LIV Golf grows as PGA Tour defections soar. PGA News: The defections continue as Brooks Koepka and others bolt from the PGA Tour this week.
Koepka, Pat Perez, & Matt Wolff all moved to the LIV Tour this week. Jason Kokrak may also move. They join major champions Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, and many others in defecting from the PGA Tour to the LIV Golf Series.
They will not be the last high profile golfers to join the new circuit being CEO’d by two-time Open Championship winner Greg Norman. At least 20 PGA Tour players have defied the tour and joined the LIV Tour thus far.
What we’re seeing is golf…the sport, in a slightly different format, but still golf. Perhaps even a bit more exciting with the team aspect at play. Expect to see more defections by players, as the LIV Tour has a lot going for it: More prize money, less travel due to fewer events this 1st season, and what is becoming more of a player refrain…more time with their families.
The PGA Tour’s Jay Monahan is behaving as if the LIV Tour doesn’t exist. He’s attempting to protect his domain, rather than try to grow the game. Monahan is the equivalent of the Captain of the Titanic…that iceberg (LIV Golf) is a figment of your imagination.
Also notable in the early going is that the governing bodies that stage the four majors — Augusta National Golf Club (Masters), USGA (U.S. Open), PGA of America (PGA Championship) and the R&A (The Open) don’t seem ready to ban players who are competing in the LIV Golf circuit, at least not yet.
The USGA did not ban eligible players from the US Open last week.
Stay tuned for more as this golfing war is just heating up.
It’s late June, summer’s here, and the living is easy. At least, so we’re told. The Jays don’t subscribe to that notion it seems. Lot’s of activity on the Hilltop.
Goings on…
Players on campus and working out. Lake day… A few guys overseas for national team events. Also the alumni TBT team and schedule have been announced. White & Blue Review have set up their bracket challenge for the TBT Event.
R2 will be in Canada for a Canadian NextGen event, late June into July. Art is in Europe with Team Uganda (Silverbacks) for a FIBA World Cup Qualifiers event. FIBA World Cup is Aug-Sept 2023. Bahamas team is in the USVI for the FIBA World Cup Qualifier event. Bahamas plays USVI @the UVI Arena , on July 1, 2022. Fredrick is not listed on the (old) roster, but assuming he will debut for Bahamas, much the same as Art did last summer for Uganda. I believe this will be Fredrick’s 1st run with the Bahamas ‘Bigboy’ Team. Bahamas has won FIBA Americas previously. However, they are not Top 10 (Americas) this go around and will need a big push to make the Top 7 cut for the World Cup next summer. So it makes sense for them to start now, the 3rd of 5 qualifying events to begin their push.
Bahamas: Will they limit their number of turnovers? With a record of 1-3, the Bahamians are one win away from the Virgin Islands to ensure their ticket to the next round. There is a lot of optimism that they will be able to achieve it, but they need to improve their turnovers. The Bahamas is the third worst team when it comes to taking care of the ball with 16.3 turnovers per game. It is an obligation for them to improve their decision-making and even more so now that they will visit their Caribbean rival.
FIBA Quote
Virgin Islands: Will their shooting effectiveness improve? It’s now or never for the Virgin Islands. They are one of the four winless teams, but will have the opportunity to close at home. The game against the Bahamas will be decisive. If they manage to beat them by 13 points or more, they could get through the first phase, however, it is a difficult challenge. It’ll be an uphill battle as they have not been able to be effective on offense, they have the worst field percentage with only 34.6%. Anything can happen in a game, but they have to change that stat drastically.
I put out a mock Maui bracket on the BJU…for discussion purposes. Here it is. I used the latest ESPN rankings to seed it. Something to play with and use for discussion. In all likelihood the actual bracket will be different, depending on which poll the good folks in Maui use for their seeding. Jays may end up as the 2-seed with the Razorbacks as the #1.
I actually prefer to play the 2-seed slate. Playing the Higher ranked teams (L’ville, Arizona, Arkansas) early is in our favor, as we generally come out the gate hot n fast. Plus we have experience playing together as a group and our opponents are all attempting to work in ‘new guys’ to their rotations and trying to build team chemistry and cohesion. We’re already there. Roll Damn Jays!
I#RollDamnJays
Milestone goal #7 of 8
…and lastly.
Ryan K
Art and Big Ryan projected as 2nd rounders in the 2023 NBA Draft…
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