Scottie Scheffler has set an impressive PGA Tour record, and he has plenty of time to add to it.

Scheffler finished tied for second at the U.S. Open over the weekend. He made $1.56 million in prize money, which has catapulted him to a new high.

For the 2021-2022 PGA Tour season, Scheffler has made about $12.9 million (not including bonuses). That’s more money than any golfer has ever made in a PGA Tour season.

The 25-year-old is the world No. 1 golfer and has been on a roll this season. He won the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Arnold Palmer Invitational, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and his big win came at the Masters. Scheffler took home $2.7 million for winning the Masters, which was his biggest pay day.

In addition to his four wins this season, Scheffler has had three runner-up finishes, including his tie with Will Zalatoris for second at the U.S. Open.

There are still seven weeks left in the season for Scheffler to add to his massive total.

There are previous golfers who have eclipsed the $10 million mark in a season (Jordan Spieth, Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods). Adjusting for inflation, those golfers all took home more money than Scheffler but that does not diminish his feat.

It took 21 holes on Sunday, but Justin Thomas is now a two-time PGA Championship winner.

The 29-year-old beat Will Zalatoris in a three-hole playoff at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla., to cap off the final round of the 2022 PGA Championship. The victory gives Thomas a second career major title to go along with the 2017 PGA Championship.

Thomas and Zalatoris both held 5-under scores after 72 holes, prompting the fifth three-hold playoff in PGA Championship history.

Thomas and Zalatoris matched birdies on the first playoff hole, the par-5 13th. Thomas then picked up the edge by getting a birdie on the 17th hole, while Zalatoris settled for par after narrowly missing a birdie putt.

Zalatoris had a chance to catch up to Thomas on the third playoff hole, the par-4 18th. Thomas came through with a clean par, tapping in to secure the championship.

Thomas held the lead at the time he finished his second round, scoring a 67 on Thursday and Friday. He followed that up with a four-over 74 on Saturday, but he notched his third 67 of the tournament on Sunday to earn a spot in the playoff.

Thomas will be receiving a pretty payday to go along with his PGA Championship title. He earned $2.7 million of the tournament-record $15 million prize pool for coming in first. Zalatoris will also take home a seven-figure prize of $1.62 million.

A playoff seemed unlikely for most of Sunday’s action, especially one without Mito Pereira. The 27-year-old Chilean took a three-stroke lead into the final round and held onto that lead for 17 holes. But like his final tee shot, his championship hopes went underwater on the 18th hole.

Things didn’t get much better after the tee shot. It took three more strokes before Pereira got the ball onto the green. He earned a double-bogey to end his round and went from one stroke ahead to one stroke behind Thomas and Zalatoris.

Pereira tied his best PGA Tour result of third place, a result he first got at the Fortinet Championship in September. He was also in the spotlight last summer, tying for fourth at the Tokyo Olympics with a score of 15-under.

Henrik Stenson won on his LIV Golf debut as he claimed victory in the third event of the breakaway series held in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The Swede was stripped of the European team’s Ryder Cup captaincy for joining the Saudi Arabian-backed circuit.

Stenson won the 54-hole tournament by two shots, taking the £3.28m first prize, after three rounds of 64, 69 and 69 put him on 11 under par.

“I guess we can agree I played like a captain,” Stenson said after his win.

“It’s been a good first week. Nice to be here with the guys and getting a feel for it.

“It’s been a busy 10 days and extremely proud that I managed to focus as well as I did.

“It was a little wobbly coming home, we haven’t finished the deal in a couple of years with any wins so it is always a little added pressure when you are in contention but I did well.”

Americans Dustin Johnson and Matthew Wolff were joint second on nine under par.

English duo Paul Casey and Lee Westwood had final respective rounds of 66 and 71 as they finished on four under.

A 14-tournament LIV Golf league will start in 2023 but the schedule will not compete with majors or international team events, say event organisers.

