-
Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Author
It was one other wild yr in skilled golf, with the most effective gamers on the earth nonetheless competing on rival excursions within the males’s recreation.
In June, there was a surprising alliance introduced between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund. However the framework settlement did not stop one of many sport’s greatest names — Jon Rahm — from leaping to the LIV Golf League.
Spain’s Rahm, Germany’s Bernhard Langer and American Lilia Vu saved profitable. Rickie Fowler and Brooks Koepka bounced again, whereas Rose Zhang and Michael Block burst onto the scene.
Here is a have a look at the largest newsmakers in golf in 2023:
1. Jay Monahan
The embattled PGA Tour commissioner signed a framework agreement on June 6 to type a brand new firm, PGA Tour Enterprises, that may mix the golf industrial belongings of the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the PIF, together with the rival LIV Golf League.
Monahan agreed to the alliance with out telling his personal tour’s members, even those that are participant administrators on the PGA Tour coverage board. Eight days after the announcement, Monahan took a depart of absence to concentrate on his psychological well being and an undisclosed medical situation. He returned to work on July 17.
2. Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Al-Rumayyan is the governor of the Public Funding Fund, which had about $778 billion in belongings coming into the yr. Along with funding the LIV Golf League for greater than $2 billion yearly, PIF would make investments a further $3.5 billion in PGA Tour Enterprises if a deal is reached.
The framework settlement between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the PIF is ready to run out Dec. 31. The deal might be prolonged, sources have advised ESPN, however Al-Rumayyan may resolve if the fractured sport comes again collectively, or if the most effective gamers on the earth will proceed to compete on rival circuits.
3. Jon Rahm
The Spaniard grew to become the largest PGA Tour identify to leap to the LIV Golf League when he signed a multiyear contract price greater than $300 million on Dec. 7. Rahm, 29, received 4 occasions this yr, together with his second main championship on the Masters in April.
Rahm’s defection particularly stung the PGA Tour as a result of he had voiced his dislike of LIV Golf’s 54-hole format prior to now and mentioned he needed to construct his legacy by profitable tournaments that greats like Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer had captured earlier than him.
4. Rory McIlroy
McIlroy had a fairly good yr on the golf course, profitable the Hero Dubai Desert Traditional on the DP World Tour in January and the Genesis Scottish Open in July. He completed within the high 10 in three of the 4 majors, together with solo second on the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Nation Membership.
It may be argued that McIlroy made much more headlines off the course this previous yr. After lacking the lower on the Masters, which he must win to finish the profession grand slam, he skipped a scheduled begin on the RBC Heritage to reset. It was his second missed designated occasion of the season, inflicting McIlroy to lose $3 million of his Participant Impression Program bonus from 2022.
The Northern Irishman carried a variety of water for the PGA Tour and was a vocal critic of LIV Golf. After the stunning alliance was introduced, McIlroy mentioned he felt like a sacrificial lamb. Then, on the Ryder Cup in Italy in October, McIlroy had a dustup with U.S. caddie Joe LaCava on the 18th inexperienced. That disagreement brought on McIlroy to scream at caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay within the car parking zone.
McIlroy resigned as a player director on the PGA Tour’s policy board on Nov. 14.
5. Tiger Woods
The 15-time main champion made solely two begins in official PGA Tour occasions this yr due to accidents. He tied for forty fifth at The Genesis, a event he hosts at Riviera Nation Membership exterior Los Angeles, after which withdrew in the course of the third spherical of the Masters in April due to extreme ache in his proper foot and ankle.
Two weeks after the Masters, Woods introduced he had undergone one other surgical procedure to deal with post-traumatic arthritis in his proper ankle that was attributable to accidents suffered in a February 2021 automotive wreck. The process helped the ache go away, in keeping with Woods, however mobility in his ankle was enormously diminished.
On Aug. 1, Woods joined the PGA Tour coverage board for the primary time in his profession. He’s intimately concerned within the negotiations between the tour and the PIF. Woods and McIlroy are additionally serving to develop the TGL, a tech-infused golf league, which was forced to delay its launch until 2025 due to harm to its area in Florida that was going to take too lengthy to restore.
On Nov. 30, Woods returned to motion on the Hero World Problem within the Bahamas, greater than seven months after the surgical procedure. He mentioned the ache in his foot and ankle have been gone. He finished 18th in the 20-man field. Woods mentioned he felt ok that he hoped to play one event a month in 2024.
6. Brooks Koepka
The previous world No. 1 participant’s greatest golf gave the impression to be within the rearview mirror when he jumped to LIV Golf in June 2022. He was stricken by knee issues after falling and attempting to pop his proper kneecap again into place in March 2021. He ended up shattering his kneecap within the course of.
