🏌️Will Charlie Woods Qualify?

Good Morning! A lot of focus over the past few weeks has been on the PGA Tour’s declining TV viewership numbers - but it’s not all doom and gloom.

The LPGA Tour recorded staggering numbers at the year’s first major last weekend with Nelly Korda leading the way!

This year's tournament was the most-watched Chevron Championship since 2010, with a peak audience of almost 1.9 million tuning in on NBC during the latter stages of Sunday's final round.

Fun Fact: There is yet to be a three-time winner at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, but eleven players have won the title twice.

⛳ This day in history: Jerry Barber, the 1961 PGA champion, was born on this date in 1916 in Woodson, Illinois, west of the state capitol, Springfield. Barber was just 5-foot-5, but what he lacked in power he made up with accuracy and he also putted very well.

19TH HOLE
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ALBATROSS
Zurich Classic: All You Need To Know

The Zurich Classic of New Orleans is the only team event on the PGA Tour - here’s how the tournament at TPC Louisiana works.

⛳️ How Are Teams Determined? The Tour goes down its priority rankings. Players who commit to the tournament get to choose their partner as long as they have some kind of PGA Tour status or receive a sponsor exemption.

There are 160 players comprising 80 two-man teams.

⛳️ Format: The teams will compete in fourballs (best ball) in Rounds 1 and 3, and in foursomes (alternate shot) in Rounds 2 and 4.

Four-ball: Each player plays their own ball and the best score is recorded.

Foursomes: There's a tee shot rotation between players.

⛳️ Is there a Cut? The top 33 teams and ties after 36 holes will qualify for the final two rounds.

⛳️ Playoff: In case of a tie-breaker, the teams will compete in sudden-death, alternating formats (foursomes on the first extra hole; fourballs on the second extra hole; so forth).

⛳️ What's At Stake? It counts as an official Tour win for both players, though, but no OWGR points are given.

The winning team will evenly split first- and second-place earnings ($1,286,050 for each player) and first- and second-place FedExCup points (400 for each winner).

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Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
This McIlroy-Tested Equipment Is Bringing Morikawa Immense Success

Collin Morikawa has recorded back-to-back top ten finishes on Tour, all while working through a series of equipment changes.

📌 Early-week at the Masters, Morikawa switched into a TaylorMade Qi10 LS 9-degree driver after using his older SIM model for most of the year.

📌 After the first round at Augusta National, he switched putters, trading a TaylorMade Spider Tour X putter for his familiar TP Soto blade-style putter.

Result? Best finish (T-3) at a major championship since winning The Open in 2021.

📌 At the RBC Heritage, Morikawa switched out his former TaylorMade P-770 hollow-bodied 4-iron for TaylorMade’s new, unreleased “Proto” 4-iron – which Rory McIlroy introduced at last month’s Valero Texas Open due to its high launch, feel and performance.

Result? Another top ten (T-9) finish.

📍Cantlay's New Gear: Morikawa is not the only Tour pro to get instant success with new equipment. For the first time this decade, Patrick Cantlay has switched irons.

Ahead of the Masters, Cantlay finally upgraded from his Titleist 718 AP2 irons, which were first released to the public back in 2017, into a fine-tuned set of PING Blueprint S irons, released in January 2024.

He registered a decent T-22 finish and then made a massive improvement, finishing T-3 at the recently concluded RBC Heritage.

LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news

Farewell: Amy Olson retires after 10 years on LPGA Tour.

Equity Payouts: Tiger Woods to receive $100 million while Rory McIlroy will bag $50 million as part of PGA Tour - click here to check out the other big beneficiaries.

US Open Qualifier: Charlie Woods will compete in an 18-hole US Open local qualifier Thursday at The Legacy Golf & Tennis Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

No Special Exemption: Angela Stanford's major streak might end at 98 after she failed to qualify for US Women's Open, USGA denies special exemption.

New Sponsor: Nikon Becomes Official Rangefinder of the LPGA and LET.

LIV Golf: This week's LIV Golf Adelaide winner will see their $4 million paycheck slashed in half - here's why.

TV Ratings: This year's tournament was the most-watched Chevron Championship since 2010, with a peak audience of almost 1.9 million tuning in on NBC during the latter stages of Sunday's final round.

BIRDIE
Korda's Rise Signals New Era In Women's Golf

Nelly Korda’s win at the Chevron Championship - her fifth straight win and second career major, signals a new era in the women’s game.

🚀 A powerful American player has not dominated the LPGA since Beth Daniel in the early 90s but Korda is well and truly here now.

🚀 Korda is “becoming a marquee draw” the tour has not seen since Wie West, with the crowds following Korda growing throughout the week.

🚀 Korda's historic fifth win help NBC record the most-watched Chevron Championship in over a decade - she is clearly generating additional fan intrigue into the LPGA world.

⏳ Is the South Korean Golf boom over? Over the last 26 years, South Korea has produced two LPGA Hall of Famers and five World No 1s. But their preeminence has faded noticeably over the last two seasons.

The 2022 and 2023 campaigns were the first in more than 20 years that South Koreans won fewer than 20 percent of the LPGA’s events, and the trend has continued this season, with no champions from the country in the eight events played.

This decline certainly coincides with the rise and utter dominance of Nelly Korda, once again establishing the fact that this is indeed a new era for women's golf.

DRIVING RANGE
How To Hit Irons Higher

In this video, we demonstrate how to hit your irons higher in golf.

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