Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Sam Burns share lead at Caves Valley

NAPLES, FL. – Tournament officials are excited to announce the addition of Live Fest to the QBE Shootout schedule, when the PGA TOUR event returns to Naples December 11-15, 2019. Headlining this premier music experience on Saturday December 14th will be Grammy award winning acts Lady Antebellum and Darius Rucker with two more bands to be announced later this summer. The concert, to be staged outdoors on the spacious driving range at Tiburon Golf Club at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, Naples will start following the second round of the QBE Shootout at 4:00 p.m. and conclude at 10:00 p.m. Live Fest will offer general admission tickets, prime stage front seating and shared and private VIP hospitality experiences including the Garrison Brothers Live Fest Club. The concert staging area will include a MillerCoors Beer Garden, robust concession options and limited edition merchandise. Tickets will go on-sale on Saturday, July 27th at LiveFest.com. “As part of our continuing growth efforts we are thrilled to bring Live Fest to this year’s QBE Shootout. The addition of this premier concert fills an entertainment need in the market and is sure to reward the Southwest Florida community with a night to remember,â€� said Rob Hartman, QBE Shootout Tournament Director. To launch Live Fest, the QBE Shootout has partnered with Tiburon resident and local entrepreneur Steve Hagenbuckle. Thanks to Steve’s commitment along with strong corporate support from partners such as QBE Insurance and Greg Norman, the inaugural event is positioned to be a success from the onset. Live Fest has also experienced early sponsorship commitments from Mercedes-Benz, Tiburon Golf Club, The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort Naples, MillerCoors, Garrison Brothers Distillery, Iberia Bank, Naples, Marco Island and Everglades Convention & Visitors Bureau, iHeart Radio, Naples Daily News, Tito’s Vodka, Zoom Tan, Tileclaim.com, Stock Development, TerraCap Management and Private Reserve Realty. Additional sponsorship and corporate hospitality opportunities are available. “The energy and excitement around the QBE Shootout is at an all-time high and the addition of an event like Live Fest is certain to only add to the momentum we have captured in the marketplace. As the QBE Shootout heads into its 31st year, I look forward to welcoming my friends Darius Rucker and Lady Antebellum to Shootout week – they are sure to put on a spectacular show,â€� said Tournament Host Greg Norman. Over the course of their decade-long career, Lady Antebellum has become one of the 21st century’s premier vocal groups, blending deeply felt emotions with classic country sounds. They are back on the radio airwaves and at digital partners with “What If I Never Get Over Youâ€� serving as the first single under BMLG Records. Representing a new chapter as well as a return to the beginning for Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood, the plush mid-tempo ballad features Scott and Kelley trading anxiety and shared despair over an ending relationship. As a Country-radio staple, the trio has amassed record-breaking success with nine No. One hits while ushering in more than 18 million album units and 34 million tracks sold, with over 4 billion digital streams. Known for their 9X PLATINUM hit “Need You Nowâ€� which is the highest certified song by a Country group, they have earned ACM and CMA “Vocal Group of the Yearâ€� trophies three years in a row and countless other honors including seven GRAMMY awards, Billboard Music Awards, People’s Choice Awards, Teen Choice Awards and a Tony Award nod. The trio continues their first-ever Las Vegas residency, OUR KIND OF VEGAS, with upcoming shows in August. For more information on new music and tickets, visit ladyantebellum.com. Rucker first attained multi-Platinum status in the music industry as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of GRAMMY award-winning Hootie & the Blowfish. Since releasing his first country album in 2008, he has celebrated four summits to the top of the Billboard Country albums chart and earned a whole new legion of fans. In 2014, Rucker won his third career GRAMMY award for Best Solo Country Performance for his 4x Platinum selling cover of Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel,â€� the No. 1 single off his album True Believers and one of nine overall Country No. 1 hits for Rucker. He is back on the road with his Hootie & the Blowfish bandmates this summer for the Group Therapy Tour as they celebrate the 25th anniversary of mega-hit Cracked Rear View as well as a forthcoming album under a new record deal with UMG Nashville. For more information, visit www.dariusrucker.com and follow on social media @DariusRucker. For the latest Live Fest news and information visit www.livefest.com, like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/livefestusa and follow us on Instagram @livefestusa. For the latest QBE Shootout news and information, visit the official tournament website at www.qbeshootout.com, like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/qbeshootout and follow us on Instagram @QBEshootout.

