Hi all! 👋
Money, money, money. That’s the flavour of the year it seems in world golf.
Not only in prize money purses being heavily boosted, but also equipment sales and green fee rounds all over the world.
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Onto this week’s features in The Mulligan:
DP World ploughs money into European Tour
A quick glance at the top tweets for the week from/of the big boys
Our 4 best-handpicked equipment deals for the week
Our (short) Weekly Pub Quiz! 🍻
This week’s best bets for the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open & AVIV Dubai Championship
Snippets including the legendary Pat Perez and how he’s just like the rest of us, some players not earning enough supposedly, an emotional but relieved Lucas Bjerregaard, a Q&A with Angel Cabrera’s former coach and a look at Golf.com’s Top 100 world courses.
Before you go check out Borat trying his hand at golf & doesn’t quite get it right 😂
Free Roll of this pro’s cheap & quirky training aid!
But before we jump in, here are some interesting stats from the past week.
Big OWGR Movers
Here are the biggest movers over the last week on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR)
📈 Carlos Ortiz 78 —> 49
📈 Thomas Pieters 129 —> 74
📈 Marcus Helligkilde 127 —> 84
📈 Dean Burmester 110 —> 86
📈 Tomohiro Ishizaka 271 —> 204
Last Week’s Winners’ Cheques
💰 Viktor Hovland - $1 296 000 (PGA Tour)
💰 Steven Alker - $305 000 (Champions Tour)
💰 Thomas Pieters - $274 706 (European Tour)
💰 Yosuke Asaji - $264 512 (Japan Tour)
💰 Lydia Ko - $149 799 (Ladies European Tour)
💰 Marcus Helligkilde - $90 101 (Challenge Tour)
💰 James Kingston - $51 773 (Legends Tour)
💰 Dean Burmester - $12 643 (Sunshine Tour)
Last Week’s Last Place Cheques
💰 $14 760 - PGA Tour
💰 *$7 800 - Champions Tour (*no cut)
💰 $5 016 - European Tour
💰 *$3 032 - Challenge Tour (*no cut)
💰 $2 975 - Japan Tour
💰 $2 696 - Ladies European Tour
💰 *$831 - Legends Tour (*no cut)
💰 $427 - Sunshine Tour
Big Money for European Tour
It seems there are money stories all over world golf the last year.
First it was the announcement of the PGA Tour PIP program offering $40 million in bonuses to those players who drove interest and engagement for the PGA Tour in particular. The winners of this PIP we still don’t know and likely will never. Makes zero sense.
Next up it was the announcement of the PGA Tour purchasing a minority share in the then European Tour and co-sanctioning three events (obviously when it suited the PGA Tour).
The Premier Golf League also rose its head again with an announcement of it starting in 2023 and offering a minimum tournament purse of $20 million with no cut.
Then the announcement of the Saudi Golf League (spearheaded by Greg Norman) partnering up with the Asian Tour for events over the next 10 years carrying a weight of $200 million. This we think is the stepping stone to something bigger though - it’s just a matter of time.
And now yesterday’s news of the European Tour now being called the DP World Tour as of 2022 and boosting purses and overall prize money by a large sum. Solely sanctioned DP World Tour events will now carry a minimum purse of $2 million and for the first time ever the season purses will exceed $200 million.
Will that drive stronger Strength Of Fields each week or will that stay the same? Will it close the gap on the PGA Tour or will that stay the same? Will it drive more worldwide viewership interest? To be brutally honest, I’m not sure it will.
However I do still think it’s fantastic for the world game and even more reason for young professionals on lesser tours to work even harder. Even more reward for them when securing their tour card(s).
It’s just a pity though that the Australasian & Sunshine Tours seem to be falling a little further behind. For the latter - they’ve got a handful of co or tri-sanctioned events each year which carry the biggest weight, but apart from those the tournament purses total less than $100 000. I’m sure you’ve all seen in the Winner’s & Last Place Cheque updates each week just how much less they’re playing for in comparison to all other tours.
Perhaps we’ll see a cash injection of some sort for them too somehow sometime soon. We’ll hold thumbs!
Top Tweets
A quick glance at a couple of the most engaging, interesting, contentious, ridiculous tweets over the last week from/of the major names. First up from the legendary Eddie Pepperell 😂
🔥 This Week’s Hottest Equipment Deals 🔥
Cleveland Launcher HB Hybrid less 50% - Check deal here
Bridgestone 14 Way Stand Bag less 30% - Check deal here
Callaway Mavrik Driver less 40% - Check deal here
Cobra Speedzone Fairway Wood less 29% - Check deal here
Pub Quiz
Three questions. Three Answers for each. A bit like The Chase except you get bugger-all in return. Just your trivial pride! (Answers at the bottom)
Which Professional is nicknamed ‘Popeye’?
A - Nicolas Colsaerts
B - Paul Casey
C - Jon Rahm
Loose Impediments are removable on which parts of the course?
A - Fairways only
B - Fairways, Greens and Rough only
C - Fairways, Greens, Rough, Bunkers and Penalty areas
Who holds the current PGA Tour record for longest time between first and last wins?
A - Raymond Floyd
B - Davis Love III
C - Phil Mickelson
Our Best Bets this Week
We’ve kept a record of our best bets to date as well as profit & loss. Check our detailed record here
Our value picks for this week’s Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open & AVIV Dubai Championship as follows.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open
Aaron Wise EW @ 30/1 (Paying 8 places - Place Bet Here)
Talor Gooch EW @ 30/1 (Paying 8 places - Place Bet Here)
Seamus Power EW @ 45/1 (Paying 8 places - Place Bet Here)
AVIV Dubai Championship
Dean Burmester EW @ 33/1 (Paying 6 places - Place Bet Here)
Rafa Cabrera-Bello EW @ 30/1 (Paying 6 places - Place Bet Here)
Francesco Laporta EW @ 60/1 (Paying 6 places - Place Bet Here)
⚡️ Bet £10 (€10), Get £30 (€30) In Free Bets
✅ Golf Snippets
Not that I’ve ever been against Pat Perez, but from now on I am all for ol’ Pat. What a legend! A character and someone who most of us can relate to. Check out this 2:55 video - you’ll love it 💪
Some are saying top players on Tour are not being paid or earn enough…seems a bit far fetched in our opinion. Yes there needs to be more reward for top boys as opposed to the lower layers however the PGA Tour earnings seem fairly decent when comparing!
Not only the winners are emotional. Here’s Lucas Bjerregaard after holing a monster putt on the last hole in Portugal trying to hold onto his card for next season. He ‘didn’t feel great all week, but willed it’. Hats off to him! 👏
An in depth Q&A with Angel Cabrera’s former coach and all the detail on his tough upbringing, character and doing some jail time.
Check out the latest Golf.com’s Top 100 World courses. How many of these have you been lucky enough to have played?
Wait a Second! 😂
Borat tries his hand at golf & doesn’t quite go according to plan. Hats off to the teaching pro for staying patient! 🤣
Answers to Pub Quiz
- B (Paul Casey)
- C (everywhere)
- C (Phil Mickelson - 30 years, 4 months, 10 days)
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