The league has a prize fund of $405m (£336m), with the 48 players expected to take part in 11 other International Series events on the Asian Tour.

The news comes before Thursday’s start of the Saudi Arabian-funded series’ third invitational tournament.

That takes place at Donald Trump’s Bedminster Course in New Jersey.

The first two of the eight tournaments in the inaugural series took place at Centurion Club near London, and in Portland, Oregon.

LIV Golf did not announce next year’s tournament dates and locations but said it would “expand LIV Golf’s global footprint” with events in North America, Latin America, Australia, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

The 48 players will continue to be split into 12 teams of four for the 54-hole three-day tournaments which feature shotgun starts and no cut. Each team captain is tasked with gaining “the greatest fan following and sponsor interest” in a franchise model used by other sports.

“Each season will culminate in a Team World Championship match play grand finale,” said Greg Norman, chief executive and commissioner of LIV Golf. This year’s series finishes at Trump Doral in Miami in October with a $50m event – the richest prize fund for a single tournament.

Norman also said next year’s events would not be staged on the weekends of the men’s majors – The Open, US Open, Masters and US PGA Championship – or international team events, referring to the Ryder Cup which is next scheduled to be played in 2023, from Friday 29, September to Sunday, 1 October in Italy.

However, US players in the LIV Golf start-up will not be eligible to play in the Ryder Cup as things currently stand because the PGA Tour has suspended its members who have joined the fledgling series. US players earn Ryder Cup qualifying points through PGA Tour events.

LIV, which is bankrolled by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, has lured American players such as Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka – who all played in last year’s record win over Europe – with deals reportedly worth more than $100m each.

It is unclear what will happen to European golfers, although Henrik Stenson has been stripped of the captaincy after signing up to play LIV events. The DP World Tour has so far punished but not indefinitely banned LIV golfers.

Sergio Garcia says he is “going to hold off on” giving up his membership of the European-based DP World Tour to see if he could still play in the Ryder Cup.

The 42-year-old is part of the breakaway Saudi-funded LIV Golf series.

He recently said he would be quitting the DP World Tour but European players need to be a member of it to be eligible for the Ryder Cup.

“I want to at least see what’s happening when Ryder Cup qualification starts,” Garcia told ESPN.

“See what kind of rules and eligibilities they have in there.

“If I agree with what they [are], I’ll definitely keep playing whatever I can on the tour and try to qualify for that Ryder Cup team.

“And if not, then we’ll move on. But it is definitely something that is in my mind.”

The next Ryder Cup will take place in Rome in September 2023.

Americans need to be members of the PGA Tour, which is banning any of its members that have joined LIV, to be eligible. The DP World Tour has punished but not indefinitely banned LIV golfers.

“I told Keith Pelley [chief executive of the DP World Tour]: ‘I want to keep being a member of the DP World Tour. I want to play my minimum, still support the tour, still have my eligibilities to make Ryder Cup teams,'” said Garcia.

“He said: ‘That’s great, but we got to do what’s best for us. We’ll see what that is.'”

Swede Henrik Stenson was recently removed as Europe’s Ryder Cup captain after deciding to join the controversial LIV Golf series.

“What they did to Henrik, it’s a little bit sad,” said Garcia.

The third event of the LIV Golf series will take place in Bedminster, at Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey from 29-31 July.

-17 T Finau (US); -14 SJ Im (Kor), E Grillo (Arg); -13 J Hahn (US), T Hoge (US), S Piercy (US); -10 D Willett (Eng), C Tarren (Eng), G Sigg (USA)

Tony Finau won the 3M Open by three shots to take his third PGA Tour title.

The 32-year-old American, ranked 17th in the world, fired six birdies to card a four-under-par final round at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota.

South Korea’s Sung-Jae Im and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo tied for second at 14-under, while Scott Piercy was joint fourth after losing his overnight four-shot lead.

