Where are the four Men’s Majors being played in 2024? – Golf News

THE MASTERS

The place: Augusta Nationwide, Georgia, USAWhen: April 11-14Defending champion: Jon Rahm2023 purse: $18m

With so many current main winners now on the LIV pay roll, and thus banned from competing on the PGA Tour, the majors current the one likelihood for golf followers to see the world’s greatest gamers all competing alongside one another, including additional stress and pleasure to what are already must-watch occasions.This 12 months’s renewal of the Masters could have some further added spice as its defending champion is none apart from Jon Rahm, who jumped ship from the PGA Tour to affix LIV Golf over the winter for a really eye-watering sum of cash.The burly Spaniard joins the likes of Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Patrick Reed and Charl Schwartzel as previous Masters champions who additionally signed as much as LIV, and there’s an enormous likelihood that Rahm will be part of Bubba as a twin winner and the primary to win back-to-back Masters since Tiger Woods again in 2001-02.Speaking of Tiger, there’s an enormous likelihood that the five-time Masters champ will tee it up once more if his physique can maintain collectively till April. Having limped out of the occasion after 54 holes in 2023, it will likely be unbelievable if he makes the reduce, not to mention completes 72 holes, this time round, however you’ll be able to guess that the TV cameras will probably be glued to his each transfer.In different story strains, Rory McIlroy will as soon as once more hope to divert consideration from what will probably be his sixteenth try to get his arms on a Inexperienced Jacket and full the grand slam of main titles. This 12 months additionally marks a decade since his final Main victory. Exhausting to consider, eh?

US PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

The place: Valhalla Golf Membership, Kentucky, USAWhen: Could 16-19Defending champion: Brooks Koepka2023 purse: $17.5m

The PGA Championship returns to Valhalla for the primary time since Rory McIlroy’s victory in 2014, whereas McIlroy, fairly extremely, returns to the Kentucky venue in search of his first main victory since then.Final 12 months’s winner Brooks Koepka might emulate Tiger Woods by going back-to-back within the PGA Championship for a second time, whereas return to type participant Jordan Spieth nonetheless wants the Wanamaker Trophy to finish the profession grand slam.

As for the course, it was laid out by Jack Nicklaus and has a very distinctive design, with room off the tee to seek out the links-style fairways and a premium on correct iron play. Measuring 7,458 yards, the par-71 format has loads of sturdy par 4s and likewise a gettable closing par 5 with a horseshoe-shaped inexperienced which gives the chance for dramatic swings of fortune if the event goes all the way down to the wire.

Phil Mickelson says of Valhalla: “The fairways are at all times beneficiant. I feel the largest factor is coming into the greens – the upper and softer you hit the ball, the extra birdies you’ll be capable of make.”

US OPEN

The place: Pinehurst Resort, Course No.2, North Carolina, USAWhen: June 13-16Defending champion: Wyndham Clark2023 purse: $20m

Pinehurst No.2 is the one course to have hosted all 5 of the USGA’s most necessary occasions: US Open (1999, 2005, 2014), US Girls’s Open (2014), US Beginner (1962, 2008, 2019), US Girls’s Beginner (1989) and US Senior Open (1994).

Martin Kaymer gained the final US Open right here in 2014, nevertheless it’s most likely higher generally known as the course the place Payne Stewart gained his third Main in 1999 – two months earlier than his tragic loss of life in a airplane crash – and the place qualifier Michael Campbell turned the primary Problem Tour graduate to win a Main, holding off Tiger Woods in spectacular vogue in 2005.

First opened in 1907 and designed by Donald Ross, Pinehurst No.2 is taken into account his greatest work and he continued to excellent it till his loss of life in 1948. The 7,543-yard, par-70 course is known for its exceptionally troublesome upturned saucer greens, that are a signature of Ross designs. With three of the par 4s measure over 500 yards, and solely two par fives – one if which is over 600 yards – scoring at The 124th US Open is not going to be low.

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

The place: Royal Troon Golf Membership, ScotlandWhen: July 18-21Defending champion: Brian Harman2023 purse: $16.5m

Following a shift within the schedule a number of years in the past, The Open Championship now presents the final likelihood for Main glory within the season, and with that comes some added stress, particularly if Rory has nonetheless but to bag one.

Troon, which will probably be internet hosting its tenth Open this 12 months, historically comes fairly low down within the checklist when it comes to crowds, however with the R&A working a brand new coverage of pre-selling tickets, it’s possible {that a} new document will probably be set for spectator attendance in 2024.

The course has a behavior of throwing up shock winners like Justin Leonard (1997) and Todd Hamilton (2004), though the 2016 Championship noticed the in-form Henrik Stenson prevail in a mesmerising duel with the magician that’s Phil Mickelson, with each setting scoring information alongside the best way.

First opened for play in 1878, Troon, like many basic hyperlinks, is designed in a conventional out-and-back model, the place the coastal wind could be your good friend and as a lot as your enemy – though extra typically the latter. The membership’s motto is ‘Tam Arte Quam Marte’ a latin phrase that interprets ‘As a lot by ability as by energy’, which is a becoming description of how the course must be performed. Requiring pinpoint accuracy and cautious course administration, Troon tends to favour gamers who’re capable of stay affected person, somewhat than people who search to overpower it with brute pressure.

Though famed for its 123-yard par-3 eighth, the Postage Stamp – the place the document highest rating is 15 within the 1950 Open – it’s a participant’s efficiency on the lengthy par fours, together with the 483-yard eleventh gap, that normally determines the vacation spot of the Claret Jug.