For comments: ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com

Good Thursday morning, golf fans, as day one of the Scottish Open. gets underway.

1. More takeaways from the Congressional hearing

Assembled by Golf Digest’s Joel Beall…

• A fiery admission…”Price and Dunne admirably represented the tour, defending the league as best as they could. However, the tour has been adament throughout the past two years that it was operating from a position of power. Dunne countered that sentiment by admitting that “LIV put us on fire” regarding its own actions. That quote will certainly shouted by LIV supporters should the deal ultimately not come to fruition.”

• The tour has a friend in Senator Ron Johnson…”The Republican from Wisconsin did not so much ask questions of Price and Dunne as he did play devil’s advocate for why the tour had no choice but to explore a partnership with the Saudis. “I don’t see the PGA Tour as doing anything wrong here,” Johnson said in the hearing. “The questions feel like there you did [something] wrong.” Johnson also pushed back against moral entanglements the PGA Tour might have in doing business with the Saudi regime. “Well listen, I have the deepest sympathy for 9/11 families, I understand the issue of sportswashing, I don’t think there’s any—there’s not enough billions of dollars for the Saudis to wash away the stain of the brutal [Jamal] Khashoggi murder,” Johnson said. “But the reality is we all buy oil, we use—we drive cars, we are the ones that are filling up the coffers of the Public Investment Fund.”

• A senator was unaware PGA Tour China no longer exists…”Everyone at the proceedings had an agenda, although no one’s was more apparent than Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who tried to grill Price about the existence of the tour’s developmental league in China. One problem: Hawley had no idea the league had not been operational since 2019.”

2. Ryan: U.S. Adaptive Open will unbreak your golf heart

Golf Digest’s Shane Ryan…”There are 96 golfers at the Adaptive Open, and 96 stories of almost unbelievable resilience… The problem with that, as with all the redemptive sports stories we’ve seen in our time, is that they take on a kind of sameness; the pattern becomes familiar and we become inured. How many terrible things can happen to people, only for them to discover the strength to carry on in dire circumstances that we’re sure would bury us in clouds of depression and grief and resentment, before you stop being so affected by each one and they fall into a kind of dismissible rote-ness? It doesn’t help, of course, that in an effort to simplify the affecting power, sports media often portrays these stories in the most lachrymose ways, using tropes that can’t help but make you roll your eyes as they try to extract your tears through practiced emotional coercion. It is easy and probably necessary to rebel against the weepy theatrics of TV journalists we won’t name, but the big problem comes down to the old cliché about the baby and the bathwater; the cynicism we have every right to develop also can wipe out what’s moving about the actual story.”

• …”All I can say is that when you’re here in person, when the stunning spectacle presents itself and you start to fathom the enormity of what they’re doing—when you look out on the 18th green after reading Togisala’s story, and he’s there in the flesh, in his cart, as though reading his story conjured him up—you start to wonder why you’re crying. It isn’t pity, you’ll realize, but rather a kind of awe at how they triumphed by sticking it to the brutal turns of this life, of not simply moving on and continuing to exist until death’s deliverance, but resolutely attacking and succeeding in a display that combines the most radical kind of defiance/acceptance/god-knows-what-else. Then, in the thick of those emotions, you conclude that these are the only kinds of stories that actually matter. And that even though life goes on, and we can’t sit around lost in the pathos of every person who endured, it’s worth doing whatever you can not to become habituated to the stories that delve into the extremes of human suffering.”

3. Scheffler: Lack of clarity is worrisome

Rex Hoggard for Golf Channel…”As Tuesday’s hearing in Washington, D.C., demonstrated, there are few details of the PGA Tour’s framework agreement with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, a fact that irritated some senators and players.”

• “I just think that yesterday, we didn’t really learn a whole lot. As a player on Tour, we still don’t really have a lot of clarity as to what’s going on and that’s a bit worrisome. They keep saying it’s a player-run organization, and we don’t really have the information that we need,” Scottie Scheffler said Wednesday at the Genesis Scottish Open. “I watched part of [the hearing] yesterday and didn’t learn anything. So, I really don’t know what to say.”

4. Schauffele: Monahan must earn back players trust

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”As Tuesday’s hearing in Washington, D.C., demonstrated, there are few details of the PGA Tour’s framework agreement with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, a fact that irritated some senators and players.”

• “I just think that yesterday, we didn’t really learn a whole lot. As a player on Tour, we still don’t really have a lot of clarity as to what’s going on and that’s a bit worrisome. They keep saying it’s a player-run organization, and we don’t really have the information that we need,” Scottie Scheffler said Wednesday at the Genesis Scottish Open. “I watched part of [the hearing] yesterday and didn’t learn anything. So, I really don’t know what to say.”

5. Jane Park returning to tour

Kent Paisley for Golf Digest…”Two years after LPGA member Jane Park’s daughter, Grace, suffered a tragic health episode resulting in Park stepping away from golf, Park will return July 19-22 to play at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational. It’s Park’s first event since Grace, then 10 months old, suffered a series of undiagnosed brain seizures, resulting in severe brain damage, while Park competed at the 2021 Ascendant LPGA.”

• “Park, 36, will play with Paula Creamer as her partner at the tour’s team event at Midland Country Club in Midland, Mich.”

6. JT, Spieth acquiring minority stake in Leeds

SkySports report…“Spieth and fellow golf icon Justin Thomas have purchased shares in the 49ers group, subject to EFL checks, and the former is excited about the future of the club.”

• “Speaking exclusively to Sky Sports News, Spieth said: “Relegation wasn’t ideal, but we got involved with the 49ers group about purchasing a larger share and getting in with them doing things so successfully as they do everywhere they’ve touched.”

7. Financial boost for women’s golf?

Michael Weston for Golf Monthly…”Women’s golf could benefit from a financial boost following an announcement that the Aramco Team Series presented by Public Investment Fund (PIF) is set to partner with the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute.”

• Recognising that a significant proportion of global golf fans hold senior management and leadership positions in the corporate sector, the Aramco Team Series has partnered with FII Institute to elevate the tournament to new heights.

• Alexandra Armas, CEO of the Ladies European Tour, believes the partnership can build on the momentum that has been building in the women’s game.

• “We are delighted that FII is becoming a strategic partner from the Aramco Team Series – Riyadh onwards, bringing more discussions and investment into women’s golf through this partnership,” she said.

8. R.I.P.: Brooks, Bryson “feud”

9. Photos from the Barbasol Championship

• Check out all of our galleries from this week’s event.