My dad is a good player. He took me to a range when I was little. I knew immediately this is what I wanted to do. 

● ● ●

My older brother, Glenn, and I spent all of our time at Fox Hills golf course in Plymouth, Michigan. A bunch of us would play every day for golf balls, $5, a hot dog. I was the youngest, so I played with a chip on my shoulder. They stopped including putts inside 10 feet in putting contests because
I made them all. I love chasing perfection in golf even though it’s impossible. 

● ● ●

I played college golf at Michigan State. We would play intramural basketball in the offseason. Coach worried about injuries, but we loved it. Working together as a team is what makes college golf so fun. Competition sharpened my game. I thought: ‘How can I win?’ instead of ‘What’s my scoring average this week?’ Short game was the answer. I tightened up the skills I’d developed from those contests as a kid to become consistent in a way other guys weren’t. 

● ● ●

At the 2021 US Amateur at Oakmont, my goal was to qualify for match play. Never did I think I’d be holding that trophy. When the winning putt fell, my college and high school golf buddies, coach Casey Lubahn from Michigan State, my family, everyone was there. It felt like it was too perfect to have actually happened. 

● ● ●

My agent set up a call. Ten people from LIV were on it. They couldn’t tell me who they had signed or were pursuing, but they said it would be a team format. I loved the PGA Tour events I played in, but every guy did his thing and then vanished. To be part of a team with a big-name pro mentoring me sounded like the right way to start my career. For a guy about to finish school with no sponsors who wasn’t among the top-ranked college golfers and had just missed two PGA Tour cuts, the LIV offer sounded phenomenal. 

● ● ●

I talked it over with my family, my swing instructor for over a decade, Brian Cairns, and my college coaches. There were a lot of unknowns about LIV, and I had the US Open and sponsor’s exemptions at Memorial and Colonial. I could earn more PGA Tour starts — or I could miss more cuts. 

● ● ●

If you’re thinking about your legacy, you want to play the PGA Tour. But this is a great opportunity for a guy out of college with no financial security. As I thought about the political side, I realised it’s a golf decision. I signed a two-year contract. My agent wouldn’t be happy if I told you for how much. 

I bought a GCQuad launch monitor, but otherwise I’m kind of cheap.
I live at home with my parents, though I’m looking to rent a place in Jupiter. Half my clothes are Michigan State gear. I still practise at the two public courses I grew up on. 

● ● ●

Week 1 at LIV Golf, I didn’t know who would be there, if I would be the only young guy, whose team I would be on. Sergio picked me. He texted our group chat that night: “Hey, who wants to have dinner?” Sergio Garcia’s offering to have dinner with me?  

● ● ●

I haven’t lost any friendships over joining LIV. I’ll get chirps from random people on Twitter, but I only care about what my inner circle thinks. LIV criticism is less heated outside the US. I’ve gotten to travel places I never thought I’d go, but I don’t fly private. I fly Delta. I like getting the points. 

● ● ●

At every hotel they have a room for food, and each night there are at least 12 guys hanging out. Harold Varner III helped me feel like I belong. We competed every practice round, and he points out where I need work. I’ll be spending the off-season getting bigger and adding speed. He also taught me the attitude you have to carry out here: You have to think you can win. People say we’re in it only for the money, but that’s not true.   

● ● ●

I’ve talked to Majed al Sorour, CEO of Saudi Golf, a few times. He wants to see younger guys win. That’s big for me, seeing how much he believes in us.

● ● ●

When LIV started signing more guys, people tweeted: “James Piot’s going to be bumped out.” But from what I’ve heard, LIV has stayed true to the contracts we’ve signed.

● ● ● 

I don’t want to miss out on playing the majors. I’ve avoided debates about whether LIV players should. Playing the Masters was the coolest week of my life. I’m not exempt, so I’m putting my energy toward qualifying. My goal is to try to get into a major and see what I can do. I just want to win golf tournaments.

The post James Piot: ‘The LIV Offer Sounded Phenomenal’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Well, that’s not exactly how they want to be looked upon, but players competing in this week’s Memorial Tournament who have committed to next week’s LIV Golf Invitational Series in London don’t want to be seen as anything other than professional golfers pursuing a new business opportunity.

The LIV Golf Invitational Series, the big-money rival to the PGA Tour, released its commitment list on Tuesday, and members Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford appeared on the list. So did amateur James Piot, who earned an invitation to Muirfield Village Golf Club as the US Amateur champion but is not exempt on the tour.

Jones and Swafford spoke to Golf Digest on Wednesday before playing in the tournament pro-am, and they cited myriad reasons why they are playing in the inaugural LIV Series event — and in the process jeopardising their standing on the PGA Tour.

