🏌️ $20M at Stake: Who Dares Wins?

Good Morning. Ex-NBC analyst Paul Azinger, a 12-time PGA Tour winner, dropped a truth bomb.

"The best players aren’t all playing PGA Tour tournaments. That’s over," said Azinger. "Suddenly, the LIV Tour, let’s just say it like this: The PGA Tour has fast become the qualifier for LIV and it’s a sad day for golf."

Azinger has a point.

Today's Trivia: The Arnold Palmer Invitational tees off tomorrow. Apart from Tiger Woods, only two other golfers have successfully defended their titles in this tournament's long history - do you know who?

⛳ This day in history: On this date in 1878, the inaugural University Golf Match was played at Wimbledon Common in London, distinguishing it as the oldest established amateur event in golf. Oxford, led by Horace Hutchinson, convincingly defeated Cambridge.

19TH HOLE
Clubhouse Conversations

Two full months into the PGA Tour season and only one top 10 player has won an event so far.

ALBATROSS
$20M Battle: Top-10's Finest Compete This Week

The Arnold Palmer Invitational (API) tees off tomorrow at the Bay Hill Golf Course - here are the top things to look forward to.

⛳️ Strong Field: 9 of the world top-10 ranked golfers will be in action at the Arnold Palmer Invitational - battling it out for a $20 million purse.

The tournament will act as a qualifying event for The Open Championship, with three spots available to those not already qualified.

🚩 Eyes On The Cut: Like other legacy signature events at the Genesis and Memorial, the API will have a cut to low 50 and ties plus those within 10 shots of the lead.

🚀 Stars Back After A Break: Some of the Tour's biggest names in Viktor Hovland, Ludvig Aberg, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay are back after a short break. They were last seen in action at the Genesis Open.

🌦️ Weather: The first two days of the tournament are likely to be uninterrupted but there's a 60% chance of rain on the final day which might result in a Monday finish.

🏌️ Tee Times of Key Players (ET):
10:20 am - Viktor Hovland, Rickie Fowler
11:45 am - Patrick Cantlay, Matt Fitzpatrick
01:20 pm - Collin Morikawa, Rory McIlroy

TWEET
Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
Scheffler Changes Putter On McIlroy’s Advice

World No 1 Scottie Scheffler has been hitting the ball better, chipped the ball remarkably well, yet has been among the not-so-great putters on the PGA Tour.

After the performance trend continued at the Genesis Invitational last month, Rory McIlroy advised him to change to a mallet, because…

✅ Mallet putters typically have a higher Moment of Inertia (MOI).

✅ If a golfer has a hard time finding the center of the putter, then using a mallet will allow distance control to be more consistent.

Scheffler has now gone with McIlroy's suggestion. The American was spotted practicing with the TaylorMade Spider Tour, very similar to the one McIlroy uses.

It is also the only putter currently in his bag, implying that the Spider Tour is what he will likely be rolling with this week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Bay Hill.

LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news

LIV Golf: Greg Norman has confirmed that the league has withdrawn its application for world-ranking points.

Presidents Cup: International Captain Mike Weir won't be picking any LIV Golfers in his team for the 2024 Presidents Cup.

Ryder Cup: The UK Government is keen to bring the Ryder Cup back to British soil - with a group of golf courses shortlisted to host the event in either 2031 or 2035.

LPGA Tour: Sandra Gal is set to return to the LPGA Tour for the first time since 2022 at the Blue Bay LPGA event in China.

PGA Tour Enterprises: 36 players will earn Group 1 equity grants this month - 80% of the initial $930 million bestowed upon the PGA Tour’s equity system.

Full Swing Season 2: The second season of Full Swing is now available on Netflix - here’s how to watch and what to know.

New Role: European Ryder Cup vice captain Edoardo Molinari has joined Arccos Golf to become the brand's Chief Data Strategist & Lead Tour Ambassador.

BIRDIE
50 States, 50 Golfers - Part 2

Here's part 2 of our five-part series, picking the best native-born golfer from each state to commemorate the 50th anniversary of The Players Championship.

🏌️Hawaii - Michelle Wie West: Wie West has five LPGA titles and a US Open (2014) and has been one of golf's marquee names for the past 20 years.

🏌️ Idaho - Shirley Englehorn: Englehorn won 11 professional titles and the 1970 Women's PGA Championship.

🏌️Illinois - Bob Goalby: Goalby won 11 PGA Tour titles and the 1968 Masters.

🏌️Indiana - Fuzzy Zoeller: Frank Urban Zoeller won 10 times on the PGA Tour with two majors - the Masters and the US Open.

🏌️Iowa - Zach Johnson: Johnson has won two major championships and 12 PGA Tour titles.

🏌️Kansas - Marilynn Smith: Smith was one of the founding members of the LPGA and won 21 tournaments, including the 1963 and 1964 Titleholders when it was considered a major.

🏌️Kentucky - Justin Thomas: Thomas has won 17 times on the PGA Tour with two PGA Championships (2017, 2022) and the 2021 Players Championship.

🏌️ Louisiana - Hal Sutton: Sutton won two Players Championship titles (1983, 2000) and the PGA Championship in 1983.

🏌️ Maine - David Peoples: Peoples won twice on the PGA Tour and had a peak money-list finish of 25th in 1992.

🏌️ Maryland - Fred Funk: The 2005 Players champion and senior major winner is an inspirational figure and he's still grinding despite 17 surgeries.

DRIVING RANGE
Never Duff Chips

In this video, we show you a very simple and incredibly effective way to play around the greens so that you no longer duff your chips..

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