Countdown to FedEx Cup Playoffs, Ryder Cup, more golf news

It is the final week earlier than the beginning of the FedEx Cup Playoffs on the PGA Tour, and earlier than the ultimate ladies’s main championship of the season, the AIG Ladies’s Open at Walton Heath Golf Membership in Surrey, England.

And there is one other LIV Golf League occasion in West Virginia.

A handful of PGA Tour stars, together with Justin Thomas, Shane Lowry and Adam Scott, will attempt to make a push at this week’s Wyndham Championship to crack the highest 70 in FedEx Cup factors to make the playoffs.

That is not the one factor at stake this week in skilled golf. There’s additionally positioning for the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup later in late September.

This is what to observe in skilled golf this week:

What’s subsequent on the PGA Tour

Wyndham Championship
When: Thursday-Sunday
The place: Sedgefield Nation Membership
Greensboro, North Carolina
Defending champion: Tom Kim
Purse: $7.6 million

Playoff spots on the road: The highest 70 gamers within the FedEx Cup factors record after Sunday’s closing spherical will advance to subsequent week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, the primary leg of the playoffs. That is down from the 125 gamers who certified for the primary of three playoff tournaments in latest seasons. The highest 50 will make the BMW Championship, and the highest 30 will end the season on the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Membership in Atlanta.

Rookie Austin Eckroat is at present in seventieth with 594 factors. Ben Taylor (592), Garrick Higgo (586), K.H. Lee (567), David Lingmerth (561) and Davis Thompson (559) are proper behind him.

There are a number of acquainted names who have to play nicely this week to make the playoffs. Lowry is 76th in factors with 556; Thomas is 79th (546), Scott is 81st (517), Joel Dahmen is 82nd (515), Gary Woodland is 97th (436) and Billy Horschel is 116th (350). All of them are on this week’s discipline.

JT’s closing push

Thomas just isn’t solely on the verge of lacking the FedEx Cup Playoffs however his spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup crew, which as soon as gave the impression to be a positive factor, is likely to be in peril as nicely. Thomas has fallen to 14th within the U.S. Ryder Cup factors standings; the highest six are assured spots on the crew that may compete towards Europe at Marco Simone Golf and Nation Membership exterior Rome, Italy, on Sept. 29-Oct. 1.

U.S. crew captain Zach Johnson will make six captain’s decisions after the Tour Championship.

Thomas in all probability wants to complete solo 18th or higher this week to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

“I am very assured, I’m,” Thomas advised reporters Tuesday. “It is completely different than attempting to win a match or making a putt for a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, no matter it could be, but it surely’s nonetheless that very same feeling. I used to be and am so excited to be enjoying this week.

“Like I mentioned, it is a cool alternative. It is an ideal alternative for me. I have been in the proper way of thinking I really feel like for the final type of month or so. I have been in loads higher headspace of only a feeling like actually good issues are coming, However not as a lot anticipating or saying, you already know, when’s this going to be over?”

Thomas missed the minimize within the 3M Open final week. It was the fifth time in his previous seven begins that he wasn’t round for the weekend.

“It is simply making it not as large of a deal as it’s and simply having an understanding that simply having good scoring and doing what I’ve previously, and know that any week only one shot, one spherical, one match might flip it and in a month no one’s speaking about it anymore.”

No Kim

Kim, who picked up his first PGA Tour victory by carding a final-round 61 within the Wyndham Championship final yr, will not be round to defend his title. He’s skipping the occasion as he continues to get well from a grade-1 proper ankle sprain that occurred in an accident at his rental dwelling ultimately month’s Open Championship.

Kim mentioned he slipped in moist grass whereas stepping off a patio. He battled via the ache to tie for second at The Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Membership.

“I’m very gutted to not be capable to defend my first PGA Tour win,” Kim mentioned in a press release final week. “I’m nonetheless having a tough time with my ankle, so I get the remedy I have to heal utterly.”

He traveled to his native South Korea to obtain remedy and hopes to be prepared for subsequent week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship.

What’s subsequent within the LIV Golf League

LIV Golf Invitational Greenbrier
When: Friday-Sunday
The place: The Outdated White Course
White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
Purse: $25 million

Rahm is not coming

There was widespread hypothesis within the sport that the LIV Golf League was courting Jon Rahm in latest months, however the Masters champion advised the Spanish podcast Golf Sin Etiquetas this week that its crew format by no means appealed to him.

Rahm advised the podcast that LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman reached out to him in early 2022, however “as an alternative of convincing me with the historical past of golf, which I like, he began sending me numbers, numbers and numbers.”

Rahm mentioned he advised Norman to achieve out to his supervisor.

“In flip, I advised my supervisor that this does not enchantment to me,” Rahm mentioned.

Rahm advised the podcast that his relationship with LIV Golf star Phil Mickelson, a fellow former Arizona State participant, continues to be good.

“Phil respects my determination and I respect his determination,” Rahm mentioned. “He has advised me that I’ve no cause to go to LIV. And he has advised me that a number of occasions.”

Mickelson desires an apology

The pending alliance between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund (PIF) has cooled a few of the dangerous blood between the rival circuits.

Go away it to Mickelson, one of many PGA Tour’s most vocal critics, to spice issues up once more on social media.

Final week, the PGA Tour mentioned in a memo to its gamers {that a} committee was working via how you can permit LIV Golf League gamers again on the PGA Tour if a closing settlement is reached with PIF.

Mickelson alleged on social media this previous weekend that LIV Golf League gamers do not wish to come again.

