⛳️ PGA, DP, and LIV Merger?!

Hey fellow golfer, welcome to the Wednesday edition of the Red Birdie Golf newsletter, here’s what we got for you today:

TOURNAMENT NEWS

PGA TOUR

The American Express is being played this weekend in La Quinta, California. The weather is expected to be beautiful and the golf should be fun to watch.

Each of the 156 PGA Tour players will rotate through the courses at La Quinta and will playing with an amateur through 54 holes.

On the final day of the tournament, the top 65 players will play on the Stadium Course for the championship.

Our pick for the American Express is Justin Thomas.

He had a fairly up-and-down 2023, but after the FedEx was over, he finished the calendar year very well.

We expect him to carry that momentum on into 2024 and win a couple of tournaments.

If Thomas does not play well, look for Sungjae Im to play a strong tournament.

LIV TOUR

The LIV Tour is still a couple of weeks away from beginning, but the PGA Tour is playing another event this weekend that Jon Rahm, the newest LIV golfer, won last year. With Rahm being so prominent at the beginning of 2023, his name continues to come up every week.

DP TOUR

The Dubai Desert Classic is this weekend and Rory McIlroy is the defending champion after beating Patrick Reed by a shot last year.

There are 126 golfers teeing it up in Dubai on Thursday including Tyrrell Hatton, Brian Harman, Cameron Young and Luke Donald.

McIlroy is the favorite again this week, and you can expect a good showing from him and maybe even a win.

Our pick to win this weekend, however, is Luke Donald.

LPGA TOUR

The Hilton Grand Vacation Tours Championship will host some of the best golfers in the world this weekend at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club.

All players who won a tournament tin either 2022 or 2023 will be invited to play this weekend so the field will be staked.

Our pick for the HGTV Classic is Lilia Vu.

GOLF NEWS

Monahan in Saudi Arabia

Monahan was seen in Saudi Arabia meeting with the governor of the Sovereign Wealth Fund in the country.

The two are thought to be negotiating a potential for-profit entity called PGA Tour Enterprises that would combine the PGA, LIV and DP Tour into one.

The deal started last year with a deadline that has now passed of December 31.

The organizations extended the deadline and are now working together for a solution.

NEW GOLF GEAR

Cleveland Frontline Putter

Cleveland Frontline putters are different. Most putters, while they may look different and have different features, have the same basic weight system.

You want the weight in the back and around the perimeter for a larger sweet spot.

Not the Cleveland Frontline.

Instead, they pack the weight in the “front” of the club which is meant to offer more stability and speed control at impact.

The idea being that if all of the weight is in the front, it is going to give you a firmer and straighter ball strike.

The single bend in the shaft looks great at address and slightly offsets the club. You can actually feel the difference in this club.

When you swing for the first time, the club feels a little lighter and your stroke feels a little off.

This goes away pretty quickly, but it really is a different idea for putters than what we are used.

In general, short putts and long putts seem to benefit the most from the Frontline ISO while mid-range putts stay at about the same position.

GOLF BIZ

How Will The PGA and LIV Coexist

The idea that LIV and the PGA Tour could coexist is a strange one especially as LIV continues to poach some of the best PGA players. As the deal and negotiations heat up, however, something has to be done to bring the two sides together and it is difficult to see that working out.

Until Friday!

Brian and Matt @ Red Birdie Golf