Welcome to Playing Through’s daily ritual — Golf Talk Today.
Each day, the crew will discuss various elements of the PGA Tour, LPGA, LIV Golf, and more.
Today’s topic revolves around the week’s marquee event, the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, and their pairings.
When the tournament announced the pairings on Tuesday, jaws hit the floor when they saw PGA Tour’s Jay Monahan and LIV Golf’s Yasir Al-Rumayyan together for Round 1. Monahan will play alongside Billy Horschel, and Al-Rumayyan’s partner is LIV Golf’s Dean Burmester.
Many likely wondered if the tournament officials did this on purpose, but it does not look like they will talk much business after Horschel commented on the pairing.
There has been a lot of news surrounding the PGA Tour and LIV Golf since they announced their possible deal over a year ago, on June 6, 2023.
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Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images
Many business deals are reached on the golf course, so while this pairing is odd, it could be optimistic for the future of golf. Despite Horschel shooting down business talk, who knows what could happen on the course between these two leaders.
Rory McIlroy and his dad, Gerry, are also in the field. On day one at Carnoustie, they will play with LIV’s Louis Oosthuizen and Johann Rupert.
Then, in Round 2 at Kingsbarn, he plays with Monahan and Horschel. Round 3 gets even more interesting because they play with Al-Rumayyan and Burmester. Two of the most prominent people in the PGA Tour will play with LIV Golf’s boss.
Hopefully, this will lead to more discussions to get the deal done between the two golf entities.
The interesting pairings do not stop there.
Robert MacIntyre will play alongside his dad, Dougie, who caddied for him during his RBC Canadian Open victory. They will play with Shane Lowry and Gerry McManus in Round 1 at Carnoustie. Two European Ryder Cup members playing is always fun to see.
Tommy Fleetwood and his partner Ogden Phipps II play alongside Brooks Koepka and Brian Thompson. They also open on Carnoustie.
Matt Wallace will play with Talor Gooch in Round 1. Defending champions Matt Fitzpatrick and his mother, Sue, will tee it up with Tyrrell Hatton and Jeff Hatton.
These are just a few of the notable pairings I saw. For more tee times and the complete list of pairings, check out the DP World Tour’s website, which has each Alfred Dunhill Golf Championship pairing for the first three days.
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Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @golf_girl_sl.
