19th Hole
Henrik Stenson says LIV critics need to widen their view
Henrik Stenson, stripped of his Ryder Cup captaincy for joining LIV, has spoken of the hypocrisy he sees surrounding much of the opposition to the Saudi-backed tour.
In an interview with Kevin Garside of inews.co.uk, the Swede talks of criticism in one direction whilst overlooking what is happening next door.
“Where do you draw the line?” he asks. “You have people shouting recently about Qatar, about workforce abuses, poor conditions, accidents that lead to death.
“You can’t scream and shout about that then go to Dubai, lie on a beach and think everything’s lovely.”
“It is the same workforce that built the hotels in Dubai. I lived there for 10 years. People get so targeted on one area they can’t see the bigger picture.”
Stenson doesn’t deny the accusations regarding the human rights argument, but says the detractors should widen their view.
“I am open to sensible discussions on these things. We all have different views, right? We are talking about executions. We have that in the US. Do we stop playing there? China executes more people than the rest of the world combined. Not once have I been questioned about that when I have played there. Yes, we acknowledge the overall picture is not perfect [in Saudi] but we believe we have an opportunity to bridge some gaps and influence in different ways.”
Garside accepts that there is the basis of a debate, but clears up the similarity between the stated nations:
“It is not only a question of scale but process and access to proper representation,” he writes. “In that respect, we are not comparing like with like when weighing the USA and Saudi.”
Stenson points out that nations taking aim at golfers are able to look away when it comes to other business:
“The investors and owners of this business are doing business all over the world, yet we are the ones being held to account in a way others are not. I don’t think that’s fair.”
There is little doubt that the distribution of prize-money on the PGA Tour has come via the threat of LIV, with enhanced purses being the key to retaining the top players.
Stenson is well-versed in the way other sports handles and distributes their revenue.
“In major league baseball there is agreement between players and the organisation that so much of revenue goes into prize funds,” he says. “There have been discussions about how that subject has been handled over the years in golf and the PGA Tour in particular. I think it could have been a more balanced set-up. And there is no question the PGA Tour has been picking up all the talent from all over the world and keeping it. Other parts of world has seen and felt that.”
He expands on the difference between missing a cut and not being unpaid, and fulfilling an agreement in which a player is valued:
“Just because you know you are going to get a pay cheque does not mean you are not going to perform. In other sports, you are on a contract. You get paid whether you play or not. In our sport until now, you basically had to perform to get paid.”
Stenson, winner of the 2009 Players and the 2016 Open Championship, refutes the allegation that 54-hole tournaments are of ‘less value’ than the traditional four-rounder.
Talking of his ‘home’ sport, cross-country skiing, he explains, “It went from the 50k grind to the stadium events, quicker finish. There is enough in the golf schedule for both.”
“Besides,” he continued. “They still rank tournaments with 54 holes elsewhere. I thought the system ranked irrespective of what tour you are on. We are still beating world-class players.”
Stenson, co-captain of the Majesticks team alongside former Ryder Cup stalwarts Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, was speaking at Mayakoba, the first of LIV’s 14 event schedule for 2023. He and his fellow teammates will next appear at LIV Golf Tucson, chasing their share of the $20 million purse, exactly matching that now offered by the PGA Tour for each of 10 of the 12 elevated events outside of the majors.
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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
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.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
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.
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.
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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