It would seem the lure of the mighty US dollar may not be all that strong, well certainly not for some at this early part of an exciting new golfing season.
The PGA Tour has released the draw for next week’s Sony Open with just five players, who qualified from the DP World Tour, choosing to travel to Hawaii.
It was a historic, and somewhat controversial, decision last year to afford the leading 10 money-list players at the close of the 2023 DPWT season, and otherwise not already a PGA Tour member, full 2024 PGA Tour membership.
There were many criticial of the move, given it would further drain the European-born pool of talent competing week-to-week on the DP World Tour.
This week’s $US 8m Sony Open is a first PGA Tour event all 10 ‘rookies’ were eligible to compete as full Tour members.
The 10, and in alphabetical order, are: Sweden’s Alexander Bjork, Spain’s Jorge Campillo, Kiwi Ryan Fox, 21-year Japanese Ryo Hisatsune, Scot Robert MacIntyre, Polish-born Adrian Meronk, Dane Thorbjorn Olesen, the French duo of Matthieu Pavon and Victor Perez and lastly Finland’s Sami Valimaki.
Those choosing not to travel to Hawaii are: Campillo, Fox, Meronk, Olesen and Perez.
Four of those players, with the exemption of Perez, will be competing in Dubai over the next fortnight commencing next Thursday in the inaugural $2.5m Dubai Invitational at the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club and the following week’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
The only player not competing at all over these up-coming two weeks is Perez.
MacIntyre earlier last week indicated -his initial PGA Tour schedule that includes the next three events – the Sony Open, the American Express and the Farmers Insurance Open.
The world’s top-ranked Scot jetted out of the UK on Wednesday and is spending a few days in his new Orlando residence, and his base while in the US, before heading west to Hawaii.
The Scot used a few hours while crossing high over the Atlantic to host a novel Q & A session with his ‘X’ account fans and there was some interesting questions, and also interesting replies from MacIntyre including what his goal at the start of this new chapter in his career.
MacIntyre said: “Not really a goal setting guy but if had to pick one win on PGA tour”.
You can see a full story on that novel way he passed the time high over the Atlantic by clicking on: http://www.golfbytourmiss.com/2024/01/macintyres-dream-fourball-tiger-seve-his-father-dougie/
