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On Thursday, Sahith Theegala made six birdies in a row to begin his again 9 on the best way to a 9-under 64 on the Plantation course in Hawaii and the first-round lead of the Sentry Match of Champions, the inaugural occasion of the 2024 PGA Tour season.
And with that, golf followers had been maybe ready to consider golf as a sport once more relatively than as a fractured enterprise. Golf is as soon as once more a sport the place followers can watch gamers hit good and dangerous photographs, make outstanding recoveries and do issues with a membership and ball that the leisure golfer can solely dream of.
That hasn’t essentially been true for the final three months. Because the PGA Tour transitioned again to a schedule the place the season and the calendar 12 months begin on the similar time, the tour was left with a three-month interval of little or no consequential golf. Whereas that’s purported to be an low season for the sport’s largest names, the tour sadly discovered that point full of many various headlines. There was the information of Jon Rahm leaping to the LIV Tour, the tour negotiating in opposition to a Dec. 31 deadline for a brand new enterprise construction with the Saudi Arabian Public Funding Fund and with only some unofficial occasions in December for a distraction from the enterprise finish of the sport.
However Thursday, not less than for a couple of hours, it was once more about golf. It was a few red-hot begin for gamers like Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele. It was about discuss of Scottie Scheffler being the No. 1 participant on the planet, or discuss of how lengthy it is going to take Viktor Hovland to get to No. 1. And it was a few scorching again 9 by Theegala, a burgeoning star on the tour.
This all led as much as Chris Kirk’s victory, as he capped off a bogey-free 9-under 64 on Sunday to win his sixth PGA Tour title with a 72-hole whole of 29-under 263 and one-stroke higher than Theegala.
This week, the PGA Tour heads to Honolulu for the Sony Open at Waialae Nation Membership.
Extra golf, much less discuss ledgers.
If golf followers have change into disgruntled with the skilled recreation in current months, it may be blamed on the continued debate and sniping from the 2 sides of the PGA Tour/Liv battle. But it surely can be blamed partly to not having top-level golf to look at on tv. It’s soccer season, in spite of everything, and each the NFL and the faculty recreation have been dominating the sports activities world. The PGA Tour has particularly crafted a schedule that avoids the NFL as a lot as potential. It’s unlucky that lull within the skilled golf world was full of information that made the game and its gamers look grasping.
Chris Kirk strains up his putt for birdie on the sixth inexperienced in the course of the remaining spherical of The Sentry at Plantation Course at Kapalua Golf Membership on January 07, 2024 in Kapalua, Hawaii. (Picture by Michael Reaves/Getty Photographs)
Deal with the course
However now, the gamers are again on the workplace, if you’ll, and able to present the world what their expertise are, each bodily and psychological. For now, we will consider simply how sturdy Scheffler’s ball-striking is, how Hovland has improved his brief recreation, whether or not Brian Harman and Wyndham Clark can observe up on the main championships from 2023, whether or not gamers like Rickie Fowler and Jason Day can observe up their drought-breaking victories final 12 months with extra wins this 12 months.
We are able to marvel about rookies arising from the Korn Ferry Tour. We are able to marvel on the distance of Rory McIlroy’s drives whereas questioning if that is the 12 months he will get his fifth main. In different phrases, we will take into consideration golf on the course relatively than in boardrooms. We are able to let golfers be golfers and never politicians or accountants.
Will that final? In fact not. The PGA Tour and PIF are nonetheless negotiating previous their deadlines, and a few golf figures might be claiming victory and others might be shedding their jobs within the coming months. If one other participant decides to make the leap from the PGA Tour to the LIV Tour, the world will deal with that and never strokes gained-putting.
Nonetheless, it was refreshing to suppose nearly golfers and golf programs this week. Let’s hope nothing distracts followers from that for not less than a couple of weeks.
Larry Bohannan is the golf author for The Desert Solar. You’ll be able to contact him at (760) 778-4633 or at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Observe him on Fb or on Twitter at @larry_bohannan. Help native journalism. Subscribe to The Desert Solar.
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