On April 2, Koepka received his second LIV Golf occasion in Orlando, Florida, then tied for second on the Masters per week later. At Oak Hill Nation Membership in Rochester, New York, in Could, Koepka won the PGA Championship for the third time with a 2-stroke victory over Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland.
7. Viktor Hovland
Hovland, 26, had lengthy been thought of some of the gifted golfers on the earth. His driving and ballstriking have been high notch, however his quick recreation had held him again from becoming a member of the game’s actually elite.
That modified this yr, when the Norwegian received thrice, together with in back-to-back occasions within the FedEx Cup playoffs. Hovland received the BMW Championship after which the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Membership in Atlanta. He earned an $18 million bonus for profitable the FedEx Cup and made $21.6 million for his consecutive victories. He additionally tied for seventh on the Masters and for second on the PGA Championship.
8. Scottie Scheffler
After profitable 4 occasions in 2022, together with his first main championship on the Masters, it will have been troublesome to copy that success once more. However Scheffler received twice extra in 2023, on the WM Phoenix Open and The Gamers, and was arguably higher, main the PGA Tour in almost each ballstriking measurement.
However Scheffler’s putter let him down too usually and he hasn’t received an official PGA Tour occasion since March. He did end first on this month’s Hero World Problem within the Bahamas, an unofficial occasion with a restricted subject. Scheffler’s teary response to an unsightly 9 and seven loss with Koepka to Hovland and rookie Ludvig Åberg on the Ryder Cup was a microcosm of the U.S. workforce’s frustration in its 16½-11 ½ loss to the Europeans in Italy.
9. Rose Zhang
The previous Stanford star turned professional on Could 26, then grew to become the primary girl since Beverly Hanson in 1951 to win in her pro debut at the Mizuho American Open in Jersey Metropolis, New Jersey. The win earned her an LPGA Tour card, making her eligible for the Solheim Cup.
Much more spectacular, Zhang, 20, completed within the high 10 in three of the 4 main championships through which she competed. She tied for eighth on the KPMG Girls’s PGA Championship and for ninth at each the U.S. Girls’s Open at Pebble Seaside Golf Hyperlinks in California and the Amundi Evian Championship.
Zhang went 0-2-1 in her Solheim Cup debut at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain, the place the European workforce retained the cup with a 14-14 tie.
10. Lilia Vu
After dropping her LPGA Tour card and almost strolling away from the sport 4 years in the past, Vu climbed to No. 1 in the world this year. She received 4 occasions, together with two majors on the Chevron Championship and AIG Girls’s Open. She was named LPGA Tour Participant of the Yr and picked up greater than $3.5 million in on-course earnings.
Vu, 26, grew to become the primary girl golfer since Jin Young Ko in 2019 to win two majors in the identical season, and the primary American to do it since Juli Inkster in 1999. She was solely the third American girl to win The Open prior to now 20 years, becoming a member of Stacy Lewis in 2013 and Mo Martin in 2014.
11. Phil Mickelson
The previous yr wasn’t as eventful for Mickelson as 2022, when he largely made headlines for the fallacious causes. Mickelson’s controversial feedback concerning the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabian monarchy’s historical past of human rights violations brought on a number of of his longtime sponsors to finish their relationships with him. Mickelson wasn’t as outspoken in 2023, exterior of patting himself on the again a bit after the PGA Tour’s framework settlement with the PIF was introduced.
In April, Lefty carded a 7-under 65 on Sunday on the Masters — his greatest remaining spherical within the occasion — to tie for second with Koepka. At age 52, he grew to become the oldest participant to complete within the high 5 of a Masters, and his remaining spherical was the bottom within the occasion’s historical past by a participant age 50 or older.
Explosive revelations that Mickelson wager greater than $1 billion on soccer, basketball and baseball over the previous three a long time have been included in a ebook revealed by skilled gambler Billy Walters, Mickelson’s former good friend, in August. Walters alleged that Mickelson tried to put a $400,000 wager on Crew USA within the 2012 Ryder Cup through which he participated; Mickelson denied that he wager on the Ryder Cup.
12. Jimmy Dunne
Till the PGA Tour’s stunning cope with the Saudis and DP World Tour was introduced in June, Dunne was extra of a shadowy determine within the sport, who was pals with Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas and others.
Dunne, the vice chair and senior managing principal of the funding financial institution Piper Sandler, joined the PGA Tour’s coverage board this yr and initially reached out to Al-Rumayyan — by way of a message on WhatsApp — on the tour’s behalf to attempt to attain a truce.
Dunne and coverage board co-chairman Ed Herlihy helped lay the groundwork for the alliance, after which each males testified at a U.S. Congressional listening to relating to the deal on July 12. A member of Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership and president of Seminole Golf Membership in Juno Seaside, Florida, Dunne will serve on the PGA Tour Enterprises board.
