Will Zalatoris and Sahith Theegala, two fan favorites and budding superstars on the PGA Tour, are set to team up for the 2024 Zurich Classic on April 25-28 at TPC Louisiana in New Orleans.
Theegala (ranked No. 14 in the Official World Golf Ranking) won the Fortinet Championship last September, while Zalatoris (No. 30) has finished inside the top two twice since returning to action after spending some time on the sidelines due to a back injury.
“Will has bounced back extremely well after missing nearly a full season from major back surgery,” said Steve Worthy, CEO of the Fore!Kids Foundation, producer of the tournament. “Meanwhile, Sahith is building off his first Tour victory last year with three top-10 finishes this season already, ”
At last week’s Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, Theegala tied for ninth while Zalatoris missed the cut.
In two starts at the Zurich Classic, Theegala missed the cut in 2022 and tied for 23rd in 2023. Zalatoris, on the other hand, has made just one start at TPC Louisiana, eventually tying for fourth alongside Davis Riley (one of this year’s defending champions).
The 15-time major champion will be joined by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay and Max Homa.
Tiger Woods plays his second shot on the 18th hole during the third round of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club on February 18, 2023, in Pacific Palisades, California. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
Course history
Course history at Riviera Country Club for the @TheGenesisInv going back to 2016.
-Includes average finish position and Strokes Gained per round in each category. Players are sorted by SG: Total.
-3rd (out of 44) most predictive annual course on Tour.
There’s a distinct possibility of golf stretching into Monday.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Nick Taylor finished only six holes on Saturday at TPC Scottsdale, electing to mark his 6-foot par putt at the seventh green and wait until play resumes in the morning. He chose to do so despite leading the field at the WM Phoenix Open in putting this week and having drained a 48-foot bomb just two holes earlier to the take the tournament lead at 13 under, one stroke ahead of 36-hole leader Sahith Theegala. Asked why he chose to wait despite riding such a red-hot putter, Taylor said, “Because I couldn’t see the hole.”
Good reason, indeed. The horn blew suspending play for darkness at 6:11 p.m. local time, and setting up a marathon Sunday, which presents the distinct possibility of stretching into Monday.
Taylor, a native of Canada who makes his home not far from the tournament and practices here regularly, has good vibes here after finishing second last year.
“A lot of years in a row I didn’t,” said Taylor, who never had finished in the top 10 before last year but now has shot 62 in 2023 and tied the course record on Friday with a 60. “I’m definitely in good position to try to finish it off.”
Here are five things to know from the first day at TPC Scottsdale.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Sahith Theegala is ranked No. 22 in the Official World Golf Ranking but he may be more proud of his chess ranking.
“I’m at my all-time Blitz rating right now. Like, I don’t want to play, because I know I’m going to drop a bunch,” he said.
Theegala’s golf ranking may surge to a new high – his best is No. 18 – if he keeps playing like he did Thursday during the first round of the WM Phoenix Open. Theegala posted 6-under 65 at TPC Scottsdale to grab a two-stroke lead over Shane Lowry and S.H. Kim among the finishers before play was suspended due to darkness at 6:10 p.m. local time (8:10 p.m. ET).
“It’s not often where kind of every part of the game actually kind of clicks during the course of the round,” Theegala said. “It felt like through the bag I did something good with every club.”
Theegala birdied six of his first 13 holes, including a pitch-in for birdie at No. 2.
“I tried to fly it pretty close to the hole and nip it,” Theegala explained. “I didn’t hit it incredibly, so it landed on the down slope and got there. So, it was a great scenario into the wind and it’s always nice to see it drop.”
Sahith Theegala made 7 birdies in his opening round 65 today.
He now has 26 rounds with 7+ birdies or better over the last 3 PGA Tour seasons. Only 6 players have more such rounds in that span (Scheffler, Finau, Cantlay, Im, Poston, Cam Young).
Theegala made his lone bogey of the day at No. 5 right before play was suspended due to unplayable conditions.
“I was relieved when the horn blew, yes,” said Theegala, who enjoyed lunch with his parents and played some chess puzzles during the break and then made birdie at No. 6 when play resumed.
“Really happy with the start,” he said. “I played great and that’s all I can do, really.”
Here are four more things to know from the first round of the WM Phoenix Open.
After missing out on the Tour Championship in August, Chris Kirk rested during the off-season by working on his golf game – as a left-hander rather than as a righty, shooting a low score of 82.
“It’s really hard left-handed,” he said. “Really hard.”
