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The newly announced Mizuho Americas Open will make its debut May 29-June 4, 2023, at a high-profile venue — Liberty National Golf Club, in Jersey City, N.J. — and with a high-profile host: recently retired LPGA star and Mizuho brand ambassador Michelle Wie West.

But wait, there’s more!

The event will also feature a format that is unique in the world of professional golf. In a collaboration between the LPGA and the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA), two parallel tournaments will be contested concurrently over four days. The 120 pros will compete for the Mizuho Americas Open trophy and a $2.75 million purse, while the AJGA will field the 24 best junior girl players — selected via the Rolex AJGA Rankings — in an AJGA Invitational. For the first two days, the juniors will play in their own respective groups while the pros play together in separate groupings.

On the weekend, the real fun begins. The LPGA cut will be a smaller-than-normal 50 players. Those players will be split into twosomes and each group will be joined by one of the junior players. These threesomes will play together through the remainder of the weekend.

When Wie West stepped away from competitive golf, she said one of her goals would be to continue efforts to grow women’s golf from the ground up, and this tournament and its unique format, she said, are the perfect vehicle to do that.

“When I made the transition away from playing fulltime, these were the type of things I really wanted to do,” Wie West said at a Friday press conference at Liberty National. “Growing women’s golf, growing access to the game, growing diversity into the game. I’m extremely honored that I get the opportunity to do all the things I want to do really all in one tournament.”

LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, who also was in attendance at Liberty National, noted the star power Wie West brings to the new endeavor.

“To have one of the most amazing women that I’ve met and one of the most iconic female golfers [as our host], who really has turned her attention to growing the LPGA and helping us advance our mission, I don’t think we could ask for anything better,” Marcoux Samaan said. “This is kind of a homerun times 10.”

Part of the mission of the event is to give the juniors an invaluable opportunity to experience the atmosphere, competitiveness and pressure that comes with playing in professional tournaments. They also will be treated just as the pros are throughout the week, including press conferences, sponsor dinners, practice rounds and everything else that goes into being a player at the highest level.

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Jason Etzen, chief business officer at the AJGA, said this partnership with the LPGA is a huge opportunity for junior golf.

“Kevin Hopkins [VP of Excel Sports Management] came to me and started to explain the idea and the people and organizations that were going to be involved, and I think I said yes before he finished talking,” Etzen said. “It was a very quick yes on our part knowing what this is going to do to help develop the lucky young 24 girls.”

Mizuho is a multi-national financial services corporation, and the Americas Open is its first investment in the U.S. sporting landscape. Jerry Rizzieri, Mizuho Americas president and CEO, said the company’s decision to get involved in the tournament was an easy choice.

“We wanted to do something that not only was good for our business, but we also wanted to do something that showcases our values,” Rizzieri said. “We wanted to make a difference. Women athletes I think are very much underappreciated. We thought it was a great message for us to showcase the talent of these women at an unbelievable location right around New York City.”

For two dozen talented girls — and for junior golf as a whole — it will be a week they won’t soon forget.

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The post Inside the Icons Series: New golf event to pit sports stars in match-play battle appeared first on Golf.

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Fred Couples, Ernie Els and a host of world-class athletes from sports other than golf are looking to deliver just that next week with the debut event of the Icons Series, June 30-July 1, at Liberty National GC, just across the Hudson River from downtown Manhattan.  

The Icons Series is a Presidents Cup-style event, pitting a mix of 12 active and former brand-name athletes from the U.S. against their international counterparts in a six-session clash. Couples and Els will captain each squad. 

Who’s in the field?

Team USA: Michael Phelps (former Olympic swimmer), Michael Strahan (former NFL defensive end), Ben Roethlisberger (NFL quarterback), J.R. Smith (former NBA guard), John Smoltz (former MLB pitcher), Andrew Whitworth (former NFL tackle), Ivan Rodriguez (former MLB catcher), Reggie Bush (former NFL running back), Robbie Gould (NFL kicker), Marshall Faulk (former NFL running back), Golden Tate (former NFL receiver turned minor-league baseball player)

Team Rest of the World: Harry Kane (Premier League soccer player), Canelo Alvarez (Mexican boxer), Ash Barty (Australian tennis player), Pep Guardiola (Premier League manager), Ab De Villiers (South African cricketer), Brian Lara (former Trinidadian cricketer), Ricky Ponting (former Australian cricketer), James Milner (Premier League soccer player), George Gregan (Australian rugby player), Yuvraj Singh (former Indian cricketer)

Shrewd observers will note just 11 players named on the U.S. team and 10 on the International side. The remaining players will be added to each team in the coming days.