13. Keith Pelley
Pelley, CEO of the DP World Tour, claimed a major victory in April when a London-based sports activities arbitration panel dominated that the circuit was allowed to droop and tremendous its members who competed in LIV Golf occasions in June 2022. Their requests for releases to play within the tournaments had beforehand been refused.
A number of longtime DP World Tour golfers, together with Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, resigned from the circuit, making them ineligible to compete for the European workforce within the Ryder Cup.
14. Greg Norman
After disrupting males’s skilled golf because the CEO and commissioner of the LIV Golf League, Norman largely stayed out of the highlight following the alliance between the PIF and PGA Tour. Norman nonetheless made fairly a mark when he helped recruit Rahm to the LIV Golf League.
LIV Golf’s battle to be acknowledged by the Official World Golf Rating was dealt a blow in October, when OWGR chairman Peter Dawson notified Norman and LIV Golf COO Gary Davidson that LIV Golf will not be recognized as an eligible tour for now. In a letter, Dawson cited considerations about LIV Golf staging particular person and workforce competitions concurrently and restricted pathways for different gamers to hitch the league.
“OWGR has been a really disappointing sticking level,” Norman advised ESPN final week. “I do not get it, to be trustworthy with you. We had one in every of our guys win a serious championship this yr. The final 4 DP World tournaments performed this yr, whether or not it is in South Africa or Australia, have been received by LIV gamers. They’re no completely different. They’re precisely the identical gamers. They’re nonetheless competing.”
15. Brian Harman
Harman won his first major championship when he shocked the sphere with a 6-shot victory at The Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Membership in July. The 36-year-old American opened a 5-shot lead after the second spherical, then survived the rain and wind to turn out to be the oldest main champion since Spain’s Sergio Garcia captured the 2017 Masters at 37.
Due to his love for looking and the outside, the British press dubbed him “Brian the Butcher” and the “Butcher of Hoylake.” Harman took it in stride.
Harman’s 6-stroke margin of victory matched the second largest in Open Championship historical past by golfers representing the U.S.; Woods received the Claret Jug with an 8-stroke margin at St. Andrews in Scotland in 2000.
16. Talor Gooch
Gooch received thrice within the LIV Golf League this yr, ending first in back-to-back weeks in Australia and Singapore in April after which once more in Spain in July. He received the circuit’s season-long factors race and picked up greater than $36 million in purses and bonuses. In two seasons on the circuit, Gooch has collected about $46.5 million.
In a stunning transfer final week, Gooch was traded from captain Bubba Watson’s RangeGoats workforce to Koepka’s Smash GC in change for struggling Matthew Wolff.
“[With] me being an Oklahoma State man, I do know the expertise that he’s,” Gooch mentioned of Wolff, one other former Pokes star. “He is the most effective skills within the recreation. They are saying you need to promote a inventory excessive, and Bubba bought me fairly excessive and was capable of purchase a inventory fairly low. And so I’ve little doubt that Wolfie goes to go and play nice. We golfers, after we’re comfy and in a very good setting that is conducive, you are likely to thrive higher in these kinds of conditions.”
17. Martin Slumbers
Slumbers, CEO of the R&A, raised some eyebrows at The Open in July when he urged that the governing physique would not rule out taking cash from the PIF to assist fund escalating prices. Al-Rumayyan attended the event because the visitor of a company sponsor.
“The world of sport has modified dramatically within the final 12 months, and it’s not possible for the R&A or golf to simply ignore what’s a societal change on a worldwide foundation,” Slumbers mentioned. “We will probably be contemplating inside all of the parameters that we have a look at all of the choices that we’ve.”
On Dec. 6, the R&A and United States Golf Affiliation ignored objections from the PGA Tour, high gamers and tools producers when it introduced a rollback for all golf balls. The governing our bodies urged driving distance for elite gamers could be rolled again by 13 to fifteen yards by altering the take a look at velocity for conforming golf balls from 120 miles per hour to 125, whereas the typical leisure participant would hardly be affected by the adjustments.
18. Michael Block
Block, a PGA membership skilled from Arroyo Trabuco Golf Membership in Mission Viejo, California, captured the game’s creativeness over 4 days on the PGA Championship in Could.
The Block celebration began when he was tied for tenth after the second spherical at Oak Hill after which for eighth after the third. Within the remaining spherical, he made the first ace of the tournament with a hole-in-one on the par-3 fifteenth gap. Block tied for fifteenth at 1-over 281 after 72 holes, the most effective end by a membership professional on the PGA Championship since Lonnie Nielsen tied for eleventh in 1986.
