It was the week that the ghost of Anthony Kim returned to professional golf. It was the week that the former wunderkind, the ankle-breaker from L.A., turned his ten-years-older back on his former tour, and competed on a rival circuit. That’s a lot of hype that could have potentially diverted attention from the major professional tours. The DP World, LPGA, Korn Ferry, and PGA tours, however, produced stirring competition that returned focus to their events. The Florida stretch of the PGA Tour began in Palm Beach Gardens, while the LPGA celebrated the HSBC World Championship in Singapore. The DP World Tour competed in South Africa, while the Korn Ferry caravan found its way to Argentina. Four different continents produced four compelling storylines.

Enough with the hyperbole. Time to move on to the nitty-gritty details of the resolution of each event. It’s a day late (thank you, south Florida weather) but it’s fine like wine. Enjoy this week’s Tour Rundown with us.

PGA Tour @ Cognizant Classic: Eckroat rode momentum to the W

The Championship course at PGA National is a difficult foe. Water and/or sand inhabits the grounds with such frequency, that one might conclude that the course was not so much built, as found. It is pure Florida golf, and when the winds are up, it is as difficult a challenge as found on the PGA Tour. This week, the winds spared the golfers, and unheard-of scores in the low 60s were familiar, if not commonplace. Austin Eckroat, Shane Lowry, and David Skinns carried a three-shot advantage into the final round, but there were plenty of challengers with designs on the top prize.

As Lowry and Skinns slipped away with even-par 71s on day four/five (Monday finish, doncha know?) Erik Van Rooyen mounted a charge. The two-time Tour winner posted eight-under 63 to reach 14-under par and set a significant bar. This meant that the tri-leaders would have to shoot in the 60s to win. Also surging were Min Woo Lee (67 for T2 with Van Rooyen), Cameron Young and K.H. Lee (matching 66s for T4 with three others.)

Austin Eckroat was the overnight leader who steadied the rudder and stayed the course. He navigated the fairways and greens with but a single bogey over the final 18 holes. Five birdies brought him to 67 for the round, and a three-shot win over his pursuers. The victory was his first on the PGA Tour, and was portended by a T10 finish at the 2023 US Open. The tour now moves to Orlando and Puerto Rico, for a split week of bonus golf.

Nerves of steel.

Coming off his first bogey of the final round and entering the first hole of the Bear Trap, Austin Eckroat finds the putting surface at No. 15. pic.twitter.com/gTYvQxnwru

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 4, 2024

LPGA @ HSBC World: calm Green takes title on final green

Hannah Green and playing companion Andrea Lee were neck and neck in the final group, as they reached the 16th tee. Green proceeded to make birdie at each of the closing holes, while Lee play them in plus-one figures. A four-shot swing, you say? That should have made the walk along 18 a breeze for Green. It might have been, if not for the star of 2023, Celine Boutier. The Frenchwoman began the day one behind Green, in a tie with Lee. Boutier played marvelous golf, making five birdies through the 15th, reaching 12-under par.

It was a tale of two uneven parts. Boutier played brilliantly for 15 holes, then lost the magic and closed with three pars. In contrast, Green was two under par over the same stretch, and appeared relegated to a top-three finish, until she found her wind. The brilliance of the closing stretch was enough to elevante Green past Boutier by a single stroke.

A short and emphatic putt for birdie at 16, was followed by a longer and equally-courageous effort at 17. Reaching the 18th, Green had a 20-feet putt for the win. The putt never looked like it would bend back enough, until it made a final, right-turn at the end. The most unlikely of scenarios brought Hannah Green her fourth LPGA title and first since April of 2023.

Champion’s final putt!@hannahgreengolf wins the 2024 @HWWCGolf in style! ? pic.twitter.com/FBbTF5JFr0

— LPGA (@LPGA) March 3, 2024

DP World Tour @ SDC: Gumberg avoids defeat in playoff

The St. Francis links of South Africa played host to the SDC Championship for a second time in 2024. Despite its location of Eastern Cape, the links lie halfway along the coastal route from Cape Town to Durban, squarely in the central part of the southern perimeter. Defending champion Matthew Baldwin was unable to recapture the mojo that brought the 2023 trophy to his hands. He made the cut, but went backward over the final 36 holes, finishing in a tie for 47th position.

