Welcome back to SI Golf’s Fact or Fiction, where we’d love to play some alternate shot with friends but hope they’d still be our friends afterward.
Once again, we’re here to debate a series of statements for writers and editors to declare as “Fact” or “Fiction” along with a brief explanation. Responses may also occasionally be “Neutral” since there’s a lot of gray area in golf.
Do you agree or disagree? Let us know on the SI Golf X account.
In the wake of Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry’s popular win at the Zurich Classic, the PGA Tour should get more serious about the event (and team golf) by making it a signature event, therefore luring more of the Tour’s top players.
Bob Harig: FACT. By making this a signature event, not only do you assure more of the top players competing, but you can limit the field. The idea of 80 teams starting and so many players involved really defeats the purpose. Lean into this event and make it bigger.
John Pluym: FACT. The PGA Tour needs more events like Zurich, but with the fields limited to the best players in the world. And if the Tour can mandate that the winners get up in front of a raucous crowd and sing, “Don’t Stop Believin,’” all the better.
The entire panel thinks the PGA Tour should lift the Zurich Classic, which enjoyed its greatest week as a team event when Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry won.
Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports
Jeff Ritter: FACT. These signature events are supposed to be rotating a bit, are they not? Time for Zurich to get in the mix so we can see more Ryder Cup-caliber pairings.
John Schwarb: FACT. The Zurich’s format is such a treat in the sea of sameness on the Tour schedule, yet its field hardly gets fans excited. Signature events are largely a function of sponsors and schedules, but no excuses—it’s time to get many more top players to New Orleans.
Speaking of McIlroy, the Zurich was his 25th PGA Tour win, moving him into a tie for 23rd all time. To get to 15th requires 31 wins (tying Jimmy Demaret), and at 34 years old that’s as far as the Ulsterman will get.
Bob Harig: FICTION. Assuming good health, Rory should have 10 good years left. He’ll need some good fortune but even one win a year gets him to 35 victories. Rory is due for a couple of multiple-victory seasons. Getting to 40, while a stretch, is not out of the question..
John Pluym: FICTION. McIlroy will need a lot of good fortune to get to 31 wins, especially with Scottie Scheffler winning week to week or every other week (can he keep it up?). There are so many incredible players out there. But with 10-plus years left in his career, McIlroy should land somewhere between 30 to 35 wins.
Jeff Ritter: FICTION. So many variables with this kind of prediction, but assuming good health and continued drive, McIlroy should play well into his 40s. I’d guess he lands somewhere between Demaret’s 31 and Tom Watson’s 39.
John Schwarb: FACT. The tendency with these questions is to overestimate right after a win, but his iron game and putting aren’t among the Tour’s best every week and he mostly plays elite events where he has to beat the best. He can absolutely grab six more wins in what will be a long career but I’m not willing to go overboard.
LIV Golf’s Adelaide event was a smash for the second consecutive year. Half of LIV Golf’s regular-season events are in North America but the Saudi-backed circuit needs to play the majority of its schedule overseas to better connect with nations starved for pro golf.
Bob Harig: FICTION. LIV Golf should definitely consider adding a second Australian event in a different state. It should go to South Africa, Spain, the U.K., South America, Japan or South Korea. But establishing a presence in the U.S. is imperative. It’s where most of the corporate support resides, and where the TV rights deals can potentially be the greatest. It’s a tough road without America.
John Pluym: FACT. LIV Golf Adelaide saw the biggest crowds of the dozen LIV events played over two seasons, so why not go there more often along with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour? It’s no different than the NFL playing more and more games overseas. Do it!
Cameron Smith played in front of huge crowds in his native Australia.
Courtesy LIV Golf
Jeff Ritter: FICTION. LIV is getting some traction overseas, but to become a bigger player in pro golf it needs to connect here in the U.S. I assume that’ll happen through the negotiated partnership that’s been in the works for nearly a year, but …
John Schwarb: FACT. A second Australian event seems like a no-brainer, and Asia is likely underserved with just two events on the LIV schedule. The league could also create wild-card spots for local players, boosting interest. If a LIV–PGA Tour merger of sorts remains far away, then LIV should stop trying to compete as hard for U.S. eyeballs and go where the Tour can’t. Or won’t.
