Changes to professional golf in the LIV era, while frequent, are about as interesting as bowel movements.
I get it because I have also felt my eyes glaze over at a headline capturing the “latest changes.” I get it because I have also wondered when and how much I am supposed to care about the smallest shifts in corporate governance and marketing budgets. I get it because I have also felt a vague annoyance with the fact that this news cycle develops in a thousand small drips rather than a single, steady stream of information.
As a reporter, it is my job to care about these things — and I’ve felt that way. I can only imagine where that leaves you.
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But some changes in golf are significant not for what they are but for what they represent. That’s the category the two changes filed on Tuesday morning fit into in the golf world: The PGA Tour’s expanded strategic alliance with the DP World Tour and Asian Tour; and the LPGA’s decision to play an event in Hawaii at what might be considered the best golf course on the islands, Nanea.
These changes, or perhaps more accurately, acquisitions, reflect more than just a shift in the way we view the golf calendar. They represent two seismic shifts in the way the business of professional golf is conducted. As educated, intelligent, literate golf fans, that makes these changes considerably important to your perception of the sport around you, so let’s talk through each of these changes and what they mean.
1. The strategic ‘strategic alliance’
The PGA Tour has made a lot of very precise moves since being taken over by new CEO Brian Rolapp: the announcement of a new two-tiered tour; the shaping of a competitive new schedule; the decision to blast sponsor’s exemptions into the sun.
But none might be considered more strategic than the move announced Tuesday morning: the Tour’s decision to launch a new “strategic partnership” with the DP World Tour and Asian Tour through 2029.
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Sharp golf fans will remember that the Tour’s decision to partner with the DP World Tour ahead of the launch of LIV was at least partially responsible for saving their bacon. With the DPWT at their side back in 2021, the PGA Tour could be sure that the DPWT wouldn’t partner with LIV, creating an international super league that could have threatened to split the balance of power in modern pro golf forever. Under the agreement, the Tour could also push to expand its international footprint and its domestic talent pool without ever engaging in a LIV bidding war. A win-win-win.
That initial agreement is expiring soon, leaving the Tour to negotiate new terms with the DPWT to ensure their Roosevelt-Churchill partnership continued. But there’s been a little uneasiness about how it would play out, especially now that the Tour is now safely in it Truman era. (I’m not sure about my decision to cast Jay Monahan in the role of FDR in this metaphor but stick with me.)
Tuesday’s announcement doesn’t prolong the DPWT partnership, but it does create a new partnership in which both the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour are on the same time. The new agreement also adds a partnership with the Asian Tour, which had previously been aligned with LIV, into the fold. While the alliance certainly has its benefits for the Asian Tour (namely money and a path to the PGA Tour), it is most beneficial for the PGA Tour, which can now claim absolute world dominance over LIV.
LIV is currently furiously in the search for fundraising, and also facing some serious economic danger if it’s not able to raise that money quickly. The Asian Tour figured to be at least an important piece of those negotiations. The Tour’s decision adds what could only be described as an Ali haymaker to its current repertoire of jabs and hooks at its floundering competitors.
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But the most fascinating thing about this move actually has little to do with LIV. It’s that the Tour probably didn’t need to do it. Even before Tuesday’s announcement, LIV was already in a load of hurt and facing an uphill battle to long-term solvency. The PGA Tour was already holding all the cards.
And yet Tuesday’s announcement suggested that Rolapp wasn’t content with that outcome. He wasn’t just hoping to win the fight; he was hoping to win by way of knockout. He didn’t want to see LIV fall; he wanted to make sure he was the one pushing them over.
The Tour will say that they’re merely acting in their own interests. And they are. It just so happens that their interests are aligned with killing LIV and all of its offspring.
[Extreme Kevin Kisner voice] Well, Dan, they don’t call it strategic for nothing!
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2. The NEW Hawaiian Swing
Nanea Golf Club in Hawaii.
Karl Mackie
Not to be outdone by Rolapp’s acts of aggression, LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler also made waves on Tuesday morning.
Kessler and his tour announced that the LPGA is headed to Hawaii, bringing a first-of-its-kind event to what many consider the best course on any of the Hawaiian islands, Nanea, for sometime in the spring of 2027.
There’s a lot we don’t know about the so-called Nanea Cup, but here’s one thing we do: It represents an impressively targeted attempt to steal marketshare right from the under the PGA Tour.
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Golf fans will recall that the PGA Tour has abandoned the “Hawaiian Swing” altogether in the new age, opting instead for tournaments held in major metro areas in the “lower 48.” With the new event, the LPGA is (smartly) betting they can build something curated and intentional in a market the PGA Tour has left behind.
