We haven’t seen Tiger Woods on the golf course since he withdrew from the Masters earlier this year after making a tournament record-trying 23rd consecutive cut.
But could that change soon?
Woods, who had ankle surgery to address post-traumatic arthritis on April 19, was seen on the range Tuesday at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey. Woods’ foundation is hosting The Nexus Cup — a charity event — this week.
Over the last few months, he’s been spotted at junior events alongside his son, Charlie, but never with a club in his hand.
Could this be a sign of things to come? Or is he just messing around?
Keep in mind, the PNC Championship is coming up. The parent/child event is scheduled for Dec. 16-17 at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando.
On Tuesday the Tour, alongside the Western Golf Association and BMW, announced that the BMW Championship would be played at the famed Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey, in August of 2027. Official dates are still to be determined.
Liberty National has previously hosted the Northern Trust in 2009, 2013, 2019 and 2021, as well as the Presidents Cup in 2017 and the 2023 Mizuho Americas Open, the club’s first LPGA event.
“It’s a tremendous honor for Liberty National Golf Club to host the 2027 BMW Championship and FedEx Cup Playoffs,” said Paul Fireman, former CEO of Reebok and co-founder of Liberty National Golf Club. “Welcoming the world’s top players and passionate fans to Liberty National with the iconic New York City skyline as the backdrop promises to be an incredible event. We’ve been fortunate to host a range of high-profile events on a consistent basis, and we’re thrilled to be adding the BMW Championship and future WGA competitions to our stellar lineup of tournaments.”
The 2023 BMW Championship is being held this week at Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Illinois. Next season the tournament will be hosted at Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock, Colorado, before it returns to Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland, in 2025, and Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis in 2026.
Rose Zhang came into her pro debut at the Mizuho Americas Open expecting to scramble to make the cut. She was surprised to see fans in the grandstands Thursday morning to watch first tee shot as a professional. Such is the humble mindset of a champion whose legendary status rose to another dimension on Sunday when she became the first player since Beverly Hanson in 1951 to win on the LPGA in her pro debut.
Hello world, indeed.
Zhang didn’t make a birdie all day but stayed patient throughout a painstakingly long final round at Liberty National to win in a two-hole playoff against Jennifer Kupcho with the most important par of her life.
“What is happening?” said Zhang as she held a bouquet of red roses. “I just can’t believe it.”
Thirteen days removed from winning her second NCAA title, celebrating her 20th birthday and announcing her professional plans, Zhang took on the best players in the world and beat them all.
The player known as “Rosie” by her Stanford family absolutely dazzled all week – whether the round came easy or required a persistent grind.
“I will continue to do what I’m doing,” Zhang said. “I’ll continue to fight. I’ll continue to work hard and hopefully everyone can follow along.”
A 12-time winner at Stanford, two-time USGA champion and the reigning Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion, Zhang carried enormous expectations into the week as her accomplishments in the amateur game have been unmatched in the modern era. Zhang considers the expectations of others to be a compliment, and she embraces the challenge, knowing deep down the results don’t define her.
It’s a mature-beyond-her-years outlook that should translate into staying power at the top of the game.
Zhang’s highlight reel for the week included a chip-in birdie on a 29-foot curler on the par-5 13th in her opening round; a tee shot she nearly aced on the drivable par-4 16th on Saturday; and a recovery shot from the rough on Sunday that looked so good she ran to see it.
The LPGA hadn’t seen a more anticipated American pro debut since Michelle Wie West in 2005. Wie West happened to be the tournament host at Mizuho and joined fellow former prodigy Morgan Pressel in the Golf Channel booth Sunday during Zhang’s back nine to talk about her sensational debut.
“I look up to her,” said Wie West, “she’s just such an amazing player.”
She also received a congratulatory text from fellow Cardinal Tiger Woods, which came as a surprise to Zhang during her post-round press conference as she had not yet looked at her phone.
Incredible few weeks for Rose Zhang, defends her NCAA title and then wins in her Pro debut. Go card!