Kirk, who won the Ben Hogan Award as the college player of the year, has been making the game look easy for years. His graceful, fluid swing as a right-hander long has produced his trademark natural draw and it delivered in crunch time on Sunday in the final round of the PGA Tour’s season-opening tournament, The Sentry, in Kapalua, Hawaii.
The 38-year-old veteran pro was tied for the lead at the 17th hole at Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course and facing 209 yards to the green at the toughest hole on the back nine. With the wind, which had been non-existent all week, picking up he switched from a 7-iron to a 5-iron and struck a beauty that bounced on the fringe and rolled to inside 3 feet to set up the winning birdie.
“That one on 17, I’ll remember for a long time,” he said. “One of the best shots of my career, for sure.”
Nursing a one-stroke lead after 54 holes, Kirk capped off a bogey-free 9-under 64 on Sunday to win his sixth PGA Tour title with a 72-hole total of 29-under 263 and one-stroke better than Sahith Theegala.
“Just kind of kept reminding myself of no matter how I felt, no matter how nervous I was, there was nothing really stopping me from hitting great shots, hitting great putts, and I was able to kind of remind myself of that before every shot,” Kirk said.
Kirk returned to Kapalua this week for the first time since 2016, booking his trip last February at the Honda Classic, where he won for the first time in nearly eight years. In November, Kirk, who took a leave of absence from the Tour in May 2019 to address issues with alcohol abuse and depression, received the PGA Tour Courage Award.
During the final round in paradise, Kirk said he was nervous but he never showed it. The lack of wind left the Plantation Course vulnerable, and the pros attacked. The final-round scoring average of 66.7 was the lowest single-round average on Tour on record (dating to 1983), on the par-73 layout. Justin Rose equaled the course record with a 12-under 61. Sungjae Im closed in 10-under 63 and set a record with 34 birdies, the most in a 72-hole tournament since 1983. Kirk birdied four holes in a five-hole stretch on the front nine to maintain a narrow lead, but Theegala birdied four in a row on both nines to keep the pressure on Kirk. Theegala caught Kirk with a birdie at 15 to get to 27 under and one group later Spieth made birdie at 15 to make it a three-way tie at the top. Theegala made his fourth birdie in a row and fifth in his last six holes at 16 to take sole possession of the lead at the time, but he lipped out for birdie on 18 that could have forced a playoff.
“I knew I just needed to keep making birdies and there was a bunch of chances, especially with the wind laying down,” Theegala said. “Really wish I could have had that second shot on 18 back. It’s not how it works.”
Spieth was done in by a bad break at 16, where his tee shot plugged in a bunker and he made bogey. He closed in 65 and finished third.
Kirk stayed cool and calm to win the shootout, playing with “more self-belief than I’ve had in years,” he said. Along the way, he’s rediscovered his love of the game.
“Had it for a long time and then lost it,” he said. “I lost the joy of most things in life for awhile there. But, yeah, it’s certainly back. I think I just love how hard this is. Like, it’s so hard to be great at this, and I love the process that it takes. I love the work that it takes to try to be the best version of myself. I definitely have fallen back in love with that process, and sometimes you get rewarded for it, like today, and sometimes you don’t.”
Sahith Theegala is back for the second time at The Sentry. One year after he shot 10 under for 72 holes, he opened with 10 birdies on Thursday and shot 9-under 64 at Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course to take a one-stroke lead over a bunched-up leaderboard on a low-scoring day thanks to calm conditions.
“I saw something about first timers not doing great here and I believe it,” he said.
Theegala, 26, proved to be a quick learner. He recorded the most birdies in a PGA Tour round in what was his 250th career round on Tour, including six in a row to start his back nine. Asked to name his favorite of the bunch, he picked the one at No. 12, saying, “Had a really gnarly 8- or 9-footer that I didn’t know which way it was going to break, grain was going all over the place. I just aimed it dead center and tried to hit it hard and hearted that putt, and that settled me down a little bit more.”
Theegala, who notched his first Tour title at the Fortinet Championship in September, has the lead after 18 holes for the second time in his career over a handful of players.
The scoring average was almost 4-under as the wind laid down.
Here’s four more things to know about the first round of The Sentry.
What took place at the inaugural Grant Thornton Invitational was a new concept – and they want more of it.
NAPLES, Fla. – Rose Zhang wasn’t even born the last time the PGA Tour and LPGA held a mixed-team event. Ludvig Aberg was a mere 2 months old in December of 1999, when legends Laura Davies and John Daly won the final edition of the JCPenney Classic.
For generations of players, what took place this week at the inaugural Grant Thornton Invitation was a new concept – and they want more of it.
