Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Essayist
It’s the extreme pace sooner than the beginning of the FedEx Cup Playoffs at the PGA Excursion, and sooner than the overall girls’s main championship of the season, the AIG Ladies’s Unmistakable at Walton Heath Golfing Membership in Surrey, England.
And there’s some other LIV Golfing League tournament in West Virginia.
A handful of PGA Excursion stars, together with Justin Thomas, Shane Lowry and Adam Scott, will effort to put together a push at this pace’s Wyndham Championship to split the govern 70 in FedEx Cup issues to put together the playoffs.
That’s now not the one factor at stake this pace in skilled golfing. There’s additionally positioning for the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup upcoming in overdue September.
Right here’s what to look at in skilled golfing this pace:
What’s after at the PGA Excursion
Wyndham Championship
When: Thursday-Sunday
The place: Sedgefield Nation Membership
Greensboro, North Carolina
Protecting champion: Tom Kim
Handbag: $7.6 million
Playoff spots at the series: The govern 70 gamers within the FedEx Cup issues record then Sunday’s ultimate spherical will progress to after pace’s FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, the primary leg of the playoffs. That’s i’m sick from the 125 gamers who certified for the primary of 3 playoff tournaments in fresh seasons. The govern 50 will put together the BMW Championship and the govern 30 will end the season on the Excursion Championship at East Pool Golfing Membership in Atlanta.
Rookie Austin Eckroat is recently in seventieth with 594 issues. Ben Taylor (592), Garrick Higgo (586), K.H. Lee (567), David Lingmerth (561) and Davis Thompson (559) are proper at the back of him.
There are a couple of usual names who want to play games smartly this pace to put together the playoffs. Lowry is 76th in issues 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). They all are on this pace’s garden.
JT’s ultimate push
Thomas is not just at the verge of lacking the FedEx Cup Playoffs however his spot at the U.S. Ryder Cup staff, which as soon as appeared to be a certain factor, may well be in peril as smartly. Thomas has fallen to 14th within the U.S. Ryder Cup issues standings; the govern six are assured spots at the staff that may compete in opposition to Europe at Marco Simone Golfing and Nation Membership out of doors Rome, Italy, on Sept. 29-Oct. 1.
U.S. staff captain Zach Johnson will put together six captain’s possible choices then the Excursion Championship.
Thomas most probably wishes to complete solo 18th or higher this pace to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
“I’m very confident, I am,” Thomas informed journalists Tuesday. “It’s different than trying to win a tournament or making a putt for a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, whatever it may be, but it’s still that same feeling. I was and am so excited to be playing this week.
“Like I said, it’s a cool opportunity. It’s a great opportunity for me. I’ve been in the right frame of mind I feel like for the last kind of month or so. I’ve been in a lot better headspace of just a feeling like really good things are coming, But not as much expecting or saying, you know, when’s this going to be over?
Thomas missed the cut in the 3M Open last week. It was the fifth time in his past seven starts that he wasn’t around for the weekend.
“It’s simply making it now not as obese of a do business in as it’s and simply having an working out that simply having just right scoring and doing what I’ve within the day, and know that any pace only one shot, one spherical, one event may just turn it and in a time no one’s speaking about it anymore.”
Disagree Kim
Kim, who picked up his first PGA Tour victory by carding a final-round 61 in the Wyndham Championship last year, won’t be around to defend his title. He is skipping the event as he continues to recover from a grade-1 right ankle sprain that happened in an accident at his rental home at last month’s Open Championship.
Kim said he slipped in wet grass while stepping off a patio. He battled through the pain to tie for second at The Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club.
“I’m very gutted not to be capable of shield my first PGA Excursion win,” Kim said in a statement last week. “I’m nonetheless having a parched day with my ankle, so I get the remedy I want to heal utterly.”
He traveled to his native South Korea to receive treatment and hopes to be ready for next week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship.
What’s next in the LIV Golf League
LIV Golf Invitational Greenbrier
When: Friday-Sunday
Where: The Old White Course
White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
Purse: $25 million
Rahm isn’t coming
There was widespread speculation in the sport that the LIV Golf League was courting Jon Rahm in recent months, but the Masters champion told the Spanish podcast Golf Sin Etiquetas this week that its team format never appealed to him.
Rahm told the podcast that LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman reached out to him in early 2022, however “rather of convincing me with the historical past of golfing, which I like, he began sending me numbers, numbers and numbers.”
Rahm said he told Norman to reach out to his manager.
“In flip, I informed my supervisor that this doesn’t enchantment to me,” Rahm said.
Rahm told the podcast that his relationship with LIV Golf star Phil Mickelson, a fellow former Arizona State player, is still good.
“Phil admires my choice and I recognize his choice,” Rahm said. “He has informed me that I don’t have any reason why to walk to LIV. And he has informed me that a number of occasions.”
Mickelson wants an apology
The pending alliance between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has cooled some of the bad blood between the rival circuits.
Leave it to Mickelson, one of the PGA Tour’s most vocal critics, to spice things up again on social media.
Last week, the PGA Tour said in a memo to its players that a committee was working through how to allow LIV Golf League players back on the PGA Tour if a final agreement is reached with PIF.
