Welcome to Playing Through's daily event – Today's Golf Talk.
Every day, staff discusses various elements of the PGA Tour, LPGA, LIV Golf and more.
Today’s talk revolves around the highlight of the week, the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the DP World Tour, and their pairings.
When pairings were announced for the tournament on Tuesday, jaws dropped when they saw the PGA Tour's Jay Monahan and LIV Golf's Yasir Al-Rumayyan competing in the first round together. Monahan will be paired with Billy Horschel and Al-Rumayyan will be paired with LIV Golf's Dean Burmester.
Many may be wondering if race officials did this on purpose, but it appears they won't be talking about much business after Horschel's comments about the pair.
Since the PGA Tour and LIV Golf announced the potential deal more than a year ago, on June 6, 2023, there has been a lot of news surrounding the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
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Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images
Many business deals are made on the golf course, so while this pairing is an odd one, it's probably optimistic for the future of golf. While Horschel dismissed the business talk, who knows what will happen between the two leaders.
Rory McIlroy and his father Gerry also competed. On the first day at Carnoustie they will play with LIV's Louis Oosthuizen and Johann Rupert.
Then, in the second round at Kingsbarn, he played alongside Monaghan and Horschel. The third round becomes even more interesting as they will play against Al-Rumayyan and Burmester. Two of the biggest names on the PGA Tour will play alongside the owners of LIV Golf.
Hopefully this will spark more discussions to complete a deal between the two golf entities.
The interesting pairings don’t end there.
Robert McIntyre will play alongside his father, Dougie, who caddied for him during his win at the RBC Canadian Open. They will play their first round tie against Shane Lowry and Gerry McManus at Carnoustie. A matchup between two European Ryder Cup members is always fun.
Tommy Fleetwood and his partner Ogden Phipps II play alongside Brooks Koepka and Brian Thompson. They are also open at Carnoustie.
Matt Wallace will be matched up with Talor Gooch in the first round. Defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick and his mother Sue will race alongside Tyrrell Hatton and Jeff Hatton.
These are just some of the noteworthy pairings I saw. For more tee times and a complete list of pairings, visit the DP World Tour's website, which lists every pairing for the first three days of the Alfred Dunhill Golf Championship.
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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.