“These guys are all really good golfers,” Els told Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz this week, in an interview that will appear on next week’s episode of Subpar. “Some of these guys are scratch golfers. We’ll see how serious they take it. Being so competitive in their sports field, I think the competitiveness is going to come through as the tournament goes on. I don’t think anyone wants to lose in this thing.”

Where will it take place? 

Liberty National. The 2017 Presidents Cup host site, which has also been the venue for FedEx Cup playoff events, is back hosting a team competition. Will this one be as big of a blowout as the U.S.-dominated ’17 Cup was? Unlikely! But we’ll have to see how Freddie’s team handles the pressure. The event will take place June 30 and July 1, with a practice day on June 29.

What’s the format? 

The six-session series will take place over two days, with three 10-hole match play sessions per day and the event culminating in head-to-head singles clashes. You read that correctly: 10-hole match-play sessions. That means the squads won’t be competing on the Liberty National layout as we know it. Check out the adjusted course map below:

Day 1 will begin and end with five matches of fourballs, where the best score from each tandem of players is their team score. Sandwiched in between the fourball sessions will be a greensomes session, which is similar to foursomes. The difference with greensomes is that each player hits a tee shot, and the two-player teams select their favorite tee ball and play alternate-shot from there in. Day 2 will follow the same format with the exception of the third session, which will feature 12 decisive singles matches.

How can I watch it?

Viewers at home can tune in to the action on the second day of the matches — that’s Friday, July 1 — when the broadcast will stream on NBC’s Peacock app from 2-6:30 p.m. ET. 

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May I attend?

You may indeed. New York City-area fans who would like to see the action in person can do so with grounds tickets that are $25 per day or $40 for a two-day pass. Spectators 17 and under will be allowed in for free with a paying ticket-holder.

Why should I watch?

Umm, did you see the lineups? There are athletes representing nearly every major sport: NFL, MLB, NBA, tennis, boxing, Premier League soccer, even cricket! Also, the match-play format changes things a bit. We’re used to sporting figures and celebs competing in pro-ams under stroke play. Now, we’ll see them competing as teammates in a match-play format, in front of fans and cameras on a playing field that is much different from the ones they’ve dominated for years. The nerves alone should be enough of reason to tune in.

Is this the start of something bigger?

That’s the plan. The Icons Series is aiming to host future events in Australia, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. No dates have been announced for those sites, but they’re coming.

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The post Rory McIlroy’s missing 3-wood resurfaces at Liberty National in mysterious fashion appeared first on Golf.

The post Rory McIlroy’s missing 3-wood resurfaces at Liberty National in mysterious fashion appeared first on Golf.

On Sunday morning — nearly a week after McIlroy launched his 15-degree TaylorMade SIM2 Max into the trees by Liberty National’s 9th tee — the club reappeared, concluding a vigorous, five-day search-and-rescue mission.

The 3-wood’s recovery was nearly as mysterious as its disappearance.

Gear

In the wake of the The Northern Trust Open’s weather-delayed finish, Liberty National staffers, members, guests and even a few treasure-hunting interlopers spent days canvassing the area where the club had gone missing — to no avail. Then, last Sunday, as grounds-crew member Michael Bongiovanni was making his morning rounds, he spotted more or less in plain sight a club in a bush just off the 9th tee. Only it wasn’t just any club, it appeared to be the club.

How had previous search parties missed it? They hadn’t, at least not in that location. The night before Bongiovanni’s discovery a storm had blown through Liberty National, which is presumed to have jostled the club free from a higher, more cloaked perch in the trees.

“The story we got as to where it was sitting, there’s no way that somebody wouldn’t have seen it earlier,” Lee Smith, the club’s general manager, told GOLF.com. “It was almost just laying on the ground.

