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Scottie scheffler continues dominant run with 2024 rbc heritage win, share this article.

Scottie Scheffler spent an extra night in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, which typically wouldn’t be such a drag if not for his wife Meredith being pregnant back home in Dallas and awaiting the couple’s first child later this month.

But Mother Nature had other plans, forcing Scheffler to return to Harbour Town Golf Links on Monday morning to play his final three holes of the 2024 RBC Heritage and wrap up his fourth PGA Tour title in his past five starts.

One week and one day after Scheffler slipped into the famed Green Jacket awarded to the Masters champ for the second time in three years, the 27-year-old Texan added another colorful jacket – this time in trademark Tartan – to his closet and became the first reigning Masters champion to win the RBC Heritage since Bernhard Langer in 1985.

Scheffler, who was 4-under through 15 holes in the final round and 20-under overall when play was suspended due to darkness on Sunday, made two pars and a finishing bogey and signed for a 3-under 68 on Monday, three shots better than Sahith Theegala (68) and four better than reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark (65) and past FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay (68). Scheffler banked another $3.6 million to surpass $18 million in earnings this season – and it’s still April.

“I didn’t show up here just to have some sort of ceremony and have people tell me congratulations,” said Scheffler of avoiding a post-Masters victory hangover. “I came here with a purpose.”

CBS Sports roving reporter Colt Knost, who grew up with Scheffler following him around Dallas’s Royal Oaks Golf Club, already has one of the best nicknames in golf: The Big Gravy. But he may have earned another one – Knost-radamus – for a prediction seemingly as accurate as those of the 16 th century French astrologer Nostradamus. In February 2022, when Scheffler won his first Tour title at the WM Phoenix Open, Knost proclaimed him to be “a worldbeater,” and added, “Now that he’s got that first one, I think the floodgates are going to open for him.”

Scheffler’s latest triumph is his 10 th career title, the first player to win that many times (or more) in three seasons since Dustin Johnson did so between 2015-16 and 2017-18. There’s no indication that this flood of success for the world No. 1 will stop any time soon. Did Knost imagine Scheffler would dominate on the PGA Tour? “I really did,” he said. “He never plays badly and he’s one of the most competitive people I’ve ever met. He will never just go through the motions.”

Theegala, who recalled playing against Scheffler for the first time in the Starburst Junior Golf Classic at Waco, Texas, didn’t remember ever beating Scheffler, who is a year older than him, in a single junior tournament. Competing with Scheffler, who leads the Tour in 30 statistical categories this season, hasn’t gotten any easier lately. “It’s pretty epic,” Theegala said of Scheffler, who has shot even par or better in all 40 rounds this season and became the first player to win four times in five starts since Tiger Woods in 2007-08. “I was talking to Carl, my caddie, walking to 15 tee box. I was like, I grew up watching the end of Tiger, got to see Rory, DJ, Jordan, like all these guys kind of dominate for a period of time, and I was like, we could be in the midst of something really, really special.”

Some observers suggested that Scheffler would skip the RBC Heritage but Scheffler said he never wavered in his commitment to the tournament. After winning the Masters, Scheffler flew home to Dallas to be with Meredith and didn’t show up to Hilton Head until Tuesday. He played only a nine-hole practice round on Wednesday and spotted much of the field a head start, shanking a bunker shot at his third hole in the first round, making double bogey and needing two late birdies to post 69. He trailed by six and complained of fatigue. But after recharging his batteries, he didn’t make a single bogey or worse until the 72nd hole of the tournament, and even in that case Scheffler said he was counting that one as a par as he played the smart shots with a comfortable lead. He stormed back with a 65 on Friday and was lurking three back before reminding everyone who is boss with a bogey-free 63 to claim a one-stroke lead.

Are you kidding me?! 💥 Scottie Scheffler is doing Scottie Scheffler things. @RBC_Heritage pic.twitter.com/by9vn6dplU — Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) April 21, 2024

In the final round, Scheffler laid down the hammer early, chipping in at the par-5 second hole from 53 feet for eagle. His bump-and-run, executed to perfection, marked his 11 th hole-out of the season. He tacked on a birdie at the par-5 fifth and strung together six consecutive pars before the horn blew. When play resumed he wedged to 6 feet for another birdie at 13. When he made his lone blunder, pull-hooking a 4-iron into the water due to mud on his ball at the par-5 15th, he took a penalty drop and carved a beautiful shot to 11 feet. Darkness had fallen and he could’ve wait until Monday to strike the par putt but he opted to play on and sank it for good measure. While that snapped a streak of 53 consecutive holes without recording a score of more than a four on his card, dating to the 15 th hole in his first round, he pumped his fist with glee for keeping a clean card (to that point).

