Monday, April 29th, 2024 Edition
Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry’s win might be as good as the Zurich Classic ever gets
– by Joel Beall / Golf Digest
Per Joel: “Martin Trainer’s hands left his putter, his eyes closed and his head rolled to the sky, and the cheers that echoed signaled the people saw what they had come to see. The proceedings were exciting and the finish dramatic….”
B&B POV: Rory and Shane Lowry won a team event this weekend. Ryder Cup? No. A LIV event? Uh, no. The Zurich Classic in New Orleans? That’s the one.
Martin Trainer and Chad Ramey played well enough in New Orleans to force a playoff with the Irish stars but came up short on the 1st playoff hole. The win for Rory now makes 25 in his storied PGA TOUR career. A surefire Hall of Famer. And with this win, he got to buddy up with Lowry which made for a banger of a party Sunday night, for sure.
Brendan Steele wins 2024 LIV Golf Adelaide, Cameron Smith’s Ripper GC claim first ever team playoff
– by Adam Woodard / Golfweek
Per Adam: “After 28 tournaments a LIV Golf event finally came down to a team playoff.
Ripper GC, the all-Australian team led by Cameron Smith, beat the South African Stinger GC squad on the second playoff hole on Sunday to win 2024 LIV Golf Adelaide at the Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, Australia…”
B&B POV: PGA TOUR journeyman Brendan Steele won LIV Adelaide (Australia), his first victory on the fledgling tour, and pocketed a cool $4M. He finished one stroke ahead of the mini-me pros-pro Michael Strahan-smiling LIV starlet Louis Oosthuizen. (Note: We miss watching Louis play on the PGA TOUR. We was a B&B fave ☹). Louis’s Stingers also came up short losing in a playoff to Cam Smith’s Rippers. You know what they say, never bet against the Rippers in Adelaide.
WITB Winner’s Bag: Rory Mcilroy and Shane Lowry Buddy up to Win the Zurich
– Thomas Hamden / Balls & Bogeys
Per Thomas: Rory McIlroy is TaylorMade’s 2nd biggest star. Number 1 is the GOAT. Reports say that McIlroy’s contract with TaylorMade is worth $10M per year. That’s crazy cash. But he’s Rory. And his clubs and bag are always on display during broadcasts.
Shane Lowry’s arguably Srixon/Cleveland Golf’s 3rd biggest star behind Hideki and Brooks. His estimated annual endorsement deal is worth $2M per year.
What’s interesting is that both chaps don’t play a full bag of clubs from their primary equipment sponsor. Rory slips in a Vokey wedge in his set-up; and Shane plays with two TaylorMade clubs (a fairway metal and his putter). After their victory this past weekend and all the airtime their respective big cheese gear partners received, we’re guessing today that neither TM nor Srixon care a whole lot.
McIlroy’s Golf Gear:
DRIVER: TaylorMade Qi10 (9 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus Black 6X shaft
FAIRWAY WOOD: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus Black 8X shaft, (18 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus Black 9X shaft
IRONS: TaylorMade P Series Proto (4) TaylorMade RORS proto (5-9), with Project X 7.0 shafts
WEDGES: TaylorMade MG4 (46, 50, 54 degrees), Titleist Vokey Design WedgeWorks (58 degrees bent to 59), with Project X 6.5 shafts
PUTTER: TaylorMade Spider Tour X
BALL: TaylorMade TP5x
View Lowry’s Golf Gear Here >
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It pays to play well on the PGA TOUR (and LIV) – Payouts from the 2024 Zurich Classic and LIV Australia
– by Thomas Hamden / Balls & Bogeys
Per Thomas: By now, golf fans around the world know that the average prize payouts for the PGA TOUR don’t come close to those on LIV. But thanks to LIV’s influence and the inherent fear more PGA TOUR stars might flip to the Saudi-backed exhibition tour, purses are getting bigger, and that was on full display this weekend in New Orleans at the Zurich.
The big winners of the team event, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry respectively, each took home cool belts, $1.3M, and a karaoke party hangover. Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer, who lost to the Irishmen in a playoff, pocketed $525,100 each.
That’s all fine and dandy, but let’s put into perspective just how much cash the guys play for on LIV. This weekend down under the pure bread Australian Rippers team comprised of Cameron Smith, Lucas Herbert, Matt Jones, and March Leishman won the “team” side event at LIV Australia and split $4M. That’s on top of the money each of them individually earned – $385k for Matt and $275k each for Cam, Lucas, and Marc. That kind of cash will buy the boys a shi* ton of vegemite and blooming onions galore to go along with yachts and other unnecessary toys.
Tour Confidential: U.S. Ryder Cup captain, PGA Tour payouts, Zurich format
– by GOLF Editors
Check in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in the sport, and join the conversation by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week, we discuss the U.S. Ryder Cup captain search, the PGA Tour’s equity payouts, the Zurich Classic format and more.
What does B&B think?
- Why hasn’t the PGA of America named the 2025 Ryder Cup captain yet? Even though they are tardy in naming the Big Cat captain, we’re guessing the announcement will take place right around the PGA Championship — May 16-19. If Tiger isn’t named for some reason, then we’ll all know why there was a delay.
- It was recently announced European LIV’rs can play in the Ryder Cup if they play in enough DP World Tour events to rack up sufficient points and pay some bad boy fines. Will Rahm, Hatton, and others playing well put forth the effort to join their mates at Bethpage in ‘25? Yes. At least Rahm. He’d rack up enough points if he plays in a handful of the biggest DP events over the next couple of years. It would be a great motivator for him to keep his game sharp.
- PGA TOUR stars past (Jack, and sadly Tiger) and present (Rory, Scheffler, Spieth) were recently informed just how much equity they received from PGA Tour Enterprises to steer clear of LIV. Was it enough? Who really knows at this juncture. The amount is worth pennies on the dollar of what they were likely to make upfront if they jumped to LIV, but had they jumped, or if they jump, most of their endorsement deals would likely vanish. And the big stars make $$$$$ from some pretty conservative Fortune 100 companies. We’ll be paying attention how this all plays out.
- Is it fair that stars like Rory and Shane Lowry get to partner up and play in the Zurich against mostly middling pairs of PGA Tour members? Sure it’s fair and the tour needs them to play. Winners win. And that’s what winners do. That tournament would die if it wasn’t for a handful of the “star” teams teeing it up every year.
- Kisner, Homa, and Tom Kim have joined Tiger Wood’s TGL team, Jupiter Links Golf Club. What are your thoughts? Right now, we haven’t put any thought into TGL, especially who’s on whose team. The made-for-tv sim competition could bomb just like LIV. We’re giving TGL a 50/50 chance of lasting beyond a single season.
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