But the idea is about more than just high hopes. Charles Schwab, Dell and Salesforce have all come in as sponsors for the new event, which will feature 95 LPGA stars competing against the top 25 players in the collegiate game. The timing of the new tournament will fall on the same weekend (but critically outside of the broadcast window) of the Players Championship, giving the LPGA a chance to draft off a weekend of heavy golf-watching crowds. And the tournament host will provide a draw on its own: Nanea is regarded by many as the top course in Hawaii, and has already established itself as a haven for women’s golf, hosting the Stanford women’s team’s annual “Nanea Invitational.”
It’s early for any of us to say if the new event will be a success, but you can certainly give points to LPGA brass for trying. The opportunity presented by the Nanea Cup represents the exact kind of swing that has been sorely missing from the tour for years: big, bold ideas to target golf-dense audiences and draw considerable TV interest.
Of course, options like this only come around every so often. (If you could do ’em all the time, everybody would’ve done them already.) But the Nanea Cup gives the LPGA a chance to target a new kind of audience for its tournament hosts: Low-scale, high-production-value events held in major golf markets on elite golf courses. That sounds like a winning strategy to me, and I (selfishly) hope some of the more open-minded Long Island country clubs are keeping an open mind.
La Roja have been crowned World Champions for the second time after a tense battle with Argentina in New Jersey. Spain’s Ferran Torres managed to fire a shot past Emiliano Martinez in extra time as he scored the only goal of the game. At the time, Argentina was playing with 10 players, as Enzo Fernandez was sent off after picking up a second yellow card. FRANCE 24’s team analyses the game and the tournament after a record 104 matches.
The 2026 men’s major championship season ended on Sunday when Ryan Fox capped off a miraculous weekend at Royal Birkdale by rolling in a 10-foot putt on the 72nd hole to claim the Open Championship.
As Fox raised his arms in triumph, the four-month sprint that is the most important in pro golf came to a close with Rory McIlroy, Aaron Rai, Wyndham Clark and Fox securing the four wins that defined the season.
But there were many other winners (and losers) from the 2026 major championship season. Let’s start with the obvious.
WINNER: Rory’s second historic Masters win
Everyone wondered how Rory McIlroy would play at Augusta National with the monkey off his back. Well, he roared out to a six-shot lead, blew it in a handful of holes on Saturday and then rallied to become just the fourth player in history to win back-to-back green jackets, joining Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Nick Faldo. The win also gave Rory six majors, tying him with Phil Mickelson, Faldo and Lee Trevino.
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McIlroy faced the same questions he faced after his 2025 Masters win about how he would respond while living in the emerald glow of another Augusta triumph. This time around was much better. McIlroy played less but contended at the PGA and could’ve won had his driver not been erratic. He sent a Saturday shockwave through Shinnecock at the U.S. Open, getting into a tie for second before fading over the final 27 holes.
After a long decade of no major success, McIlroy has now won back-to-back Masters and has a legitimate shot of getting to eight, nine or 10 majors if he stays healthy.
LOSER:Scottie Scheffler’s near-misses had similar themes
A bad Friday at the Masters led to him finishing one shot behind McIlroy. He came up short in his first chance at the career Grand Slam at Shinnecock and was doomed by a cold putter at Birkdale. I thought he was in line to win at Aronimink after two rounds. No one was hitting the ball better, and Scheffler seemed to understand the way to attack the diabolical greens that mystified most of the field. But he went quietly over the weekend in Philadelphia and now will have to wait nine months to get another crack at major No. 5.
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Scheffler gave himself legitimate chances to win three of the four majors and left empty-handed because either a bad round, a troublesome part of his game or an opponent in full flight kept him from the trophy.
“I mean, today was a great effort,” Scheffler said after his final round at the Open, where he finished T4. “I felt like I was doing the right things out there. I gave myself a lot of looks again today. It was just — I guess it just wasn’t my week.”
“It was a battle all week,” Scheffler said on Sunday at the U.S. Open. “The golf course was challenging. I felt like I did some good things. I felt like there are some things that I could have improved on. I felt close again. It’s just, like, little things, little things here and there. Today I felt like I did enough to have a really good round. It was just, man, I felt like I hit a lot of good putts that were really close to going in. Just wasn’t able to kind of hole those. … But overall I felt like I gave myself a decent amount of looks today. Yeah, just a few shots. That’s really all it came down to.”
Going 2-T14-T4-T4 in the four majors would be a success for most people. But for Scheffler, who is still far and away the best player in the world, his major season is defined through a binary lens: win or lose.