“I felt like I was due for one to drop,” said Scheffler, whose closing bogey gave him a winning total 19-under 265. “So I figured might as well hit it now.”

Clark mounted an early charge, making an eagle and six birdies in his first 11 holes to inch within a stroke of the lead. But his effort to run down Scheffler was spoiled at the 12 th hole when Clark tried to punch between trees. His ball struck one of them squarely and ricocheted out of bounds. He made double bogey.

“It was kind of fun for a little bit,” said Clark, who improved to a career-best ranking of No. 3 in the world. “Seemed like maybe we had a chance to do something crazy.”

Only Mother Nature could prolong Scheffler’s victory another day. Play was suspended due to inclement weather at 4:28 p.m. ET, for two hours and 32 minutes. The delay meant they ran out of daylight.

But on Monday, Scheffler capped off winning for the fourth time this year, all of them Signature events. He finished tied for second in the only tournament he did not win during his scorching run. For the week, he topped the field of 69 in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, SG: Tee to Green, SG: Approach the Green and scrambling.

“We’re watching greatness right now,” CBS’s Jim Nantz said. “It doesn’t happen all the time, but it sure is fun when you find yourself witnessing something like this.

Nantz’s NFL broadcast partner, former Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo, who played in the Invited Celebrity Classic on PGA Tour Champions last week, estimated he’s played around 500 rounds with Scheffler and said he’s never failed to break 70.

“Which is insane,” said Romo who played with him the week before the Masters at Brook Hollow, a Dallas club. “I have not seen a guy hit a golf ball like this since Tiger back in the 2000s when I played with him, the way he was striking the ball, the compression, the trajectory, the spin rate. It was impressive, and I was like, ‘He ain’t losing that tournament.’ ”

No one stopped him at the RBC Heritage either. Could Scheffler be on his way to a season for the record books? That may depend whether history repeats itself — all 10 of his wins have come in the months of February, March and April. So, time will tell if Scheffler can continue to dominate when the calendar flips to May – just don’t bet against the floodgates closing any time soon.

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PGA TOUR, ESPN+ Announce Details of Expanded and Extended Coverage Beginning in January

• PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ set to launch January 2022
• Four new streaming feeds more than triples live coverage to more than 4,300 exclusive hours

ESPN+ and PGA TOUR announced details for the inaugural season of PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ , with extended and expanded coverage that more than triples the total coverage – adding more than 3,200 new hours of live streaming available for a total of more than 4,300 exclusive hours. All PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ coverage will be available to ESPN+’s more than 17.1 million subscribers.

In 2022, PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will include live coverage of 35 tournaments – from the TOUR’s Hawaii events in January all the way through the FedExCup Playoffs and into the fall – with at least 28 events having four full days of coverage and four simultaneous live feeds each day.

“The start of the PGA TOUR in 2022 will tee off a new and exciting opportunity for fans to watch the best golfers in the world,” said Burke Magnus, President, Programming and Original Entertainment, ESPN. “The new and expanded PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ is an incredible offering for golf fans – with more than three times the coverage from last season, while also bringing them access to thousands of other sporting events and original programming, all for $6.99 per month.”

With the launch of PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ comes new streaming feeds that will bring expanded coverage of events totaling more than 4,300 exclusive hours. Beginning with The American Express (January 20-23, 2022), PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will offer fans four live feeds for each tournament:

• Main Feed : primary tournament-coverage featuring the best action from across the course;
• Marquee Group : new “marquee group” showcasing every shot from each player in the group;
• Featured Groups : traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage of two concurrent featured groups;
• Featured Holes : a combination of par-3s and iconic or pivotal holes.

When network television coverage begins, the four streams will pivot to two featured groups and two featured holes so fans can continue to engage with PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ in addition to the telecast.

