🏌🏻PGA vs LIV: Who Made More Money?

Good morning! The best from men’s golf have already descended upon France in hopes of winning a gold medal for their country at the Paris Olympics - Rory McIlroy isn't among them though.

Instead, he is getting some practice rounds in at the Old Course at St Andrews - here’s what he plans to do.

Today’s Trivia: Who won Gold in the women's event at the 2016 Rio Olympics? Answer at the end of the email.

⛳ This day in history: On this date in 1995 the Senior Open was won by Scottish free spirit Brian Barnes in a playoff over Bob Murphy at Royal Portrush Golf Club.

NEXT ON THE TEE
Tournaments This Week

Olympics: Men's Event

📍 When and Where: August 1-4, Le Golf National
🏌🏻 Headliners: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark

LPGA Tour: Portland Classic

📍When and Where: August 1-4, Columbia Edgewater Country Club
💰 Purse: $1.75 million
🏌🏻 Headliners: Allisen Corpuz, Danielle Kang, Aditi Ashok

ALBATROSS
Can Team US Do A Clean Sweep?

The Olympic men’s golf competition begins Thursday at Le Golf National in Paris. The 72-hole, stroke-play tournament will feature 60 players, including four Americans – Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark.

Le Golf National is far from a bomber’s paradise, demanding precision off the tee with punishing rough and plenty of water, so it’s no surprise that Scheffler, Schauffele and Morikawa account for three of the five lowest odds to win.

The strong US men's team has the potential to do a clean sweep on the podium and here's why they are favored:

📌 Collin Morikawa: Morikawa has not finished worse than 23rd in 11 starts, a run that’s included five top-4 finishes. Though he’s not played Le Golf National, his profile fits this course very nicely – and he’s already on site, beginning practice on Saturday.

📌 Xander Schauffele: A two-time major winner this season and the reigning gold medalist, Schauffele has an argument to be ranked at the top here. If the driving prowess that he displayed at Troon continues, he contends. If it doesn’t, like at the Scottish, where he was strokes-gained even, he probably just misses the podium.

📌 Scottie Scheffler: The world Number 1 added yet another top-10 with his 7th place finish at The Open. The only concern is the putter, which is starting to revert to where it was this time last year with two out of Scheffler’s last three starts in the negative in terms of strokes gained.

The other golfer in the team, Wyndham Clark, has not been tipped as one of the early tournament favorites but we all know he can be the best in the field on his day.

⛳️ Could Weather Play Spoilsport? Thunderstorms are expected on the opening day that's August 1, Thursday, with winds at 6-12 mph. Friday has a better forecast but there is a slight chance of rain.

The forecast gets better for Saturday and Sunday - cloudy skies are expected but rainfall is unlikely.

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TWEET
Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
Presidents Cup: Who Will Represent The US?

The 2024 Presidents Cup will be held from September 24–29 at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada - where the United States will take on a strong International Team.

US players earn qualifying points based on FedEx Cup points accumulated between January 1, 2023 through August 24, 2024. The top six on the points list after the 2024 BMW Championship will be automatic qualifiers while captain Jim Furyk will select the other six participants.

Sahith Theegala is, perhaps surprisingly to some, in the top six right now and a near lock to be on the team even if he finishes outside of the automatic qualifiers. Other notables on the US side include 22-year-old, Akshay Bhatia and Chris Kirk, who is in the top 12 even though he has just one top 10 since winning The Sentry back in January.

What Furyk does with Sam Burns (13th), Justin Thomas (14th) and Jordan Spieth (25th) - all of whom were on last year's Ryder Cup team, will be interesting to see. They have three more events -- the Wyndham Championship and the first two FedEx Cup playoff events to move up in the rankings.

On the International side, OWGR points are used, and Hideki Matsuyama currently leads the way. Similarly, the International team will determine its top six by OWGR points earned through the BMW Championship. After that, captain Mike Weir will select six captain's picks.

LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news 

Puma*Palmer: To celebrate Arnold Palmer's legacy, PUMA Golf is dropping a second PUMA Golf x Arnold Palmer Collection lineup for ’24 - click here to check it out.

Auction: Gary Player's trophy from his 1974 triumph at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lancashire, England was sold for a whopping $481,068. That does however include the Buyer’s Premium, a tax put onto the sale for the buyer to pay - it is generally anywhere from 10-20 percent.

FedEx Cup: The PGA Tour has rolled out a number of product enhancements around the FedEx Cup Playoffs, including alternate content streams, elevated technology, and even a new influencer event.

PGA Tour: The PGA Tour is stepping into the YouTube golf world for the first time - it is teaming up with golf content creators for 'The Creator Classic' at the 2024 Tour Championship.

LPGA Tour: The Portland Classic tees off this week at the Columbia Edgewater Country Club - here's everything you need to know.

Woods Watch: ESPN has released a new list of the top professional athletes of the 21st Century - Tiger Woods is the highest-ranked golfer at No 8.

BIRDIE
PGA Tour vs LIV Golf: Who Made More Money?

With LIV Golf offering purses of $25m in each of its regular events, and with the PGA Tour having significantly increased its prize money in an attempt to match its big-money rival, tournaments offering multi-million dollar prize money to their best-performing players are now common.

The top 20 of highest earners across both circuits this season sees eight from the PGA Tour and 12 from LIV Golf - let us dive deep into the details.

💰Scottie Scheffler tops the list - he has claimed wins at four of the PGA Tour’s signature events this season, as well as its flagship tournament, The Players Championship, and first Major of the year, The Masters, which have helped him stand far ahead of his nearest rival on the combined money list at $28,148,691.

💰The player immediately beneath him is Xander Schauffele, whose most significant payday this year came with $3.3m for his win at the PGA Championship. Schauffele followed that up with a second Major win at The Open to claim another $3.1m, while he has been admirably consistent throughout this season.

Schauffele has yet to miss a cut, though he still lags the World No 1 significantly in money earned, with $15,867,160.

💰In third place is the highest-earning LIV golfer of the season so far, Joaquin Niemann. The Torque GC captain won $4m for each of his two wins, at Mayakoba and Jeddah, while he has seven other top 10 finishes, including T-2 at LIV Golf United Kingdom, to see his prize money at $14,515,665 for the season so far.

💰Fourth on the list is another LIV golfer, Bryson DeChambeau, who has amassed $12,199,467, with most of that coming from Majors.

The Crushers GC captain finished with T-6 at The Masters and runner-up at the PGA Championship, while he claimed victory at the US Open. The latter gave him the biggest payout of his career at $4.3m.

💰Another LIV golfer, Sergio Garcia, completes the top five, mainly thanks to his form on the circuit, including two runner-up finishes and a maiden win at LIV Golf Andalucia. The Spaniard is currently on $11,421,422.

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DRIVING RANGE
Stop Blading Chips

In today's video, we talk about how to improve your short game and share a simple chipping technique to help you eliminate blading the ball across the green.

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