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WINNER:Wyndham Clark‘s narrative-changing week at Shinnecock
Wyndham Clark was already a major champion, but you wouldn’t have known it by the conversation surrounding him the past year. Clark, who won the 2023 U.S. Open at LACC, became defined by ugly incidents at Oakmont and Quail Hollow last season instead of his major win. He had been playing bad golf, and even his LACC victory had been chalked up to a lightning-in-a-bottle week where Rory McIlroy failed to overtake him.
But one major is different than two, and winning wire-to-wire at Shinnecock makes the two look even shinier. Clark took advantage of an advantageous draw to jump out to a big lead and then spent the weekend fending off Sam Burns and Scheffler while silencing a Long Island crowd that battered him with verbal abuse. When the week ended, Clark had become a two-time U.S. Open champion, matching the major totals of Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas.
History is littered with one-off major winners. Winning a second puts you in a different class, whether people want to admit it or not.
LOSER:Bryson’s season to forget
After two years of putting himself in near-constant contention at major championships, Bryson DeChambeau spent most of his major weekends at home. He ejected on the 18th on Friday at Augusta National, never had a chance at Aronimink and let go of the wheel on Friday at Shinnecock to miss his first three major cuts. At the Open, he vaulted into contention before being hit with a two-shot penalty for unintentionally improving his swing during his second round. He then threatened to withdraw from the tournament before deciding to continue. He ultimately limped to a T14 finish.
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DeChambeau, golf’s media superstar, did all this while freezing out the media after every round except his first at the Masters. With LIV Golf’s future and DeChambeau’s uncertain as we head toward 2027, it wasn’t a major campaign that inspired confidence in where his focus lies. His YouTube views will continue to tick up, but a non-competitive year at majors won’t do much for his professional legacy.
WINNER:Sam Burns’ major leap
Prior to the 2025 U.S. Open, Sam Burns had just one career top-10 finish at a major. He was a good PGA Tour player who had been relatively non-existent at the four tournaments that shape everything around pro golf.
But then he was the 54-hole leader at Oakmont, and, although he didn’t get it over the line, that seemed to unlock something. He played in the final group on Saturday at the Masters and finished T7. He then barely missed a putt to tie Clark on Sunday at Shinnecock to finish runner-up. He led the Open Championship through 54 holes but lost control of the tournament on the front nine and couldn’t make enough putts down the stretch to match Fox, eventually finishing third. That’s four top-10 finishes in the last six majors, and while he didn’t win, everything points to Sam Burns breaking through soon.
“I’ve played a lot of golf with Sam,” Ryan Fox said after his Open win. “His day is coming.”
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LOSER: Jon Rahm’s lost year
After finishing T46 at the Open, Jon Rahm has now competed in 11 majors since his shocking move to LIV Golf after the 2023 season. His results in those 11 are as follows: T45-CUT-T7-T14-T8-T7-T34-T2-CUT-T46. Of those four top 10s, only two — the 2025 and 2026 PGA Championships — saw Rahm really threaten to win on the weekend. He made a furious run to catch Scottie Scheffler on Sunday at Quail Hollow only to falter on the final three holes. Then, he watched as Aaron Rai roared past him at Aronimink this year to hoist the Wanamaker Trophy.
Rahm continues to dominate the competition on LIV. Any metric will tell you he’s still a top-five player in the world, but his play at the majors has been below his elite standard for the last three years. This major season represents another lost year for Rahm as he remains stuck on two career majors.
WINNER: Good guy, dark horse winners
Aaron Rai shocked everyone at Aronimink when he survived a chaotic Sunday to be the last man standing on a leaderboard that included Rahm, McIlroy, Thomas, Schauffele and Ludvig Aberg. As Rai celebrated a career-defining achievement, his peers gushed about his work ethic and character.
“You won’t find one person on property who won’t be happy for him,” McIlroy said.
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Two months later, 39-year-old Ryan Fox, known for his quick pace of play and easy-going personality, went on a blistering weekend charge to win the Open, giving Royal Birkdale a good-guy champion, one who took up the game in high school and has grinded his way up through various world tours and was content with the winding path his career had taken. Everything looks different after Sunday at Birkdale.
“When I turned pro, I think the goal was just to get on a major tour, to be honest,” Fox said on Sunday night. “I think I said to my team last night, you know, at dinner, if you’d have given me my career up till yesterday when I turned pro, I’d have jumped at that. I don’t know what to think now, to be honest. … To be sitting in front of you guys now as the Champion Golfer of the Year is a bit crazy. As I said earlier, it’s surreal. I don’t have the vocabulary to explain it.”