“It was straight to the right of the tee. So we’re thinking he launched it over the trees that are relatively close and relatively low. Then it got stuck in a [taller] tree and the storm just blew it down.”

And Bongiovanni was there to scoop it up.

Smith needed to see the 3-wood to believe it. Earlier in the week, he had received multiple voicemails from club-hunters who had purported to have solved the mystery. Among the discoveries was a shaft with no clubhead on it. But none of the findings was the club in question.   

With the SIM2 in hand earlier this week, Smith exchanged text messages with McIlroy’s caddie and manager, who quickly authenticated the club.  

Now, only one question remains: what to do with it?

On Tuesday, Smith and his colleagues were already surveying the clubhouse walls for an appropriate place to mount the memento.

“We’re going to do everything we can to keep it out of a case while also securing it,” Smith said. “We’d like people to be able to touch and feel it, because it really has taken on a life of its own.”

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The post Where is Rory McIlroy’s missing 3-wood? Good question, says Liberty National appeared first on Golf.

The post Where is Rory McIlroy’s missing 3-wood? Good question, says Liberty National appeared first on Golf.

A day after Rory McIlroy confessed to hurling his TaylorMade 3-wood into the trees by Liberty National’s 9th tee during Monday’s final round of The Northern Trust Open, Liberty National staffers were out combing the foliage like miners panning for gold.

“Once we saw the quote, we sent a couple of maintenance guys and golf guys out there, and they climbed trees and spent at least two or three different trips of at least half-hour, 45 minutes a piece,” Lee Smith, the club’s general manager, said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon.

Fairway Woods

Thus far: no luck.

Either from the club or local treasure-hunters.

Smith said that over the last 24 hours binocular-toting memorabilia-seekers have been spotted on the edge of the club property, eager to unearth the missing club. “We’ve had to position somebody out there, because there are people trying to climb the fence to look for it,” he said. “We’ve had to secure the area to where we wouldn’t have trespassers.”

The area around the 9th tee is publicly accessible via Chapel Avenue, which runs by the tee box and down to Port Liberte, a condo development that overlooks the course.

Where exactly McIlroy tossed the 3-wood is unknown. In McIlroy’s recounting of the episode, he said he threw the club onto the New Jersey Turnpike, which would have been a physical impossibility, even by McIlroy’s prodigious club-launching standards. (The Turnpike — or the Turnpike extension, to be specific — is more than 300 yards from the tee.) He added: “I mightn’t have reached the road, but I threw it into the trees.”

“We tried to read between the lines of his quote,” Smith said when asked if had any sense for where the club likely came to rest. “If you know the 9th hole, there’s a little road that you hit over,” he said, adding, “Down below where that tee is, is actually where the compound is for the sign company that works for the tournament, as well as the caterers. We perused all of that area and tried to look for it.”

Smith said it’s possible a worker in the compound recovered the club on Monday or Tuesday and “didn’t know what it was, or isn’t on social media and didn’t know the buzz around this thing.”

The next step in the search quest, Smith said, is to dispatch a drone to survey the area. “We’re going to send that out there until something gets recovered,” he said. “You never know what we’ll find out there — there could be other clubs.”

And should Liberty National recover the 3-wood?

First call, Smith said, would be to McIlroy, who happens to be a Liberty member, to see if he wants the club back. “I’m sure he would decline,” Smith said. “And, at that point, we’ll probably keep it under lock and key.”

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The post ‘Nothing has come easy’: Tony Finau wins Northern Trust, breaks five-year winless spell appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Nothing has come easy’: Tony Finau wins Northern Trust, breaks five-year winless spell appeared first on Golf.

With a par on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff against Australia’s Cameron Smith, Finau captured the storm-delayed Northern Trust, the opening event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, which had been pushed by foul weather to a Monday finish.

The victory, the second of Finau’s career, was his first Tour title in more than five years since his breakthrough win at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open.

It came on the strength of a final-round 65, the best score turned in all day and one that left him in a tie with Smith, at 20 under.

Gear

Jon Rahm, who slept on the lead every night of the tournament but stumbled down the stretch on Monday, finished in solo third, two shots back.

“Man, I just fought,” Finau said told Amanda Balionis of CBS after celebrating his win with a gentle fist pump. “This is pretty cool to be standing here, winning a golf tournament.”