English pair Danny Willett and Callum Tarren were joint seventh on 10-under.

McIlroy hits 66 to sit second, two shots behind Cameron Young
Lee Westwood brushes off Tiger Woods’ remarks on LIV tour

The ecosystem sits 1up. Try as they may to keep attention on the 150th staging of this great championship, there is no doubt the Open has been clouded by a wider narrative. In the red corner: the PGA and DP World Tours.

In the blue corner: LIV Golf and its Saudi Arabian-backed disruption plan. With golfers from both camps jousting for the Claret Jug while trading public broadsides, it is impossible to ignore the sense of soap opera.

In Rory McIlroy, the establishment has its golden boy. McIlroy may be uncomfortable with such a position – he excels at professional golf, not politics – and the R&A could never possibly be seen to favour an Open contender, but glory for the Northern Irishman in St Andrews would have broader meaning. McIlroy represents all that is good about his sport in the face of a model which sees hundreds of millions of guaranteed dollars thrown at players who need not even worry about 36-hole cuts.

As McIlroy tapped in for an 18th-hole birdie, five hours and 40 minutes after teeing off on a fiery Old Course, rapturous applause formed the backdrop. McIlroy does not lead the Open heading into day two but his 66 matched the first-round score produced in 2014. He was to win the Open at Hoylake that year. The control McIlroy displayed on day one here was reminiscent of eight years ago. How the galleries lapped it up.

“It never feels easy,” said McIlroy. “There’s little parts of the round where it shows you where you’re at with everything mentally and physically. I came through all those little tests today unscathed and I’m really proud of that. So it might have looked easy, but there’s certain parts of the round that are challenging.”

Tiger Woods endorsed that much. The scale of physical discomfort for the 46-year-old was again clear as he slumped to a 78 – six over par. It remains possible – or probable – that Friday will witness Woods’s final competitive round at St Andrews. His demeanour on day two will be fascinating.

The LIV renegades lurk with intent. Bryson DeChambeau’s 69 owed plenty to a patient approach which many thought beyond him. Talor Gooch, who earned notoriety after comparing the atmosphere at LIV tournaments to a Ryder Cup, is four under. Dustin Johnson birdied the last to match that 68. Paul Casey reached the turn on minus four but had to settle for 71.

As if to prove we are LIV-ing in extraordinary times, Lee Westwood – who rolled back the years with 68 of his own – took a mild swipe at another arch critic of the rebel tour, Woods. “He’s got a vested interest, hasn’t he?,” Westwood said. “The LIV players will talk the LIV tour up, the PGA players that aren’t on the LIV tour will talk the PGA Tour up and put down the LIV tour. I don’t pay too much attention to people’s opinions. Tiger is entitled to his opinion. I respect Tiger as a golfer. He’s one of the two best that’s ever played the game.”

One questioner got especially excited when trying to ascertain whether Ian Poulter thought Old Tom Morris, who died in 1908, would be “turning in his grave” at the extent of golf’s civil war.

“I have no idea,” said a perplexed Poulter, who had just signed for a 69. Poulter’s interrogator gave the impression he was of a mind to march to the local graveyard with shovel in hand. Old Tom, face down, would presumably have told a story.

It is hardly being disrespectful to Cameron Young to point out the first-round leader of the Open could wander the streets of St Andrews without so much as cursory glances from golf fans. He has no cause to care about that, given he is not involved in a popularity contest. On his Open debut, the New Yorker rattled off eight birdies for a 64.

“I shot a million [at the Scottish Open] last week,” Young said. “All of a sudden I’m pretty comfortable. There’s been a lot of work and a lot of preparation in between, but I think things can change in an instant, especially out here given how important the bounces and the mindset that you have are.”