A Golf Digest story about NBC Sports said the network is still unsure who will be in the lead analyst’s chair in the U.S. Open, which is less than two months away. The chaos shows NBC should never have let Paul Azinger go.
Bob Harig: FACT. I’m partial to Azinger. I don’t necessarily have a problem with rotating analysts, but we’d never know about it if Azinger were retained. And the way that went down sure seems curious. Having already dispensed with Roger Maltbie and Gary Koch, moving on from another comfortable voice seems too much..
John Pluym: FICTION. I don’t care who sits in the chair as long as they’re interesting. Who do golf fans want analyzing the action? Who do the players want? Let’s stir the pot instead of always trying to make things comfortable. Let’s also get the players mic’d up at events. In fact, that would be more interesting than who’s sitting in the lead analyst’s chair.
Jeff Ritter: FICTION. I like Azinger, but rotating the chair has added some juice to the broadcasts so far this year. Also: do we need a “lead analyst” at the USO, or could NBC continue some sort of hybrid-rotation that week? I’m open to seeing what they come up with.
John Schwarb: NEUTRAL. I was receptive to NBC’s plan to rotate the chair early in the year but no one has stuck yet and it’s fair to ask if these were actual tryouts or just a cheap way to run a booth. The U.S. Open deserves an analyst with gravitas and right now I feel like I’ll wish Azinger was there. But NBC still has time to get this right.
Several LIV Golf League players will attempt to make the U.S. Open field via final qualifying next month.
Talor Gooch won’t be one of them.
The top player on LIV Golf in 2023 who won three times and captured the season-long points race said during a news conference in Singapore on Thursday that he would not be taking part.
He did not give a reason.
Gooch appeared alongside Smash GC teammates Brooks Koepka, Graeme McDowell and Jason Kokrak, and they were all asked if they would attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open, which will conduct 36-hole qualifiers around the country on May 3.
Both McDowell and Kokrak said they would not only attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open, but for the British Open as well—which will have final qualifying two weeks prior to the championship.
🏆🇺🇸 World #624 Talor Gooch on if he plans to play in a U.S. Open qualifying event: “I’m not.”
A total of 35 players from LIV are scheduled to play in final qualifying. Koepka, a two-time major winner and the reigning PGA champion, is exempt.
Gooch simply said: “I’m not.” And offered no explanation.
The one-time PGA Tour winner has been outspoken about not being included in the major championships.
Last year, he earned his way into the Masters and the British Open having finished in the top 30 in the 2022 PGA Tour FedEx Cup standings. But Gooch was miffed that the U.S. Open changed its rules to state that the same exemption would only go to a player “eligible” for the season-ending Tour Championship. Having gone to LIV Golf, Gooch was not eligible.
Earlier this year, Gooch made headlines when he said: “If Rory McIlroy goes and completes his (career) Grand Slam without some of the best players in the world, there is just going to be an asterisk. It’s just the reality.”
LIV Golf does not receive Official World Golf Ranking points for its events and many of its players have plummeted in the rankings while not earning points. Gooch, who was top 50 in the world around this time last year, has sunk to 624th in the OWGR. He is ranked 41st by Data Golf, which includes LIV tournaments.
He tied for 34th at the Masters last year and then missed the cut at the PGA Championship. He did not attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open and then missed the cut at The Open.
Gooch has no victories so far this year with LIV Golf but does have three top 10s. He is the defending champion of this week’s event in Singapore.
Among the LIV golfers scheduled to compete in final qualifying for the U.S. Open are Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed and Henrik Stenson.
Before even hitting a shot last week, Talor Gooch again set the golf world ablaze. An abrupt “I’m not,” answer to whether or not he would attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open in a few weeks both agitated and amused those who follow this ongoing saga that is part of the current golf wars.
