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Pro explains how Saudi Golf League could become the biggest tour in the world

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While many professional golfers have cast doubt on the potential success of the Greg Norman backed LIV Golf series, DP World Tour player Matthew Southgate sees it a bit differently.

On this week’s Sky Sports Golf Podcast, Southgate said that just because the best players aren’t leaving the PGA Tour right now doesn’t mean that they won’t in the future.

“The most overlooked thing with the Saudi tour at the minute is that everybody is focusing on the players of today and nobody is thinking of the players of tomorrow,” the 33-year-old said on the podcast. “Five years ago, we didn’t know Bob MacIntyre, we didn’t know Scottie Scheffler, we don’t know Viktor Hovland or either of the Hojgaard brothers. When you start going through the list of players who weren’t on Tour five years ago, it’s quite significant.

“Should they have a stumbling block today because they can’t get the players of today, there’s nothing stopping them producing the players of tomorrow. That’s where it’s tough.”

On the PGA Tour, it costs young players money to go to Q school and try to compete to make it while earning a small amount if they are successful.

“If the Saudis had the money to put on a free tour school with a decent prize fund, then why would you not go and try?” Southgate said on the podcast. “If they’re going to say they’ll have ‘X’ number of tournaments with ‘X’ prize fund, as an 18-, 19-, 20-year-old, then why wouldn’t you go give it a crack?

“Everyone goes to PGA EuroPro Tour school to go and play for 10 grand a week, so why on earth would you not go to the Saudi tour school and earn much more? All they’re doing is taking a punt that you’re going to be the best players in 2026, 2027 or 2030. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

The LIV Golf series currently claims to have 15 of the world’s top 100 golfers committed to play. Greg Norman has also said he is sending invites to the world’s best amateur players. If he gets some of them to commit, that may change the equation and cause a difficult situation for the PGA Tour.

“If Saudi were to put on a tour school for the youngsters and start to produce their own players, which would be easy enough for them to do, then as soon as you ban one current player going to play, there you can’t possibly invite a future player coming back to play,” Southgates said on the podcast.

“Let’s just say the next Bob MacIntyre is 18 years old, and he’s sat somewhere in Scotland today. He goes to the Saudi Tour school and wins, or gets an invite to play on the Saudi Tour, then in five years’ time, he’s world No. 1. You can’t then invite him back to play Scottish Open if you’re banning everybody else already on that Tour from going off to play in the Saudi events.”

“Are you protecting now and actually opening up a gateway to golfing hell in five years? If you say to Dustin Johnson, you can’t go and play in this because we’ll ban you, then you can’t possibly invite someone from the Saudi tour to go and play in your tournaments.

“If they then produce the best players in the world, you instantly become second and third in the world. That’s five to 10 years of patiently waiting to produce your own players, and that’s scary.”

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19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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