The tour released a statement on Wednesday reiterating its position that players who decided to take Greg Norman, head of the LIV Series, up on his offer to play for $25 million in this first tournament at the Centurion Club.

“As communicated to our entire membership on May 10, PGA Tour members have not been authorised to participate in the Saudi Golf League’s London event, under PGA Tour Tournament Regulations. Members who violate the Tournament Regulations are subject to disciplinary action.”

Matt Jones. David Cannon

“I have no idea in regards to what the PGA Tour is going to do, whether it’s suspending, fining, whatever,” said Jones, 41, who has two tour titles, $17.3 million in tour earnings, and three children under the age of 10. The latter, he will tell you, is a big deal.

“I do care what happens,” he added. “I love the PGA Tour, but I like the opportunity that the LIV Tour affords me and my family, and, look, everyone has their own unique circumstances, and this fits with mine.”

Jones cited several “positives” that swayed him.

“I enjoy the concept of the team competition. The three-day tournament. The shotgun starts, so we’re all playing under the same conditions,” he said. “I play golf for a living. I have been out here for 15 years, and if I can play for more money, provide better for my family but at the same time maybe be home a little bit more, then why not?

“I was raised by two parents who were there for me in all my sporting activities, and I’ve missed a lot of events with my kids. If the schedule affords me a better opportunity to be there for my kids, and probably be a better father and husband, then that to me is a big deal.”

MORE: Analyzing the 42 players who have signed up for LIV Golf

Swafford, a father of two with $9.6 million in earnings, also liked the thought of being home a bit more often. He also was intrigued by the team competition that provides a twist to the proceedings.

“I’m excited about it. Schedule is very enticing to a guy who has two small kids,” said Swafford, 34, who won The American Express earlier this year for his third tour title. “I think the format, the team aspect, is going to be incredible. Look at Zurich [the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, which is a two-man team event]. Putting teams together turned an event that was in a tough part of the schedule into one that gets some incredible fields. I’m really looking forward to seeing how that works.”

Swafford wasn’t sure exactly how the teams would be drafted. Neither did he seem to care. “Just having something different sounds pretty interesting,” he said.

And his future with the tour? “We’ll have to see how that all works out,” he said. “But I think a lot of guys out here understand that we all have to do what’s best for each of us.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Rory McIlroy said that the tour should not “drop the hammer” on tour members who opt to compete next week. Patrick Cantlay, the defending champion at the Memorial, also seemed to have an open mind towards fellow players taking up the offer to play elsewhere. McIlroy is on the PGA Tour Policy Board and Cantlay joins the board in 2023.

“I think everyone’s situation is so unique and different,” said Cantlay, ranked sixth in the world. “The motivators that different guys have I think a lot of times guides their decisions. Obviously, you’ve seen by a lot of the guys that have chosen to go over there, they are in the later parts of their career in general. They don’t feel like they are on the upswing. They probably feel like they are on the downswing. So, they are trying to maximise what years they have left.”

Cantlay admitted that he is interested to see what exactly will happen next week. He probably is not alone.

“I’m as curious as you are to see how the tournaments will go and what the presentation will be like, if it will be similar to golf tournaments that we’re used to seeing on TV, or if it will be something totally different, and only time will tell,” he said. “It should be very interested to see — at least I’m interested to see what that product will be compared to what the product is right now that we are all used to.

“But it does seem to be an interesting time for golf, and I think it’s going to be interesting to see what happens.”

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The post PGA Tour players jumping to LIV Golf Invitational Series weigh in about bigger money and better schedules appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
OAKMONT, Pa. — It’s hard to describe the expression on James Piot’s face when he held the Havemeyer Trophy for the first time behind Oakmont Country Club’s 17th green late Sunday afternoon. Let’s call it something between shock, exhilaration and awe, as the newly minted U.S. Amateur champion, after a 2-and-1 win over Austin Greaser in the 36-hole championship finale, stared for a few moments at the most impressive piece of golf hardware he’d ever laid his hands on.

“I was just trying to see if it was real or not,” Piot said when asked what was running through his mind as he gave the trophy that first long look.

It was definitely real, the hard-earned result of years of trying to prove people wrong. Yes, you can come from up Canton, Mich., with its eight-month golf season, and still be a damn good player. And you can be 5-foot-9 and 153 pounds and still stand tall.

In all likelihood you’d probably never heard of Piot before catching a glimpse of him this week at the 121st edition of the USGA’s oldest championship. The 22-year-old fifth-year senior at Michigan State was ranked No. 86 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, good but not elite. He wasn’t a member of the U.S. Walker Cup team last May at Seminole Golf Club. He qualified for the U.S. Am last year at Bandon Dunes, even earned the No. 2 seed, but didn’t get past the second round of match play.

It’s easy, then, to believe that some unknown wound up walking off with the most prestigious title in amateur golf. And, maybe, technically, you’d be right. But don’t mistake unknown for fluky or undeserving.