Rick Anderson, Chief Media Officer, PGA TOUR said, “The PGA TOUR couldn’t be more excited to launch a new era in content delivery with Disney and ESPN+, which will greatly expand and diversify our audience reach. There will be more content available to our fans than ever before with an exciting and diverse group of on-air talent delivering the action.”

This expanded, unprecedented coverage, with over-the-top (OTT) streaming and emerging technologies moving to ESPN+, is part of the TOUR’s new nine-year domestic media rights portfolio announced in March 2020 .

The weekly production crew behind PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will increase from approximately 85 people to more than 210, with 16 cameras on the course, and a 15-person talent crew calling the action across the four channels. The expanded talent roster is still being finalized and will include current studio hosts John Swantek, Jonathan Coachman, Lisa Cornwell and Ned Michaels and on-course analysts Christina Kim, Karen Stupples, Mark Immelman, Chantel McCabe, Mark Wilson, Stuart Appleby and Michael Collins.

“We are excited about the growth of PGA TOUR LIVE and the opportunity to reach a larger audience on ESPN+,” said PGA TOUR Vice President and Executive Producer Greg Hopfe. “Four separately produced streams will showcase more action than ever before from top players and fan-favorite holes at each tournament. We look forward to being able to share nearly every shot from golf fans’ favorite players on ESPN+.”

PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will cover both early January Hawaii events – Sentry Tournament of Champions and Sony Open in Hawaii – for the first time with Featured Groups coverage in the mornings, followed by Featured Holes in the afternoons.

The complete four feed PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ offering will begin at The American Express.

PGA TOUR LIVE originally launched in 2015. ESPN+, launched in 2018, has grown to reach 17.1 million subscribers. The combined PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will provide significant growth opportunities for PGA TOUR content via ESPN+’s digital reach, innovative platform and young and diverse audiences.

PGA TOUR LIVE will be part of any ESPN+ subscription, at no additional cost, alongside more than 15,000 other live sporting events, acclaimed studio programs, original series and documentaries and a library of other on demand programming.

Golf programming on ESPN+ also includes The Masters (115 hours of live coverage, plus 50 hours of The Masters Films from 1960-2020), The PGA Championship (200 hours of live coverage, plus 30 hours of library and classic programming), as well as the original series America’s Caddie with Michael Collins, which will return in 2022 with new episodes throughout the PGA TOUR season.

ESPN+ is available through the ESPN App (mobile and connected devices), ESPN.com or ESPNplus.com for just $6.99/month or $69.99/year. It is also part of The Disney Bundle, a one-stop streaming subscription offer that gives customers access to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ for $13.99/month.

About PGA TOUR By showcasing golf’s greatest players, the PGA TOUR engages, inspires and positively impacts our fans, partners and communities worldwide.

The PGA TOUR, headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, co-sanctions tournaments on the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, Korn Ferry Tour, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada and Forme Tour. Members on the PGA TOUR represent the world’s best players, hailing from 28 countries and territories outside the United States (90 international members). The PGA TOUR has domestic distribution partnerships for broadcast coverage on CBS, NBC and Golf Channel. Internationally, PGA TOUR coverage is available across 216 countries and territories in 28 languages via 48 local broadcast partners, in addition to the digital streaming service platform GOLFTV powered by PGA TOUR. Virtually all tournaments are organized as non-profit organizations to maximize charitable giving, and to date, tournaments across all Tours have generated more than $3.2 billion.

Fans can follow the PGA TOUR on PGATOUR.COM , the No. 1 site in golf, on the PGA TOUR app and on social media channels, including Facebook , Instagram (in English , Spanish and Korean ) , LinkedIn , Twitter , WeChat , Weibo , Toutiao , Douyin and LINE .

About ESPN+ ESPN+ is the industry-leading sports streaming service that offers fans in the U.S. thousands of live sports events, original programming not available on ESPN’s linear TV or digital networks and exclusive editorial content from dozens of ESPN writers and reporters. Launched in April 2018, ESPN+ has grown to more than 17.1 million subscribers.

Fans sign up to ESPN+ for just $6.99 a month (or $69.99 per year) at ESPN.com, ESPNplus.com or on the ESPN App (mobile and connected devices). It is also available as part of The Disney Bundle that gives subscribers access to Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu for $13.99/month (Hulu w/ads) or $19.99/month (Hulu w/o ads).