Gooch, 32, is LIV Golf’s reigning player of the year. He led the league’s points list in 2023, capturing three tournaments, finishing second in another and banking more than $34 million in prize money and bonuses.
But to those who run the major championships, it means absolutely nothing.
That is not an opinion or hot take.
It was made clear by two credible officials in this drama: Peter Dawson, the former CEO of the R&A and now the chairman of the Official World Golf Ranking board of directors; and Fred Ridley, the chairman of Augusta National and the Masters, whose organization has one of seven OWGR board seats.
To paraphrase, both have made clear that LIV’s 54-player “closed” tour does not fit their criteria. Dawson said it when LIV’s bid for OWGR accreditation was denied last October. Ridley said when asked last month at the Masters if he could envision the Masters or any major giving direct spots to LIV golfers based on their season-ending Order of Merit or any kind of in-season points list.
“I think it will be difficult to establish any type of point system that has any connection to the rest of the world of golf because they're basically, not totally, but for the most part, a closed shop,” Ridley said of the LIV Golf League structure. “There is some relegation, but not very much. It all really depends on what new players they sign.
“Those concerns were expressed by the OWGR, but I don't think that that prevents us from giving subjective consideration based on talent, based on performance to those players.”
Ridley praised LIV golfer Joaquin Niemann, who won the Australian Open and played in events for which he was eligible around the world in an effort to earn world ranking points. He was granted a special exemption by the Masters soon after winning LIV’s season-opening event in Mexico—with no mention of that victory by Ridley.
Niemann has also received an invite to the PGA Championship next week and it’s possible that David Puig, a young LIV player who has won twice on the Asian Tour and sits just outside the top 100 in the OWGR, could also get a spot. But it’s all due to their chasing points around the world with no credence giving to LIV.
Which leaves Gooch not eligible for a single major championship this year and apparently unwilling to try and qualify for the two where—given his ability—he’d have an excellent chance of making the field.
Gooch, who finished fourth Sunday in LIV Golf’s Singapore event—three shots behind winner Brooks Koepka—is getting roasted for not trying, and he does himself no favors here. As much as he feels maligned, he and his peers on LIV could not miss the signs that this was how it was going to go play out. The OWGR announcement last fall was the first clue. Ridley’s confirmation at the Masters about LIV’s format was a strong second.
What rankles Gooch and those who support LIV Golf is the fact that he was eligible for three of the major championships last year—the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open—based on having finished among the top 30 in the final FedEx Cup standings in 2022.
Gooch did this despite leaving for LIV Golf and not playing another regular PGA Tour event the rest of the year. He was ineligible for the Tour Championship, but both the Masters and the Open stayed with the original language in their qualifications. The U.S. Open did not. Last February, the USGA tweaked its wording to require a player to have been “eligible” for the season-ending Tour Championship. The Masters and Open didn’t change their wording to take place until this year.
It was an unfortunate move by the USGA and came across as petty. Gooch was the only player impacted. As long as the current rules are in place, no LIV golfer was going to be able to qualify for the majors via the FedEx Cup/Tour Championship loophole. It smacked of going out of the way to keep Gooch out, even if that was not the intent.
Gooch, of course, could have attempted to qualify for last year’s U.S. Open. He tied for 34th at the Masters but his OWGR standing was slipping to where he needed a good week at the PGA—which gave him an exemption because he was top 100 in the OWGR—to stay within the top 60 and earn a U.S. Open spot. He missed the cut, didn’t go to qualifying, missed the cut at the Open and now is looking at having no way into the majors.
Meanwhile, 35 of LIV’s 46 non-exempt players for the U.S. Open are scheduled to compete in final qualifying. That is up from the 16 (out of 38) who tried to qualify last year. Clearly, players got the message or LIV is encouraging them to try to get in.