The 2020s have seen the big names dominate the majors, with the likes of Rory, Scottie, Bryson, Rahm, JT, Collin and Xander gobbling most of them up. But 2026 was a reminder that the underdog can still etch their names into history.
LOSER: Two different searches continue
Jordan Spieth sat next to the Aronimink clubhouse outside Philadelphia and told me that he entered that week feeling like it was his best chance to win a major since he won the 2017 Open. He finished in a tie for 18th. After being a non-factor at the U.S. Open and bombing out in his return to Royal Birkdale, Spieth has now gone nine years since his last major win. While he continues to say he’s close — that his game is the best it has been since he hoisted the Claret Jug — all we’re left with are memories of the Jordan Spieth of old and hope that 2027 brings something different.
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As for Tommy Fleetwood, his quest to get off the “Best Players Not To Win A Major” list was unsuccessful in 2026. He had a chance over the weekend at his home Open, but three straight bogeys on Sunday spelled the end of his title chances. Nonetheless, Fleetwood got a dream ending at Royal Birkdale, just not the one he’d envisioned. Perhaps that will come next year.
WINNER: Guys who punched their ticket for 2027
While everyone at majors is playing for history, on Sunday, a different goal emerges for players who are not staples at major championships.
At the Masters, the top 12 get invites back the next year. Max Homa’s T9 and Jake Knapp’s T11 mean they’ll return to Augusta in 2027. J.T. Poston (T4), Keith Mitchell (T4), Sam Stevens (T7) and Joaquin Niemann (T7) all earned their way to the U.S. Open in 2027 with top 10s at Shinnecock. Lucas Herbert (T6) and Casey Jarvis (T6) have 2027 Open tickets booked thanks to top 10s at Birkdale.
LOSER: The Old Guard looking for one more
Last year, we saw Justin Rose and Adam Scott come up short in their latest attempts to break out of the one-major club. Rose was bested by McIlroy in a playoff at the Masters, and a tough Sunday doomed Scott’s chances at the U.S. Open.
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There was hope that 2026 would bring more chances and, perhaps, success for one or both of Rose and Scott. Rose had a chance again at Augusta. He had the lead with eight holes to go but stumbled down the stretch as McIlroy claimed his second consecutive green jacket. He went T10-T11-CUT in the final three majors. Scott, on the other hand, didn’t find himself truly in the mix at any of the four majors. He played in his 100th consecutive major at the U.S. Open, but that milestone was all he collected in 2026, leaving Scott with conflicting emotions as he tries to win another major before the sun sets.
“I don’t know if it matters now going forward or not,” Scott said of his streak after a backdoor T9 at the Open. “I’d love to be playing in them obviously. I don’t take that for granted, but I’d love to win one more.”
We’ll have to wait nine months to see if that happens.
European Athletics and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have introduced new broadcast guidelines that ask camera operators and directors to focus on sporting performance rather than images that could sexualise competitors. The move follows feedback from athletes who said certain camera angles and replay techniques not only distract them during competition but also expose them to online abuse after events.
The guidance, titled Raising the Bar, comes ahead of the 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham. Although the recommendations are not legally binding, they are designed to encourage more respectful and performance-focused coverage of women’s athletics.
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Why were the new guidelines introduced?
According to the EBU, the sexualisation of women athletes through selective camera work and editing remains a concern across sports broadcasting. While broadcasters aim to tell compelling stories, certain filming techniques have often shifted attention away from athletic achievement and towards an athlete’s body.
In the Raising the Bar guidelines, European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov said the recommendations are an important step towards eliminating harmful portrayals of women in sport while maintaining high production standards. He added that the organisation hopes the changes will reduce the chances of broadcast clips being taken out of context and shared inappropriately on social media.
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What do the camera guidelines say?
The 23-page document includes practical examples of camera work that should be encouraged and techniques that should be avoided. Broadcasters are advised to:
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Avoid prolonged close-up shots of specific body parts
Avoid low-angle shots filmed from behind or beneath athletes
Limit slow-motion replays that do not add technical or storytelling value
Use wider camera angles that better capture an athlete’s movement and technique
Prioritise visuals that explain the performance or technique
The guidance encourages broadcasters to use alternative approaches such as aerial shots, wider framing, and educational graphics that help viewers understand technique and tactics.
Athletes say the issue goes beyond television
British Olympic pole vaulter Holly Bradshaw said inappropriate camera angles can affect athletes even while they are competing because they become conscious of where cameras are positioned. She added that slow-motion footage of herself and other competitors had been used to create inappropriate videos, which often led to social media abuse.
