By Matt Smith
Greg Norman’s LIV Golf Invitational Series has another confirmed competitor as PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner Jed Morgan has confirmed he will play in the opening event at Centurion, England, ahead of the US Open in June.

Morgan has already been confirmed as the Australian Order of Merit winner with one event still to go, thanks to his victory in the Australian PGA in his home of Queensland in December.

With the Order of Merit crown safe, the 22-year-old is now looking abroad for bigger opportunities and, unlike some of the DP World Tour and PGA Tour players, Morgan does not need to request a release from his tour to play in the lucrative LIV Series, which is worth $250 million over eight events.

Other players who have confirmed they are set to compete include PGA Championship winner Phil Mickelson and DP World Tour stars Lee Westwood and Richard Bland.

Morgan is now eligible for his US Open bow at Brookline next month, immediately after the first LIV Series competition from June 9-11. He will also compete at the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews in July.

As Morgan is not on the DP World Tour or PGA Tour we will not require permission to play in the Saudi-backed event.

“As this point I don’t need any permission,” Fox Sports Australia quoted Morgan as saying.

“I’m not worried. I shouldn’t have any issues at all — I’ve got no affiliation with Europe or the US. The opportunity with LIV is just insane.

“Having a couple of tournaments to lead up to the US Open will be nice. You always play your best golf after you’ve had a few tournaments to work out where you head’s at.”

Morgan is set to join the DP World Tour next season.

“I’m heading away to follow my dreams and I’m focused on what is ahead of me, but to win an Order Of Merit is something special, and the opportunities that it provides for me are priceless,” Morgan added.

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The post Australian PGA champ latest to sign up for LIV Golf Invitational Series appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Reed looked almost flawless despite playing in blustery conditions, hitting 12 of 14 fairways and all 18 greens in a bogey-free round. And his score could have been even lower when you consider that of his eight birdies, only one came on Sheshan’s four par 5s. Still, his 64 was the second-lowest first-round score of his PGA Tour career, bettered only by a 63 in the opening round of the 2014 Humana Challenge.

“It felt really good,” Reed said, “because if you can go out and shoot rounds like that in these kind of conditions, you know you’re going to have confidence when the wind dies down and there are perfect conditions out there.”

It’s the first time that Reed has held the lead in a PGA Tour event since his victory at Augusta National in April.

In closest pursuit of Reed are Xander Schauffele and Tony Finau, who both posted six-under 66s. This is Schauffele third straight start in the tour’s Asian swing, while Finau is also making his 2018-’19 tour debut.

Matthew Fitzpatrick made five straight birdies at the end of his round to post a five-under 67 and sit in solo fourth.

Interestingly, the track record of first-round leaders at the HSBC Champions is hardly stellar. Only once in nine starts since the event became a World Golf Championship has a Day 1 gone on to claim the title. But this runs counter to Reed’s own history; three previous times he’s lead after 18 holes on the PGA Tour and he’s recorded two wins and a second in those starts.

Defending champion Justin Rose finished the day with a 69 and is tied for 10th while new World No. 1 Brooks Koepka, fresh off his win at the CJ Cup, shot an even-par 72 to sit in a tie for 27th.

The post Patrick Reed, in first start since Ryder Cup, jumps to early lead in Shanghai with opening 64 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Golf Digest Middle East has learned Jordan’s new Ayla Golf Club is poised to host a mixed gender, full-field strokeplay tournament in 2019 pitting Ladies European Tour (LET) players against men at opposite ends of the pro spectrum – the Challenge Tour and Staysure Tour (formerly European Senior Tour).

Full details are to be confirmed “shortly” but it is understood 40 players from each of the LET, Staysure and Challenge Tour circuits will tee it up in pursuit of a single title and a share of the same purse. The kicker is that the women, seniors and Challenge Tour players will play from separate tees at the Greg Norman-designed layout in Aqaba – a tricky calculation for organisers attempting to equalise the anticipated distance advantages of the younger men.

Related: ‘Kingdom Come’ – We review Ayla Golf Club

The European Tour’s Dubai bureau chief Nick Tarratt confirmed the Jordan event during a media conference Monday to unveil the Challenge Tour’s new season-long ‘Road to Ras Al Khaimah”, culminating in the elevated Ras Al Khaimah Challenge Tour Grand Final.

Tarratt confirmed the Al Hamra G.C. event was the first of a number of Middle East “initiatives” in the pipeline before alluding to on-going talks for events in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait.

“We are in discussions with a number of countries, venues and tourism authorities in the Middle East region about future European Tour initiatives. Some discussions are quick, others will have a slower burn [time],” Tarratt said.

