Archive of posts tagged leader

Scottie Scheffler wants to expand his festival

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BMW

The PGA Tour season enters its final stretch this Thursday. The FedEx St. Jude Championship kicks off, the first of three tournaments that will determine the 2025 FedEx Cup champion.

Three separate events—this week's St. Jude, next week's BMW Championship, and the Tour Championship in two weeks' time—will determine the victory of the tour's annual season. The winner of the Tour Championship will claim the tour title. On the other hand, this PGA Tour playoff is scheduled weeks before the Ryder Cup.

Scottie Scheffler, results

The points for the winners of these tournaments are quadrupled compared to the regular season tournaments, so 2,000 are distributed to the winners in the first two events, before the Tour Championship decides the champion. Furthermore, the various tournaments, which are played without a cut, are eliminatory: of the seventy participants at St. Jude, only the top fifty in the annual rankings will advance to the BMW. After that, the cut will be set at thirty for the final Tour Championship.

The winner of that last tournament will be taken into account to determine the FedEx Cup champion. However, as a novelty this season, the players' starting scores will not be taken into account the annual tour ranking. Everyone will start at par.

Thus, a total of seventy players, the best of the season in the FedEx Cup, have secured a ticket to a FedEx St. Jude tournament to be played at TPC Southwind in Memphis this weekend. All eyes will be on one man: Scottie Scheffler. The American, a strong favorite for the final victory of the season, enters this tournament as the solid leader of the annual rankings and in peak form.

The British Open champion just under three weeks ago, Scheffler returns with all eyes on him. He has won four of his last eight tournaments and hasn't dropped out of the top 10 since The Players in March. A testament to his absolute consistency.

As if that weren't enough, he's seeking his second consecutive FedEx Cup, a feat no one has achieved since the format's launch in 2007. It would be another milestone for a player who continues to shape the future of golf, with two majors (he also won the PGA Championship) and four wins this year, and is poised to be at full strength for the Ryder Cup in a few weeks.

Furthermore, Scheffler (4,806 points in the standings) will not have his greatest rival in the fight for the FedEx Cup, Rory McIlroy (3,444), in the opening tournament, which reaffirms his favoritism for this first tournament. The American and Northern Irishman have a solid grip on the top two spots in the annual rankings heading into the final tournament, a situation that has led a tired McIlroy to save his energy for the next two weeks.

Thus, Scheffler's biggest rivals in the first tournament are Sepp Straka (2,595 points), Russell Henley (2,391), and Justin Thomas (2,280). The world number one is aiming to make the final push to distance all his rivals by more than 2,000 points before the BMW Championship and, with that, lock down that top spot heading into the final event.

Of course, there will be no shortage of other big names. J.J. Spaun, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Justin Rose, and Hideki Matsuyama are, among others, candidates to win this first tournament beyond the annual rankings. Players like Matthew Fitzpatrick, Schauffele, and Jordan Spieth are nearing the top 50 positions that qualify for the BMW Championship, so there's a lot at stake starting this week.

LIV Golf star out-earns Scottie Scheffler in shock 2025 money list twist

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Best Golfer ESPY Award

Scottie Scheffler is the dominant figure of the PGA Tour this year as well, and it seems that he will remain so in the long run. While it is clear that Scheffler has earned a huge amount of money, the public is shocked that the American is not the highest-earning golfer this year.

Namely, Joaquin Niemann, LIV Golf member, earned an incredible $21,212,762 this year. 

While Scottie collected 19,202,883 dollars this year, the Chilean golfer surpassed his earnings, being the dominant figure of the rival Tour. 

It is important to point out that Niemann did not excel at the Major tournaments this year, having mostly lackluster performances. Playing on the PGA Tour, Joaquin won twice, the Greenbrier in 2019 and the Genesis Invitational in 2022, after which he decided to open a new chapter in his career and join the LIV project in 2022. 

Joaquin Niemann

Joaquin Niemann© MirrorSport / X / Fair Use

 

A victory at a LIV tournament typically guarantees $4 million, which is nearly three times more than most PGA Tour events.

Niemann excelled this year on the Saudi-backed Tour, achieving as many as five victories. 

Fans reacted

Fans couldn't help but immediately ask the question: Would Niemann be dominant playing on the PGA Tour? Answering such questions is ungrateful and challenging, but if a merger happens, we will have a real picture of how the PGA and LIV golfers are doing. 

It seems we will have to wait a long time to see two rival Tours under the same roof. The public is not happy, but the main figures on both sides clearly want to take a bigger piece of the pie, while on the other hand there are obstacles in other areas.