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Former world long jump champion Ivana Španović echoed the call for a different approach. She said athletics offers plenty of opportunities to showcase the beauty of movement and technical precision without relying on revealing angles. Instead, broadcasters can use innovative filming techniques that help audiences appreciate the skill involved in each event.
A wider push for respectful sports coverage
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The recommendations build on similar initiatives introduced for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where camera operators received guidance to avoid unconscious gender bias and ensure coverage focused on competition rather than appearance.
Morgan Rogers has completed a move to Chelsea from Aston Villa for an estimated £117m, signing a seven-year contract to become the Blues’ new record signing. The 23-year-old’s transfer to Stamford Bridge was finalised on Saturday.
Chelsea secured Rogers’s signature despite strong interest from Arsenal, who had been in talks with the England international and were considered favourites.
The opportunity to work with new Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso was a key factor in persuading Rogers, who recently helped England to a third-place finish at the World Cup, to choose southwest London.
He started in the 2-1 semi-final defeat to Argentina in Atlanta last Wednesday, and the 6-4 win over France on Saturday that earned England the bronze medal.
He told his new club’s website: “I’m so excited. For me, Chelsea are the biggest club in London and a club I’ve always admired since I was a kid.
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“I’m really excited about the project with the new manager, the players we’ve got and where the club is heading. That’s why I’m here and I can’t wait to get started.”
A versatile forward who satisfies Chelsea’s need for a player that can play multiple attacking roles, he has enjoyed a rapid rise at Villa Park following his move from Middlesbrough in January 2024 and helped fire Villa to a top-four finish and the Europa League last season.
He leaves Villa having scored 31 times in 125 appearances under Unai Emery.
The deal represents one of the most significant buys of Chelsea owners BlueCo’s four-year reign and is the first serious sign that the club have moved on from their policy of exclusively signing young, untested players.
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Co-owner Behdad Eghbali indicated towards the end of last season that the club had learned the lessons of an underwhelming campaign in which the team finished 10th and were thrashed in the Champions League last 16 by Paris Saint-Germain, and that they would be targeting players in the market that would be in a position to help them challenge for the title.
Former Real Madrid midfielder Alonso, a two-time Champions League winner as a player, was hired partly in order to convince the right calibre of player to move to Chelsea.
Rogers is a versatile forward who can play in a number of attacking roles (Getty)
The deal for Rogers is arguably the biggest the club have pulled off since Cole Palmer moved from Manchester City in 2023.
Rogers becomes the fourth signing of the summer as the Blues overhaul their squad, following the arrivals of defender Marco Palestra, striker Emmanuel Emegha and winger Geovany Quenda.
In June, the club failed in an attempt to reunite Alonso with Sunderland’s Granit Xhaka, with Chelsea unwilling to meet the Black Cats’ valuation of a player who will turn 34 in September.
FRISCO, Texas — Jason Robertson and the Dallas Stars will avoid a salary arbitration hearing after the high-scoring forward signed a $12 million contract for next season.
The Stars announced the deal Tuesday night, a day before Robertson’s 27th birthday and 2 1/2 weeks after he had filed for arbitration.
“Jason has been a cornerstone of our franchise since he was drafted in 2017,” Stars general manager Jim Nill said. “A dynamic and skilled player, he has been one of the league’s top offensive threats since making his NHL debut.”
Robertson, who has 490 points (213 goals and 277 assists) in his 456 regular-season career games with the Stars, could become an unrestricted free agent for the first time next summer.
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His $12 million salary for 2026-27 matches forward Mikko Rantanen for the highest on the Stars. Rantanen just completed the first season of the $96 million, eight-year extension he signed to facilitate the deadline trade that brought him to Dallas from Carolina in March 2025.
Nill had acknowledged at the conclusion of the NHL draft that the Stars had a sign-and-trade deal in place to send Robertson to Seattle for the seventh overall pick. While Robertson couldn’t veto that trade, he wouldn’t agree to a long-term deal with the Kraken — a reported $120 million over eight years ($15 million a season).
Robertson had a team-high 96 points (45 goals, 51 assists) this past season. It was his third 40-goal season, and he completed a $31 million, four-year deal he got in 2022.
The Stars drafted Robertson 39th overall in the second round of the 2017 draft. He has played all 328 of their regular-season games the past four seasons, scoring 365 points (155 goals and 210 assists) in that span.
The PGA Tour and DP World Tour announced on Tuesday that they were reconnecting with an old friend, the Asian Tour, which is exiting its relationship with LIV Golf as golf’s global realignment continues.
What does that mean? In short, the move has ramifications for the global golf ecosystem, the hierarchy of its respective tours, the home of several historic national opens and the future of LIV Golf, which had leaned on the Asian Tour since its inception.