Near the top of the leaders’ board, third-round leaders Connor Syme and Daniel Brown headed away from victory station. They concluded with matching 75s, each dropping three positions to a fourth-place tie. Moving from sixth to third was France’s David Ravetto, on the strength of a closing 70. Two shots better were the home country’s Robin Williams and the USA’s Jordan Gumberg. Williams had the tournament in his sites, until a double-bogey at the par-three 17th dropped him down from 14-deep.

He and Gumberg headed to the 18th tee for extra holes. They would play the closing trace two times, and it was Gumberg who concluded the day with birdie for the win. His tee ball was perilously close to a water penalty, but he remained dry. His approach reached within twenty feet of the hole, and his putt was authoritative and true. The title was Gumberg’s first on the DP World Tour. The caravan moves north this week, near Johannesburg for the Workwear Open.

The winning play-off hole! ?@emirates | #EmiratesFlyBetterMoments pic.twitter.com/uatmnrs8mj

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) March 4, 2024

Korn Ferry Tour @ Argentina Open: Andersen’s triple birdie wins in overtime

Van Holmgren’s slim, third-round lead didn’t last long. The American with the seventies-Hollywood name stumbled early with bogey at two and three, and finished with +1 for a fifth-place tie. It was one of those “I’d have taken it at the beginning of the week” that ends with “man, I had a chance and that hurts.” With Van’s exodus, the battle was joined, and by none more feverishly than Mason Andersen. The former Arizona State golfer posted eight birdies over a nine-hole stretch, and concluded with another at the last. His seven-under 63 parasailed him ten shots up the board, to 17-under par.

His countrymen, Dalton Ward and Brian Campbell, did their level best to chase him down, but each could only reach 16-deep on the week. Norway’s Kris Ventura had a bit more steam in his engine, and parlayed three birdies into a final-round 68. Ventura had a chance to win in regulation, but could not make birdie at the par-five closer. Andersen and Ventura returned twice to the 18th tee. Andersen birdied the hole twice more, while Venture could only make four the first time around.

The title brought Andersen an exemption into the 2024 Open Championship, which is a pretty nice bonus on top of the win. Why not hear the final putt in the language of Argentina?

That first win feeling for Mason Andersen? pic.twitter.com/4NtDYyeEn9

— Korn Ferry Tour (@KornFerryTour) March 3, 2024

GolfWRX is on the ground in Orlando ahead of the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge.

We’re assembling our usual collection of WITB photos, general galleries, and of course, gear inspired by the King himself.

We’ll continue to add to the photos below as more flow in from Florida.

General Albums

• 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational – Monday #1
• 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational – Monday #2
• 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational – Monday #3

WITB Albums

• Matt (LFG) Every – WITB – 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational
• Sahith Theegala – WITB – 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational

Pullout Albums

• New Cameron putters (and new “LD” grip) – 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational
• New Bettinardi MB & CB irons – 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational
• Custom Bettinardi API putter cover – 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational
• Custom Swag API covers – 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational
• New Golf Pride Reverse Taper grips – 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational

See what GolfWRXers are saying in the forums.