For Niemann, the most important thing is to be a dominant figure on the controversial Tour, with his ambitions for the rest of the season being just as strong. It seems like he will succeed in that.

Time will tell whether Joaquin will continue to be the leader in terms of earnings by the end of the year.

LPGA and LET: first Major for Miyu Yamashita

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Alessandra Fanali

The Japanese dominated from the opening round in the AIG Women's Open, and in the end, the title of the fifth and final women's Major of the season went to Miyu Yamashita, who finished with a 277 (68 65 74 70, -11) shot, two ahead of compatriot Minami Katsu and England's Charley Hull, who finished second with 279 (-9).

Miyu Yamashita, results

On the par-72 Royal Porthcawl Golf Club course in Porthcawl, Wales, in the tournament organized by the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour, another Japanese player, Rio Takeda, finished fourth with a 281 (-7), along with South Korean A Lim Kim. Taiwanese Wei-Ling Hsu and American Megan Khang finished sixth with a 282 (-6), and eighth with a 284 (-4) was the eagerly awaited Englishwoman Lottie Woad, who recently turned professional and already has two LET wins (one as an amateur), Australian Stephanie Kyriacou, and the strong Spanish amateur Paula Martin Sampedro, winner of the European Ladies' Amateur Championship at the end of July.

American Nelly Korda, world number one, and New Zealand's Lydia Ko, the defending champion, were disappointed, finishing 36th with a 291 (+3), while Alessandra Fanali's first Major ended in the cut, finishing 106th with a 151 (73 78, +7).

Miyu Yamashita, 24, from Neyagawa, inaugurated her trophy case—which spans both the LPGA Tour, where she plays, and the Ladies European Tour—with a Major, but before playing in the US, she had won 13 titles on the LPGA of Japan Tour. She closed her winning run, which began as the leader in the second round, with a 70 (-2, three birdies, one bogey) and received a check for $1,425,000 on a prize pool of $9,500,000.

The rules of golf are relatively complicated compared to other sports because they are played outdoors, close to nature and animals. Respecting the rules is a fundamental element in the game of golf, which, almost always based on self-control and the free conscience of the players, often sees distorted results, sometimes consciously, but often unconsciously or through carelessness, due to the failure of many players to comply with the rules of the game. In addition to the rules, golf adheres to a code of conduct, known as etiquette, which generally means playing the game with due respect for the golf course and other players. Etiquette is an essential component of this sport.

AIG Women's Open, everything ready in Wales

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Anna Huang

A prize pool of $9.5 million (of which $1.425 million will go to the champion), 144 competitors, including all 25 top players in the world. Plus: 11 past winners, 20 season winners on the LPGA Tour and 12 on the LET, and the presence of Alessandra Fanali. The AIG Women's Open, scheduled for July 31st to August 3rd in Porthcawl, Wales, promises to be a spectacular event. The final women's Major of 2025 will be held at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club, where New Zealand's Lydia Ko, gold medalist at the Paris Games, will defend her 2024 title. Past winners include Lilia Vu (2023), Ashleigh Buhai (2022), Anna Nordqvist (2021), Sophia Popov (2020), Hinako Shibuno (2019), Georgia Hall (2018), Ariya Jutanugarn (2016), Stacy Lewis (2013), Jiyai Shin (2012, 2008), and Yani Tseng (2011, 2010).

AIG Women's Open in Wales

Among the stars of the competition is American Nelly Korda, leader of the Rolex Rankings. Lottie Woad is also highly anticipated. The 21-year-old Englishwoman, in her first pro tournament, won the ISPS HANDA Women's Scottish Open. A success that came after her (as an amateur) victory in the KPMG Women’s Irish Open, followed by a third-place finish in The Amundi Evian Championship, her fourth Major appearance. A dream birthday for Fanali, who turns 26 today and is preparing to make her debut in a Major. The Italian, with a score of 69 (-2), finished fourth in the Final Qualifying held in Bridgen, also in Wales, won by Canadian Anna Huang, thus securing her place in the coveted event. The tournament, founded in 1976 (the winner was English amateur Jenny Lee Smith), has been won over the years by great players in the discipline. Among these, Laura Davies (1986), Annika Sorenstam (2003) and Lorena Ochoa (2007).

The first documents attesting to the existence of rules of golf date back to March 1744. The rules were produced for a competition to be held at a Scottish golf club, and contained 13 points in total.[3] Initially, writing the rules was the responsibility of each individual club and so they varied depending on where the game was played.