The Asian Tour had been part of LIV’s ecosystem since before its first event in 2022, with the Saudi PIF funding both LIV and the Asian Tour-sanctioned “International Series” events. The Asian Tour served as an established ally for the controversial startup, receiving funding plus the appearance of high-profile LIV stars at some of its events in return.
But with that PIF funding gone and LIV’s future up in the air, the Asian Tour has chosen to align with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.
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“Six years ago, it was right for us to do a partnership with LIV Golf, but given the circumstances now, we’ve had to look at other options,” Asian Tour CEO Cho Minn Thant told Golf Digest.
What will that alignment look like? Two things specifically:
-Multiple co-sanctioned events between the Asian Tour and DP World Tour for the 2027, 2028 and 2029 seasons
-Pathways for Asian Tour top players, who can earn cards on the DPWT or its secondary circuit, the HotelPlanner (formerly Challenge) Tour, based on their positions in the Order of Merit; players on the DPWT have a direct pathway to the PGA Tour
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We don’t know which events will be co-sanctioned; those are expected to be announced this fall, when the DPWT begins to release its 2027 schedule.
The move has major ramifications for LIV. For one thing, the “LIV 2.0” vision that commissioner Scott O’Neil has pitched initially included a network of national opens owned by the Asian Tour. The league will also now have to look elsewhere for the promotion and relegation system it promised in order to earn World Ranking points.
The Asian Tour’s loyalties — and its national opens — are just the latest episode in an ongoing conversation around which tournaments matter and what makes them matter. The DP World Tour’s circuit includes more than a dozen national opens, while the Asian Tour revolves around several more.
Just last year, the Masters and Open Championship formalized pathways from six national opens it deemed significant, including four co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour, as well as the Japan Open on the Japan Tour and the Hong Kong Open on the Asian Tour. LIV golfer Tom McKibbin earned his way into the Masters and Open when he won last fall’s Hong Kong Open by seven shots. It’s easy to imagine that return to its former place as a co-sanctioned event.
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A release from all three tours recalled a relationship that began in 1999 with the co-sanctioning of the Malaysian Open between what was then the European Tour and the Asian Tour. They formalized that relationship with a strategic alliance that ran from 2016 to 2021 before LIV’s arrival.
The move also seems like another step in formalizing a global hierarchy of tours, with the Asian Tour giving players access to the DP World Tour, from which point they gain access to the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour has laid out plans for a new structure, beginning in 2028; specifically how the DP World Tour and Asian Tour factor into those plans remains to be seen.
Below are what each of the respective parties had to say about the agreement:
Cho Minn Thant, Commissioner and CEO of the Asian Tour:
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“We feel the time is now right to collaborate with the DP World Tour and PGA Tour to enhance the Asian Tour for our members, fans and partners. Bringing the three Tours together under one partnership will increase the bandwidth of the professional game in Asia. Not only will co-sanctioning events see our members competing regularly on the global stage, but we are excited to welcome players from the other Tours to our pinnacle events, which showcase the strength and diversity of golf in Asia.”
Ben Cowen, Chief Tournament and Operations Officer for the DP World Tour:
“We are delighted to rekindle our historic relationship with the Asian Tour and indeed strengthen it with the addition of the PGA Tour to our new partnership.
“As Golf’s Global Tour, we bring together the best international talent and the formal pathways established by this partnership will provide unprecedented international opportunities for Asian Tour members. Our agreement therefore represents not only a hugely positive step for golf in Asia, but also an exciting new era of collaboration for our game globally.”
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Christian Hardy, Senior Vice President of International at the PGA Tour:
“This agreement is another example of what can be accomplished when organizations come together with a shared vision for the future of professional golf.
“Through our Strategic Alliance with the DP World Tour, we have worked to build a more connected global golf ecosystem, and we are excited to welcome the Asian Tour into that effort. Together, we are creating new opportunities for players, enhancing key National Opens around the world and continuing to evolve and strengthen pathways to identify and develop the next generation of elite talent.”
Jul 20, 2026; Arlington, Texas, USA; New York Liberty guard Marine Fauthoux (4) dribbles the ball up court against the Dallas Wings during the first half at College Park Center. Mandatory Credit: Chris Jones-Imagn Images
It’s almost unthinkable, but it’s true. The New York Liberty — WNBA champions in 2024 and this year’s Commissioner’s Cup champs — are in danger of missing the league’s eight-team playoffs.
New York is 14-12 and a half-game above eighth place. The Liberty have lost eight of their past 11 games as they prepare to host the Chicago Sky on Wednesday night.