One of those players scheduled for a final qualifier is Andy Ogletree, the 2019 U.S. Amateur champion who last year won the Asian Tour’s and International Series Order of Merit. That distinction will get him in the PGA next week as well as the Open in July. He’s not officially in yet, but in a few weeks, the U.S. Open will also put him in the field via that category (top 2 not otherwise exempt; if Ogletree were to win the PGA, for example, that USGA would give the Asian Tour another spot).
But here’s where it gets uneasy for the majors: is Ogletree a better player than Gooch? Is Puig? Is Niemann?
Gooch’s season on LIV last year might mean nothing to the majors and the OWGR but what he accomplished last year has to mean something. In nine tournaments as part of LIV Golf, Ogletree has finished ahead of Gooch just one time. Puig, who is being hailed for playing an abundance of Asian Tour events to try and boost his OWGR ranking, has never contended in a LIV event, never once finished ahead of Gooch and has just a single top-10 finish. Puig tied for 27th in Singapore and Ogletree tied for 45th.
Even Niemann, who has won twice on LIV Golf this year, only finished ahead of Gooch three times in 13 LIV events in 2023. He tied for seventh in Singapore.
What does this suggest? For a few players who have made their way into majors, they haven’t exactly burned it up on LIV Golf, which might not be deep, but still has a healthy number of players at the top of its roster. Nobody would dispute that Jon Rahm, Koepka, Cam Smith, Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton and Dustin Johnson are world-class players and there are several more such as Louis Oosthuizen, Dean Burmester, Sergio Garcia and others who are highly capable.
It can also mean that the Asian Tour is not particularly strong when guys who are dominating its money list and winning events are struggling to move into the upper echelon at LIV Golf.
Does that mean that Gooch should be in the U.S. Open?
That is clearly the subject of this debate. But again, beating all those guys, even in a format deemed unappealing by the major powers that be, means more than zero. Gooch, who was 624th in the OWGR, is ranked 41st in the Data Golf Rankings and 17th by TUGR.
Those systems include LIV events, so by their metrics, Gooch would be exempt. (It is important to note that Data Golf has said that its scoring-based system has too many downsides to be used as an official ranking tool. Data Golf offered an explanation here.)
And so here we are.
The OWGR and the majors believe the LIV format is not worthy of their consideration.
The LIV leaders decided not to purse OWGR accreditation by making changes that could lead to the league getting accredited. (Both sides are to blame for that mess. i.e., sit down and figure it out.)
And things are only bound to get worse when a few more LIV players see their major exemptions expire.
Bottom line: without some kind of deal that sees a change to the system, LIV golfers who want to compete in the majors better get used to playing even more around the world. Or heading to qualifying.
Jordan Spieth’s rocky road
He is not making excuses, even though Jordan Spieth admitted that the only thing that will ultimately help his wrist is rest. He says he can’t do further damage and knows how to play through the issues it is causing him. But you have to wonder how much it is impacting his play.
Spieth talked last week about having paused for a reset prior to the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, then proceeded to miss his fourth cut in his last six tournaments. Included in that stretch was the Players Championship and the Masters.
Jordan Spieth has missed four cuts in six events, including last week at his hometown CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
Raymond Carlin III-USA TODAY Sports
Still just 30, Spieth is ranked 20th in the Official World Golf Ranking and is seemingly always lurking. He’s had three top 10s this year, including a tie for 10th at the Valero Texas Open, but hasn’t really contended in months. And he admitted that three top 10s to this point is not exactly what he had in mind.
His 13 PGA Tour victories is an impressive haul, but he’s coming up on seven years since winning the third of his three majors at the 2017 British Open and since that time he’s won just twice on the PGA Tour.
It is that kind of discussion that doesn’t make the current situation any easier on Spieth.
Asked a question in his pre-tournament news conference last week about May being mental health month, Spieth responded in this way:
“I think a lot of things I struggled with that have certainly affected me mentally are a lot of comparisons,” he said, acknowledging that he, too, can’t help but compare himself to the past.
“It’s hard not to, especially when you have so much success early in your career. Not only are you compared to the outside world to that person, but I have a hard time wondering why I can’t do that every week, too.”