“We need to do this for the game of golf,” said Billy Horschel of bringing the two tours together. “We do a lot of stuff that looks out for the players, but we need to make sure we are taking care of the fans and thinking about the fans more.”
Speaking of fans, there were more at Tiburon Golf Club than at previous QBE Shootouts and CME Group Tour Championships. Cheyenne Knight teed off early with partner Tom Hoge and was surprised by the number of fans on the first tee. Ticket sales and concession sales doubled this week compared to last year’s QBE and hospitality sold out, according to tournament officials.
Knight hopes some of these local fans come back next year for the CME, where the winner will receive a $4 million first-place check, the largest in all of women’s sports.
Joel Dahmen marveled at the number of kids he saw this week, particularly little girls, far more than an average week on the PGA Tour, he said. He called watching Lexi Thompson’s ace on Saturday one of the highlights of his year, and said he’d like to see the Grant Thornton field expand from 16 teams in 2024.
“There’s no reason we can’t have more mixed-team events,” said Dahmen after Saturday foursomes. “There are so many events on the PGA Tour, ratings aren’t always amazing in some of those fields. To bring in the women’s game would be awesome.
“I was completely outclassed today by Lexi.”
Lexi Thompson of the United States and Rickie Fowler of the United States look on from the first green during the second round of the Grant Thornton Invitational at Tiburon Golf Club on December 09, 2023 in Naples, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
Early week buzz at the Grant Thornton was overshadowed by U.S. Golf Association and R&A rollback news and Jon Rahm to LIV Golf drama, controversies that dominated the golf chatter on social media and beyond. The action at Tiburon, however, provided a much-needed escape from that which divides golf fans.
The Grant Thornton was a celebration of what unites – camaraderie, competition and inspiration. Thursday’s junior clinic with Amy Bockerstette, Jessica Korda, Leona Maguire and Dahmen epitomizes what golf can do for good. Bockerstette’s “I Got This Foundation” is one of the charities that benefits from money raised this week.
Walking onto the first tee Friday, Sahith Theegala turned to Dahmen’s caddie and noted how “cool” it was to play in the same group as Lilia Vu, the first world No. 1 he’d ever played alongside, and to partner with Zhang, a dominant amateur he predicted would be a future No. 1 on the LPGA.
“Me and Joel were joking that Lilia and Rose will be better than maybe we ever will be,” said Theegala, who won his first PGA Tour title at this year’s Fortinet Championship.
PGA Tour players admired the games of LPGA players all week, and it felt genuine. Former No. 1 Jason Day asked Lydia Ko about her wedge game, noting that he’d be trying to emulate his Kiwi partner during the offseason.
Major champion Justin Rose described his playing partner, Charley Hull, as an old-school player, detailing the way she shapes her iron shots. He called Hull “fearless” and described her short game as “unbelievable.”
Such praise goes a long way in building respect for female players who fight weekly for the attention of not just the sports world, but of those already within the golf landscape.
Justin Rose of England and Charley Hull of England talk on the second green during the first round of the Grant Thornton Invitational at Tiburon Golf Club on December 08, 2023 in Naples, Florida. (Photo by Douglas DeFelice/Getty Images)
Rose, who founded and backed the Rose Ladies Series during the COVID-19 pandemic to give British players a place to compete, gets it more than most.
“You need fan awareness to have the pay equality,” said Rose. “Because obviously at the end of the day, it’s a commercial business. You need the eyes watching it to kind of make the TV dollars on the back end.
“So I think obviously fans being able to pick their favorite players, to be a bit more aware around the skill level around the women’s game, identify with the players and their stories – they’re more likely to watch going forward. I think this is absolutely one of those key events to help do that.”
Nick Taylor took note how the fans in Naples reacted with surprise to the women often hitting it closer than their male counterparts. There was no Shotlink available this week, but hopefully next year as the unique formats – particularly the modified fourball, where players hit drives and then switch balls – can provide some interesting data points.
Making Olympic golf a mixed event has long been talked about and came up once again in Naples, as did a larger mixed team event like the Presidents Cup.
“Looking at my grand ball, someone’s got to step up,” said Horshel.
“A team competition, Ryder Cup-style between the U.S. and Europe, or whether it be the U.S. and the world, men and women … I think that would be another home run for everyone involved. I think that’s coming down the line.
“If it’s not being talked about then I don’t know, maybe we need to change the people in the positions and get some more innovative thinkers in there.”
“I think this is what golf needs is more team events, especially mixed men and women’s, and I think fans will really love it.”
