For comments: ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com

Good Thursday morning, golf fans, as day one of the Zurich Classic and Chevron get underway.

1. Another surgery for Tiger

2. Koepka: Masters showed LIV, Tour players can coexist

Via the Golf Channel digital team…”Speaking ahead of the LIV Adelaide event, Koepka said an incident-free week at the Masters – save for CEO Greg Norman calling Augusta National’s decision to not invite him “petty” – was “the best thing for the fans to see.”

• “We experience it all behind closed doors at home,” Koepka told reporters. “It was just good for the fans to see that we still communicate, we still play together, we still practice together, do everything the exact same. We’re still the same people.”

3. Ko on ending major drought

Golf Channel’s Mercer Baggs…”For the first time in this major’s history, dating to 1972, Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, California, will not play host. Instead, it will be Carlton Woods’ Nicklaus Course.”

• “Ko won the event in 2016 for her second major title. It remains her most recent major victory. She’s since endured a lengthy slump and risen from the depths. She won three times last year, including the lucrative season finale, and reached world No. 1 for the first time since 2017.”

• “The major drought, however, has continued. Ending that dry spell this week would not only give her a second Dinah Shore Trophy, it would give her the necessary two points to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame.”

• “It would be pretty cool to get it done in the first major of the year and be in the Hall of Fame, but that’s not what’s important to me,” Ko said on Tuesday. “For me, I just want to have a good week and put myself in position, and if I have a chance at it and be the one that’s holding the trophy at the end of the week, that’s pretty awesome. But I don’t think that’s going to be like my driving force going to any of these events this year.”

4. Another impressive feat for Rose Zhang

Alex Myers for Golf Digest…“The Stanford sophomore isn’t even halfway through her college career, and yet she’s already spent more time as the world’s top-ranked amateur golfer than anyone. Zhang has now spent a total of 136 weeks at No. 1, surpassing the previous record of 135 established by Leona Maguire in 2018.”

• “Last month, Zhang topped Lydia Ko’s mark of 130 consecutive weeks in the top spot.”

• “It’s an unbelievable honour and a testament to a lot of hard work not just by me but by my team as well,” Zhang said in a statement. “Passing names like Lydia and Leona on any list is incredible; they’ve both gone on to have such impressive professional careers and are great role models in golf. I’m grateful for all the support I’ve received and look forward to continuing to pursue my dreams in this game.”

5. Gary Player says he has shot his age 3,000 times in a row

Tom D’Angelo for the Palm Beach Post…”The only challenge for Player each day he decides to play 18 holes is to beat his age — by 15 shots.”

• “According to Player, his 76 at Augusta National this past Sunday — in which he said he used the cart only to go uphill — was the 3,072nd time in a row he has shot his age or better.”

• “Impossible? Sure sounds it until he reveals the first time he shot his age was in the year 2000. At the age of 64.”

6. Norman wants to “sit down and talk” with PGA Tour

Joshua Lees for the Mirror…”Since then the two rivals have traded blow for blow, which has eventually led to their battle becoming a legal one. Norman has found himself as one of the saga’s leading protagonists, with the Aussie CEO never far from the centre of golf’s ongoing drama.”

• “Now though Norman is seemingly out to call a truce with Monahan and co nearly a year on from when battle lines were drawn. Asked if it was time for the two tours to settle their difference, he told the Daily Telegraph : “Yeah, maybe we should sit down and talk.”

• “It’s going to happen somehow and somewhere down the line. And why shouldn’t it be sooner rather than later? They must realise by now that we aren’t going away.” The idea of the Saudi-backed series going toe-to-toe with the PGA Tour 12 months ago was nothing more than a pipe dream for Norman and his team.”

7. Will Ferrell set for LIV-style role in new sitcom

Nelly Andreeva for Deadline…”In what is shaping up to become one of the biggest TV comedy packages to hit the marketplace in awhile, Will Ferrell & Jessica Elbaum’s Gloria Sanchez Productions and Rian Johnson & Ram Bergman’s T-Street have teamed up to develop a comedy TV series as a starring vehicle for Ferrell, I have learned.”

• “No one would comment but I hear the series revolves around a professional golfer who becomes the face of a controversial new league competing with the PGA.”

• “While fictional, the story would inevitably draw parallels to the controversial LIV Golf startup. It also evokes one of Ferrell’s signature movies, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. The series is in a similar tone, I hear, bringing Ferrell back to the sports arena he also explored in Blades of Glory and Semi-Pro.”

8. Lexi playing hurt at first major

Beth Ann Nichols for Golfweek…”From a scheduling standpoint, Lexi Thompson has eased into the year’s first major, teeing it up only twice so far in 2023 – once on the LPGA and once in Saudi Arabia.”

• “But all that time off didn’t exactly lead to a rested approach, at least physically. Turns out Thompson, 28, grinded so hard back home in south Florida that she arrived at the Chevron Championship with a taped-up right wrist. The pain started about a week ago.”

• “I’ve just been hitting so many golf balls at home,” said Thompson, when asked about the black tape that ran up past her elbow, “and I’ve kind of — I’m not going to say injured, but it’s hurting a little bit. But I’ve gotten work done the last few days and getting it taped up.”

• “But yeah, I think I just overworked it. It’s nothing crazy severe, but it’s there. But we’ll see.”

9. Photos from the Zurich Classic

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