“Not a single participant on LIV desires to play PGA Tour,” Mickelson mentioned. “It might require a public apology and restitution to LIV gamers for paying thousands and thousands to Clout media to disparage all of us. A greater subject is future sanctions for the numerous gamers who now come to LIV.”

Mickelson was referring to Clout Public Affairs, which the PGA Tour contracted to deal with public relations throughout its fierce battle with LIV Golf.

What’s subsequent on the LPGA Tour

Freed Group Ladies’s Scottish Open
When: Thursday-Sunday
The place: Dundonald Hyperlinks
Ayrshire, Scotland
Defending champion: Ayaka Furue
Purse: $2 million

Boutier’s whirlwind week

Celine Boutier captured her first main championship ultimately week’s Amundi Evian Championship and doing it in her native France made it much more particular.

She is the third girl from France to win a significant championship, becoming a member of Patricia Meunier-Lebouc on the 2004 Kraft Nabisco Championship and Catherine Lacoste, an beginner who received the 1967 U.S. Ladies’s Open.

🇫🇷 🏆 pic.twitter.com/xo9AxuNTWl

— LPGA (@LPGA) July 30, 2023

Boutier, who was born in Clamart, France, had followers rooting her for as she carded a final-round 68 to safe a 6-stroke victory. The previous Duke star has residences in Dallas and Montrouge, France.

“I really feel like individuals have been type of anticipating me to do it,” Boutier mentioned. “I believe that was in all probability the toughest. The truth that, additionally, they wished it as a lot, in all probability, as I did. I did not wish to disappoint anyone, in order that’s additionally one thing I needed to type of put apart and not likely give it some thought an excessive amount of to have the ability to play my finest.”

Boutier completed second in final yr’s Scottish Open, 3 strokes behind Furue. She climbed 11 spots to fourth within the Rolex Ladies’s World Golf Rankings.

Furue’s protection

Final yr, Furue turned the primary Japanese girl to seize the Scottish Open. She began the ultimate spherical 4 pictures again however carded a 10-under 62, a course file, to choose up her first LPGA victory.

A 22-year-old rookie on the time, Furue had 10 birdies within the closing 18 holes, together with six in a row. Her 21-under whole set a scoring file for the Ladies’s Scottish Open. She had seven wins on the Japanese Tour earlier than incomes her LPGA card.

“Once I went again to Japan, all of the Japanese followers, they already know the bunkers and the course may be very troublesome,” Furue advised reporters in Scotland. “So that they have been very blissful that I used to be capable of win in that situation, and everyone mentioned, ‘Nice job, nice job.'”

Korda again to No. 1

With a tie for ninth on the Amundi Evian Championship, American Nelly Korda has returned to No. 1 on the planet rankings. She replaces Jin Young Ko, who completed twentieth in France and had held the No. 1 spot for the earlier 10 weeks.

It is the fifth time in Korda’s profession that she has been ranked No. 1 on the planet, most not too long ago from April 24-Might 21. She has spent a complete of 36 weeks at No. 1 in her profession. Korda missed greater than a month this season whereas recovering from a low again damage.

Roaring again to the highest spot within the World Rating. 💯

With a top-10 end at The Amundi Evian Championship, @NellyKorda formally strikes again to World No. 1 for the FIFTH time. #TeamTaylorMade #TP5 pic.twitter.com/bvqg8Tq9M6

— TaylorMade Golf (@TaylorMadeGolf) August 1, 2023

Korda, U.S. Ladies’s Open champion Allisen Corpuz and Chevron Championship winner Lilia Vu have already certified for the U.S. Solheim Cup crew on factors. The People will battle Europe at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain, on Sept. 22-24.

The highest seven gamers within the U.S. Solheim Cup factors standings after the CPKC Ladies’s Open in Canada on Aug. 24-27 will routinely qualify for the crew. The highest two gamers on the planet rankings in any other case not eligible will even make the squad.

U.S. crew captain Stacy Lewis will even make three captain’s decisions.

Ryder Cup inventory report

Listed here are the gamers who’re trending up and down this week to make the Ryder Cup:

Up: Wyndham Clark — The U.S. Open winner joined world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler as the one participant to have mathematically secured spots on the U.S. crew. Clark has seven top-10 and 12 top-25 finishes this season, together with his first PGA Tour victory on the Wells Fargo Championship.

From main champion to the Ryder Cup 🏆

What a yr, @Wyndham_Clark 👏#GoUSA | #RyderCup pic.twitter.com/mm9aPb1Lfr

— Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) July 31, 2023

Down: Justin Thomas — JT has been a stud in crew occasions with a 6-2-1 file in two earlier Ryder Cup appearances. However given Thomas’ latest kind, he has to do one thing good to justify Johnson choosing him.

Up: Cameron Young — Younger missed the minimize on the 3M Open, however his latest top-10s on the John Deere Basic (tie for sixth) and The Open (tie for eighth) elevated him to eighth within the U.S. factors standings.

Down: Sam Burns — Burns received the WGC-Dell Applied sciences Match Play in March however has only one top-10 end since. A missed minimize at The Open dropped him to thirteenth within the U.S. crew standings.

Up: Sepp Straka — Straka, from Austria, additionally missed the minimize on the 3M Open. His victory on the John Deere Basic and a tie for second at The Open have him proper on the bubble for the European crew.

Down: Collin Morikawa — The 2-time main champion might have actually used a victory within the Rocket Mortgage Basic to cement his place on the crew. He misplaced in a playoff to Rickie Fowler in Detroit in June.