One of the most popular players on Tour, the 31-year-old Finau is known not only for his power and easygoing demeanor but also for a cluster of close calls that have prompted some to question his ability to close. Heading into this week, he had more top-10 finishes between victories (20) than any other player on Tour.

As play got underway on Monday, Finau looked to be on pace for another also-ran showing. He began the day in a tie for third with Justin Thomas, trailing both Smith and the red-hot world No. 1, Rahm, by two shots.

Still trailing by two when he made the turn, Finau went on a torrid run, scorching the back nine with a five-under 30 that included a birdie, eagle, birdie stretch on holes 12 through 14. Another birdie on the short par-4 17th, which came as Rahm was making his first bogey of the day two holes behind, vaulted Finau into the lead for the first time.

Even as Rahm fell back, Finau still had to contend with Smith, who has become a fixture atop leaderboards the season. Steadying himself after a double-bogey on the 5th hole that saw him rattle one shot into the trees and send another into the water, Smith reeled off four back nine birdies. The last of those, set up by a deft chip to tap-in range on the 17th, put him in a deadlock with Finau.

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On to extra holes, extending an event that had already been stretched into a five-day affair by the arrival of Tropical Storm Henri, as tournament organizers opted to scrap Sunday’s play. Whether the final round would be played at all became a question Sunday night and Monday morning, as some 9 inches of rain fell on Liberty National. But the course held up well under the deluge, with little standing water but softened enough so that Monday’s round was played under lift-clean-and-place rules.

Sudden death began on the 490-yard 18th hole, and Smith entered as the historical favorite, with a 3-and-0 career playoff record compared to Finau’s 1-and-3 mark in extra holes. But when Finau found the fairway and Smith spun his tee shot wild right out of bounds, their head-to-head was over almost as soon as it had started. An approach to the center of the green and two-putts later, and just like that, Finau’s long dry spell was over.

“This is extremely special,” he said. “I thought my first one was going to be my most important one but I actually think this one (is). It validates the first one but because of how long I’ve had to wait, I’m a totally different golf player because of how long I’ve had to wait. Nothing has come easy.”

He won’t have to wait long to try for another. The FedEx Cup playoffs resume Thursday at the BMW Championship, at Caves Valley Golf Club, in Maryland. 

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The post One of the coolest (and most novel) golf-club membership perks just got even better appeared first on Golf.

The post One of the coolest (and most novel) golf-club membership perks just got even better appeared first on Golf.

Witness the guard tower at Pine Valley, the remoteness of Sand Hills or the gates that divide Magnolia Lane from the rest of Augusta, Ga.

Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J., also fits into this category, at least it does if you’re trying to access the club from Lower Manhattan, given the Tom Kite and Bob Cupp design is pigeonholed on the New Jersey side of New York Harbor.

For New York City-based members who choose to drive to the club, especially at the wrong time of day, that can mean a sluggish ride through the Holland Tunnel.

Travel

Modern problems require modern solutions, and Liberty National has just that. Since the club’s inception, it has provided its members and guests with a private water taxi service across the harbor.

Now, that service has received an upgrade.

According to Forbes, the club recently debuted Liberty National I, a 46-foot custom catamaran built to take up to 30 passengers to-and-from Manhattan. The vessel features a temperature-controlled cabin; refrigerators for refreshments and other goodies; an on-board entertainment system and, of course, room for your golf bag. During rush hour, a trip on Liberty National I cuts the commute to the club from lower Manhattan in half, and the boat can make the trip in as little as 10 minutes.

For those struggling with their sea legs, there are several other options available to reach the club from New York City. Liberty National also features a helipad, offers car service into Manhattan and is just a short walk from the PATH train.

Not half-bad for Manhattanites rushing to make their tee time.

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The post Patrick Reed takes control and everything you missed from Round 3 of the Northern Trust appeared first on Golf.

The post Patrick Reed takes control and everything you missed from Round 3 of the Northern Trust appeared first on Golf.

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Bryson DeChambeau fires back at chorus of slow play critics, says he’s been ‘attacked’

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Bryson DeChambeau fires back at chorus of slow play critics, says he’s been ‘attacked’

Bryson DeChambeau ignites slow play debate

Bryson DeChambeau did not have a great showing in the third round, shooting an even-par 71 to remain at six under. But DeChambeau was at the center of the most-talked about controversy of the week.