Block climbed from 3,580th to 577th within the Official World Golf Rating after the efficiency and earned sponsor’s exemptions to the Charles Schwab Problem and RBC Canadian Open, through which he missed the lower.
In September, Block received back-to-back tournaments in California to earn spots within the World Huge Expertise Championship in Mexico and The American Specific in January.
19. Lexi Thompson
On Oct. 12, Thompson made her PGA Tour debut when she competed within the Shriners Youngsters’s Open in Las Vegas. She was the primary girl to play in a PGA Tour occasion since Brittany Lincicome on the 2018 Barbasol Championship.
Thompson was 4 beneath with seven holes to play within the second spherical and was on the verge of turning into the primary girl in 78 years to make a 36-hole lower on the PGA Tour. She finished at even-par 142, lacking the lower by 3 pictures.
Fact be advised, it was a somewhat abnormal season for Thompson on the LPGA Tour. She completed 79th in factors and slipped to No. 31 on the earth. She surprisingly performed within the opening match of the Solheim Cup, serving to the Individuals sweep the opening session. She went 3-1-0 within the competitors.
On the LIV Golf League’s event on the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, on Aug. 6, DeChambeau grew to become the primary participant within the league’s two-year historical past to card a 58 when he made a 35-foot birdie putt on the 72nd gap. He had birdies on the final 4 holes of his spherical.
DeChambeau grew to become the fourth participant from a top-level circuit to file a 58. Jim Furyk did it on the PGA Tour on the 2016 Vacationers Championship; Ryo Ishikawa and S.H. Kim each did it on the Japan Golf Tour in 2010 and 2021, respectively.
It was DeChambeau’s first LIV Golf win and his first victory since March 2021. He additionally tied for fourth on the PGA Championship.
He received one other LIV Golf particular person title in Illinois the subsequent month. Then his Crushers GC squad captured the LIV Golf workforce championship at Trump Nationwide Doral to gather a $14 million prize.
21. Mollie Marcoux Samaan
In Marcoux Samaan’s third season as LPGA commissioner, the circuit awarded a file $108 million in prize cash in official and unofficial occasions, a 54% enhance from 2021. It’s going to bounce to a file $116 million in prize cash with 10 common tournaments providing no less than $3 million.
On Nov. 15, the LPGA introduced the purse for the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship will enhance by $4 million to $11 million, with the winner’s share doubling from $2 million to $4 million, making it the biggest winner’s test in girls’s sports activities historical past.
“The LPGA represents the most effective of the most effective and we’re thrilled to have the ability to supply extra alternatives for followers to observe these unbelievable athletes carry out on the largest stage,” Marcoux Samaan mentioned.
ESPN additionally agreed to a two-year settlement with the LPGA to offer featured group protection on ESPN+ at eight occasions.
22. Luke Donald
Donald, a former world No. 1 golfer, took over the European Ryder Cup captaincy when Sweden’s Henrik Stenson joined LIV Golf in July 2022. Donald pushed all the precise buttons at Marco Simone Golf and Nation Membership exterior Rome, main the European workforce to its seventh-straight victory in a Ryder Cup performed exterior the U.S. The Individuals have not received throughout the pond since 1993. Issues went so nicely for the European workforce that Donald was named the team’s captain for the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York. He would be the European workforce’s first repeat captain since Bernard Gallacher did so in three straight matches from 1991 to 1995.
23. Patrick Cantlay
Cantlay misplaced a longtime sponsor, Goldman Sachs; gained a brand new caddie, LaCava; did or did not take management of the PGA Tour coverage board in its negotiations with the Saudis; and someway grew to become the middle of an argument on the Ryder Cup, the place European followers swooned him with their hats (after he reportedly refused to put on a Crew USA one over a cash dispute). Oh, Cantlay was married in Rome the day after the Ryder Cup.
Cantlay did not win on the PGA Tour this yr, however he did have 10 top-10s in 16 begins on tour.
24. Bernhard Langer
What did not the 66-year-old German do that yr? He received twice on PGA Tour Champions to convey his profession victory complete to 46, breaking the file held by Hale Irwin. Langer captured the Chubb Traditional in February and the U.S. Senior Open in July, his file twelfth senior males’s main championship title.
On Sunday, Langer and his son Jason won the PNC Championship, giving the elder Langer a tie with Raymond Floyd for probably the most titles within the occasion.
25. Carlota Ciganda
The Spaniard grew to become a nationwide hero when she clinched the tying level for the European workforce on the Solheim Cup. She knocked her tee shot on the par-3 seventeenth gap to about 2 ft and made birdie, setting off a wild celebration for the Europeans.
Ciganda grew up in Pamplona and performed collegiately at Arizona State. She was the one participant from both workforce to win 4 factors and go 4-0-0 that week.
Trending Merchandise
