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Greg Norman’s LIV Tour forces PGA Tour’s $590m prizemoney first

Greg Norman's LIV Tour forces PGA Tour's $590m prizemoney first

Faced with a growing challenge from the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series, the US PGA Tour announced a 2022-23 season schedule on Monday offering a record $AUD590 million in prize money.

The PGA increased the prize money at eight invitational tournaments, with The Players Championship set to pay out $35m, and will offer $206m in bonus money, including $107m for the FedEx Cup playoffs, which will be trimmed to 70 players from the current 125.

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The move comes as the LIV Golf Series — spearheaded by Aussie legend Greg Norman — has offered the highest purses in history to lure big-name talent from the PGA to its upstart tour, which is set to rise from eight events in 2022 to 14 in 2023.

LIV Golf has drawn protests and claims of “sportwashing” from critics citing Saudi human rights issues but such stars as Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Henrik Stenson, Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey and Patrick Reed have jumped to the rebel series that debuted in June.

The US PGA, which will return to a season that coincides with the calendar year starting in 2024, tightened its playoffs and boosted select purses after comments from fans, PGA commissioner Jay Monahan said.

“The overwhelming sentiment was they wanted more consequences for both the regular season and the playoffs and to further strengthen events that traditionally feature top players competing head-to-head,” Monahan said. “We feel strongly we’ve accomplished all of these objectives.”

The 2022-23 PGA season will have 47 tournaments, including three playoff events next August with a field of 70 at the St. Jude Championship in Memphis, 50 at the BMW Championship in Chicago and the top 30 in points advancing to the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta.

After the season ends, late 2023 will feature events for those outside the top 70 to earn status for the 2024 PGA campaign plus a series of “international events” featuring the PGA top 50 in a limited field, no-cut format. No other details were revealed about those events.

The St. Jude and BMW will see a jump in prize money from $21 million to $28 million.

The January Tournament of Champions will see its purse rise from $12 million to $21 million next year. It will become the lead-off event of the PGA season when the schedule changes in 2024.

Four events will see prize money jump from $17 million to $28 million — the Genesis Invitational in February hosted by Tiger Woods, the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in March, the Jack Nicklaus-hosted Memorial in June and the WGC Match Play in March.

Prize money will jump from $28 million to $35 million for The Players Championship in March.

The Scottish Open, Barbasol Championship and Barracuda Championship will remain co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour.

The 2022-23 campaign will begin on September 15-18 with the Fortinet Championship at Napa, California, with the Presidents Cup the following week at Quail Hollow.

The CJ Cup has been moved from South Korea to South Carolina and will be played in October with the Bermuda Championship the following week.

The Rocket Mortgage Classic, won Sunday by Tony Finau, will start June 29 next year while the 3M Open moves to the end of July.

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Alex de Minaur wins Atlanta Open as Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis claims doubles title

Alex de Minaur

Australia Day came early in Atlanta after Alex de Minaur claimed the men’s singles title before Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis swept the doubles.

Australian men’s No.1 de Minaur had his second taste of success in the Georgia capital, beating American Jenson Brooksby to continue his run of fine form.

De Minaur, who won the Atlanta Open three years ago, triumphed over Brooksby 6-3, 6-3 to lift the ATP 250 tournament trophy once more.

On the back of the victory he’s set to jump nine places in the world rankings to 21, which bodes well for the looming US Open.

When he won at Atlanta in 2019 he went on to reach the fourth round of the major, which begins at the end of August.

It’s de Minaur’s first title since June last year at Eastbourne, and his sixth ATP Tour title overall.

De Minaur had to work hard to reach the decider, rallying from a set down in the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, but the gritty Australian persevered when under pressure.

“It was great to get another title under my name — it’s my sixth and not a lot of people have been able to do that, so I feel great,” said de Minaur, who this year reached the second week of Wimbledon for the first time.

“I feel great about my game. I’ve put a lot of work in, so it’s great to see the hard work being rewarded.”

The final was a clash between two of the ATP Tour’s best defenders, but it was de Minaur’s attacking play that proved critical as he clawed past the home favorite in 91 minutes.