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The Alliance of LIV Golf and the PGA Tour: Here’s What to Know

The details of the partnership are far from complete, according to a document outlining the framework of the deal.

By Kevin Draper

The PGA Tour, the world’s pre-eminent professional golf league, and LIV Golf, a Saudi-funded upstart whose emergence over the past year and a half has cleaved the sport in two, have agreed to join forces.

The pact is complicated and incomplete: A document submitted to Congress and obtained by The New York Times includes only a handful of binding commitments . But numerous golfers hate it, and for the moment they are directing their wrath at the architects of the deal. Let’s start from the beginning.

What are the PGA Tour and LIV Golf?

The PGA Tour holds tournaments nearly every weekend, mostly in the United States but also in other countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with prize pools worth millions of dollars. The tour has been the home to practically every male golfer you can name: Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer and so on.

It has relationships with, but is separate from, the organizations that stage men’s golf’s four majors: the Masters Tournament, the P.G.A. Championship, the U.S. Open and the British Open. (The L.P.G.A., which runs the women’s tour, is separate.)

LIV Golf began in late 2021 with the former PGA Tour player Greg Norman as its commissioner and billions of dollars in backing from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which is known as the Public Investment Fund. LIV lured several PGA Tour players, including the major champions Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka, with massive purses and guaranteed payouts that far surpassed what they could earn on the established circuit.

LIV promised a sharp break from golf’s fusty traditionalism, starting with its name, which, when pronounced, rhymes with “give” but is actually the Roman numeral for 54, the number of holes played in each tournament. LIV had music blaring at its events, looser dress codes and team competitions — and tournaments that lasted three days instead of four. Further, and of particular appeal to potential players, while the PGA Tour tournaments cut golfers with the worst scores after two rounds, LIV did not cut anyone.

What was the relationship between the leagues before the deal?

Acrimonious, to put it lightly. Players who joined LIV were forced to resign from the PGA Tour — and its European equivalent, the DP World Tour — under the threat of suspension and fines. LIV sued the PGA Tour, and the PGA Tour countersued, litigation that is technically continuing (though the deal is supposed to resolve it).

PGA Tour supporters and other critics of LIV said the venture was simply an attempt by the Saudi government to distract attention from its human rights record, while LIV supporters said the PGA Tour was a monopoly that used inappropriate strong-arm tactics to protect its position in big-time sports.

And yet now they are combining?

It seems so. The PGA Tour and LIV announced on June 6 the creation of a new entity that would combine their assets, as well as those of the DP World Tour, and radically change golf’s governance.

The PGA Tour would remain a nonprofit organization and would retain full control over how its tournaments are played. But all of the PGA Tour’s commercial business and rights — such as the extremely lucrative rights to televise its tournaments — would be owned by a new, yet unnamed, for-profit entity that is currently called “NewCo.” NewCo will also own LIV as well as the commercial and business rights of the DP World Tour.

The board of directors for the new for-profit entity would be led by Yasir al-Rumayyan, who is the governor of the Public Investment Fund and also oversees LIV. Three other members of the board’s executive committee would be current members of the PGA Tour’s board, and the tour would appoint the majority of the board and hold a majority voting interest, effectively controlling it.

What have they agreed on?

Not much, it turns out. The PGA Tour’s tentative deal with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund includes only a handful of binding commitments, such as a nondisparagement agreement and a pledge to dismiss acrimonious litigation. (The sides have already moved to end their legal fights .) What it does not include is a clear path of what lies ahead for the tours: Many of the most consequential details about the future of men’s professional golf have not been resolved, and were left to be negotiated by the end of the year.

Most crucially, the tour and the wealth fund must still come to terms on the values of the assets that each will contribute to their planned partnership. Bankers and lawyers have spent recent weeks beginning the valuation process, but a five-page framework agreement obtained by The New York Times includes no substantive details of projected figures or even the size of an anticipated cash investment from the wealth fund.

And one issue the two parties had agreed on has been removed. The framework agreement included a nonsolicitation clause, which said the PGA Tour and LIV Golf would not “enter into any contract, agreement or understanding with” any “players who are members of the other’s tour or organization.” But the two sides, facing pressure from the Justice Department, decided to abandon that clause .

When does this take effect?

