Morikawa does something only Tiger accomplished

The PGA TOUR and tournament host, Grupo Salinas, announced today that Vidanta Vallarta in Vallarta, México will host the 2022 Mexico Open, April 25-May 1, 2022, previously listed on the 2021-22 PGA TOUR Schedule as the Mexico Championship. The Mexico Open, which dates back to 1944 and is considered Mexico’s national championship, will appear on the PGA TOUR schedule for the first time as an official FedExCup event, offering 500 FedExCup points to the winner and a purse of $7.3 million. The field of 132 players will include 12 sponsor exemptions, with a minimum of four players from Latin America. Since 2017, Grupo Salinas partnered with the PGA TOUR to stage a TOUR event in Mexico – the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship – with efforts to inspire and grow the game in the country, especially among juniors. Starting in 2022, the Mexico Open will continue Grupo Salinas’ commitment, uniting the PGA TOUR with the history of professional golf in Mexico in the form of the Mexico Open. The new name and tournament venue were announced during a press conference in Mexico City, Mexico, featuring Fernando Lemmen-Meyer, President of the Mexican Golf Federation; Iván Chávez, Executive Vice President of Grupo Vidanta; John Norris, Senior Vice President of Tournament Business Affairs of the PGA TOUR, and Benjamín Salinas Sada, Vice President of the Board of Directors of Grupo Salinas. Also in attendance were PGA TOUR members Carlos Ortiz and Abraham Ancer. Both Ortiz (2020 Vivint Houston Open) and Ancer (2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational) captured PGA TOUR events during the 2020-21 PGA TOUR Season, becoming just the third and fourth citizens of Mexico to win on the PGA TOUR. Ancer, who played for the International Presidents Cup Team in 2019, recently qualified for his third straight TOUR Championship in 2020-21, finishing ninth in the FedExCup. “At Grupo Salinas we are honored to host a world-class event in our country, reaffirming our commitment to grow golf in Mexico and to generate new interests and passions around this sport, especially in younger generations,” said Benjamín Salinas Sada, Vice president of the board of directors of Grupo Salinas. “For this reason, we are convinced of the importance of taking this type of events to other locations within the country and thereby sending a clear message; golf is not owned by just a few, it belongs to everyone: that is what we will always defend at Grupo Salinas.” The press conference highlighted the progress of The First Tee México program, a non-profit organization, launched by Grupo Salinas in 2017, which has promoted golf and its values for the development of Mexican young generations. The First Tee Mexico has grown to include nine chapters and has made a positive impact on more than 250 young people through the game of golf, promoting key societal values such as honesty, respect, trust, integrity, perseverance and teamwork. “We’ve worked closely with Grupo Salinas since the inception of the Mexico Championship in 2017. As tournament hosts, Grupo Salinas has been first-class in every respect – making this stop a favorite among our players while entertaining fans in Mexico and around the world,” said John Norris, PGA TOUR Senior Vice President of Tournament Business Affairs. In the United States, the event will be broadcast live on CBS, Golf Channel, PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ and Sirius XM PGA TOUR Radio.

