By Tod Leonard
These days, it usually takes going exceptionally low to win on the PGA Tour, and it’s apparently no different in qualifying for the US Open.

In the first final qualifier played in North America on Monday at two courses in Dallas, 11-under for 36 holes was the number to be the medallist — and there were four players who achieved that — while seven-under was the score that got players into next month’s major at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.

In a qualifier that featured numerous PGA Tour pros, the top 13 out of 98 entrants advanced, and a six-man playoff was required for the final two spots. Those positions went to Davis Shore and Roger Sloan, while Adam Hadwin and Austin Cook were the first and second alternates, respectively.

The day’s low score was a 62 fashioned by Matthew NeSmith, who made nine birdies in the morning round at Royal Oaks Country Club. NeSmith, a third-year PGA Tour player who has competed in only one major, shot 69 in the second round at Lakewood Country Club and joined Americans Kurt Kitayama (65-66) and Sean Crocker (64-67), and Japan’s Jinichiro Kozuma (68-63) at 11-under.

Among the notables not advancing were 2010 US Open champion Graeme McDowell, Matt Kuchar, Aaron Baddeley, Rory Sabbatini and James Hahn.

The other more recognisable names to advance were Canadians Mackenzie Hughes (nine-under) and Nick Taylor (nine-under) and American Scott Stallings, who was solo 11th at eight-under.

There was one amateur who reached from this final: University of Texas junior Travis Vick, who shot nine-under. Vick was a semi-finalist at last year’s US Amateur at Oakmont.

The remaining nine final qualifiers — eight in the US and one in Canada — will be contested on Monday, June 6.

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The post US Open 2022: These scores were ridiculously low, even in a US Open qualifier appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

“I joke with Kevin Kisner that I’m always home [in Aiken, S.C.] when he’s playing majors and WGCs, and he’s always home when I’m playing in regular tour events,” says Matt NeSmith, a third-year PGA Tour member who is No. 175 in the World Ranking. “There’s absolutely an A-tour out here and a B-tour out here.”

A-tour guys hand-pick their schedules, star in commercials and play in featured groups. Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, to name a few. B-tour guys take their starts where they can get them, sign modest deals with companies you’ve never heard of and have the first tee time off No. 10. The divide between A-tour players and B-tour players has been spotlighted by the recent talk of breakaway tours, which hope to entice A-tour players with massive guaranteed paydays — and by discussions about the future PGA Tour schedule.

Speaking generally, A-players want a defined offseason, which would give them the freedom to take a few months off after the Tour Championship in August without worrying about beginning the next calendar year too far behind in the growingly lucrative FedEx Cup. They want to start their seasons in Hawaii in January, as the tour did for decades before switching to a wraparound season for the 2013-14 campaign. These players hold significant sway on tour given their stature and the attention they bring to the sport. As such, there’s been a push to reimagine the fall season, which currently features nine events that all carry full FedEx Cup points.

In recent months, a number of different proposals that could go into effect as early as the autumn of 2023 have been dissected at Player Advisory Council meetings, most with one commonality: divorcing those autumn events from the FedEx Cup race. Being discussed is an idea where the tour establishes an autumnal mini-series for the biggest stars, with those not qualifying for them playing in separate fall events to improve their standing on tour. Or the tour could continue staging its current tournaments but not have them count toward any season-long points race.

While appealing to elite players, a bunch of the rank-and-file guys, however, simply aren’t down with that, which is what’s making the discussion about how to handle the autumn so tricky. These rank-and-file players view the fall season events as vital for their job security as well as a crucial avenue for up-and-comers to establish themselves on tour. They want more playing opportunities, not less.

Differing opinions have turned some discussions about the autumn “rather contentious”, according to one source familiar with proceedings. “Excluding 25 guys, it’s one of the most important parts of the year,” NeSmith says. “It’s helped me keep my card the last three years. If guys don’t want to play, that’s their choice. They don’t have to play. The option’s there. I get it — we all want an offseason. I want an offseason, too. But it’s our job. It’s what we do. It’s our livelihood. If you want to be out here, it’s part of it.

“Is playing three events in five months that difficult?” NeSmith asks, somewhat rhetorically. “I’ll always advocate for the Korn Ferry guys and the rookies. They need those starts, and they need those starts to count.”