“In addition to the recently launched Saudi Arabia European Tour event at the end of January 2019 at King Abdullah Economic City, abutting onto the Desert Swing of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, we are in conversations with partners in Jordan about hosting a ‘first of its kind’ mixed professional tournament, involving representation from the LET, Challenge Tour and Staysure Tour that we hope to sign and make announcements shortly for a 2019 tournament.“

The par 5 17th at Ayla G.C. in Aqaba, Jordan.

Events where men and women play separate events simultaneously are not new. The LET and the PGA Tour of Australasia co-hosted the Oates Vic Open in February while the Trophee Hassan II and Lalla Meryem Cup are European Tour and LET events respectively again set to be played side-by-side in Rabat, Morocco next week.

Women have also teed it up in PGA Tour events previously, led by the legendary Babe Zaharias who blazed a trail at the 1938 Los Angeles Open – six years after winning two track and field gold medals at the 1932 LA Olympic Games. Annika Sorenstam, Suzy Whaley and Michelle Wie have followed suit since while Dame Laura Davies is set to play in the Staysure Tour’s Shipco Masters in Denmark from June 1-3.

But the proposed Jordan event is believed to be the first time a full field of men and women have played for the same title and prize-money in an event that doesn’t fall into the exhibition, made-for-TV or silly-season space.

If confirmed, it will continue a period of innovation under the watch of European Tour supremo Keith Pelley.  It started with the World Super 6 Perth two years ago, a strokeplay event which morphs into a final day of matchplay knockout matches. Then came the €1 million GolfSixes in England, an event played by two-man teams in a greensomes format; an additional four wildcard teams, including women will compete in the second edition at Centurion Club north of London next month.

Related: GolfSixes event expanding in Year 2 to include wildcard pairings, women’s teams

Later in May, Ryder Cupper Thomas Pieters will host the new Belgian Knockout where the opening 36 holes will follow a familiar strokeplay format before the leading 64 players then go head-to-head in knockout strokeplay matches contested over nine holes on the weekend to determine the winner. Thereafter follows the Shot Clock Masters in Austria in June, the first tournament in professional golf to use a shot clock on every shot as part of the European Tour’s bid to combat slow play.

Denmark won the inaugural GolfSixes. Getty Images.

Each player in the 120-man field will have 50 seconds for the first player in a group to play any given shot, 40 seconds for subsequent players. Players will incur a one-shot penalty for each bad time incurred and these will be shown as a red card against their name on the leaderboard. Each player will have the right to call two ‘time-outs’ during a round which will permit them twice the usually allotted time to play the shot.

Where ever the new formats lead, Tarratt is confident the Middle East will remain a hotbed of the global game ahead of the 30th anniversary of the pioneering Desert Classic next January.

“The Middle East has always been a key part of the world for the European Tour and in the future it seems it will be even more important,” he said. “The region is very much getting stronger. The model of play…with tourism authorities, the golf facilities, the hospitality, it is a winning model that we hope to expand further in this region.”

So more events are potentially on the horizon?

“Yes certainly. We have the window of October to March-April – where else in the world would they like to play? I did a list of players who had come to Jumeirah Golf Estates [to practice at the European Tour Performance Institute] only since the end of November up until now…101 European Tour players have come to JGE and Dubai so they come by choice. It is the destination of choice.”

Ayla has already hosted a MENA Tour event but the proposed tournament would boost global exposure greatly.

The post Battle of the Sexes: Jordan event set to pit LET women against Challenge Tour men and European Seniors stars appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
The World Super 6 Perth returns to its innovative format for the second year, which features three rounds of stroke play and a final day consisting of six-hole matches between the top 24 players. But if that presentation wasn’t enough, the event—which is co-sanctioned by the European Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia—is adding another creative element to the showcase.

Players at Lake Karrinyup C.C. will be wearing a mic this week. The devices will not just capture the conversation and remarks from inside the ropes, but allow the tournament’s broadcasters to interview the competitors before and after shots.

“Golf needs to continue to innovate to stay relevant in the modern market. Fans increasingly want more insight into the game, watching a player hit a superb shot is no longer enough. We now want to know the thought process behind that shot,” said Gavin Kirkman, CEO of the Australian circuit. “PGA Open Mic will allow fans an inside the ropes experience, from the comfort of their lounge room that they have never before experienced in golf.”    

Tournament officials concede the success of this property heavily depends on the buy-in from the players; if they fail to provide color or character, the access is rendered moot. Nevertheless, Kirkman said the players are on board with the endeavor.

“They are passionate sports fans, they watch what other sports are doing to bring fans closer to the action and they want to provide this same opportunity to golf fans,” Kirkman said.

This year’s field is headlined by Lee Westwood, Danny Willett and Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston. Brett Rumford is the defending champ.

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