Click here to read the full article…

For the first time ever in golf, every shot by every player will be live-streamed from a full-field tournament when THE PLAYERS Championship returns to TPC Sawgrass, March 12-15, allowing fans to follow any player in the elite field, all four rounds.  All of this revolutionary coverage will be available to PGA TOUR LIVE subscribers on either NBC Sports Gold or Amazon Prime Video Channels. “The PGA TOUR is the most content-rich sport on the planet and we have been focused on expanding the amount of content we bring to our fans from our competitions,â€� said Rick Anderson, Chief Media Officer for the TOUR.  “Our vision is to bring every shot in every PGA TOUR golf tournament live and on-demand to our fans, and this is the first step to making that happen.â€� PGA TOUR Entertainment and NBC Sports Group will accomplish the monumental task of showcasing more than 32,000 shots over 72 holes from a starting field of 144 – live – by utilizing nearly 120 cameras positioned throughout THE PLAYERS Stadium Course, with each group having its own dedicated stream. “Every shot of THE PLAYERS on PGA TOUR LIVE is a natural next step in the innovative partnership between NBC Sports and the PGA TOUR that spans nearly 60 years,â€� said Mike McCarley, president, GOLF, NBC Sports Group. “Super-serving golf fans with more comprehensive coverage of THE PLAYERS is emblematic of our commitment to elevating this championship and builds upon our success in adding enhancements to PGA TOUR LIVE on NBC Sports Gold.â€�  PGA TOUR LIVE already has expanded its coverage for the 2019-20 PGA TOUR Season by adding early round featured groups coverage from seven events between September and December. This includes, for the first time ever, live streaming of “featured matchesâ€� all four days of competition from the upcoming Presidents Cup at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia (December 12-15, 2019). All told, approximately 140 hours of additional live content is available, bringing more than 1,100 total hours to subscribers and extending live content across each month of the calendar year. With NBC Sports Gold and Prime Video Channels being available on dozens of connected devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, and Chromecast, connected device consumption has spiked to about one-third of total minutes in 2019. Further, the PGA TOUR will be launching an all-new TOURCast product that will allow fans to follow every shot from each group with a beautiful 3D rendering of the golf course and shot trails.  The new TOURCast platform will also include deep access to the PGA TOUR’s ShotLink powered by CDW data, as well as video clips of every single shot available for fans to see, on demand.  The launch of TOURCast at THE PLAYERS will mark the start of every event in the PGA TOUR Season through the FedExCup Playoffs being offered on the platform. TOURCast will be available on the PGA TOUR’s mobile apps and website.   “Since the launch of PGA TOUR LIVE four years ago, fans have consistently asked when they would be able to watch every shot of every player’s round live as it happens.  We are thrilled to be able to do this for the first time at THE PLAYERS Championship in 2020,â€� said Luis Goicouria, the TOUR’s Senior Vice President of Media.  “THE PLAYERS Championship has long been the tournament where the TOUR debuts the newest technology, including LIVE@ 17, our first Virtual Reality experience, and the PGA TOUR Augmented Reality iPhone app, just to name a few.â€� TOURCast, which originally launched in 2003 as a state-of-the-art graphical scoring platform that provided unprecedented tournament coverage, won an Emmy in 2005. “We’re very excited to bring back a greatly enhanced version of it to a new generation of fans, utilizing the latest technology and data,â€� Goicouria added. From the historic competition to an iconic golf course with an unparalleled fan experience, THE PLAYERS is uncompromising in its pursuit to deliver the best. The 144-player field represents the strongest collection of players assembled each season, competing on Pete Dye’s masterpiece, THE PLAYERS Stadium Course, that favors no single style of play and demands excellence in every facet of the game. THE PLAYERS also was the first tournament conceived with the fan as its focal point. From the original design incorporating viewing mounds, to embracing change to deliver the best experience in the modern game, THE PLAYERS provides the highest expression of hospitality and entertainment. Morgan Stanley, Grant Thornton LLP and Optum® are the exclusive Proud Partners of THE PLAYERS.

Click here to read the full article…

You don’t have to play from the white tees to remember the original Adams Golf Tight Lies fairway wood. Debuting in 1995 — and reportedly conceived from Barney Adams’ 20-minute sketch on a yellow legal pad — the club’s unique “upside-down” Tri-Sole face and low center-of-gravity design were revelations for the average golfer, making it easier for them to get the ball airborne from a variety of lies. Adams’ brainchild exploded in popularity following a 30-minute 1996 Golf Channel infomercial with sportscaster Jack Whitaker and swing instructor Hank Haney. In 1997, the company sold more than $30 million worth of clubs. By 1998, there were nearly a million Tight Lies clubs in play and the woods were the third-most-used on PGA TOUR Champions. If you teed it up in a foursome in the late 90s, odds are there was at least one Tight Lies fairway wood in your group. “The reason the club is successful is it works,” Adams succinctly told Dallas Magazine in 1998. Now, the Tight Lies has returned, bringing new technology to a club with plenty of retro appeal. Adams Golf is releasing new Tight Lies fairway woods and hybrids, which will continue to feature the patented Tri-Sole found in the original iteration. The new design extends the top of the face to make it easier to hit off the tee while retaining the low-profile head and lower center of gravity. In addition to materials upgrades since the previous incarnation of the Tight Lies that came out almost a decade ago, the new Tight Lies clubs feature a Velocity Slot behind the clubface to increase face flexibility, ball speeds and improve launch on off-center strikes. Adams was acquired by TaylorMade in 2012. Under the guiding hand of TaylorMade engineers, an updated version of Tight Lies hit the market in 2013, but no new member of the family has emerged — until now.

Click here to read the full article…