Zhang, who was playing the Mizuho on a sponsor exemption, became the eighth player since 1992 to win her first professional start on the LPGA, joining Hinako Shibuno (2019 AIG Women’s Open) and Karrie Webb (1995 Weetabix Women’s British Open).
Now that she’s an LPGA member, Zhang is also eligible for this year’s Solheim Cup in Spain, captained by Stacy Lewis. Team USA hasn’t won a Solheim since 2017.
Zhang’s historical debut carried plenty of drama down the stretch. After missing a birdie putt inside 5 feet on the 16th hole that would’ve given her a two-stroke lead, Zhang faced a 10-foot comebacker for par on the penultimate hole to maintain her advantage. Zhang drained it like a boss to transcend the world of women’s golf.
On the second playoff hole, Zhang hit what she called one of the best shots she’s ever hit from 180 yards with a 4-hybrid to 6 feet.
Zhang fired a 6-under 66 on Saturday at Liberty National in Jersey City, New Jersey, to rise to 11 under, two shots clear of Atthaya Thitikul (68), Aditi Ashok (68) and Cheyenne Knight (70). Minjee Lee sits fifth at 7 under.
“I think it’s just great to be in that position. It just shows that leading up the last three days you’ve been doing a great job at playing your best on the golf course,” she said after her round. “And I think that for me, I’ve been in this position before, but I haven’t been in this position as a professional, since this is my first week, so I’m really just learning everything that I could. Tomorrow [Sunday], I’ll be just trying to figure out what it feels like to be in the final group, navigate my way through, and I’m sure by the end of the day I’ll be able to, you know, just build my character more.”
The LPGA has been starved for a new American star, and Zhang is just 18 holes away from stepping into the spotlight.
Final round coverage starts Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on Peacock, then live TV coverage takes over on Golf Channel at 5 p.m. ET.
What she would accomplish
It’s an impressive list of what Zhang could accomplish if she can finish on top Sunday. She would be the:
First player to win in her first start on the LPGA since Hinako Shibuno at the 2019 AIG Women’s Open
First player to win while making her pro debut on the LPGA since Beverly Hanson in 1951
First non-member to win on the LPGA since Maja Stark won the 2022 ISPS Handa World Invitational
Fourth sponsor invite to win an LPGA event, joining Lydia Ko in 2013, Lexi Thompson in 2011 and Hee Kyung Seo in 2010
A victory would also give Zhang ability to accept automatic LPGA membership, where she could start earning official money and Race to CME Globe Points for the 2023 season.
The top 24 girls in the AJGA rankings were invited to compete at Liberty National.
JERSEY CITY, New Jersey – There’s a tournament within a tournament going on at this week’s Mizuho Americas Open, and it’s the kind of event that represents the heart of the game.
The top 24 girls in the AJGA rankings were invited to compete at Liberty National in a Stableford format. The juniors will play together for the first two rounds in between the two waves of LPGA players. Over the weekend, they’ll be paired with the pros.
But it’s not simply that the juniors are here onsite, with a $1,500 travel stipend from Mizuho along with a club-provided caddie. (No parents are coaches are allowed to loop.)
Tournament host Michelle Wie West has facilitated a big sister program so that juniors are sure to leave this week with at least one new valuable relationship.
“At the pairings party we matched them up, every junior with their pro,” said Wie West. “They exchanged phone numbers and are playing a practice round today and having a meal today.
“Those exchanges of phone numbers are everything, because moving forward if they have a question they can text each other. I remember the first time I got Meg Mallon’s phone number … just being able to have access to such a great player.”
Marina Alex, for example, played a practice round with Sara Im, who has committed to Vanderbilt, Alex’s alma mater.
“I know when I was a junior nothing like this existed,” said Alex. “You would come out, and if you qualified, let’s say for a U.S. Open or played a professional event as an amateur or as a junior, it was a little scary.”
On Wednesday, juniors Gianna Clemente, Yana Wilson and Katie Li took part in a pre-tournament press conference following World No. 1 Jin Young Ko.
