The Friday Cut: Boutier on the charge, Team Europe and DeChambeau’s greatest moment
France's Celine Boutier poses with her trophy after winning the Evian Championship, a women's LPGA major golf tournament in Evian-les-Bains, French Alps, on July 30, 2023. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images).
Welcome to ‘The Friday Cut’, your weekly round-up of the top stories across the professional tours.
In a week where we have the final major championship of the season, the first play-off event on the road to East Lake, and the first announcements of the Ryder Cup team selection, we are reminded that despite drawing towards the end that this season is still very much in full swing. With plenty to get our teeth stuck into before a massive weekend of golf, here are the headlines that have made the cut.
Celine Boutier bids for a hat-trick at the AIG Women’s Open
A few weeks back I wrote a love letter to Evian, one of my favourite tracks in world golf. The fairytale that unfolded would be difficult to do justice in words, as Celine Boutier convincingly won her first major championship title on home soil. We could have forgiven her for taking a moment to enjoy that monumental achievement, but instead Boutier went on the offensive as she brushed off the field to take the Women’s Scottish Open the following week.
That achievement clearly demonstrated the level of talent that many knew Boutier possessed, but now there can be no doubt that she is one of the best in currently one of the best in world golf and one of the favourites to take the season’s final major championship at Walton Heath this week.
With the announcement that the purse for the AIG Women’s Open will stand at a record breaking $9 million, Boutier not only has the chance to take a career-defining hat-trick of high quality events, but also to take home a purse that is beginning to reflect the quality of the women’s game.
Team Europe starts to take shape with two top players announced
Only 49 days until the Ryder Cup. Everybody stay calm. As we hurtle towards one of the greatest team events in world sport, Team Europe is beginning to take shape with a pair of star-studded, if not completely unsurprising, automatic selections being announced. Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm bring not only a wealth of Ryder Cup experience, but also appear to be peaking their form just in time for the event at Marco Simone Golf Club in September.
McIlroy, and ever-present since his debut in 2010, has 12 match wins from 24 played and has won the Ryder Cup on four occasions. Masters Champion Rahm dazzled on debut in Paris five years ago, and also has a 50 percent success rate in his matches winning four of eight. As some of the senior players in the camp, they will no doubt be looking to lead from the front and bring the Ryder Cup back to Europe in Rome.
DeChambeau fires 58 on way to winning Greenbrier title
Say what you will about Bryson over the years, one thing you cannot deny is his unquestionable talent and ability to entertain. The drive over the water at Bay Hill’s par-5 sixth is perhaps one of the many outlandish moments that DeChambeau will be remembered for, but this week he did something truly astonishing.
Few people have ever shot 58 in a round of professional golf. Jim Furyk was the last to achieve this on the PGA Tour, back in 2016, and when you consider that Bryson achieved this with a bogey on the card the achievement becomes all the more impressive.
In what DeChambeau admits is “probably the greatest moment in my golfing career”, the former major winner stormed through the field to take the LIV Golf Greenbrier title and smash the LIV low-round scoring record in the process.
Can you ignore a man who just shot 58 for the Ryder Cup, Zach Johnson? LIV Golf aside, he is too dangerous to leave at home in my opinion.
PGA Tour calendar announced for next season
As we edge towards the end of one PGA Tour season, the announcement on next year’s calendar shows signs of further shake-ups. The season will officially start in January, with the double event swing in Hawaii, after a seemingly re-branded ‘fall series’ of events that needs a whole separate article to explain in itself.
There are eight ‘signature’ events across the season, previously called designated events, with elevated prize money and limited fields. Of the eight signature events, only the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Genesis Invitational and the Memorial Tournament will feature a cut, with the other five offering players a guaranteed 72 holes to find the winning formula.
A total of 36 events will make up the regular season, before the newly adjusted top 70 then make it through to the coveted FedEx Cup Play-offs. With a new PIF-partnership in the pipeline, and previous complaints about the disparity in prize money between LIV and the
PGA Tour, players will certainly relish the opportunity to compete for the increased FedEx Cup prize fund of $25 million.
Coming up this weekend…
You won’t want to miss the final major of the season - The AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath. A strong field including recent double winner Celine Boutier, English pair Charley Hull and Georgia Hall, and American rising star Rose Zhang will be looking to make the weekend and battle it out in what could be very scorable conditions.
On the PGA Tour, The FedEx Cup Play-offs get underway with a field of 70 looking to make next week’s 50-man event. With arguably the strongest field of the season so far, plenty of top names will be looking to win this event and surge up the rankings in a bid to boost their chances of glory - should they reach East Lake in a couple of weeks.