Scottie Scheffler, the world No 1, retains hope of producing a Masters and St Andrews Open double this year after a 68 in the most testing of the day’s conditions. Cameron Smith posted a 67, as did Robert Dinwiddie in the dying embers of play. Barclay Brown, the 21-year-old amateur from Sheffield, is just a stroke further back. So, too, are Viktor Hovland, Kurt Kitayama and Brad Kennedy.

Justin Rose withdrew before hitting a shot because of a back injury. Justin Thomas, Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa and Patrick Reed are all level par.

While that is eight from the lead, McIlroy’s name is the one that turns eyes towards the leaderboard. Should he find himself involved in a weekend shootout with a LIV convert, St Andrews popcorn will be in short supply.

The 150th Championship, held at St Andrews, is inevitably overshadowed by questions around Saudi Arabia-backed tour

Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R&A, wants to talk about 150 years of the Open. He wants to tell you all about the four years they’ve spent planning their sesquicentennial celebrations, the million-plus ticket applications, the record crowd of 290,000 and the 20,000 free tickets for kids. He would really like to let you know all about how much the R&A invests into the grassroots of the game, the latest participation figures and the surge in popularity after the end of the pandemic. The one thing he doesn’t want to talk about is the one thing everyone else does. LIV.

On Wednesday, Slumbers explained why the R&A had refused to invite the LIV Series’ ringman Greg Norman to take part in this week’s ceremonies even though Norman, who was presumably listed as officially “NFI” on the start list for the little four-hole Celebration of Champions tournament they held here on Monday, won the Open in 1986 and 1993. “This is a very important week for golf. This is the oldest championship. It’s the original championship,” Slumbers said. “We decided that we didn’t want the distraction.”

Which makes the R&A come across just a little bit Caddyshack. Slumbers is playing Judge Smails, so presumably Norman is about to show up any minute now in his best Rodney Dangerfield sports jacket and slacks to explain that he never wanted to be a member here anyway and the whole thing is part of his grand plan to redevelop the Old Course. “Condos over there, plenty of parking, we’ll make a fortune, believe me.”

The hard part for Slumbers is that he isn’t really able to explain why the R&A is so dead set against LIV. The obvious answer is that they don’t really want the competition. But that won’t wash. And the other is Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, which is a tricky proposition too, given that the national golf federation is an affiliate member of the R&A and has received development grants from the body in the past. The Saudi International was part of the European Tour circuit just last year. It wasn’t so long ago the authorities were encouraging the players to go.

Which is maybe why Slumbers needed a couple of mulligans to try to nail his position on the morality of it all. “Let me be very clear: abuses of human rights, acts of terrorism cannot be condoned in my mind in any shape or form.” Helpful as it was to have it clarified that the R&A does not approve of murder, the effect was somewhat undercut when Slumbers then attached a “but”. “We have a responsibility to work with many countries around the world that are affiliated to the R&A and are responsible for golf in their country.”

That isn’t about money, he said, but “golf as a force for good” and bending the moral arc of the universe towards justice one birdie at a time.

Ian Poulter, Justin Harding and Adrian Otaegui are set to play at this week’s Scottish Open after a stay on their suspensions from the DP World Tour was granted at a Sport Resolutions (UK) hearing

Ian Poulter, Justin Harding and Adrian Otaegui are set to play at the Scottish Open after their DP World Tour suspensions were temporarily lifted.

The DP World Tour issued £100,000 fines for members involved in the first LIV Golf event at the Centurion Club last month and also initially banned those players from playing the three co-sanctioned events with the PGA Tour.

Those events are this week’s Genesis Scottish Open and Barbasol Championship, along with next week’s Barracuda Championship. However, a stay was granted at a Sport Resolutions (UK) hearing which has cleared the way for Poulter, Harding and Otaegui to play at The Renaissance Club.

“I will simply say we are disappointed by the outcome of today’s hearing, but will abide by the decision,” Keith Pelley, DP World Tour chief executive, said.

“It is important to remember, however, this is only a stay of the sanctions imposed, pending the hearing of the players’ appeal as to whether those sanctions were appropriate.

