Seven of LIV’s 14 events for 2023 have now been announced.
LIV Golf continued its slow drip schedule reveal on Wednesday and announced three new courses for its 2023 schedule.
The re-branded LIV Golf League will host events at the Gallery Golf Club in Marana, Arizona (March 17-19), Cedar Ridge Country Club in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma (May 12-14) and The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia (August 4-6). The upstart circuit backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund previously announced four international stops for 2023. So far, the league has announced seven of 14 events for 2023.
LIV officials had previously said they would avoid going head-to-head with major championships and would steer clear of so-called PGA Tour “heritage events,” such as the Memorial and Arnold Palmer Invitational. The event in Arizona will be held the same week as the Valspar Championship and a week after the Players Championship. The Oklahoma tournament will run opposite the AT&T Byron Nelson, the week before the PGA Championship. The stop in West Virginia is the same week as the Wyndham Championship.
Team rosters for the 14-event season in 2023 have yet to be finalized, where 12 teams and 48 individuals will compete for a total of $405 million in prize purses.
The Old White TPC at the Greenbrier is No. 1 on the list of Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play 2020: West Virginia.
Most golfers might expect mountain layouts when they think of the best courses in West Virginia. But the top public-access course in the state isn’t about the hills – it’s all about the history.
The Old White Course – named for the nearby hotel at the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs – was completed by famed architect Charles Blair Macdonald in 1914, with assistance from Seth Raynor. After decades of alterations and degradations, the course was restored by architect Lester George to its Macdonald pedigree, with that work wrapping up in 2007.
Golfweek ranks courses by compiling the average ratings – on a points basis of 1 to 10 – of its more than 750 raters to create several industry-leading lists of courses. That includes the popular Best Courses You Can Play list for courses that allow non-member tee times. These generally are defined as courses accessible to resort guests or regular daily-fee players.
The Old White is No. 1 on that list in West Virginia. After George’s restoration, the Old White hosted the PGA Tour for a decade and introduced many Tour players to Macdonald’s famed templates including the Redan, the Biarritz, Eden, Alps and more. These stylized green designs have been celebrated at courses around the world.
Snowshoe Mountain’s Raven Course in West Virginia (Courtesy of Snowshoe Mountain)
Arnold Palmer’s layout at Stonewall Resort in Roanoke is No. 2 among the state’s public-access tracks. The Stonehaven Course at the Resort at Glade Springs in Daniels is No. 3, followed by No. 4 Snowshoe Mountain’s Raven Course in Snowshoe and the No. 5 Cobb Course at the Resort at Glade Springs.
Unlike the long history at the Greenbrier, West Virginia’s private golf scene is full of more modern stars. No. 1 in West Virginia’s ranking for Golfweek’s Best Private Courses is Pikewood National in Morgantown, which also ranks No. 27 on Golfweek’s Best list for all modern courses built in the U.S. in or after 1960. The No. 2 private layout in West Virginia is Pete Dye Golf Club in Bridgeport, which is No. 37 on Golfweek’s Best list for modern courses in the U.S.
Greenbrier Sporting Club in White Sulphur Springs is the No. 3 private course in West Virginia, followed by Williams Golf and Country Club in Weirton at No. 4 and Moundsville Golf Club at No. 5.
Each year, we publish the three lists that are the foundation of our course-ratings program: Golfweek’s Best 2020: Top 200 Classic Courses, Golfweek’s Best 2020: Top 200 Modern Courses and Golfweek’s Best 2020: Best Courses You Can Play.
Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in West Virginia.
1. The Greenbrier (Old White)
White Sulphur Springs (No. 126 c)
2. Stonewall Resort
Roanoke (m)
3. Resort at Glade Springs (Stonehaven)
Daniels (m)
4. Snowshoe Mountain (Raven)
Snowshoe (m)
5. *Resort at Glade Springs (Cobb)
Daniels (m)
Golfweek’s Best Private Courses in West Virginia.
1. Pikewood National
Morgantown (No. 27 m)
2. Pete Dye GC
Bridgeport (No. 37 m)
3. Greenbrier Sporting Club (Snead)
White Sulphur Springs (m)
4. Williams
Weirton (c)
5. Moundsville GC
Moundsville (c)
*New to the list in 2020
(m): modern; (c): classic
How we rate them
The members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged together to produce a final rating for each course. Then each course is ranked against other courses in its state, or nationally, to produce the final rankings.
If holding training camp in Allen Park is unfeasible due to the coronavirus response, The Greenbrier in West Virginia makes a lot of sense
The Detroit Lions remain on virtual operations status, with everyone working remotely during the early offseason activities. Due to the current state of coronavirus pandemic response in Michigan and other places, that unusual status could be forced to continue well into the summer.
Could the restrictions in Michigan force the Lions organization to uproot training camp and host it in a location with looser restrictions on interpersonal contact and business?
There are unconfirmed reports that the Lions could be seeking to move training camp in 2020. The place that makes the most sense is The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia.
The Greenbrier has hosted NFL training camps for the New Orleans Saints and Houston Texans in prior years, most recently in 2018. The famed resort has also hosted The Spring League, an upstart developmental football league. Situated in the isolated mountains of southeast West Virginia, it’s an ideal location for a controlled-access camp. There are four NFL football fields including an indoor facility, as well as full training and rehab stations.
It has not come to the point of needing to find an alternate place to hold training camp yet for the Lions. But if the team is forced away from its Allen Park headquarters, the Greenbrier makes perfect sense.
Tournament organizers for the PGA Tour’s West Virginia stop have canceled the remaining six years of its contract.
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The PGA Tour’s West Virginia stop, A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier, isn’t just skipping this season because of COVID-19 rescheduling. Tournament organizers have canceled the remaining six years of its contract, which was to have run through 2026.
The tournament on the Old White TPC course in White Sulphur Springs, which began in 2010 as the Greenbrier Classic, had been scheduled for September and was to kick off the 2020-21 PGA Tour season. It was replaced on the PGA Tour’s revised schedule announced Thursday by the Safeway Open in California.
Tournament organizers said in a release that moving the event to the fall, which occurred in 2019 as the PGA Tour shuffled its schedule, did not work out for attendance and sponsors as well as when the event was played around the Fourth of July.
“We are happy to reach a resolution with the PGA Tour that is mutually beneficial to both parties in this time of crisis,” Jill Justice, president of the Greenbrier, said in the release.
“We owe a supreme debt of gratitude to (West Virginia) Governor Jim Justice (owner of the Greenbrier) and his Greenbrier resort for a highly successful 10 years of partnership with the PGA Tour,” said Andy Pazder, executive vice president and COO for the PGA Tour. “Governor Justice’s vision and leadership helped shine a light on the men and women that serve our country through the military and first responder programs he implemented through the tournament, and the Greenbrier resort was an incredibly unique and world-class venue that our players will always remember and cherish.”