“I knew coming in it would be a very tactical, chess-like match that we were going to both play,” the third seed said.

“I’m happy I was able to execute my game plan and get the win but it was a very tough match.

“Plenty of times it could have gone either way and even though the scoreboard was three and three, it felt very, very tight.”

Kyrgios and Kokkinakis
Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios celebrate after claiming the doubles title in Atlanta.(Getty Images: Kevin C. Cox)

Australian Open doubles champions Kyrgios and Kokkinakis were also celebrating after winning an all-Aussie doubles final.

Despite pulling out of the singles with a knee complaint, Kyrgios teamed with his good friend to score a 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 victory over Jason Kubler and John Peers.

The second seeds, who wrapped up a three-set win in a rain-delayed semi over Americans Rajeev Ram and Jack Sock earlier in the day, clinched their second tour-level title as a team in 94 minutes.

It was 26-year-old Kokkinakis’ third career ATP doubles title — his first outside Australia — and a third career ATP doubles title for 27-year-old Kyrgios, who maintains his unbeaten record in tour-level doubles deciders.

The pair’s 2022 season record now stands at 13 wins from 15 matches.

AAP

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Tennis: Alex de Minaur collected his sixth ATP title by winning the Atlanta Open

Tennis: Alex de Minaur collected his sixth ATP title by winning the Atlanta Open

Australian No.1 Alex de Minaur is on the verge of re-entering the top 20, only four weeks out from the US Open after winning the Atlanta Open for the second time.

The 23-year-old powered to his sixth career ATP title – all at 250 level – and first for 2022, with a 6-3 6-3 defeat of American Jenson Brooksby in 91 minutes.

de Minaur’s victory preceded Australian Open champions Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios claiming the Atlanta doubles final 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 over countrymen Jason Kubler and John Peers.

Kyrgios and Kokkinakis have now won 14 of 16 matches together this season, including reaching the Miami Masters semi-finals as well as their maiden grand slam title.

de Minaur’s victory was his second title in Atlanta having also won the singles title in 2019, beating another American, Taylor Fritz, before going on to make the last 16 at that year’s US Open, which begins at the end of August.

The tournament wasn’t held the following season because of the Covid-19 pandemic, while Minaur skipped last year’s edition while recovering from the virus.

Fellow Australian and close friend Matt Reid stepped in to coach him for the week, with his usual mentor, Adolfo Gutierrez, to link up with him at this week’s ATP 500 event at Washington.

Australian Davis Cup assistant coach Jaymon Crabb also supported him in Atlanta.

“My coach (Gutierrez) is currently traveling to Washington. He’s on the plane and hasn’t been able to watch the final, so hopefully when he lands he’ll get a nice, little notification on his phone,” de Minaur said.

“I’ve got Matt Reid over there, who’s helped me out this week. He’s made time out of his very busy schedule to come out here and help me out and we’re undefeated as a team, so thank you very much.

“Jaymon Crabb’s here on Davis Cup business but he’s (also) put in a lot of hours in the hot, hot Atlanta summer.”

Third-seeded de Minaur proved far too strong for Brooksby in their first meeting, breaking the world No.43 four times while dropping serve himself just once.

The match turned in the Australian star’s favor in the sixth game of the opening set when he snatched a 4-2 lead, after staving off a pair of break points three games earlier.

That was enough for de Minaur, who came from a set down in the previous two rounds, to take a one-set lead before the rivals traded breaks to start the second set.

Neither player faced another break point until the seventh game, when de Minaur wore down Brooksby with some extended rallies before the American dumped consecutive tired forehands into the net to concede serve.

The result will see the Australian rise from his current ranking of 30 to 21 – and within sight of his career-high ranking of 15.

de Minaur reached the fourth round at the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year but will try to at least match his career-best quarter-final run at the 2020 US Open when he competes in New York.

Kyrgios and Kokkinakis smashed 15 aces past Kubler and Peers and converted the only break of the match in the final game to seal a tight straight-sets victory.

It was an unlikely turn of events for Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios, who withdrew before his first-round singles clash in Atlanta with a left knee soreness but continued in the doubles.

Read related topics:Nick Kyrgios

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