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Billy Horschel says players who criticized the PGA Tour and then jumped ship in favor of the LIV Golf Invitational Series are “hypocrites.”

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Last we saw 18-time PGA TOUR winner Rory McIlroy, more than three weeks ago, he was shooting a dispiriting final-round 75 to finish T8 at the U.S. Open in New York. Bryson DeChambeau, meanwhile, was bludgeoning Winged Foot into submission, his Ruthian approach leading to a six-shot victory over Matthew Wolff. McIlroy, like countless others, could scarcely believe it. "It’s kind of hard to really wrap my head around it," he said. Well, he's had time, and he's hinting at bringing some extra firepower to THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK this week. With some speed work in the gym and a lighter shaft in his driver, he posted on Instagram that he's getting up around 190 mph ball speed and 340 yards of carry. Has he been inspired by DeChambeau? Well, yes, but only to a point. "Yeah, for the last couple weeks I was working on some stuff," McIlroy said from Las Vegas, where eight of the top 10 and 70 of the top 125 from the final 2020 FedExCup standings will take on Shadow Creek. "I think as a golfer, we’re so ingrained to trying to hit the ball where you’re looking, and I think with - I think that’s one of the great things that Bryson’s done. "Bryson, when he speed-trains, he just hits the ball into a net, so he doesn’t really know where it’s going," McIlroy continued. "He’s just trying to move as fast as he can ... and sort of making the target irrelevant for the time being and then you can sort of try to bring it in from there. From what I’ve done and what I’ve been trying - you know, sort of experimenting with the last couple weeks - it’s the fastest I’ve ever moved the club, the fastest my body has ever moved." Distance, he added, has always been an advantage, whether it was the era of Jack Nicklaus; the heyday of Tiger Woods; or today. For most of his career, McIlroy has been at or near the top of the Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee stat. Now he's flirting with making one of his strengths even more of an asset. Still, he added, just because he has been experimenting with extra speed, that doesn't mean he'll always use it. "At least I know that if I need to do it, I can do it," he said. Justin Rose admitted he's still just trying to hit the ball straight again, let alone far, but said he's been taking note as McIlroy and others try to catch up to the TOUR's new distance leader. "I think I’ve seen the trickledown effect of what Bryson’s been doing," Rose said, "and you’re seeing guys like Rory and even Justin Thomas - I’m hearing kind of rumors out on the range, everyone’s trying to crank it up a little bit, get a few more miles an hour." If this all feels a bit jarring, it might be because it seems like just yesterday that McIlroy, 31, was the pacesetter. A four-time major winner, he's young enough to still be in his prime, or just entering it. He won THE PLAYERS Championship and his second FedExCup title just last year, but hasn't found his A game since the TOUR returned in June. His last win was the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions last November. Now along comes DeChambeau, whose relentless innovation still invites criticism even as it succeeds. McIlroy took time out to clarify that he is not one of those critics. "I called what Bryson did brilliant, and I think my comments maybe got taken out of context," he said. "I said he’s taking advantage of everything we have in the game right now. I didn’t mean that in a bad way. I meant he has went to the nth degree of everything we have available to us: science, TrackMan, biomechanics, everything, all the knowledge that we have nowadays that golfers 20 years ago didn’t have access to because there just wasn’t enough knowledge out there." DeChambeau, McIlroy added, has to his credit been willing to go deeper down that rabbit hole than anyone else. "He’s worked his ass off to do that and it’s paying off hugely," McIlroy said. How much will he, Thomas, Rose and others tear apart their own games in search of similar quantum leaps? Time will tell, but clearly the process has begun. "I think it’s the way the game’s going," McIlroy said. "I got sent a really good article last weekend, it was in the Wall Street Journal, just about every single sport becoming faster, longer, stronger, and I don’t think golf’s any different. I’m just trying to keep up with the way it’s going."

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