Spieth was asked what it’s like to see Scottie Scheffler get on the kind of roll he’s been on of late. Scheffler, 27, lives in Dallas like Spieth, and the two play a good amount of golf together. The Masters champion has won four of his last five starts and will be a big favorite to win a third major championship next week at the PGA Championship.
“I have known Scottie since he was really, really young. Not that I wasn't, but he was really, really young,” Spieth said. “I think he's a better person than he is a player, and having known somebody and seen them come up and obviously went to University of Texas, I'm nothing but extremely excited and happy for him. It's well deserved and all that.
“And then on the flip side, like it's kind of the first time I've ever looked at somebody younger than me and I've driven inspiration. Like I am inspired by what he is doing. It makes me want to go out and get better, and that's always been someone that's older than me. Kind of the first time I felt that way about somebody that's younger.
“Because I play a decent amount of rounds with him here in town. I'm constantly seeing it and trying to beat him at home, and when he's playing better than I am, it sucks. I don't enjoy it when I'm side by side because there were however many years of our life it wasn't that way.
“It's flipped and I feel like I've got plenty of runway to be able to get it back. It's inspiring at the same time to try make that happen. I have nothing in my way of being able to make that happen but my own self. I've got enough. I believe in my ceiling, and I believe my ceiling is as high as anybody's. I have to get each part of my game up towards its ceiling.”
The wrist issue first became a problem last year. It actually kept him from playing his hometown event the week after the Wells Fargo Championship. Those tournaments have switched dates this year and Spieth is set for a good bit of golf ahead with the PGA following the Wells Fargo and then the possibility that he plays Colonial. After a week off, Spieth would then likely play the Memorial, U.S. Open and Travelers Championship in consecutive weeks.
“It’s a lot of managing it,” he said. “I'm kind of doing a couple different things to help treat the symptoms that I experience and to not have some recurring problems that have happened. And so I'm doing a lot of stuff off the course, therapy side, whether it's treating tendon to treating the nerve in general. I think that that's helping.
“I kind of maybe got a little bit away from it as I got into a heavier stretch of golf the last eight weeks so I had a couple instances that weren't good. I don't plan on that happening going forward with what I'm doing off the course even though I will be playing a lot of golf.”
Signature event No. 6 ... and other notes
Everyone who is eligible for this week’s Wells Fargo Championship is competing—except for one big one. Reigning No. 1 and Masters champion Scottie Scheffler is a no-show. He’s got good reason. His wife, Meredith, is expecting the couple’s first child.
It should be noted that had there been no baby watch, there’s a good chance Scheffler would have skipped Quail Hollow anyway. He didn’t play the tournament last year. And he almost assuredly would have played his hometown Byron Nelson tournament.
In any case, the sixth of eight Signature Events it follows The Sentry, AT&T Pebble Beach, Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational and RBC Heritage. After the Wells Fargo is next week’s PGA Championship. Following Colonial and the RBC Canadian Open is the seventh Signature Event, the Memorial, the U.S. Open and then the final Signature Event, the Travelers Championship.
And a few more things
The field of the Wells Fargo is 70 players, comprising 48 who are locked via the FedEx Cup from 2023, 10 from the FedEx Cup category, five from the swing category (Zurich Classic and Byron Nelson), four sponsor exemptions, and three players who won PGA Tour events this year not otherwise including Taylor Pendrith, who got his first victory Sunday at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and will get his first signature event start. ... He will also get a spot in next week’s PGA Championship as well as next year’s Players and the Masters. ... The field size again suggests the Tour should look at this at the end of the year and consider expanding with reserves or broadening categories to get to 78 players ... Ben Kohles, who bogeyed the 18th hole to lose by a shot to Pendrith, also gets into the Wells Fargo via the Swing Five category.
Webb Simpson got one of the sponsor exemptions, and since he lives at Quail Hollow, that makes sense. But it is his fourth such free pass into a signature event and it’s just his eighth start of the year. As a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board, that is causing some concern. Adam Scott, also on the board, is getting his third sponsor invite to a signature event. The others went to Gary Woodland and Matt Kuchar.