Wilson, winner of the 2022 U.S. Girls’ Junior, played a practice round with Andrea Lee on Tuesday and declared her by far the nicest professional she’s ever met. Li played with Lilia Vu and Clemente was paired with Paula Creamer.
Both Wilson and Clemente reported that they love talking to the media, with both having had a good bit of experience with it in recent years.
Li, who has verbally committed to Duke, said she appreciates the opportunity to learn first-hand how an entire LPGA event functions.
“Big thanks to everyone that helped host this event,” said Li, because without them, I don’t – I hope that I’ll get to experience this in the future, but like at least I will have at least once in my life (been) inside the ropes.”
This week Ganne reconnected with a security guard that once caught her sneaking onto Liberty National.
JERSEY CITY, New Jersey – Just a couple days removed from playing in the final group at the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open at Olympic Club, teenage amateur Megha Ganne snuck onto Liberty National after dark with her younger sister and a couple of friends to play the 14th hole.
“We see this cart rushing towards us and we are like, ‘Oh, no, this is not good,’ because we had never seen a cart before,” recalled Ganne.
“A very angry security guard comes out and says like, ‘You guys know there are cameras out here, right? You can’t be out here.’ Very serious. And then he kind of gets closer and he’s like, ‘I feel like I saw you on TV like yesterday.’ ”
That security guard was Joe Cieri, now the director of operations at Liberty National. Cieri was on hand Wednesday at the Mizuho Americas Open for Ganne’s pre-tournament press conference. It was during that presser that the Stanford freshman announced a new partnership with Liberty National, sporting the course’s logo on her bag. Now she can legally play anytime she wants.
“To have this golf course I looked out of my backyard every day and know I have playing rights and practice privileges here,” said Ganne, “just so lucky to be a part of this golf course in some way.”
Ganne spent the first 14 years of her life in Port Liberte and had a view of the 14th hole from her bedroom window. That summer evening in 2021 wasn’t the first time Ganne had snuck onto Liberty National, but it was the first time she got caught. Cieri, a retired Springfield cop, and Ganne became fast friends.
“I was not as mean as she said I was,” said Cieri, laughing. “I think I joked and said ‘Listen, you guys won’t get in trouble as long as somebody makes par on the hole. And then I saw her swing and hit the ball … and I was like, wait a second.”
Ganne, who is playing this week on a sponsor exemption, followed in the footsteps of Stanford teammates Rose Zhang and Rachel Heck in signing with Excel Sports Management for NIL representation. On Tuesday, Delta announced Zhang, Michelle Wie West, Ganne and Wake Forest’s Rachel Kuehn as brand ambassadors. This marks the first time the airline has sponsored LPGA players on a national level. Ganne also has NIL partnerships with TaylorMade and Ralph Lauren.
“It was just such a quick turn of golfers being allowed to have NIL,” said Ganne, “I took it slowly and saw what Rose and my other teammate, Rachel, did, and I had them as examples and people to lean on.”
Ganne, who now resides in nearby Holmdel, New Jersey, still has people approach her to talk about that special week at Olympic. She’s a different player now than she was then, having learned how to work the ball both ways and fine-tune her course management.
But that mega-watt smile and sparkling personality remain.
“The biggest thing on the golf course is my optimism and positivity,” said Ganne. “I feel like I had that for the last few years and that’s something I always try to maintain because I think it gives me a really big edge.”
The new Mizuho Americas Open will take June 1-4 in Jersey City, New Jersey.
There’s never been an LPGA event quite like this before. With an AJGA Invitational being held concurrently at Liberty National, 24 of the top junior girls in the country will compete alongside the best pros in the world with the glimmering New York City skyline as a backdrop.
The new Mizuho Americas Open will take place June 1-4 in Jersey City, New Jersey, and feature a field of 120 players vying for a purse of $2.75 million, one of the largest among non-major events. Michelle Wie West, an ambassador of Mizuho, will be tournament host.
“I’m super excited for the junior component,” said Wie West. “It’s everything that I’ve wanted to do.”
