Tiger Woods Provides A Major Reunification Update, Ludvig Gets Win He Unfairly 'Needed,' And Joaquin Is Rich
The PGA Tour returning to Torrey Pines for the second time in three weeks didn't exactly get the juices flowing when it was announced the Genesis Invitational was moving to La Jolla, but as it turns out, seeing the best players on Tour competing on a major championship venue actually makes for some entertaining golf.
Ludvig Aberg certainly enjoyed himself as he came from behind to earn what was his second win on Tour, and in the process, silenced the small contingent of doubters that were unfairly beginning to doubt him.
Tiger Woods was on site for Sunday's final round at Torrey and shared yet another update about negotiations between the Tour and Saudi PIF, and there may actually be a takeaway from the latest spiel.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, Joaquin Niemann picked up another win on LIV Golf and is now a very, very rich man. The 26-year-old has already doubled up his career earnings on Tour.
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Ludvig Aberg Officially Exceeding Unreasonable Expectations
It's hard to think of a recent player who began his career with greater expectations than Ludvig Aberg. From an international perspective, Jon Rahm is the first name that comes to mind, and all he's managed to do is win a U.S. Open, a Masters, and become the No. 1 ranked player in the world for a full year.
As with all great players, expectations match results, but for Aberg and the fact that he looks like he was built in a lab to play golf, it feels like his leash has been shorter than the many promising young players to step in the spotlight before him.
Nothing puts that into perspective more than this week's Genesis Invitational.
While it may feel like Aberg has been on Tour for a handful of years now, the Genesis marked just his 40th start on the PGA Tour. In the 39 starts before this week, he had already managed one win on Tour, a win on the European Tour, a runner-up at the Masters, and a winning Ryder Cup appearance with Team Europe before turning 26.
The past 18 months have been a Ludvig Aberg overload for the golf world with expectations rising each and every week, which oddly made his victory at the Genesis feel like it was a needed one, even though it's entirely unfair to say that when we're talking about a signature event for a guy who was playing college golf at Texas Tech about 21 months ago.
With that semi-rant out of the way, we can talk about the actual performance from Aberg on Sunday, which was a special one.
With Maverick McNealy lighting Torrey Pines South on fire ahead of him, Aberg kept that noise at bay and stayed the course.
Things began in somewhat typical fashion for Aberg on Sunday with two birdies and a pair of bogeys in his opening five holes with his putter not exactly looking warm. He picked up momentum with birdies on two of his final three holes on the front nine before finding a different gear on the back-nine.
Aberg hit eight of nine greens on the final nine with birdies on four of his final six holes to pick up the win by a shot. His 317-yard drive on the final hole that could not have been more centered in the fairway perfectly represented the very real dog the young man has, then a two-putt for the win from 68 feet capped things off rather nicely.
If he, or anyone else, thought expectations were already high, with a signature win under his belt, the limit does not exist when it comes to what is expected of the young Swede moving forward.
Joaquin Niemann's LIV Golf Move Has Paid Off
Joaquin Niemann picked up his third LIV Golf title this weekend at LIV Adelaide in convincing fashion with a three-shot cushion over both Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz. The win marks Niemann's second victory since December 2024 after he won the PIF Saudi International in a playoff, so it goes without saying that he's playing great golf at the moment.
Results speak for themselves, but what we're here to focus on is the truly ludicrous amount of money the 26-year-old has earned since joining LIV Golf. The numbers are truly hard to comprehend.
The Chilean made 124 starts on the PGA Tour before taking the leap to the Saudi-backed circuit. Across those 124 starts, he earned two wins and another 11 Top 5 finishes while earning a little more than $15.2 million.
Not bad for a young man on the PGA Tour, but compared to what he's earned on LIV Golf, it's almost laughable.
LIV Adelaide was Niemann's 28th start on the circuit and his third win in that short timeframe brings his grand total earnings with LIV to $44.1 million.
The man is averaging a $1.575 million paycheck for each start he's made on LIV.
Golf fans are more than welcome to continue to joke that Niemann is a non-factor in major championships - he has zero Top 20 finishes in his career - but it's safe to say he's not too bothered given the fact he's practically earned enough cash to fill an Olympic size swimming pool since leaving the Tour.
Niemann moved up to No. 13 in Data Golf's udpated rankings with his win in Australia, which feels about right.
Tiger Woods Says Golf Is Going To Heal ‘Quickly,’ Which Sounds Pretty Nice
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sounded optimistic for the first time in years when he spoke about negotiations between the Tour and Saudi PIF prior to the opening round of the Genesis and Tiger Woods followed that same pattern while discussing where things stand during Sunday's final round broadcast on CBS.
"Jay and Adam did great during the meeting. And we have another subsequent meeting coming up," Woods said. "So I think that things are going to heal quickly. We're going to get this game going in the right direction. We've been heading in the wrong direction for a number of years. The fans want all of us, all the top players playing together. And we’re going to make it happen."
We're grasping at straws here when it comes to finding a light at the end of what feels like a never-ending tunnel regarding men's professional golf, but at least there seem to be legitimate straws to reach for now, two years later.
It's starting to feel like there is real momentum on something, anything, happening when it comes to an agreement between the Tour and Saudi PIF. After waiting all of this time and being thrown pointless ‘updates’ on negotiations, however, this huge and potentially sport-changing announcement is going to feel like it came out of nowhere because the entire sports world has already emptied its tank on caring about the matter.
This ‘coming together’ announcement is going to feel just as shocking as the original announcement was that the Tour and Saudis had a framework agreement in place.