– Rory McIlroy suggested last Tuesday that there should be no punishment for golfers who went to LIV Golf and wish to return to the PGA Tour. Red carpet. It’s not that the Northern Irishman suffers from Stockholm syndrome, as some want to make it seem, he’s just being practical. He is convinced that professional golf would be much better if the circuits were united and if the world’s best players could play together more weeks apart from the Majors. If some sacrifice has to be made for this, it is made. Rory is of the theory that golf is playing a lot with this fracture and that, in this case, the end justifies the means, even if you have to hold your nose.
However, not everyone thinks the same. Rickie Fowler, another player whose voice carries a lot of weight, is not in favour of amnesty. He votes against. And to express it, he didn’t miss the opportunity to leave a message for Rory himself. “I don’t see this thing of going wherever you want and coming back as if nothing had happened. They made some decisions and there have to be consequences. I’m not on the same wavelength as Rory. We started from the same point when all this began, but over time I think he has experienced a small roller coaster of emotions and feelings. I have moved little. I still think that the PGA Tour is the best place to play golf and grow as a player. I always dreamed of playing here and it is still my desire. The council guys, Cantlay, Spieth or Tiger have worked hard to put the PGA Tour in the best possible place, so I don’t think it’s right to simply welcome those who jumped ship in their day,” he explains.
– Thomas Detry (-9), first leader of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am, signed the best round of his career on the PGA Tour (63 strokes) and the most birdies in 18 holes (10) this Thursday. It’s the first time he’s led an American circuit tournament after the first day, although he was already a leader after the second at the Sanderson Farms. The Belgian has never had problems leading a tournament on the first, second or third day. What has been a problem so far is the fourth. Will there ever be that click that will turn Detry into a winning player? The odds are very favourable to yes, but perhaps the hardest thing is to open the can. By the way, Detry qualified for Pebble Beach in the PGA Tour tournaments last autumn, but he is not exempt to play in the Genesis, next designated.
– Pebble Beach was almost one stroke harder than Spyglass Hill on the first day. Hence, the round of Matthieu Pavon, the best at Pebble Beach, is of great value. The same thing happened to him at the Farmers Insurance Open. He didn’t start very high, but it was the best round on Thursday on the South course, the most difficult of the two at Torrey Pines. And we already know what happened in the end… By the way, the last PGA Tour player to achieve his first two victories on the circuit consecutively was David Duval in 1997. The Frenchman was five years old.
– To say that Patrick Cantlay (-8) is the big favourite to win right now after the first day is no recklessness, although it may seem so because of how unstable this sport is. Beyond how good he is and the good start of the tournament, the American has been hovering around this tournament for a while. He has three top 10s and in 2021 he was 3rd and in 2022 he finished 4th. A usual suspect at Pebble Beach.
– Ludvig Aberg dissected yesterday after his round how his eagle on hole 7 of Spyglass was. Beyond the fact that they were two great shots, including a 5 iron to 198 meters from the flag, his story served us to know that the Swede, although he has studied in the United States, continues to make the calculations of his shots in meters.