The PGA Championship is expected to finalize its field this week by inviting players otherwise not exempt who are among the top 100 in the OWGR. It can go beyond 100 and also invite those from the PGA points list, which assures spots to the top 70 via PGA Tour performance from last year’s Byron Nelson through this year’s. ... The PGA Championship begins in 10 days.
Notes: Jordan Spieth, Will Zalatoris and Tom Kim lead the contingent of Dallas-area residents playing the tournament. ... CJ Cup takes over as title sponsor after AT&T ended its sponsorship after nine years. CJ Cup started out with a tournament in South Korea, then moved to Las Vegas and South Carolina during the COVID-19 pandemic. ... The field features only 10 of the top 50 in the world ranking. Spieth is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 20. ... Scottie Scheffler is missing the tournament as his wife is expecting their first child. ... Adam Scott is playing the tournament for the third straight year. He won the Byron Nelson in 2008. ... This is the final week to finish among the top 70 in the PGA Championship points list to assure a spot at Valhalla in two weeks. The points list is PGA Tour earnings the last 12 months. ... Spieth now has gone 43 starts over two years on the PGA Tour since his last victory.
Television: Thursday-Saturday, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. (CW app); Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (The CW Network-Tape Delay).
Defending champion: Talor Gooch.
Points leader: Joaquin Niemann.
Last week: Brendan Steele won LIV Golf Adelaide.
Notes: Brendan Steele last week became the third straight first-time winner on LIV Golf, matching the longest such streak since the league launched in June 2022. ... Jon Rahm has yet to win since joining LIV this year, but he is the only player in 2024 to have finished in the top 10 in all six events. ... Ian Poulter and Hudson Swafford were the only players who did not have a round under par last week in Australia. ... Poulter in 2009 and Sergio Garcia in 2018 won the Singapore Open when it was played at Sentosa. ... With the PGA Championship approaching, LIV has three players in the top 100 who are not already eligible—Adrian Meronk, Lucas Herbert and Patrick Reed. ... LIV already has 10 players in the PGA Championship field at Valhalla. ... After back-to-back weeks in Australia and Asia, LIV Golf is off for a month until a week before the U.S. Open.
Last week: Yuto Katsuragawa won the ISPS Handa Championship.
Notes: The China Open returns to the European tour schedule for the first time since 2019 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament was held last year co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the China Tour. ... This is the final event that counts toward the Asian Swing on the European. The top three players get exemptions into the PGA Championship next month at Valhalla. Sebastian Soderberg, Keita Nakajima and Jesper Svensson are currently holding down the top three spots. ... Thriston Lawrence leads the European tour this season with five finishes in the top 10. ... Katsuragawa is the fourth player from Japan in the last seven months to win on the European tour. The others were Ryo Hisatsune, Rikuya Hoshino and Nakajima. ... The tour is off until the PGA Championship on May 16-19. After that begins a stretch in which 17 consecutive events (outside the majors) are staged in European countries.
Last week: Stephen Ames won the Mitsubishi Electric Classic.
Notes: Bernhard Langer returns to competition after injuring his Achilles tendon while playing pickleball on Feb. 1. The injury caused him to miss the Masters. ... Langer has won every year since first becoming eligible for the PGA Tour Champions in 2007. He is a four-time winner of the Insperity Invitational. ... Stephen Ames took over the Charles Schwab Cup lead over Steven Alker by winning at the TPC Sugarloaf last week. It was his second win this season. ... Alker is the two-time defending champion at The Woodlands. ... Ames is the only multiple winner on the PGA Tour Champions in 2024. ... The field includes Steve Stricker, who missed the cut last week in New Orleans on the PGA Tour. ... Paul Broadhurst of England has won and finished runner-up in his last two starts. ... This is the last regular event before the first of five majors on the PGA Tour Champions schedule.