A view of the gallery around the 13th green is seen during the final round of The Barclays on August 30, 2009, at Liberty National in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Mizuho Americas, headquartered in New York City, is the fastest-growing region within Mizuho Financial Group, with 55,000 employees and $2 trillion in assets.
“They’re one of the top 15 banks in the world,” said LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, “and we’re thrilled to be their first entrée into the sports marketing space.”
Jerry Rizzieri, president and CEO of Mizuho Securities USA, told Golfweek that while they did look at several PGA Tour options, which would’ve been more advantageous in terms of viewership numbers, that’s not what drove the mission. Mizuho views this as a purpose-driven sponsorship.
“Our organization I feel has done a good job at creating opportunities for women,” said Rizzieri. “Two of our three largest divisions are actually headed by women. In general, I feel like women are very underrepresented, certainly in our industry, and certainly at the very senior levels. But also I believe that the athletes themselves, whether it be the WNBA or the LPGA, are very much under-appreciated. Not only for their skill, but their dedication.
“When I think about the progress that has been made over the years, it’s certainly commendable, but still there’s a long way to go.”
While major championship purses have seen sizable increases in recent years, week-to-week purses on the LPGA still lag behind. Marcoux Samaan said going forward, new tournaments on the schedule will start with a minimum $2 million purse. Though Mizuho pushed that higher with the hope of making an impact and creating a premiere, destination event.
This marks the first time the LPGA has come to Liberty National, host of the 2017 Presidents Cup as well as several PGA Tour events. Marcoux Samaan said the event, owned and operated by Excel Sports Management, ticks all the boxes the tour is looking for in a new partner.
The unique element of linking the past and present, with future LPGA stars playing alongside current ones, lines up with Wie West’s mission. She’s been thrilled to hear the support of her peers, who look forward to paying it forward inside the ropes.
For some junior players, this could be a life-changing event, cementing a dream to compete at the highest level.
“I’m hoping a lot of friendships will be made and a lot a lot mentorships will be formed,” said Wie West, who stepped away from competition earlier this year. The 32-year-old mom will take part in junior clinics at Liberty National and spend time in the broadcast booth.
Michelle Wie poses with the trophy after winning the 2009 Lorena Ochoa Invitational at Guadalajara Country Club in Guadalajara, Mexico. (Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
In 2023, Wie West will be joined by Annika Sorenstam as an LPGA tournament host as The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican takes place in November in Belleair, Florida.
The first tournament Wie West won on the LPGA was the 2009 Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico. Winning Ochoa’s event was extra special, Wie West said, not only because she looked up the LPGA and World Golf Hall of Famer, but because she was able to see the impact Ochoa had in her home country.
“I never thought it would happen this fast and at Liberty National,” Wie West said of hosting an LPGA event. “It’s been the biggest honor.”
This wasn’t the first time Rory McIlroy has tossed a club.
We’ve all wanted to chuck a club after hitting a lousy shot, and many people have given in to temptation and heaved one down the fairway. It feels good, even if you know you shouldn’t have done it as you walk to wherever the club landed and retrieve it.
Rory McIlroy has tossed a couple in his career, including his 3-wood after hitting his tee shot on the ninth hole at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey, during a Monday finish at the Northern Trust. After hitting his tee shot with the TaylorMade SIM2 Max 213 yards, a shot that failed to reach the fairway and left McIlroy still 269 yards to the hole, Rory flung the club into the trees on the right side of the teeing ground.
Typically, there would be fans, volunteers and scores of other people nearby to grab the club, but after the remains of Hurricane Henri soaked Liberty National on Sunday and forced a Monday finish, only a handful of people would have been around McIlroy as the club got chucked.
McIlroy’s tee shot on the ninth hole only went 213 yards. (PGA Tour)
So, for five days, the club’s whereabouts remained a mystery until, as Alan Bastable reports for Golf.com, it was discovered early last Sunday morning by Michael Bongiovanni, a grounds-crew member at Liberty National.
