A Record Breaking PGA Tour

Happy Veterans Day! Thank you for bravely doing what you were called to do so we can safely do what we're free to do.

While the first round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship was suspended due to darkness at 4.31 pm ET, there was a PGA Tour record broken.

Here’s more on it and other exciting updates…

ALBATROS
Record Breaking First Round

Adam Long set the PGA TOUR record for consecutive fairways hit at the first day of the 2023 Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Long hit 69 fairways in a row, passing the previous record of 59 set by Brian Claar in 1992.

Alex Noren fires career-low round. 11 birdies, one bogey and six pars later, Noren cruised to a 10-under 61 opening round score, which set a new career-low round on the PGA Tour.

15-year-old Oliver Betschart, the youngest person to tee it up on the PGA Tour since 2014, was 1 over through 15 holes when the horn blew to conclude play for the day.

SportsLine’s proprietary model, built by DFS pro Mike McClure, that's nailed 10 golf majors, including this year's Masters and Open Championship, picks Adam Scott and Doug Ghim as the top choice.

LPGA: At the ANNIKA LPGA first round yesterday, Canada's Brooke Henderson birdied six of her last nine holes to grab a one-stroke lead when darkness halted first-round play. Henderson, seeking her 14th career LPGA title, fired an eight-under par 62 with nine birdies against a lone bogey at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.

EAGLE
LIV Golf Makes Changes

LIV Golf is bringing about five major changes in the 2024 season. Here’s a snapshot of what to expect:

1. LIV is landing a play-in tournament. From December 8-10 in Abu Dhabi, golfers will compete in “LIV Golf Promotions,” a 36-hole tournament with a $1.5 million purse and three coveted exemptions into next year’s LIV season.

2. At the end of each season, LIV will stratify its players on expiring contracts into three “zones”: The lock zone (given to the league’s top 24 finishers who are guaranteed a contract extension offer), the open zone and the drop zone (those who finish 45th and worse).

3. Unsigned members of the lock zone and members of the open zone — who finish from 25-44 — now become unrestricted free agents. These players are free to sign with whichever team they wish.

4. LIV will now allow in-season trading, opening a window in which teams will be permitted to trade players and negotiate contract extensions.

5. LIV will now host a draft in which the top-3 finishers in the play-in tournament and the winner of the Asian Tour’s International Series Order of Merit will find themselves plucked by LIV franchises for the season ahead.

BIRDIE
Five Moments That Created History

Over the centuries, there have been a number of key moments in the history of our grand sport – the first golf club, the first rules, the first professionals…

Here we take a look at five moments that changed the course of golfing history.

1. Old Tom's apprenticeship with golf legend Allan Robertson soured when the introduction of the more affordable "gutty" ball threatened Robertson's traditional feathery ball business. Banished to Prestwick, Old Tom designed a course, prompting a tournament in 1860 that evolved into The Open Championship, shaping the future of golf.

2. After 60 years of British dominance in The Open Championship, Jock Hutchison's 1920 win at St Andrews and Walter Hagen's triumph at Royal St George's in 1921 marked the beginning of American success. Hagen, a charismatic figure, not only secured the first American-born victory but also played a key role in changing the perception of golf professionals from second-class citizens to stars of the sport.

3. In 1959, Arnold Palmer joined forces with Mark McCormack, a Chicago lawyer, who became his business manager and later founded sports management agency IMG. McCormack's marketing savvy turned Palmer into a hugely marketable figure, transforming professional golfers from modest earners to global megastars with significant off-course deals. This partnership marked a pivotal moment in the history of professional golf, paving the way for increased prize funds, enormous sponsorship deals, and the immense wealth enjoyed by top players today.

4. At Augusta National, in April of 1980, 23-year-old Severiano Ballesteros became the first European to win The Masters Tournament. Seve’s victory provided the springboard, and the necessary belief, for European golfers to once again challenge for and win the biggest prizes in golf. His win signaled the beginning of the end of the USA’s outright domination of men’s professional golf.

5. Until Tiger Woods, it would have seemed inconceivable in the modern game that a player could win The 1997 Masters by such a margin. But Tiger was a little bit special. He changed the way the public thought about golf, he changed the technique, he changed the financial scope of the sport, he changed the players’ approach to fitness and practice. He inspired new generations of stars. On all levels, he raised the game.

LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news

• Meet the 21 golfers on the Annika Award final fall watch list for 2023-24. The Annika Award presented by Stifel honors the player of the year in women’s college golf, as selected by college golfers, coaches and members of the college golf media.

• Former major champion Angel Cabrera, who spent 30 months in jail in Brazil and Argentina and last played PGA Tour Champions in 2020, shot under par last week in his last five rounds at home in Córdoba, Argentina, and is preparing to mount a comeback.

• LIV Golf is expected to play an event in Nashville at The Grove, a course also scheduled to host a PGA Tour-sanctioned event, the Korn Ferry Tour’s Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation, from Sept. 12-15.

• Max Homa ends golf break, holes a 16-foot birdie putt on No. 18 to shoot a 6-under 66 on Thursday and join Nicolai Hojgaard, Dan Bradbury and Vincent Norrman in a share of the first-round lead in Sun City in the next-to-last event of the European tour season.

• NBC Sports to air docuseries on Rory McIlroy's TGL team, Boston Common Golf. The series will follow McIlroy and his teammates Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott and Tyrrell Hatton in the new league’s first year

DRIVING RANGE
Fix Your Chipping Yipps

Piers from Me And My Golf opens up about his chipping yips! What they are, how he got them and he will provide you with the 3 techniques he used to get rid of them.

PRO SHOP
Today’s Deal: Callaway Golf 2023 Paradym Driver

• Engineered for players of all skill levels, this club promotes high launch and low spin characteristics along with a neutral ball flight.

• The Triaxial Carbon crown and Forged Carbon sole is 44% lighter than a titanium chassis. This massive weight savings is repositioned for higher MOI and increased forgiveness.

• From a 15g sliding weight, players can experience an average of 12 yards of shot shape correction.

PAR FOR THE COURSE
This Day In History

Another day with a hit from Arnold Palmer: On this date in 1967, Arnold Palmer played the first round of the 15th World Cup, originally called the Canada Cup. Palmer shot a four-under-par 68 at the Club de Golf Mexico, in Mexico City. He and partner Jack Nicklaus had a first-day 140 total to lead by one shot over Argentina.