Anything you can do, we can do in 2023… or maybe 2024

Today’s date is 11/12/21. Kinda fun. Next year it will be 11/12/22. Even more fun.

History repeats

The PGA Tour is ready to throw money at its upstart-international-golf-league problem. According to Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch, the Tour plans to stage four to six events outside the U.S. that will offer guaranteed money to the world’s top players. The series may include a team element and could begin in either 2023 or ’24.

Here’s Lynch: “Asked to specify just how lucrative the new series will be for elite players, the executive said no cash figure has been finalized and that the focus is on providing guaranteed money rather than a traditional prize fund that players would compete for a piece of. The source likened the new events to an amped-up World Golf Championships swing that will ensure riches for elite players regardless of how they perform.”

Wow, that sounds… pretty bad!

No doubt this is a response to the threat of a Saudi-funded golf league, and so far it feels like a fairly vague and haphazard one. The only detail that Lynch’s source seemed sure of is that the money will be guaranteed. Very, very guaranteed.

Survive and advance

As for golf that we might actually want to watch, the LPGA Tour is back in the U.S. for the first time in over a month for the Pelican Women’s Championship. Leona Maguire and Sei Young Kim are 1-2 after the first round.

Here are some other storylines to follow this weekend at Pelican Golf Club:

Status check – The Pelican Women’s Championship is the last chance for LPGA Tour members to move up the Race to CME Globe standings, which will determine membership for next year. The LPGA Tour priority ranking grants the best status to the top 80 and lower status to the top 100 and top 125, respectively. Among the notables near those bubbles are Brittany Lincicome (No. 80), Maria Fassi (86), Christina Kim (98), Mirim Lee (104), Anne van Dam (109), Sung Hyun Park (115), and Bianca Pagdanganan (124).

Winner takes all – The top 60 in the standings after the Pelican will get into next week’s CME Globe Tour Championship, which boasts a $1.5-million first-place prize. Emma Talley currently holds the 60th spot, narrowly ahead of Jenny Coleman.

Who’s the POY? – This week, Nelly Korda and Jin Young Ko are battling not only for No. 1 in the Rolex Ranking but also for the LPGA Player of the Year Award. The LPGA uses a points-based system for the POY race, and on the back of her four LPGA Tour victories, Ko holds a 15-point advantage on Korda. A win this week would be worth 30 points.

Boards

An early J.B. Holmes rain delay has pushed a portion of the first round of the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open to Friday.

Five players shot 65 or better during the first round of the AVIV Dubai Championship.

Phil Mickelson is in the mix at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship on the PGA Tour Champions.

Quick Hooks

Via Eamon Lynch of Golfweek (busy week for Eamon!), Rory McIlroy has reunited with swing coach Michael Bannon. The four-time major winner separated from Bannon earlier this year to work more with Pete Cowen.

Slugger White and Greg Norman: a match made in… heaven? White has signed on as the new Vice President of Rules & Competition for LIV Golf Investments, the Saudi-backed venture headed by Norman. No Laying Up first reported this development in their October 31 podcast.

When Hannah Green withdrew from the Pelican Women’s Championship last week, she all but assured herself the $1 million top prize in the year-long Aon Risk Reward Challenge. Green is currently No. 35 on the LPGA Tour money list at $531,507, meaning she will nearly triple her earnings by staying home this week. Full story from Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols.

The Latest from The Fried Egg

The Shotgun Start – Andy and Brendan run through the latest about the DP World Tour and Slugger White before chatting with Ben Rothenberg, a tennis writer, about the parallels between golf and tennis. Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify.

Pro Shop

Recent rain and cool temperatures in the Midwest have some of us at The Fried Egg heading for cover. Speaking of which, we have headcovers back in stock! Add some flair to your bag with a TFE standard logo headcover or new alternate logo headcover.

(Oh, and we now accept cryptocurrency as payment, if you’re into that sort of thing. Not super sure how it works, but we figured we’d be #hip and #trendy.)