Mickelson alleged on Twitter this past weekend that LIV Golf League players don’t want to come back.
“Now not a unmarried participant on LIV desires to play games PGA Excursion,” Mickelson said on Twitter. “It might require a population apology and restitution to LIV gamers for paying thousands and thousands to Clout media to disparage all folks. A greater subject is past sanctions for the numerous gamers who now come to LIV.”
Mickelson was referring to Clout Public Affairs, which the PGA Tour contracted to handle public relations during its fierce battle with LIV Golf.
What’s next on the LPGA Tour
Freed Group Women’s Scottish Open
When: Thursday-Sunday
Where: Dundonald Links
Ayrshire, Scotland
Defending champion: Ayaka Furue
Purse: $2 million
Boutier’s whirlwind week
Celine Boutier captured her first major championship at last week’s Amundi Evian Championship and doing it in her native France made it even more special.
She is the third woman from France to win a major championship, joining Patricia Meunier-Lebouc at the 2004 Kraft Nabisco Championship and Catherine Lacoste, an amateur who won the 1967 U.S. Women’s Open.
🇫🇷 🏆 pic.twitter.com/xo9AxuNTWl
— LPGA (@LPGA) July 30, 2023
Boutier, who was born in Clamart, France, had fans rooting her for as she carded a final-round 68 to secure a 6-stroke victory. The former Duke star has residences in Dallas and Montrouge, France.
“I believe like population had been roughly anticipating me to do it,” Boutier said. “I believe that used to be most probably the toughest. The truth that, additionally, they sought after it as a lot, most probably, as I did. I didn’t need to disappoint any one, in order that’s additionally one thing I needed to roughly set aside and now not actually take into consideration it excess so that you could play games my highest.”
Boutier finished second in last year’s Scottish Open, 3 strokes behind Furue. She climbed 11 spots to fourth in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.
Furue’s defense
Last year, Furue became the first Japanese woman to capture the Scottish Open. She started the final round 4 shots back but carded a 10-under 62, a course record, to pick up her first LPGA victory.
A 22-year-old rookie at the time, Furue had 10 birdies in the final 18 holes, including six in a row. Her 21-under total set a scoring record for the Women’s Scottish Open. She had seven wins on the Japanese Tour before earning her LPGA card.
“After I went again to Japan, all of the Jap enthusiasts, they already know the bunkers and the path could be very tricky,” Furue told reporters in Scotland. “So that they had been more than happy that I used to be ready to win in that situation, and everyone stated, ‘Splendid process, superb process.'”
Korda back to No. 1
With a tie for ninth at the Amundi Evian Championship, American Nelly Korda has returned to No. 1 in the world rankings. She replaces Jin Young Ko, who finished 20th in France and had held the No. 1 spot for the previous 10 weeks.
It’s the fifth time in Korda’s career that she has been ranked No. 1 in the world, most recently from April 24-May 21. She has spent a total of 36 weeks at No. 1 in her career. Korda missed more than a month this season while recovering from a low back injury.
Roaring back to the top spot in the World Ranking. 💯
With a top-10 finish at The Amundi Evian Championship, @NellyKorda formally strikes again to Global Disagree. 1 for the FIFTH day. #TeamTaylorMade #TP5 pic.twitter.com/bvqg8Tq9M6
— TaylorMade Golfing (@TaylorMadeGolf) August 1, 2023
Korda, U.S. Ladies’s Unmistakable champion Allisen Corpuz and Chevron Championship winner Lilia Vu have already qualified for the U.S. Solheim Cup team on points. The Americans will battle Europe at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain, on Sept. 22-24.
The top seven players in the U.S. Solheim Cup points standings after the CPKC Women’s Open in Canada on Aug. 24-27 will automatically qualify for the team. The top two players in the world rankings otherwise not eligible will also make the squad.
U.S. team captain Stacy Lewis will also make three captain’s choices.
Ryder Cup stock report
Here are the players who are 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 only player to have mathematically secured spots on the U.S. team. Clark has seven top-10 and 12 top-25 finishes this season, including his first PGA Tour victory at the Wells Fargo Championship.
From main champion to the Ryder Cup 🏆
What a occasion, @Wyndham_Clark 👏#GoUSA | #RyderCup pic.twitter.com/mm9aPb1Lfr
— Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) July 31, 2023
Down: Justin Thomas — JT has been a stud in team events with a 6-2-1 record in two previous Ryder Cup appearances. But given Thomas’ recent form, he has to do something good to justify Johnson selecting him.
Up: Cameron Young — Young missed the cut at the 3M Open, but his recent top-10s at the John Deere Classic (tie for sixth) and The Open (tie for eighth) elevated him to eighth in the U.S. points standings.
Down: Sam Burns — Burns won the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in March but has just one top-10 finish since. A missed cut at The Open dropped him to 13th in the U.S. team standings.
Up: Sepp Straka — Straka, from Austria, also missed the cut at the 3M Open. His victory at the John Deere Classic and a tie for second at The Open have him right on the bubble for the European team.
Down: Collin Morikawa — The two-time major champion could have really used a victory in the Rocket Mortgage Classic to cement his place on the team. He lost in a playoff to Rickie Fowler in Detroit in June.