By Ben Alberstadt with Gianni Magliocco. For comments: [email protected] Good Thursday morning, golf fans, as day one of the Cognizant Classic gets underway. 1. McIlroy on Gooch’s “asterisk” remark Golf Channel report…”The latest chapters of the saga came Wednesday, when McIlroy said he wanted to give LIV player Talor Gooch “the benefit of the doubt” over comments he made saying if the world’s No. 2-ranked player wins the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam the accomplishment should come with an asterisk because some players who have signed with Saudi-funded LIV cannot play at Augusta National since they have fallen out of the top 50 in the world rankings.” “The Masters is an invitational and they’ll invite whoever they think warrants an invite,” said McIlroy, who’ll play in the Cognizant Classic that starts Thursday at PGA National — the site of what used to be called the Honda Classic. “I think to be fair to Talor, if you read the entire … the question and then the answer, it’s not as if he just came out with that. I feel like whoever did the interview led him down that path to say that, so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt there a little bit. He just agreed with what the interviewer asked.” Full piece. 2. Villegas named PGA Tour Advisory Board chair Field Level Media report…”Camilo Villegas was named the new chairman of the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council on Wednesday.” The 42-year-old from Colombia will serve in that role for the remainder of 2024. The council advises and consults with the PGA Tour policy board and commissioner Jay Monahan on issues affecting the tour. Full piece. 3. AK on joining LIV Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner…“What has been rumored for weeks finally became official Wednesday with the announcement from the Saudi-backed league that Kim, 38, who hasn’t played competitively since 2012, will join LIV as a wildcard player for the remainder of the 2024 season…” “After stepping away from the game years ago due to injury, I’m happy to officially announce my return to the world of professional golf,” Kim said in a LIV press release. “It’s been a long time coming, and I’m very grateful for all the highs, lows and lessons learned from the first part of my career. “I want to compete with the best players in the world, and I’m on a mission to prove to myself that I can win again. The next step on that journey starts now, and I’m excited to give everything I’ve got this season on the LIV Golf League.” Full piece. 4. A peek into the Tour’s private-equity plan Matthew Rudy for Golf Digest…”The new entity—PGA Tour Enterprises—built an equity distribution plan that looks similar to something tech companies use to protect themselves from losing their most valuable contributors to deep-pocketed competitors. “The whole idea behind restricted stock units [RSUs] is to motivate employees to stay and create more value for the business,” says Matt Erley, who before founding golf start-up fund Old Tom Ventures was the head of growth at beverage-delivery startup Drizly when it was acquired by Uber. “You’re acting like an owner.” “In broad terms, RSUs work in two phases: how they’re allocated and triggered, and how and when they vest. At a tech start-up backed by a venture capital firm, the leadership team will usually assign a certain amount of equity to be distributed each year to contributors for a variety of reasons—from simply being a member of the team to achieving a performance milestone. The rules about how and when contributors get access to the equity they’ve been awarded are set with strategic goals in mind.” “Confirmed details about the PGA Tour’s new equity plan are still murky, but we know there will be four broad categories of players earning equity stakes in this initial round: A handful of superstars like Tiger Woods will share $750 million. A second group of 64 players will share $75 million based on their past three years of performance. The third group—mostly the remaining fully-exempt current players—will share $30 million, and a group of 36 designated “founding” players will share $75 million for their historical contributions. Another $600 million will be distributed in the future through recurring grants based on factors like on-course performance and Player Impact Program finish.” Full piece. 5. Worse for the Tour rank and file? Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…It’s an immediate ripple effect of sweeping changes made by the PGA Tour for this season, most notably the transformation of several events into limited-field, highly lucrative signature stops that was expected to shrink the total number of playing opportunities by about 10%. A select group of guys, however, are the ones taking the brunt of this initial wave. “Those top-50 guys, they’re playing fields that we can’t get into, and then fields that we can get into, they’re playing those, too,” a Korn Ferry Tour graduate, who wished to remain anonymous, argued. “And it’s not their fault; I would do it if I were them. But it does make it kind of tough. I don’t know what to do. Do you play Korn Ferry? Do you try and go get a DP World start? Do you try and keep writing for these f—ing sponsor invites? I’m tired of writing for sponsor invites. “… They’re going to tell you to play better, and I hear ya, I do. But you can’t play better if you’re not in the field.” Scott Gutschewski is 47 years old and has 140 career PGA Tour starts under his belt. He’s familiar with this reorder territory, having played out of similar categories for much of his career, though he notes this year has been uniquely challenging – “The Tour gives you the access summaries from previous years, and you can just throw that thing away. It’s completely meaningless.” When he finished No. 28 in Korn Ferry Tour points last year, Gutschewski planned a family vacation to Hawaii that would culminate with his season debut at the Sony Open. Full piece. 6. Record low audience for The Match 7. Schmelzel leads in Singapore AP report…” Sarah Schmelzel birdied two of of her final three holes Thursday for a 4-under 68 to take a 1-stroke lead over three players, including fellow American Lilia Vu, at the LPGA tournament in Singapore.” “Also tied for second with Vu at the HSBC Women’s World Championship at Sentosa Golf Club were Linn Grant and Esther Henseleit.” Full Piece. 8. 2024 Cognizant Classic photos Check out all of our galleries from this week’s event! Full Piece.