The Liberty have two former league MVPs in Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones. Stewart, Jones, Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally are multiple-time All-Stars. However, Ionescu has missed 12 games due to injuries, and Sabally has been out since June 23 due to concussion protocol.
In addition, key starter Leonie Fiebich has not played since July 3 due to a foot injury, and guard Marine Johannes is questionable for Wednesday’s game due to an ankle injury.
In New York’s most recent game, a 99-98 overtime win at Dallas on Monday, the Liberty turned to seldom-used rookie guard Marine Fauthoux, who scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. It was easily the best performance of her five-game WNBA career.
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Fauthoux, New York’s third-round pick in 2021, is a 25-year-old from France who signed a developmental contract for this season.
Now, due to the injuries, she’s getting a look.
“It was hard to watch other people play,” Fauthoux told the New York Post. “But I was sure my time would come.”
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While New York is seventh in the standings, Chicago (9-17) sits in 12th place. The Sky are just 4-10 on the road and 1-8 in the Eastern Conference.
The Sky have faced the Liberty just once this season, losing 96-95 in Chicago on June 17. With just 10 seconds left in that game, Ionescu hit the winning layup with her left hand. That was New York’s eighth straight win at that time, and Sabally, Fiebich and Johannes all played.
Perhaps the Sky will be able to take advantage of New York’s weakened state.
However, Chicago’s Skylar Diggins, a seven-time All-Star who scored 19 points in that previous Liberty game, hasn’t played since July 3 due to a knee injury.
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One of the Sky players to watch is former Liberty point guard Natasha Cloud, who averages 9.8 points and 4.5 assists and should have added motivation against her old team.
Kamilla Cardoso could give the Liberty trouble due to her 6-foot-7 frame. She’s averaging 14.2 points and a team-high 8.5 rebounds.
Rookies Sydney Taylor (13.5 ppg) and Gabriela Jaquez (8.5 ppg) can both get hot and score.
“I’m always confident in my shooting,” Taylor said in a recent press conference, “and that’s regardless if I go 8-for-8 or 0-for-8.”
Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator, Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network devoted to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you can read his picks below for the 2026 3M Open, which gets underway on Thursday in Minnesota.
Soccer fans from around the world have left the United States after six wonderful weeks of World Cup action, and golf is just returning to America after having left the country for the last two weeks — touching down just outside of Minneapolis in Blaine, Minn., for the eighth edition of the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities.
This will be much more traditional, TPC-resort-style golf than what we have witnessed in Scotland and England recently. This week, we’re back to tree-lined fairways and water everywhere. TPC Twin Cities is an Arnold Palmer design that was tweaked by a couple of Minnesota natives, Tom Lehman and Tim Herron, in 2018 before the course made its Tour debut the following season. The fairways are fairly wide and the rough is not especially penal but with water hazards lurking on 15 of the 18 holes, there is something to be said about accuracy off the tee.
If we look at the past champions of this event, Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and Total Driving are what jump out at me. Kurt Kitayama is your defending champion. Matt Wolff won the inaugural 3M Open and Bryson DeChambeau finished runner-up. Tony Finau has won here, as has Cameron Champ and Jhonattan Vegas. If one was ever going to enter a team competition for work off the tee, that just might be your Hall of Fame roster.
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Of course, I also looked at Strokes Gained: Approach. The greens here are fast, Bentgrass surfaces and they are bigger than average size. Hitting the greens in regulation is not terribly difficult at this course but players will need to find a hot putter, make a lot of birdies, and separate themselves on the 11 par 4s at this par-71 layout that measures more than 7,400 yards.
Players have stated that this golf course reminds them of PGA National, where they play the Cognizant Classic, and that is understandable with Total Driving also being a factor there, along with a great number of water hazards. I believe two other courses we see regularly that reside in the Midwest also make sense as possible comps: TPC Deere Run (John Deere Classic) and Detroit Golf Club (Rocket Classic). Finally, I looked at a couple of other driver-heavy courses where we see similar-strength fields, like Silverado in Napa (Procore Championship) and El Cardonal at Diamante, home to the World Wide Technologies Championship in Los Cabos, Mexico.
It is also about that time of the season when jockeying for position in the FedEx Cup points list becomes a factor. This is one of only three tournaments remaining before we hit the playoffs and only the top 70 players make it to the postseason — so getting inside that number is crucial for how things play out for these players between now and next season.
