Smith, Hatton among LIV Golf players in action this week across the globe
Several LIV Golf players are in action this week in various tournaments across the globe.
NEW SOUTH WALES OPEN
Ripper GC Captain Cameron Smith continues his four-tournament tour of his home country, joined by his teammate Lucas Herbert at one of Australia’s state opens.
Smith tied for third two weeks ago at the Queensland PGA. He hopes another good showing at Murray Downs will have him primed for his final two starts at the upcoming Australian PGA and Australian Open.
His Rippers won the team title at LIV Golf Adelaide this year and ended the season by capturing the Team Championship, but Smith’s last individual win in his homeland was the Australian PGA in 2022.
“You can hit balls on the on the range endlessly, but I think being competitive and being in a competitive environment is also really important,” Smith told Golf Digest’s Evan Priest on Tuesday. “For me, [the goal] is trying to get that Aussie Open; something I haven’t been able to do yet.”
Smith, the 2022 Open champion, is not the only major winner in the field. Geoff Oglivy, the 2006 U.S. Open champion, is also scheduled to play.
Smith is happy to utilize LIV Golf’s extended offseason to return home and play an extended schedule. Including LIV Golf Adelaide, his five starts in Australia in 2024 are the most he’s made in a single year in the last decade.
“The last couple of years I’ve played the big two, I guess you’d call them, and I wanted to play more,” he told Golf Digest. “I had a lot of stuff going on at the end of last year. I’ve always wanted to play [more in Australia], but just really didn’t have the time. Whereas now I feel like I’ve got a little bit more time, particularly finishing earlier. I feel like it’s … not our duty to do it, but I feel like it’s just a nice thing to do, so why not do it?”
DP WORLD TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP
Red-hot Tyrrell Hatton of Legion XIII will look to win his first DP World Tour Championship this week in the tour’s season-ending event at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai.
Hatton has a first and a second in his last two starts on the DP World Tour since the conclusion of his first LIV Golf season in which he finished fourth in the season-long Individual Championship.
Joining Hatton in the 50-man field will be Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann and Cleeks GC’s Adrian Meronk.
Of those three LIV Golf players, Hatton is the highest-ranked in the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai, currently standing sixth.
Hatton has moved up 77 spots with his last two starts, a win at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and a solo second at last week’s Abu Dhabi Championship and has accumulated his 2,376.74 points in just nine starts. He’s too far back to catch points leader Rory McIlroy but does have a chance to finish second, which would be his best Race to Dubai result.
Niemann is 33rd in points while Meronk is 43rd.
VODACOM ORIGINS OF GOLF FINAL
Stinger GC’s Dean Burmester and Branden Grace are entered in this week’s Sunshine Tour event back home in South Africa at Oubaai Golf Resort.
The Vodacom Origins of Golf is a series of pro-am tournaments, with the Final played in the spring.
Grace won the 2012 Final during a calendar year in which he also won four DP World Tour events along with the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit.
Burmester won the Vodacom Origins of Golf at Koro Creek in 2015 during a season that included four wins on the Sunshine Tour.
Grace is trying to bounce back from a disappointing 2024 LIV Golf season in which he finished in the Drop Zone to face relegation. Meanwhile, Burmester is gearing up for defense of his two Sunshine Tour titles won a year ago, the Joburg Open followed by the South African Open.
DUNLOP PHOENIX
Iron Heads GC teammates Jinichiro Kozuma and Scott Vincent are among the 84 players scheduled for one of the Japan Golf Tour’s most prestigious events.
Kozuma is seeking his second victory in his homeland this season, having won the Sansan KBC Augusta in August.
Kozuma finished 45th in points in his first LIV Golf season after earning a spot at last year’s Promotions tournament. Vincent finished 50th in points and suffered relegation as part of the Drop Zone. Both players were part of a spectacular run for the Iron Heads during the Team Championship in Dallas, as they entered as the lowest-seeded team but pulled off two huge upsets to ultimately tie for second.
Vincent has two top-10 finishes since 2019 at the Dunlop Phoenix, played at Phoenix Country Club.
Smash GC Captain Brooks Koepka is a former two-time winner of the event, and Majesticks GC Co-Captains Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter are also past winners.