Bryson was roundly criticized by fans and his fellow Tour pros over two videos from Friday showing his glacial pace of play. A full-on debate ignited while he was on the course Saturday, with several pros publicly calling him out on Twitter. After his round, DeChambeau responded saying he felt “attacked.” There is sure to be more developments in this story as the tournament continues on Sunday.

Sneds shines brightly

The round of the day on Saturday at Liberty National belonged to Brandt Snedeker. Sneds teed off in the morning and proceeded to drop five birdies and two eagles against just one bogey. When the dust settled, his third-round score read 63. That launched him all the way to 12 under for the tournament, just two shots behind Reed.

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With his season over, a jovial Bubba Watson questions everything—and nothing at all

The final round of the Northern Trust kicks off Sunday at 7:05 a.m. ET. Patrick Reed and Abraham Ancer will tee off in the final group at 2:00 p.m. ET.

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The post ‘No fans allowed’ leads to eerie start for Tour stars at Northern Trust appeared first on Golf.

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Tiger Woods falters on Thursday at Liberty National, but will his season end this week?

The lack of fans made for an eerie start to Thursday's round — but not for long.

Getty Images

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The spectacle brought three thoughts to mind: First, that most golfers, even at this level, play most of their golf relatively alone. A player like Piercy may be on Tour half the year, but how many diehard fans are tracking his progress?

Second, and by contrast, a player like Woods or McIlroy or Koepka hardly ever plays golf alone, especially on Tour, where inquisitive eyes are always watching. The Two Tours. The third thought is a question of identity. Is the Northern Trust put on primarily for the benefit of the players competing? For the fans on site? Or the viewers at home? Put another way: Is this a golf tournament, a local event, or a TV show?

I never arrived at an answer. Half past eight, the spell was broken. Damage repair had gone faster than anticipated; as a result, tournament officials made the call to let in any ticketed fans who happened to show up. A few at first, then more. By the time the featured groups had reached their back nine, they were swarmed with onlookers.

As McIlroy launched driver off No. 6, his 15th hole of the day, one fan’s bellow cut through the morning air. “Get in the hole!”

The tournament was back on.

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The post Liberty National and … Barstool Sports?! How the super-luxe New Jersey club is aiming to become more populist appeared first on Golf.

The post Liberty National and … Barstool Sports?! How the super-luxe New Jersey club is aiming to become more populist appeared first on Golf.

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At 43, Tiger Woods rediscovered his game, his love for it, and true happiness

Tournaments

USGA alters rule, will allow professionals to compete after qualifying as amateurs

In October, Liberty will cater to a slightly different clientele, when it serves as the venue for the finals of the Barstool Classic, a “member-guest”-style event run by Barstool Sports, whose sports-mad personalities and fanbase wouldn’t be described as a country-club crowd. Barstool touts the event as the go-to championship for weekend golfers, making it the starkest example yet of the “open to all” mantra that Liberty hopes to foster.

“You think if you know the golf world that maybe [Liberty National is] one of those unobtainable places,” said Sam Riggs Bozoian, a Barstool golf personality and the commissioner of the Barstool Classic. “I was definitely a little surprised. But once I was able to speak to a few of their people, it became very clear this is something they’d love to align themselves with.

“The idea of an average golfer — the weekend golfer — playing for $10,000 cash on a platform like ours… combined with the footage having the Statue of Liberty in the background, that clubhouse in the background, the skyline in the background. To us, that was almost as good as it gets.”

To Liberty, that’s all part of the intent. Certainly it hopes and expects to play host to more high-profile events, and The Northern Trust will once again serve as a crucial litmus test as the club set its sights ahead. But just as vital to Liberty’s new positioning is the idea that the course is here — on the coast of New Jersey, peering at Manhattan — for everyone’s benefit.

“Regardless of whether you’re a 15-handicap male or a scratch female player, we want Liberty National to be something that you recognize,” Smith says. “Maybe you don’t get to play it 51 weeks a year, but that one week a year that we do allow for a championship event, we want you to try to qualify and get over here and be able to take part in it.”

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