Several people searched the area around the ninth tee in the days after the tournament, looking for the club. According to the club’s general manager, Lee Smith, it was discovered in an area where people had been searching, but the club was likely blown down to a more visible spot from a higher branch in the trees by a storm on Saturday evening.
TaylorMade SIM2 Max 3-wood (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Smith and his fellow Liberty National staffers are working on finding a spot where the 15-degree SIM2 Max fitted with a Mitsubishi Tensei CK 80 TX shaft and a Golf Pride New Decade Multicompound grip can be displayed.
“We’re going to do everything we can to keep it out of a case while also securing it,” Smith said. “We’d like people to be able to touch and feel it, because it really has taken on a life of its own.”
Tony Finau ended a five-year winless streak on the PGA Tour, winning the 2021 Northern Trust in a playoff.
The Northern Trust was pushed to a Monday finish. So why not have a playoff to extend the action further?
Tony Finau and Cameron Smith each finished 72 holes at 20 under to extend the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs beyond regulation and into the dinner hour at Liberty National in Jersey City, New Jersey.
But on the first playoff hole, after Finau teed of first, Smith hit out-of-bounds right, effectively ending the extra golf before everyone could walk off the tee box. Finau then hit a 5-iron onto the green, high-fived his caddie and cruised on in from there.
He started the week with but one PGA Tour victory. It came more than five years ago in the 2016 Puerto Rico Open. He has gone a overly discussed 1,975 days and 143 starts since then, amassing 11 top-3 finishes along the way.
But that streak is over. Finau is now 2-3 in playoffs and he vaults to the No. 1 spot in the FedEx Cup standings.
On Saturday afternoon, the PGA Tour moved the final round back to Monday. By 7 p.m. ET that night, nine inches of rain fell on Liberty National. On Monday, the tee times were pushed back three times before finally starting at 11:30 a.m. ET. The final round was contested without any fans on site.
That’s how much rainfall drenched Liberty National, site of the Northern Trust, since 7 p.m. ET on Saturday.
“Bad news is we had three times the amount of flood precipitation that was forecasted but the good news is we didn’t have the wind,” said PGA Tour rules official John Mutch. “So we didn’t have the damage on the structures or trees or anything like that.”
All that rain has left the grounds crew with plenty of work to do to prep the course. Tee times, originally scheduled to begin at 7:30 ET, have been pushed back four hours.
“Now we are just pushing water. The bunkers have all been repaired. The maintenance staff has done an incredible job. They have worked through the night as has all the ops team and everyone else,” said Mutch. “So we plan to start at 11:30 today. It’s going to continue to dry. Fairways are remarkably good for nine inches of rain but obviously it is wet.”
As a result, the final round of the first leg of the FedEx Cup will be played under preferred lies.
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“These fairways are all sand capped so that’s helped us a lot. This golf course is built on sand. It’s a links style course, right on the Hudson, so it does drain well,” Mutch said. “Also what hurt us a little bit is we had high tide this morning and a full moon last night. So it all kind of works together.”
Mutch also confirmed that the course can’t take on any more water.
“We have definitely reached field capacity. But as the tide goes out, so will the ponds drain, and right now the forecast is pretty good for next four to six hours. We have some chance of something hitting us tonight, some embedded cells. I’m being optimistic and hoping that that doesn’t happen,” he said. “If it does happen, the meteorologist thinks we can get up to an inch. But after that from that point on, we don’t have any predicted rain.”
Another band of storms could roll through beginning around 3 p.m., but by 7 o’clock the Tour’s meteorologist predicts the storm will have headed east of the course. Regardless of the fact, the plan is to play on until 72 holes is completed, even if that means returning to finish on Tuesday, per a modification in the tournament rules that was rubber-stamped by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
“Yesterday evening we had a call, and because of the importance of the FedExCup and how these tournaments are linked to each other, one to the next and then to the next and finally to East Lake, it’s paramount in his view, and our view, that we play 72 holes. And that we do everything in our power to get 72 holes in,” Mutch said. “Like I said, we have a good forecast for Tuesday, and if we don’t get hit by anything tonight, we’ll have it done tonight.”
