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Report: Despite rumblings of LIV’s demise, a meeting took place yesterday that tells a different story

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After the shocking PGA Tour/DP World Tour/PIF merger, there was plenty of speculation that the deal would put an end to LIV Golf in the near future.

In the PGA Tour meeting Tuesday, commissioner Jay Monahan said “that a full review of LIV’s commercial viability would be conducted at season’s end”. Those who were in the meeting took that as a bad sign for the future of LIV, including Rory, who spoke about LIV in his press conference on Wednesday.

As for Rory McIlroy:

“I still hate LIV,” the four-time major winner said. “I hope it goes away. And I would fully expect that it does. And I think that’s where the distinction here is. This is the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the PIF. Very different from LIV.”

Despite the rumors of its demise, Alan Shipnuck of the Firepit Collective wrote on Thursday morning that the feeling after Greg Norman’s press conference with LIV employees that isn’t going anywhere.

Shipnuck, who’s had his ear to the ground for almost two years on everything LIV Golf, shared the feeling he got when watching the Norman-led meeting.

“By way of an opening, he said, ‘Congratulations, you changed golf, and you did it in less than a year.’ The employees on the call had taken huge professional risks to join LIV and were understandably jittery. Norman radiated confidence, saying that the 2024 LIV schedule was nearly finalized. “There will be no operational changes in 2023, 2024, 2025 and into the future,” he said. Then came the mic drop: ‘LIV is a stand-alone entity and will continue to be that moving forward. And that comes right from the top.’

The author of “LIV and Let Die” then explained who is really calling the shots in the world of golf going forward: Yasir Al-Rumayyan.

“The man at the top is not Monahan. Or Rory McIlroy or Tiger Woods. Or the the lords of the Seminole grill room, Jimmy Dunne and Ed Herlihy, who brokered the truce with LIV in their roles as PGA Tour board members. No, Norman was referring to the new boss of all of them, His Excellency Yasir Al-Rumayyan. H.E., as he is referred to around LIV, is the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which can alter economies and disrupt industries with its $650 billion warchest. He is also the chairman of the board of Aramco, the state oil company, making H.E. easily the most powerful person in the world who is not a head of state. His latest title is chairman of the board of the new PIF-Tour entity.”

“That means Monahan reports to him”.

Per Shipnuck, a high ranking LIV executive describes LIV as “Al-Rumayyan’s baby” and find it hard to believe he would let it disintegrate so quickly after how much effort he put into the venture.

“What people fail to understand is that LIV is H.E.’s baby,” said the LIV executive. “He has poured his heart into its creation.” This included numerous meetings in which Al-Rumayyan fussed over every detail, down to the look of the LIV logo.”

“We all went into the call with our heads hanging low, feeling so defeated,” says the LIV executive. “Then it became like in The Wolf Of Wall Street when Leonardo DiCaprio gives that speech and the whole room goes crazy. When His Excellency finished speaking we were all high-5’ing. It was like, Let’s fucking go! We’re gonna fucking do this!

Time will tell how it will play out, but as Shipnuck describes, the future of golf is in the hands of Yasir Al-Rumayyan.

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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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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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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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