Main menu

Pages

Norris's Hard Travel and the Temptation of the Saudi League | Sports News

featured image

Doug Ferguson, AP Golf Writer

Tulsa, Oklahoma (AP) —Shaun Norris, the last player to pair with Tiger Woods on the PGA Championship, returns to South Africa to meet young children, take a short break from a trip, and where his world is. I thought about whether to go. Take him.

One option is the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational series, which has received his attention.

Norris, who has won 10 careers and is 66th in the world, said he registered for his first event in two weeks in the suburbs of London.

It has not yet been decided if he will go or if he is outdoors. Norris, like everyone else, is uncertain and unheard of.

Caricatures

“I entered,” he said. “I’m just waiting to see what happens. I’m not completely sure yet or haven’t decided to go. I’m just hanging out and basically testing the body of water increase.”

Money and a small schedule are attractive to 40 years old.

Norris has won the Sunshine Tour, Japan Golf Tour, Asian Tour and Europe Tour. This year alone, he played tournaments on four of the six major golf circuits and won a co-authorized event in South Africa to win a European Tour Card.

He has a choice. He also has two children, a 3-year-old boy and a daughter, born in Pretoria two months ago.

“I met her for a week and then I had to leave,” Norris said. “She is laughing. We make video calls every day. But that’s difficult.”

That is a big reason why he is interested in LIV golf.

“If that works for me, at my age you will want to take care of your family and stay home,” Norris said. “In all of this tough trip playing in Europe, America and Japan, I can hardly meet my kids. We are trying to find a way to make it easier. Do it. You never know if you have to, but I’m not in a hurry to make a decision. “

He will return to the US Open next week and be exempt from winning the Sunshine Tour achievements. The first LIV Golf event will take place June 9-11 at the Centurion Golf Club, a week before the US Open on the outskirts of Boston. The next one will be held in Oregon from July 1st to 3rd, a week before playing the Scottish Open and the British Open.

“What if I could exercise for 15 or 20 weeks of the year and spend the rest of my time at home? That’s an ideal lifestyle, especially as two fathers,” he said.

Except for 2020, when the pandemic disrupted the schedule, Norris hosted an average of 27 tournaments a year, with a maximum of 34.

So what’s preventing him from signing up for a series of $ 20 million events and winning $ 4 million?

“I just want to see how the tour handles it,” he said. “Are they going to ban you from the tour altogether? How are you? I don’t want to put yourself in a complete mess that can’t get out of it. We know that there are a lot of players who are completely committed. I know. Let’s take a look for a while. “

Norris said the newly reopened Sunshine Tour and the Japan Golf Tour were “not bothered” by the members’ play. He is a member of the European tour. Money and schedules are fascinating, but Norris understands why the PGA Tour and the European Tour are resisting.

“The PGA Tour has built something for 50 years to get to where they are, and this is Saudi Arabia, and we want to start where the PGA Tour is now,” he said. “They are basically throwing money at it. You can fully understand why the PGA Tour feels and how they feel, and why the European Tour feels like that. I don’t want to take over. “

Mito Pereira was only thinking of winning the PGA Championship, so it was devastating to finish off with a double bogey to finish one shot from the playoffs.

It’s a little comfort, but Pereira, who is number 100 in the world and has received a special invitation to the PGA in the second major, is guaranteed to play the following four.

He moved to 49th place in the world in the last tournament before the US Open (Top 60) and the British Open (Top 50) used rankings to determine which players were exempt. His third-place tie won his first Masters position in April next year. And the PGA Championship has won the Top 15 and Thailand from the previous year.

The Evian Championship was promoted to the fifth major on the 2013 LPGA Tour, which represents the biggest purse in women’s golf. Evian led the year with a $ 3.25 million wallet.

With a full boost, the five majors have more than tripled their prizes to a total of $ 32.8 million.

The United States Women’s Open is the most abundant women’s golf for $ 10 million. Last year’s British Women’s Open announced another bump, so the prize pool at Muirfield (which until recently was all men’s clubs) will be $ 6.8 million.

Evian has recently announced a $ 2 million increase. This will bring the total prize pool to $ 6.5 million this year and the winner will be paid $ 1 million in prize money.

“Raising the wallet for this major championship makes a strong statement about the value and status of women’s games,” said LPGA Tour Commissioner Molly Marc-Saman.

The Chevron Championship in California had a prize of $ 5 million, while last year’s KPGA Women’s Championship had a prize of $ 4.5 million. The wallet for this year’s parliamentary tournament has not been announced.

In addition to $ 1 million for the winner, Evian pays everyone in the field.

Sweden’s Texas Tech Junior Ludvig Aberg has been awarded the Ben Hogan Award for Top Men’s College Golfers based on college, amateur and professional events over the last 12 months.

Aberg is Texas Tech’s first winner, winner of the Big 12 Conference School’s third Ben Hogan Award in the last five years, and joined Oklahoma State’s Victor Hoblan (2019) and Texas’ Douggim (2018). I did.

He was named Sam Bennett of Texas A & M and Eugene Chakara of Oklahoma.

Aberg, second in the world amateur rankings, has won nine consecutive titles in the Top 15 and won the Big 12 Championship and Prestige. Aberg, who won second place in the European Amateur last summer, was tied for 30th place. Scandinavian was mixed on the European Tour and finished 51st on the PGA Tour’s Bermuda Championship.

This award includes an exemption to play the Charles Schwab Challenge at next year’s Colonial.

The PGA Works University Championship will be held next year at Shoal Creek, a club in Alabama. The club was able to invite the first black members to host the PGA Championship in 1990. … Bubba Watson, in a tweet congratulating PGA Champion Justin Thomas, revealed that he had a meniscus tear and would play for four to six weeks. In other words, Watson will not qualify for the US Open. … Inbee Park withdrew from the US Women’s Open next week. … Harris English, hoping to return to competitive golf in the PGA Championship, has withdrawn from the colonial. He has had his left hip surgery and hasn’t played since the second week of January. … After finishing third in the last two weeks, South Africa’s MJ Daffue is the latest player on the Korn / Ferry Tour and has enough points to be among the 25 players who will win the PGA Tour card next year. Has won.

The last four major champions were all in their twenties and were in the top ten of the world when they won.

“Now you can see how nervous people are when they watch me on TV.” — Joaquín Niemann, who saw Chilean friend Mito Pereira trying to win the PGA Championship.

Other AP Golf: https: //apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Copyright 2022 AP communication. all rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

..

Commentaires