrent.

Finally, I think the PGA could learn something from the LPGA.  Both the PGA and LPGA do have stroke penalties in the rules for slow play.  Both the PGA and LPGA give the slow player a warning before giving a violation.  But the difference comes when the first violation is given to a player.  The  PGA only imposes a fine; not a stroke on the first violation. The LPGA imposes a fine and stroke on the first violation.

Final word — gentlemen it’s time to follow the ladies lead — give a stroke penalty for the first violation of slow play.

The Gender Gap in Golf Prize Money

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Wage gaps have been reported for years and it has been a sore point for anyone that believes in pay equity.  If you are not aware of the statistics, according to the National Committee on Pay Equity, “The wage gap remained statistically unchanged in the last year. Women’s earnings were 77.4 percent of men’s in 2010… according to Census statistics released September 13, 2011.”

If you accept that there is an overall pay gap then it should not be a surprise that ladies golf tournaments have much lower total purses (prize money) than men’s tournaments.  The basic logic for the gap is popularity of the tour.  The PGA is more popular and has a larger fan base so it attracts big sponsor dollars.  It should be noted that the PGA purses have increased greatly since Tiger Woods turned professional. Why, because Tiger made the sport so much more popular and even bigger sponsor money followed.

I thought it would be interesting to see what the difference was in recent tournament prize money for the various tours.

PGA versus LPGA

This week the top male players are at the Accenture Match Play, the other PGA players are at the Mayakoba, and the Ladies (LPGA) are in Singapore at the HSBC.  Here are the total purses and winners take for each tournament:

Tournament Purse Winner’s Take Home
Accenture Match Play $8.5 Million $1.4 Million
Mayakoba Open $3.7 Million $666,000
HSBC Women’s Classic $1.4 Million $210,000

I also was curious to see the difference between events sponsored by the same company. Lucky for me, HSBC sponsored both the Dhabi Desert Classic and the Women’s event in Singapore.  The Dhabi Desert Classic had a purse of $2,031,296 and the winner took home $451,131. The HSBC Women’s Classic (as noted above) had a purse of $1.4 Million and the winner took home $210,000.  I do think HSBC should be given credit for sponsoring both a women’s and men’s event; even if the prize money was not equal.

To give even more perspective on the gap, let’s compare the second place prize money of recently completed events.  The second place money for the LPGA HSBC was $102,564 and for the PGA Northern Trust Open was $580,800.  Another comparison of note — At the Northern Trust Open, the four men players tied for 4th place, each made $259,875.  That’s right, they made $49,875 more than the winner of the LPGA player at the HSBC.

Nationwide Tour versus Futures Tour

Now here are some numbers for the tournaments that the up and coming stars of golf play (i.e. think of these like the farm team leagues in other sports).  The PGA has the Nationwide Tour and the LPGA has the Symetra Futures Tour.

Tournament Purse Winner’s Take Home
Nationwide
Bogata Open		 $600,000 $108,000
Future Tour
Florida Natural Classic		 $125,000 $11,000

Champions Tour versus Legends Tour

There is also one final comparison to be made and that is the senior tours (for players over the age of 50).  The men play on the Champions Tour and the women play on the Legends Tour.  Now this is a bit less fair of a comparison because the senior ladies really do not play as much compared to the senior men but since they do have tours, I want to share an example.

Tournament Purse Winner’s Take Home
Campions Tour (Men)
Allianz Tourament		 $1,8 Million $270,000
Legends Tour (in April)
Walgreens Charity Classic		 $200,000 not listed (but obviously it will be lower than the men)

It is clear the gap in prize money is huge across the board.  Since the main earning years are on the two main tours (PGA and LPGA) I think that is where the issue really hits home.  It’s hard to say what would be fair if you assume that purses are driven by the ability of the tour to increase the popularity of the tour and in turn the size of the fan base.  You could even say that the payout for the men on the PGA tour is outrageous given the winner on the PGA often takes home over a million dollars for a week of work.  But it is what it is.

Obviously, as a women I find this an incredibly sad state of the game. I would like to see larger purses for the women.  Unfortunately, I don’t think the purses in women’s golf will ever be as large as the men’s but let’s hope over the next few years the leadership of the LPGA can make strides in increasing popularity of the tour and the fan base so that they can impact the size of the gender gap in golf tournament purses.