Sahith Theegala and Rose Zhang both grew up in Southern California and share a trainer, who it turns out deserves most of the credit for their teaming up at this week’s Grant Thornton Invitational in Naples, Florida.
Theegala, who played his college golf at Pepperdine, has been keeping track of Zhang’s exploits during her college career at Stanford, and when the Grant Thornton Invitational was announced as transforming into a mixed-team event this year, he remembers thinking, “I need to find a way to get her out to play with me this year.”
That’s when their mutual trainer started a text thread between the three of them early this year, where he declared they were going to team up in the event.
“Rose was like, ‘Well, I’ve got to turn pro first,’” Theegala recalled. “So yeah, I like casually brought it up. Kind of like not really jokingly but kind of jokingly. She just turned pro and killed it right away, and I was like, ‘Am I good enough to still be your partner?’”
Indeed, he is. The 26-year-old Theegala won this event at Tiburon Golf Club last year with Tom Hoge as his partner when there were just two mixed-team pairings. Zhang turned pro this summer and is proving to be a force to be reckoned with, and likely a hot commodity for this event. The inaugural Grant Thornton Invitational is the first mixed-team co-sanctioned event between the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour since John Daly and Laura Davies won the final JCPenney Classic in 1999, and a revival of the concept has long been in the making.
“This week is really special for not only me but everyone in this event,” Zhang said. “I don’t get to play with PGA Tour players often, so being able to play with Sahith, and from afar you always watch these players on TV, and you always admire their games, how far they hit it, how precise they are, how creative they are with their shots. It’s just kind of cool to just be inside the ropes to see that, let alone teaming up. Yeah, it’s going to be a fun ride.”
Lexi Thompson, 28, who had played in the QBE Shootout previously and competed against the men in the PGA Tour’s Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas in October, echoed that sentiment.
“I think this is what golf needs is more team events, especially mixed men and women’s, and I think fans will really love it,” she said.
Women’s golf is on the rise, and Theegala said an event like the Grant Thornton Invitational will showcase just how talented they really are.
“I didn’t realize how far Lexi hits it or how good Nelly’s iron game is and stuff like that,” he said. “They’re the best players in the world. They stack up to the Tour guys, if not better than the Tour guys, in a lot of areas.”
Rickie Fowler, 34, is teaming with Thompson. Originally, he was supposed to play with Jessica Korda, but she had to back out for a very good reason – she’s expecting her first child.
“I tried to talk her into it like you can still do it, but yeah, she ultimately bailed,” Fowler said with a smile. “It was a pretty easy decision from there.”
Fowler and Thompson couldn’t pinpoint the first time they met but figured it was at a Cobra-Puma shoot, the equipment and apparel makers they both endorse, around 2010.
“Team events are always a good time just because you can kind of lean on each other, but it’s also some added pressure, as well, because you want to perform and execute when it comes down to alternate shot (the format used during Sunday’s final round),” Fowler said. “Yeah, we have a pretty strong field both on the men’s and the women’s side. No one has come in here just to enjoy December offseason. There’s a lot of pride at stake.”
The bond between these teams may have been forged over text strings and at photo shoots, but this week they are thicker than blood.
“If you hit it in the weeds, I won’t be mad,” Fowler said to Thompson. “It’s fine.”
Everything you need to know for the week in Naples.
The inaugural Grant Thornton Invitational is here and it’s sure to be a great week at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida.
PGA Tour and LPGA stars have teamed up and are ready to do battle over the course of three days. The first round will be a scramble, the second foursomes (alternate shot) and there will be a new format in play on Sunday. The “modified fourball” consists of both players hitting a tee shot, then switching balls for their second shots and playing that ball until they complete the hole. The lowest of the two scores will count for the team.
Here are some of the notable pairings: Tony Finau/Nelly Korda, Rickie Fowler/Lexi Thompson, Sahith Theegala/Rose Zhang and Lydia Ko/Jason Day. The No.1-ranked Lilia Vu will play alongside fan-favorite Joel Dahmen.
This will be the first co-sanctioned event between the Tour and LPGA since 1999.
Golf course
Tiburon Golf Club | Par 72 | Home to LPGA’s CME Group Tour Championship
The 18th hole at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida. (Photo: Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
The rosters for the tech-infused league headed by Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and their joint venture TMRW Sports are starting to take shape.
The entire Boston Common Golf roster has been announced — McIlroy, Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott and Tyrrell Hatton — as well as the Atlanta Drive GC — Justin Thomas, Billy Horschel, Patrick Cantlay and Lucas Glover.
As of now, the only other player associated with a team is Woods, who also co-owns the Jupiter Links GC.