“I know what people think, by the way he looks and all. He doesn’t look dynamic or powerful,” said Michigan State men’s coach Casey Lubahn. “But you can’t see his heart.”

It’s the heart that showed on the back nine at Oakmont, when it looked almost certain that Piot had finally met his match in Greaser, a 20-year-old honorable mention All-American at North Carolina. Through 27 holes, Piot shot the equivalent of six over par—four over on the front nine of the afternoon 18 alone—leaving him 3 down with nine holes to play. That’s when he turned to his caddie, Spartans assistant coach Dan Ellis, and uttered his latest audacious prediction: said he was going to shoot four under on the back nine.

And what exactly made him think that he could do that?

“Just self-belief. I feel like that’s one of the things, the golfer I am, I’m that guy who never has an extremely bad round,” Piot said. “In my head on the day, I’m kind of doing a recap and I think I was like six over. I’m like, ‘That’s not me.’ ”

And then it happened. A perfect drive on the par-4 10th, setting up a 9-iron approach from 150 yards and his first birdie of the afternoon session. 2 down.

Another good drive on the par-4 11th, and by good meaning it was safely in the 10th fairway, setting up a par that helped him win the hole when Greaser three-putted. 1 down.

Another par, this time on the 603-yard 12th hole, tied up the match, as Greaser suddenly was struggling to find fairways he’d hit all week and having trouble adjusting to Oakmont’s greens, which were getting faster as the day went on.

When Greaser bogeyed the par-3 13th hole, Piot’s 14-foot birdie try now conceded, Piot had his first lead since standing 1 up after the morning 18.

They exchanged birdies on the 14th hole, but Piot got to 2 up when he won the par-4 15th with another par. Two holes later, he was staring at the Havemeyer.

“I just didn’t execute coming down the stretch,” Greaser said. “I think it’s pretty obvious. He won four holes in a row there and kind of tides changed, and that’s how it goes.”

Chris Keane
Austin Greaser had a 3-up lead with nine holes to play, but struggled to find fairways on the back nine.

Piot’s golf career began at a place unlikely to produce a future U.S. Amateur champion: Fox Hills Golf and Banquet Centre in Plymouth, Mich. The facility had three courses and became Piot’s Disneyland each summer, the place he’d go to hang with his brother and his buddies, gamble for just about anything on the putting greens, and learn how to play golf rather than just golf swing.

While he developed a reputation as a stick within the state, winning the Michigan Junior Am and three high school state titles, it didn’t carry much outside the Wolverine State. So it was that Piot ended up staying home, following in his older brother’s footsteps and playing at MSU for Lubahn.

Since the fall of 2017, Piot has worked methodically on his game in relative anonymity with his Spartan teammates, a very real chip on his shoulder.

“Good golfers have long memories,” Lubahn joked.

Piot had quick results in college and was Big Ten freshman of the year in 2018. He took his biggest leap in the 2020-21 season, earning honourable mention All-American honours with a win and six more top-10s in the spring, including at Big Tens and NCAA Regionals.

“It’s hard to identify any one thing because it’s just gradual improvement,” says Lubahn when asked about what’s the biggest difference in Piot’s game from when he first arrived in East Lansing. “He’s picking up a 10th of a shot every day. And he’s the best driver I’ve ever coached.”

And not a bad putter either. In preparation for the U.S. Amateur, Piot put back into his bag a Ping Piper H putter, a flat stick he’d fallen in and out of love with since the sixth grade, one he affectionately nicknamed “the garbage putter.”

“My dad got that from a golf shop actually just down the road from our house, had to be 10 years ago,” Piot said. “He used it for like two weeks and was like, ‘This thing is not worth it.’ I think he got it for $60 or $70 at the time. I picked it up in probably sixth or seventh grade and started rolling with it. I was like, ‘This thing is actually awesome.’ ”

The putter proved vital this week at Oakmont, Piot holing several clutch putts.

Chris Keane
James Piot celebrates with his caddie/assistant coach Dan Ellis after winning the 2021 U.S. Amateur.

In the glow of victory, Piot could be allowed the chance to gloat. What did this win say about him and where he came from?

“Just it’s kind of nice to show the guys out there that don’t go to the big-time school that you can still do it,” he said. “Coming from Michigan it’s a phenomenal feeling being able to grind from a guy who wasn’t highly sought after to U.S. Am champ.”

It also proved something else: just how deep the amateur game is. All over the country, there are players like Piot, grinding day in and day out, aspiring for greatness with no guarantee that their efforts will be rewarded. Only the hope that the week will come when they get their chance to prove their mettle.

That week happened to be this one for the little man from Canton, the week James Piot finally became somebody you’d heard of.

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