Rory wins, Tiger surprises, Liv takes the lead

It is that point of 12 months, people. The place all you see on-line are menus and menus and extra menus. Lists about one of the best moments of 2022. Lists about Our all-star unfold of the 12 months of golf. lists about Guidelines battle That drove everybody loopy. Even listings about Tiger Woods operating 47 gadgets lengthy only for his forty seventh birthday.

All of those lists have one factor in widespread: They appear backwards. We’re right here in the present day with a listing trying ahead. Very particular menu as we sit up for subsequent New 12 months. Listed below are 9 predictions for 2023, and yet one more prediction under that can give everybody cause to be optimistic.

1. 4 cuts to Tiger Woods

Let’s begin with probably the most well-known golfer on the planet. Woods will play 5 tournaments in 2023, beginning with the Genesis Invitational in February. Every of those programs shall be arrange in a method that rewards pars. Taking pictures 68 is superior. You realize who grinds the clicker higher than anybody on this planet? That 47-year-old, Tiger Woods. For those who want proof, go and see what he did throughout his first two outings on the Augusta Nationwide in April. after which The second flooring within the south of the hills in Might. Woods will twice parry his method into the Liverpool Royal, take his pants off once more on the Masters and show he is nonetheless one of many smartest golfers on the planet on the PGA Championship and US Open. 4 cuts have been made, perhaps 5. Something above that, as Tiger says, Solely gravy.

2. Justin Thomas, Masters Champion

Nobody has adopted the script fairly like Thomas in terms of incomes a inexperienced jacket. This would be the eighth time he has competed on the Augusta Nationwide. He by no means missed a reduce. Appears to get higher yearly.

2016: T39

2017: T22

2018: T17

2019: T12

2020: 4

2021: T21

2022: T8

Thomas was on the set when Spieth set the course on fireplace over the past tour in 2018. He performs apply excursions with Tiger and Fred {Couples} yearly. He received a lot recommendation from Woods that he made John Rahm jealous. And he is ending an enormous little dry spell in 2022. He is set to make some magic on the Masters, and get it performed this spring.

3. Rory (Ugly Triumph) in Rochester

Do not you take pleasure in that?!? You won’t be so amused when day two of the PGA Championship in Oak Hill is dominated by spring showers. However it’s. This match selected upstate New York once more when it was internet hosting a Main in August. The moist monitor will flip right into a pitcher’s delight and the most effective drivers on this planet will knock out his Schneide residence championship by hitting tee balls everywhere in the property. McIlroy would really feel a bit of bizarre whooping down one other rain-slicked monitor, however nobody ever mentioned it needed to be fairly.

4. Your favourite occasion could be the US Open.

Golf is on TV once you’re at work. Golf is on TV once you sit right down to dinner. Even a recreation of golf on TV when the night is over. Golf in stunning Beverly Hills. A lot hotter than the earlier main, on the PGA Championship in upstate New York. On the most effective programs within the nation, the Los Angeles Nation Membership, which received a facelift by Jill Hansi, the course architect of the second. This shall be our third main of the lads’s season and we’ll put apart the LIV-PGA Tour dialogue for seven robust days. Even…

5. LIV BIG CHAMPION

LIV Golf could also be dominated by relations, nevertheless it boasts two of one of the best gamers on the planet in Dustin Johnson and Cam Smith. She has Brooks Koepka, Mr. Main, and a bunch of others able to making an ideal week. Can Breson Dechambeau rise once more? It isn’t out of the realm of risk in any respect. Whether or not it occurs on the US Open or the British Open, one factor is for certain: Greg Norman will deal with this victory as if it have been his personal.

6. Eire will get one other main winner

No, not Shane Lowry. Not Seamus Bauer both. The following predominant hero popping out of Emerald Isle is Leona Maguire.

Her rise has been effectively documented. Maguire did not burst onto the scene as a young person like Lexi Thompson, Lydia Ko, or Nelly Korda. She performed golf in faculty for 4 years and honed her craft, now rising to match all of final 12 months’s teenage sensations, to be ranked eleventh on this planet on the finish of 2022. Walton Heath, host of the AIG Ladies’s Open, is an indoor course, however one which must be baked in Finish of summer season within the south of England. It appears to be like precisely just like the type of course Maguire might have picked for her spectacular victory.

7. AMERICA WINS THE SOFT SOULHEIM CUP

This 12 months’s Solheim Cup shall be held one week earlier than the Ryder Cup. It is staff golf season! And it needs to be like this yearly these two occasions occur. (Possibly even internet hosting them on the similar location?) Anyway, that sadly will not occur as a result of the Solheim Cup has determined to return to an reverse 12 months schedule with RC. However you aren’t right here for that info. You might be right here for the daring experiment that the Individuals received in Spain. It could not qualify as daring for everybody, however the Individuals didn’t fare effectively within the occasion, dropping 4 of their final six occasions. Staff USA is deeper than it has been lately, and is as soon as once more led by a few of the greatest gamers on the planet. Jennifer Copshaw was topped the queen of the match when she went 4-0-1.

8. EUROPE WINS THE RYDER CUP WITH THE CLEAR BLADE

Are you aware what had virtually no impact on the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome? Presidents Cup 2022 lead to steamy North Carolina. The Romantics would seize the Individuals’ final two titles, however Europe has rebuilt itself. There we’re vs. they vs. they High quality to non-LIV Europeans like McIlroy, Rahm and Viktor Hovland who maintain the torch from vets nearing retirement are previous. And in a lot completely different trend than the 2021 Whistling Straits Cup, the Euros lastly have a official residence crowd as soon as once more. Colin Morikawa, Kam Younger, Scotty Scheffler, Xander Schavelli, Patrick Cantlay, Will Zalatoris, Max Homma – what do all of them have in widespread? They’ve by no means performed a Ryder Cup on the highway. The Rams break their hearts in a singles trophy victory over Jordan Spieth, 3-and-1.

9. LIV remorse

The LIV golfers huddled collectively in 2022. They spoke in unison, typically by means of speaking factors given to them by the LIV communications staff. However not everybody will get $150 million from DJ. Not everyone seems to be pulled like Pat Perez on 4 aces. Some contracts are just for two years, and once they’re over, what occurs subsequent?

There shall be a stage of discontent on the backside of the ranks of LIV in 2023. It could not come till the LIV season is over within the fall, however all the things cannot be sunny and rainbows whereas lawsuits roll in and governing our bodies make robust selections of their main leagues. the OWGR gave us an indication that it would make LIV wait till November for its occasions to be eligible for rating. That would not sit effectively with anybody, not to mention a golfer who won’t have a spot on that spherical perpetually. If LIV is like different staff sports activities, not everybody will be completely happy. Talor Gooch was dropped from 4 aces in favor of Peter Uihlein. It’d begin there.

Bonus: Tiger and Charlie win the PNC

In actual fact, our new fifth main received that standing in 2023 when Tiger Woods and his son Charlie truly received it. victory PNC Championship. Tiger will joke that that is his first win on the Champions Tour. Charlie would joke that he dragged his dad all day. We’ll all go to mattress with smiles on our faces, eager about what 2024 has in retailer for us.

Approves? Disagree? Be at liberty to share your daring predictions for 2023 with the creator at sean.zak@golf.com.