In this Fact or Fiction, the SI Golf team debates TPC Sawgrass as a Ryder Cup site, Ludvig Åberg in the majors and Tiger Woods’s Masters outlook.
Welcome back to SI Golf’s Fact or Fiction, where March Madness makes us wistful for the PGA Tour’s old single-elimination match play tournament. Once again, we’re here to debate a series of statements for writers and editors to declare as “Fact” or “Fiction” along with a brief explanation.
Responses may also be “Neutral” since there's a lot of gray area in golf.. It might but that is too difficult to say. Right now, Young is every bit as strong of a player as Åberg and is riding a wave of confidence. We said the same thing about Åberg, too. Ludvig Åberg saw the Players Championship fade away but he could be a threat in majors this year. | Jeff Romance-Imagn Images. It’s a toss-up since Åberg has threatened in each of his first two Masters, while Young quietly has six top-10 finishes in majors. They are rapidly climbing the BPWAM list, and it wouldn’t be a shock if either guy breaks through this season.This is a good prompt. Two great players who are poised to win majors. And perhaps both will in their careers. But Åberg, despite what happened Sunday, is the better talent by a razor-thin margin. Therefore, he gets his major triumph first.. Two great players but Young having strengthened his game on the greens is the stuff of major titles. The New Yorker will have a lot of support at Shinnecock, might the U.S. Open be his week?last week at his news conference, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp cited a desire to move back to events with cuts. That is simply the only way to respectably stage stroke-play tournament golf.. There are numerous strong events without a cut—including the playoff events—and they have a place. But this is a good move more because it gives a great number of players a chance.. I’m with Bob here—there are times where having no cut makes sense, but it’s smart to add more depth to signature-event fields, and the move will also be popular in the locker room."Only" might be a tad strong. Every now and then, it's fine. But a cut adds drama to events during a Friday round that otherwise might be an afterthought. Tiger Woods has said that he's most proud of his record of 142 consecutive made cuts. And adding cuts with an expanded field to signature events is the best way to determine a worthy champion.. Not the only way but it’s the path of least resistance with the membership, so that’s one thing Rolapp should be able to push through. But a hybrid Tour Championship with stroke play feeding into match play would be wonderful. Rolapp also said the greater “golfing ecosystem” should work together more commercially … to that end, working with the PGA of America to have a Ryder Cup at TPC Sawgrass should be on his wish list.. While it might not happen anytime soon, the idea of match play on the Stadium course is intriguing. Rolapp’s plea, however, was clearly more about maximizing revenue among the parties while also a subtle hint that maybe the Tour ought to reap the benefits of its players competing in those tournaments.. You could stage the Ryder Cup in a cow pasture and it would still be riveting, but Sawgrass would be an incredible venue. So would several other PGA Tour stops, including Pebble, Muirfield, Scottsdale or Riviera.We see TPC Sawgrass every year, and it’s a great course. But for Ryder Cups—and majors—it’s better to go to venues we don’t see too often.. The next open U.S. date is 2039 and with how majors and Cups are booked so far out, we might know this host within a year or two—perhaps new-sheriff-in-town Rolapp goes to the PGA of America and offers up TPC Sawgrass with the Tour getting a cut of the gate, merchandise and concessions. And the Tour will handle crowd control.. It doesn’t mean Tiger won’t play in the Masters. But if he can’t hit 12 shots into a simulator—and why wouldn’t he if he were able?—that doesn’t bode well for being ready for the Masters. Perhaps next week’s Champions Tour event in Newport Beach offers another opportunity. Tiger Woods celebrated with his Jupiter Links team after a TGL playoff win, but he has not played in the indoor league this year. | GREG LOVETT/PALM BEACH POST / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images. I’m just reading tea leaves like everyone else, but I think Woods plans to give it a go at Augusta. Everything he’s doing now off the course is in preparation for Round 1 that Thursday. If he doesn’t think hitting a few shots into a screen helps him get ready, then may as well skip it.Perhaps he still plays the Masters, but not having any competitive reps will hamper him enormously in Augusta, especially if three weeks beforehand he couldn’t even hit a few simulator shots. He was able to amaze the golf world in 2022 when he played the Masters and made the cut just a little over a year since his 2021 car crash. Now, 50 years old and several more injuries/surguries later, can he replicate that magic? It’s unlikely.that he had two back surgeries, not one since the Achilles, could be viewed as laying the groundwork for not playing. And like Bob said, not playing for his Jupiter Links could also be a sign—and it’s just a bummer. “I don’t really want screw up the lineup, I just want these guys to keep playing,” Woods said after the team advanced to the title match. O.K., but the rest of America wants to see you.John Schwarb is a senior editor for Sports Illustrated covering golf. Prior to joining SI in March 2022, he worked for ESPN.com, PGATour.com, Tampa Bay Times and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He is the author of The Little 500: The Story of the World’s Greatest College Weekend. A member of the Golf Writers Association of America, Schwarb has a bachelor’s in journalism from Indiana University.Bob Harig is a senior writer covering golf for Sports Illustrated. He has more than 25 years experience on the beat, including 15 at ESPN. Harig is a regular guest on Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio and has written two books, “DRIVE: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods” and “Tiger and Phil: Golf’s Most Fascinating Rivalry.” He graduated from Indiana University where he earned an Evans Scholarship, named in honor of the great amateur golfer Charles Evans Jr. Harig, a former president of the Golf Writers Association of America, lives in Clearwater, Fla.Jeff Ritter is the managing director of SI Golf. He has more than 20 years of sports media experience, and previously was the general manager at the Morning Read, where he led that business’s growth and joined SI as part of an acquisition in 2022. Earlier in his career he spent more than a decade at SI and Golf Magazine, and his journalism awards include a MIN Magazine Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award for sports reporting. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a master’s from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.Max Schreiber is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, covering golf. Before joining SI in October 2024, the Mahwah, N.J., native, worked as an associate editor for the Golf Channel and wrote for RyderCup.com and FanSided. He is a multiplatform producer for Newsday and has a bachelor's in communications and journalism from Quinnipiac University. In his free time, you can find him doing anything regarding the Yankees, Giants, Knicks and Islanders.
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