We're two days into the final month of 2023 and for all intents and purposes, the world of professional golf if finally starting to wind down. Sure Tiger Woods is hosting his tournament this weekend, and tourneys are taking place in Southern Hemisphere locales such as South Africa and Australia as well. Yet the calendar tells me that we can finally close the book on the PGA Tour as well as the LPGA Tour, the Champions Tour, and the DP World (European) Tour.
The PGA Tour concluded the longest season in its history the weekend before Thanksgiving with the playing of the RSM Classic at Sea Island, Georgia. The game's biggest tour concluded its regular season way last August with Denmark's Viktor Hovland claiming the Fed Ex Cup Championship trophy and its $18 million payout. However the tour has decided to go from its wrap-around September to August schedule and return to a calendar year schedule as it did in the distant past. The tour simply added the seven September through November tournaments to make for a season of 55 tournaments over the course of 15 months. It was a one-time only endeavor and it was a chance for the journeymen on tour to solidify their places among the top 125 exempt tour golfers for 2024.
After playing in a mind boggling 34 events, 38 year old Troy Merritt finished in 125th place after earning $1.302 million for his efforts. With two wins during his long career, Merritt is safe for another year. Such is not the case for Carl Yuan who finished in 126th place, past PGA champions Jimmy Walker who came in at 130th and Jason Duffner who finished 165th, and other golfers of note such as Sean O'Hair and Zach Johnson. Northern Californians James Hahn, who attended Alameda High School and Cal-Berkeley as well as Nick Watney of Davis High School and Fresno State are now in their 40s and struggled in 2023. Hahn finished 171st and Watney barely broke the top 200 at 199. They will get into some of the minor events such as Reno-Tahoe or Las Vegas or Sea Island, but they won't be tour regulars in 2024.
The LPGA Tour, which is truly a world-wide tour, concluded its traditional calendar season just before Thanksgiving with the playing of its finale, namely the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Country Club in Naples, Florida. The top 60 money winners were in Naples as Amy Yang set a tournament record with rounds of 68-63-64-66 for a 27-under par 261 and a four stroke margin of victory. Yang pocketed $2 million for her dynamic efforts. Next year the CME purse will go from $7 million to $11 million and the winner will get $4 million. It's good to see that the women pros are starting to get big money for their more prestigious events.
Lilia Vu finished in fourth place at the CME but still garnered all the end of season honors as the Rolex Player of the Year due to her four victories, two of which were in majors. Last year's POY was Atthaya Thitkul who averaged 69.53 to win the Vare Trophy for the lowest stroke average in 2024. Strange to say, but Thitkul didn't win a tournament in 2023. Hae Rau Rhy won the Walmart NW Arkansas tournament this fall and was atop the rankings as the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year. There is still ongoing talk about a possible merger between the LPGA and the Ladies European Tour. Only time will tell. As far as 2024 is concerned, the women's game is very healthy and there are 34 tournaments on next year's calendar.
If anyone had a quiet but great season in 2023, it was Steve Stricker of the Champions Tour. Stricker never won a major on the regular tour but was a noted star in team matches like the Presidents Cup. He won six Champions Tour events out of 16 entered. The Champions Tour has five majors and Stricker won four of them while coming in second place in the U.S. Senior Open. He also had 15 finishes in the top eight. He won the Charles Schwab Cup for his season long efforts and took home the $1 million bonus. His winnings for the year were $3.986 million. Speaking of dominance, Stricker was a statistical marvel while finishing first in scoring average, scrambling, putting, and second in greens in regulation. Those are dominating numbers.
In the Schwab series race, Steven Alker of New Zealand finished second just ahead of four time major winner Ernie Els of South Africa. Speaking of break-out seasons, Stephen Ames won four times among the senior set and finished sixth overall.
The old European Tour that nowadays is known as the DP World Tour concluded its 2023 season two weeks ago, as well. A number of the DP World regulars are well known to American golf fans. For the fifth time, Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy won his tour's Order of Merit at the Race to Dubai finals at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai. A pair of Englishmen, Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick finished place and show. In the tournament proper, Nicolai Hojgaard of Denmark recorded five birdies on the back nine to win the $3 million first place prize over fellow countryman Viktor Hovland.
As an added feature, 10 members of the European Tour got access to PGA Tour cards for 2024 for finishing high in the standings. Now with playing privilege in America, that list includes Ryder Cup stalwart Robert Macintyre as well as Ryan Fox, Adrian Meronk, and France's Victor Perez. While it sometimes seems as if the DP World Tour is a secondary tour to the PGA Tour or the guaranteed big money of LIV Golf, the long running circuit still has its share of golf history as well as a contingent of loyalists such as McIlroy, Fleetwood, and the others who willingly divide their time between America and Europe.
Finally, and I do mean finally, the LIV Golf Tour has come out with a partial schedule for its third season of existence in 2024. Brooks Koepka, the top golfer on the LIV tour as well as the reigning PGA champion, had openly complained that there was no calendar of note for the Saudi backed tour in 2024. It finally came out last week although there are some major gaps among the 14 tourneys. The tour will kick off in February at Mayakoba in Mexico and will once again go to Australia. It has added tourneys in Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Nashville, and Houston. Missing from the schedule are the three events at Trump courses as well as previous locales such as Chicago, Orlando, Tulsa, and London. London was the site of the very first LIV tournament in June of 2022, but it has lost its place on the breakaway tour.
Next week we will take a look at golf's major champions of 2023
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