For a moment of housekeeping, it has been a pretty wild ride here for the column this summer as far as getting multiple selections to the lead on Sunday, only to eventually miss out on the outright winner. Eric Cole, Mac Meissner, and Ryan Gerard went into the final round at Colonial in first, second, and third place. Each had a piece of the lead on Sunday and Cole wound up losing in a playoff. Jackson Suber in Canada, Ben Kohles at the John Deere, and last week, Si Woo Kim at the Open Championship — each had the lead on the inward nine on Sunday and not one of them got home for us. On to Minnesota.
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Jackson Suber (60-1)
I believe he is going to win soon and I don’t want to be on the sidelines when he does, so I am diving in again on the young up-and-comer. It was something last week in his Open Championship debut to see him contending for the win. We noted he led on the back nine on Sunday in Canada last month. He’s finished sixth at both the John Deere and Rocket Classic and 11th at El Cardonal. Over the last 24 rounds, Suber ranks 11th in this field for Total Driving and is seventh for Birdie of Better Percentage. Suber is currently 79th in the FedEx Cup standings.
Emiliano Grillo (70-1)
The veteran Argentinian is one of those names that always seems to pop up in these events. He’s been 10th, third, and runner-up here in Minnesota, runner-up twice at the John Deere Classic, as high as eighth at PGA National, and has won the Procore Championship in Napa, where he also finished fourth last season. Grillo has some work to do down the stretch as he is currently 109th in FedEx Cup points. Over the last 24 rounds, he ranks 14th in this field for Total Driving and is 16th for SG: Par 4s.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout (75-1)
Another Tour veteran that is on the outside looking in, sitting at 92 on the FedExCup points list. Bezuidenhout was 12th a few weeks ago at the John Deere Classic, a place where he too has finished runner-up. Unfortunately, off the tee is not the South African’s strong suit but he is excellent on approach, ranking 16th in this field over the last 24 rounds, and he possesses a tremendous short game. He is seventh in this field for SG: Par 4s.
Michael Brennan at the 2026 Sony Open.
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Michael Brennan (85-1)
The big-hitting American was one of the first players that came to mind when beginning to dive into this handicap. Over the last 24-rounds, he is 31st in this field in Total Driving and is No. 1 for SG: Off the Tee. He’s been playing well, finishing sixth at Colonial at the end of May and then since, Brennan has made four straight cuts — at the U.S. Open, John Deere Classic, Scottish Open, and last week at Royal Birkdale. He hasn’t even been on Tour a year and he already has a win at the Black Desert Classic in Utah last fall.
Gary Woodland (90-1)
One of the OG drivers of the golf ball who is still getting it done with the best of them. Woodland, of course, won in Houston earlier this season at the driver-heavy Memorial Park. He ranks sixth in this field for SG: Off the Tee over the last 24 rounds and is fifth in Total Driving. He’s finished 11th and 20th here at the 3M Open, has been as high as 19th at Silverado, and has finished top 10 four times at PGA National, including a runner-up in 2017.
Manchester United have been keen to focus on their academy since Ineos took control of football operations at Old Trafford and now one of their young stars is receiving interest from elsewhere
20:49, 21 Jul 2026Updated 23:23, 21 Jul 2026
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Rangers and sides from Australia’s A-League are reportedly interested in Manchester United youngster James Overy. The full-back caught United scouts’ attention playing for Perth Glory’s senior side in a pre-season friendly against West Ham when he was just 15.
The 18-year-old is revered for his electric pace and signed for United in the summer of 2024. The teenager stepped up to make a handful of appearances for the Under-21s last season.
Overy earned a move to United because of his performance in pre-season with Perth two years ago, and he will try to take any opportunity that comes his way this summer.
But if it does not work out for the youngster, the Daily Mail claim that there is interest back home in Australia. The report also claims that Scottish side Rangers are also interested.
Overy was called up to the senior Australian men’s national team for the first time in November 2025. He was an unused substitute for Australia’s friendly matches against Colombia and Venezuela.
United have been keen to strengthen their academy this summer. The Reds signed midfielder Cristian Orozco after reaching an agreement with Fortaleza CEIF to sign him nine months ago.
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The deal outlined that he would join in the current summer transfer window, as he needed to be 18 to complete the move, despite an agreement being reached last year.
United signed the Colombian teenager because they believe he possesses first-team potential. The team’s midfield issues, partly solved by the signings of Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans, could open the door for him to play under Michael Carrick next season.
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The winger is highly rated in academy circles and is set to be handed first-team opportunities at Old Trafford, having impressed in North London last season.
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Thompson joined Tottenham’s academy when he was 12 and last season scored seven goals in seven games in the UEFA Youth League and was twice an unused substitute in the Champions League.
United’s summer deals are the latest in a string of transfers for talented young players with high potential, a strategy that Ineos rolled out after taking control of the club’s football operations.
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