The job, then, for the tour’s leadership is to find a middle ground that works for both sets of players. The good news for NeSmith and Co is they’ve got a willing listener at the top.

“You’ve got 200-whatever members that you’re trying to keep everyone somewhat happy,” says McIlroy, former chairman of the Player Advisory Council and one of four players on the PGA Tour’s policy board. “I guess it’s sort of trying to find a balance of that. It’s hard. it’s very hard for me to stand here and say I’d like all the fall events to go away and play three or four of these suggested tournaments that they’re thinking about because that’s good for me, but that’s not good for the entire membership.”

LIV Golf’s challenge to the PGA Tour has gifted the top players leverage, and the PGA Tour has had no choice but to respond with additional dollars — some that’s being distributed across the spectrum of players, but the bigger increases going to the stars.

Rory McIlroy says that with many new programmes on the PGA Tour benefiting top-ranked players, the fall schedule is one where the interests of other groups might need to come first.

“I have to try to look at things that are going to benefit the entire membership and the entire tour and not just what benefits me or the top players,” McIlroy says. “I think there’s enough programmes in place that benefit the top players right now, PIP program, the Comcast Top-10, the FedEx Cup bonus, all of those things are designed to funnel more money into the top players’ pockets. You play the best and the cream should rise to the top by the end of the year. That’s why Comcast Top-10, FedEx Cup bonus money is so high. And then you add the PIP in there for the people that make the biggest impact on the Tour.

“So I think the top players, we’ve gotten a lot of things our own way the last couple years and I think for us to talk about just taking the fall events away for the guys that sort of need them and need those opportunities would be very, very selfish. It’s a delicate balance. It always has been on the tour with a membership that’s this big because you’re trying to accommodate so many different people and so many different scenarios. So it’s hard for me to sit here and say this is the way I would like the fall because the way I would like the fall probably isn’t the common consensus among the membership.”

Only there is no common consensus; that is what’s making the process difficult. Perhaps, as is often the case with negotiations, the best solution is not one that pleases everyone — it’s the one that leaves all parties the least upset.

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The post Why reimagining the PGA Tour’s autumn schedule is more complicated than you think appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall

Admit it. You saw the name and thought, “Wait, there’s another Jay Haas?”

No offence to the man, the one and only Jay Haas, he accomplished much in his career. But it is a career that is very much in the past tense. Haas hasn’t played a full PGA Tour schedule since 2005. His last tour win was in 1993, three years before Masters champ Scottie Scheffler was born. He’s 18 years older than rookies on the PGA Tour Champions. So while it was charming to see 68-year-old Jay team up with son Bill at this week’s Zurich Classic at New Orleans, it had the hint of a publicity stunt in a game built on meritocracy.

That sentiment isn’t any less true following Day 1 at TPC Louisiana. But make sure to add this: The old guy’s still got it.

The Haas boys turned in a seven-under 65 during Thursday’s four-ball format, a score that tied tournament favorites Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa (who are a collective 58 years younger than the Haas clan) and defending champs Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman, and proved the biggest surprise of Round 1 at TPC Louisiana.

“That’s really impressive. It really is,” Morikawa said of Jay’s performance. “Some of these par 3s are playing over 200 yards, and to have a birdie chance inside 15, 20 feet is a good shot already. So what Jay did today, very, very impressive.”

Jay and Bill had the longest odds of winning entering the week, a byproduct of Jay teeing it up on tour for the first time since 2010. But Bill, playing this year on a one-time money list exemption, hasn’t done much to inspire confidence either, posting just one top-25 finish in 18 starts this season. Nevertheless, Jay and Bill combined for eight birdies against one bogey Thursday. Their score has them just on the fringes of contention — six shots off the lead from Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele — but perhaps more importantly, gives them a legitimate shot to reach the weekend.

Should that come to pass, Jay would have the honour as the oldest player in PGA Tour history to make a cut, a record held by Sam Snead (67 years old) at the 1979 Westchester Classic. But from the sound of it, this week’s mission has already been accomplished.

“Obviously just being out here and teeing it up and hearing our names called tomorrow, hopefully I can hit some good shots and make some birdies and everything,” Jay said on Wednesday. “But ultimately this is just … to be with my son, again, on the grandest stage here, that’s what I’m trying to take from it.”