“The make-up of the field for the Genesis Scottish Open will be advised in due course, but based on this decision the field size will increase beyond 156.

“We will make further comment on this in due course, but not during our time at Adare Manor [for the JP McManus Pro-Am].”

Other players who were banned have either missed the chance to appeal or were happy not to play in the tournament.

Poulter, who was among the players from both sides of golf’s divide competing in the JP McManus Pro-Am, spoke before the decision from the hearing was announced about his disappointment at being suspended by the DP World Tour.

I feel disappointed, I feel offended that obviously I’m suspended from playing golf on a tour where I’ve been a member for 24 years, but I’ve been told I can’t, so it’s disappointing,” Poulter told BBC Sport.

“I’ve put it in as an individual because I want to play so whether people want to come in on the back end of that is up to them, but my correspondence is obviously fighting for my rights to play golf.”

Another participant at Adare Manor was former Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington, who insisted there is room for the LIV tour to coexist with the traditional circuits.

Harrington also played down suggestions of a serious rift between the LIV rebels and the players who have chosen to remain affiliated with the PGA and DP World tours.

“Being here is a little bit like Christmas dinner or Thanksgiving for your family,” Harrington said. “You know, you could have a sibling sitting there and you could be – we’ll Americanise it – you could be a Republican, they could be a Democrat, but you’re all friends at that particular time and maybe politics isn’t mentioned over the dinner table.

“On an individual basis, this is not a difficult situation here this week. We’re all friends.

“I believe there’s room in golf for lots of tours and lots of competition. The more the merrier if you ask me, everybody will find their place and in three or four years, five years’ time, you know, things will have settled down and we’ll all know where we stand.

“At the moment there is disruption, there’s no doubt about it. But disruption is not bad at times.”

The Genesis Scottish Open will offer the strongest DP World Tour field in its history this week, with 14 of the world’s top 15 set to tee it up at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick.

Two-time major winner Dustin Johnson will be the headline act at the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series event, the controversial new Saudi-backed golf tour.

Johnson, currently the world No. 13, will be the highest-ranked player at the tournament, which will also include Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer, Kevin Na, Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace.

As recently as February, Johnson said that he was “fully committed to the PGA Tour.”

However, six-time major winner Phil Mickelson, an outspoken supporter of the new tour, does not feature in the field at England’s Centurion Club. The 51-year-old said in February he would take “some time away” from golf after being criticized for comments he made about Saudi Arabia’s regime and the country’s new tour.

“Free agency has finally come to golf,” Greg Norman, LIV Golf CEO and Commissioner, said in a statement. “This is an opportunity to start a movement that will change the course of history by bringing new and open competition to the sport we all love.

“The desire shown by the players to participate in LIV Golf demonstrates their emphatic belief in our model and confidence in what we’re building for the future.”

Norman received fierce criticism last month for appearing to downplay the the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi ahead of the tour’s launch, saying: “We’ve all made mistakes.”

A US intelligence report named Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, as responsible for approving the operation that led to the 2018 murder of Khashoggi — something bin Salman denies.

The Centurion Club tournament will have a total prize pot of £20 million ($25.2M), with £3 million ($3.8M) for the winning golfer. Six places still remain open in the 48-man field.

The event will take place from June 9-11, the same time as the PGA Tour’s Canadian Open, which Johnson had been scheduled to compete in.

In a statement posted on Twitter, the Canadian Open, a tournament Johnson won in 2018, said it was “disappointed” with his decision to opt to play in the Saudi-backed event.

“As a past RBC Canadian Open champion, Canadian golf fans were looking forward to DJ’s return this year,” it said. “Our focus continues to be on hosting the widely celebrated return of the RBC Canadian Open and welcoming the world’s best players to Canada.”

The PGA Tour has not granted permission for its players to compete elsewhere and they could reportedly be set to face punishment for their decision.