For comments: ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com

Good Wednesday morning, golf fans, as we head to New Orleans for the Zurich Classic.

1. Heritage ratings are in

Adam Woodard for Golfweek…”A week after CBS reported the final round of the 2023 Masters was the most-watched golf broadcast in the past five years, the network drew 4.152 million viewers Sunday for the 2023 RBC Heritage, up 13 percent from last year. The final round – which included a three-hole playoff between eventual winner Matt Fitzpatrick and defending champion Jordan Spieth – was the most-watched final round of the Tour’s season (Masters aside).”

• “…As reported by the Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter, the final-round duel between Fitzpatrick and Spieth was the most-watched final round of the RBC Heritage since 2002, which also featured a playoff between Justin Leonard and Heath Slocum and boasted 4.575 million viewers. SBJ also noted all but one of the eight designated events on the Tour’s schedule – the Sentry Tournament of Champions – has earned a year-over-year increase in viewership so far this season.”

2. Newest Keiser enterprise: Rodeo Dunes

Derek Duncan for Golf Digest…”Developers Michael and Chris Keiser will announce Tuesday that construction will begin this summer on the first of potentially six public golf courses on a 2,000-plus-acre site outside of Roggen, Colo., an hour northeast of downtown Denver. The Keisers purchased the land from the Cervi family, the country’s largest producer of rodeos, who have used portions of it for ranching, livestock and rodeo training. To honor the land’s heritage, the new golf resort will be called Rodeo Dunes.”

3. Some LIV golfers opting out of U.S. Open qualifying

The AP’s Doug Ferguson…”The road to the U.S. Open began this week for thousands of players, with an 18-hole local qualifier in the Houston area on Monday and another in North Carolina on Wednesday.”

• “A dozen or so players from LIV Golf already decided to pass by not entering.”

• “That includes Louis Oosthuizen, a runner-up at Torrey Pines in 2021 and at Chambers Bay in 2015. By not filing a U.S. Open entry, his only other avenue to Los Angeles Country Club is to win the PGA Championship next month. He currently is not in the PGA field, and at No. 136 in the world, is not likely to get an invitation.”

• “Others who chose not to enter and who are well outside the top 100 in the world are Bubba Watson, Paul Casey, Charles Howell III, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Charl Schwartzel.”

4. Want to work at the Masters?

Joseph F. Patterson for Golfweek…”Each day began for us around 2 a.m., because we allowed driving time to get to the Masters employee parking lot at Augusta University where shuttles took us to the course and then Concessions Stand 1, a cave-like space located beneath the golf pro/gift shop. We had to be there by 4:30 or 5 a.m. It was a full 10-to-14-hour day of running breakfast and barbeque sandwiches from the kitchen to the food service bays. Those bays had to be stocked each morning before 7 a.m., with ice, cups, Masters logoed snacks (popcorn, moon pies, cheese straws, potato chips, peanuts, cookies, etc.).”

• “Officially, Stand 1 was not to close until half an hour after the final golfer finished the round for the day. Usually, that meant shutting things down around 5:30 p.m. Everything that had not been sold had to be inventoried, taken back to storage, counters cleaned, trash dumped. We usually left around 6 p.m., maybe 7 p.m. on some nights. On another stand, we heard workers were not allowed to leave until 1 a.m. on the last day of the tournament.”

• “No sitting. All day you are standing and walking on concrete floors. There was a small breakroom in Stand 1. You were given two 15-minute breaks and a half-hour lunch break.”

• “The conditions were brutal, equal to the management style of some of the full-time Augusta National management.”

5. From conference play to the Chevron

Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…”The LPGA’s first major championship of the year begins Thursday at The Club at Carlton Woods’ Nicklaus Course in The Woodlands, Texas, and in the field are seven amateurs: Saki Baba, the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champ; L.A.-area college standouts Amari Avery of USC and Zoe Campos of UCLA; Ting-Hsuan Huang and Eila Galitsky, each of the past two Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific winners; British Amateur champ Jess Baker, who plays collegiately at UCF; and Michigan State’s Valentina Rossi, the Latin America Women’s champ.”

6. Norman: “A long list of players want to join LIV”

Our Matt Vincenzi…”The LIV Golf roster is set for 2023, but CEO Greg Norman claims that “a long list of players” want to join LIV Golf.”

• “While speaking with NCA NewsWire, Norman said that once the relegation process begins more players will join.”

• “It’s an ongoing process. We’ve got a long list of players who want to come in. We just don’t have the ability today because players are under contract. But we’ll get to a position where there will be a relegation series and places will start opening up.”

• “The high-profile signings slowed down considerably after LIV’s inaugural season, but Norman says that there will be more big names associated with LIV in the future.”

• “It’s incredible the amount of players who want to come on board. It would surprise you how good those names are.”

7. Bryson refutes sportswashing claim

Elliot Heath for Golf Monthly…”Bryson DeChambeau, the 2020 US Open winner and former World No.5, was asked about LIV and sportswashing ahead of the event in Adelaide, and he called those claims “completely inaccurate”.

• “Well, we talked about that last year, and we already kind of kicked that to the curb,” DeChambeau said.

• “It’s something that I truthfully believe is completely inaccurate. People have their opinions and their perspectives on it, but we certainly don’t feel that way. We’re playing golf here.”

8. Pond leap lives on at Chevron?

Brentley Romine for Golf Channel…”The traditional champion’s pond leap was believed to be a thing of the past when news broke that the Chevron Championship would change venues this year, moving from its longtime former home of Mission Hills Country Club in Palm Springs, California, to its new permanent digs at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas.”

• “But come Sunday, the newest Chevron winner will still have the option to jump.”

• “The club recently dredged a portion of the large lake that sits just off the 18th green at Carlton Woods’ Nicklaus Course, between the ninth and 18th holes. According to someone with knowledge of the work, the area used to only be a few feet deep, and the removal process added some depth while cleaning out weeds, rocks and surprisingly a lot of construction debris, from concrete to metal. A small dock and ladder also were installed, as was some netting to help keep wildlife, mainly alligators, out – though gators aren’t as prevalent that far north compared to parts of the Houston area closer to the Gulf of Mexico.”

• “Still, a potential plunge into murky lake water, though much safer now, will be a stark contrast from the manmade pool at Mission Hills.”

• “I’m not really sure,” defending Chevron champ Jennifer Kupcho said when asked if she’d make the jump should she successfully defend. “I think there might be snakes in the water here, so might be a little interesting.”

9. Photos from the Zurich Classic

• Check out all our photos from New Orleans in the GolfWRX forums!