“It’s just a good opportunity to play golf and enjoy it and have fun, but also inside the ropes be competitive and him be able to see what I’m talking about when I say either I’m struggling or here I hit a good one, what do you see here?” Bill echoed. “To have him inside the ropes on my team, it’s just a great opportunity, and it’s just a special week. Something I’ll remember forever.”

An interesting pairing near the top

Robert Garrigus picked an interesting time to stage a comeback.

The 44-year-old has spent the last five years in golf’s wilderness, his last top-10 on tour coming in January 2018. In a vacuum, seeing his name along with teammate Tommy Gainey on the Zurich leader board after an 11-under 61 would be quite the shock.

But what makes their Thursday performance especially noteworthy is what happened earlier in the week. Golfweek reported that Garrigus became the first tour player to apply for a conflicting event release from PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan for the Saudi-back LIV Golf series that begins in June, a report that Garrigus confirmed to the Golf Channel.

“I am grateful to have been given a sponsor exemption into this week’s event and I just want to focus on playing the best I can,” Garrigus said.

On that end, Garrigus fulfilled his promise, contributing five birdies on the round.

“We had a great day today, made a bunch of birdies,” Garrigus said after the round. “I chipped in. He was making everything on the front nine.”

Chris Graythen

Moore bounces back from ER visit

According to Matthew NeSmith, Thursday’s aim was pretty low.

“We were just trying to finish 18 holes upright,” NeSmith said. “I mean, finish 18 holes upright, and all of a sudden, we started catching a touch of a rhythm, started making a few putts, started finding the round a little bit. We finished 18 holes, and that was the goal.”

Rhythm was caught and putts were made, as he and Taylor Moore combined for a 12-under 60. But should you think NeSmith is merely being humble, it sounds like reaching the finish line was legitimately a goal.

That’s because Moore spent Wednesday morning at the hospital.

“I had food poisoning Tuesday night up until midday yesterday,” Moore explained on his emergency-room visit. “So just got an IV and some nausea medicine. Finally ate something this morning, which was nice. Like he said, just tried to finish every hole. That was kind of a win within its own right.”

Moore did, ahem, more than stay upright, lighting up TPC Louisiana with six birdies and an eagle on his day. It’s been a somewhat shaky rookie year (which rookie years tend to be) for Moore, making seven cuts in 14 starts and ranking 123rd in strokes gained entering New Orleans. A good week could help him secure his card for next season.

But first things first, particularly with the difficult alternate shot on tap. In terms of how the team will approach Friday, it sounds like Moore has a solid game plan.

“No more Cajun for the next couple days,” he said.

MacIntyre hates shot, still makes hole-in-one

Robert MacIntyre is a fortunate man.

That’s because the pride of Scotland struck, judging by his dejected and disgusted look after contact, a poor tee shot at the par-3 14th on Thursday, to the point that MacIntyre glanced away from his ball in flight. Which is a shame, as he missed that ball finding the bottom of the cup:

He didn't love it, but he ??????.

ACE from @Robert1Lefty! pic.twitter.com/Tq5mfQnH24

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 21, 2022

Look at that smirk; MacIntyre knows he got away with one. Conversely, there are plenty of shots that are good until they aren’t, so no need to apologise.

Cantlay, Schauffele: Still good at golf

We should probably discuss the leaders, yes? That would be Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, who shot the round of the day with a 13-under 59.

The duo, which has quickly become a Team USA staple, was bogey-free in the afternoon playing alongside Scheffler and Ryan Palmer, with Cantlay’s birdie on the final hole giving them the first sub-60 round in Zurich Classic history.

While Schauffele and Cantlay were one of the marquee groups, there was a bit of a question mark on how they would play. Or more specifically how Schauffele would play: He is having an odd season, ranking 17th in strokes gained but turning in just one top-10 in 10 starts. But the X-Man more than did his part on Thursday with six birdies.

Friday will be a captivating watch, as last year’s alternate shot format did them in to the tune of a 74, ultimately finishing T-11. If Thursday’s round was any indication, there seems to be little that will get in their way.

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The post An interesting pairing near the top, a 59, an emergency room visit and a 68-year-old highlight Day 1 at the Zurich Classic appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.