First, the idea also has to be approved by the PGA Tour’s policy board, what it calls its board of directors, which includes some people who were left out of the secret negotiations for this deal in the spring.

The policy board is made up of five independent directors, including Ed Herlihy and Jimmy Dunne, who helped negotiate the deal. The board also includes five players: Patrick Cantlay, Charley Hoffman, Peter Malnati, Rory McIlroy and Webb Simpson.

Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, said on June 6 that there was only a “framework agreement” and not a “definitive agreement,” with many details still to be decided. The definitive agreement needs a vote before it can go forward.

And for the rest of 2023, all the tours will remain separate, and all their tournaments will continue as scheduled.

And after that?

Who knows? This is how Monahan answered questions about what golf might look like in the future on the day the alliance was revealed.

Will LIV continue to exist as a separate golf league? “I don’t want to make any statements or make any predictions.”

Will LIV golfers go back to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour? “We will work cooperatively to establish a fair and objective process for any players who desire to reapply for membership with the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour,” Monahan wrote in a letter to players.

Will PGA Tour players, many of whom spurned LIV and its huge paydays, receive compensation? Will LIV players somehow be forced to give up the money they were guaranteed? “I think those are all the serious conversations that we’re going to have,” Monahan told reporters.

How do players feel about all of this?

Broadly, LIV players seem to think they have gained a major victory, and they are probably right. They got their cake (huge paydays) and can eat it (a pathway to returning to the PGA Tour), too.

Mickelson, the first major player to leave for LIV, tweeted that it was an “awesome day today.” Koepka took a jab at Brandel Chamblee, a former professional golfer and current television commentator, who has been vocally anti-LIV.

Many PGA Tour players were less jubilant. They were blindsided by the news, learning of the agreement when the public did, and they did not seem to understand why the tour waged a legal war against LIV and a war of morality against Saudi money, only to invite the wolf into the henhouse.

On the day the news broke, Monahan met with a group of players in Toronto at the Canadian Open, which was set to start in two days, and afterward told reporters it was “intense, certainly heated.”

Johnson Wagner, a PGA Tour player, said on the Golf Channel that some players at the meeting called for Monahan’s resignation.

“There were many moments where certain players were calling for new leadership of the PGA Tour, and even got a couple standing ovations,” he said. “I think the most powerful moment was when a player quoted Commissioner Monahan from the 3M Open in Minnesota last year when he said, ‘As long as I’m commissioner of the PGA Tour, no player that took LIV money will ever play the PGA Tour again.’”

Wagner estimated that 90 percent of the players in the meeting were against the merger.

McIlroy, perhaps the most influential PGA Tour player not named Tiger Woods, said he was reluctantly in favor of the agreement. McIlroy said he had “come to terms” with Saudi money in golf. “Honestly, I’ve just resigned myself to the fact that this is, you know, this is what’s going to happen,” he said.

I see a photo of former President Trump up there. Is he involved in this?

Yes, though not directly. The Trump Organization owns golf courses around the world, and Donald J. Trump has for years sought to host major tournaments on its properties. Those efforts suffered a setback after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, as the golf establishment distanced itself from the former president. Most significantly, the P.G.A. of America pulled the 2022 P.G.A. Championship from the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.

But Trump had cultivated unusually close ties to Saudi Arabia while president, and Saudi-backed LIV had no problem embracing him. Last year, two LIV events were held at Trump courses, and this year it will be three.

Trump’s son Eric said that the agreement between LIV and the PGA Tour was a “wonderful thing for the game of golf” and that he expected tournaments to continue to be held at Trump-owned courses. He declined to comment on whether the Trump family played any role in bringing the two parties together.

If the PGA Tour was so against LIV and Saudi money, what changed?

“Listen, circumstances change, and they’ve been changing a lot over the last couple years,” Monahan said.

Get it? No?

“What changed? I looked at where we were at that point in time, and it was the right point in time to have a conversation,” Monahan said.

Between the lines, Monahan made it sound like the agreement came down to money and competition, as it often does. To compete with LIV, the PGA Tour has enhanced purses, supported the DP World Tour financially and pursued extremely expensive litigation. “We’ve had to invest back in our business through our reserves,” Monahan said.

He also said the ability to “take the competitor off of the board” while retaining control was significant.

Can anybody else stop the deal from going through?

The Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission or the European Commission could certainly try.

For about a year, the Justice Department has been investigating the tight-knit relationship between the PGA Tour and other powerful entities in golf. Among its questions is whether the organizations have exerted improper influence over the Official World Golf Rankings, which determine players’ eligibility for certain events and can be an important factor in their success and income.

As part of their deal, LIV and the PGA Tour agreed to drop their dueling lawsuits, but doing so would not necessarily change the Justice Department’s inquiry. If there were any illegal conduct by the PGA Tour, a merger would not prevent the PGA Tour from being punished for it.

“The announcement of a merger doesn’t forgive past sins,” said Bill Baer, who led the Justice Department’s antitrust division during the Obama administration.

The federal government, through the Justice Department and the F.T.C., also reviews more than 1,000 mergers for approval each year, and the European Commission reviews them for the European Union. Without a definitive agreement, it is not clear whether this might be the type of combination regulators could block or whether they would try to do so.

Saudi Arabia seems to have grand sports ambitions. Will it always remain a junior partner to the PGA Tour in golf?

As always, Saudi Arabia has the perfect vehicle to gain more control: money.

The Public Investment Fund will invest “billions,” according to its governor, al-Rumayyan, into the new for-profit entity. It will also hold “the exclusive right to further invest in the new entity, including a right of first refusal on any capital that may be invested in the new entity, including into the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and DP World Tour,” according to the release announcing the agreement.

If the Public Investment Fund invests more money, it will surely demand more board seats and greater voting rights, further tilting control of men’s professional golf toward the kingdom.

Kevin Draper is an investigative reporter on the Sports desk, where he has written about workplace harassment and discrimination, sexual misconduct, doping, league investigations and high-profile court cases. More about Kevin Draper

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PGA Tour-LIV merger Senate Hearing: Live updates from this morning’s hearing

The deal between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund will be discussed in a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate will hold a hearing on the proposed deal between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) , which runs LIV Golf. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. ET. Follow along below for live updates from the hearing in Washington D.C.

What the PGA Tour regrets ‘deeply’ about PIF agreement rollout

The hearing is entitled “The PGA-LIV Deal: Implications for the Future of Golf and Saudi Arabia’s Influence in the United States.” Senators are expected to question some of the major players in the deal, though PGA Tour CEO Jay Monahan, PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and LIV CEO Greg Norman will not be in attendance.

Leading the hearing will be Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) , the subcommittee’s chairman, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the subcommittee’s ranking member. As Blumenthal detailed in a June 21 letter to Monahan, the intent of the session is to “examine the planned agreement … the future of the PIF-funded LIV Golf, the risks associated with a foreign government’s investment in American cultural institutions, and the implications of this planned agreement on professional golf in the United States going forward.”

LIVE UPDATES FROM PGA TOUR-LIV SENATE HEARING

1:02 p.m. ET: That’s a wrap. Stay tuned to GOLF.com for lots more coming from today’s hearing.

12:50 p.m. ET: Sen. Blumenthal speaking to Jimmy Dunne:

“You are not out of the woods. They (Saudi Arabia) are going to continue to yield the influence that they do. Whatever the good intentions and good rhetoric now, you still have to reach a deal. So my hope is that you will resist those buckets full of money. I think a lot of players, sponsors, charities and frankly the 9/11 families are hoping the PGA Tour will stand up and frankly avoid the sellout that this deal seems to be.

“Because that disruptive, uneconomic effect is exactly what we need to resist as a nation. If we are going to be selling out to countries that can throw around hundreds of billions of dollars, we are going to lose, not just financially, we are going to lose in terms of our democracy and freedom.”

12:19 p.m. ET: Sen. Blumenthal asks Ron Price about Greg Norman’s future. Price says if an agreement is made, LIV events would be managed by the PGA Tour.

“So just to be clear, he’s out of a job?” Sen. Blumenthal asked.

“If we reach a definitive agreement, we would not have a requirement for that type of position,” says Price.

12:08 p.m. ET: Sen. Hawley goes back to Ron Price and asks about PGA Tour’s status in China. “We have no plans to continue that tour,” Price says.

11:50 a.m. ET: Sen. Johnson suggests that since the deal has not been finalized, the government should give the PGA Tour and PIF the space to negotiate and then come back once a agreement has been reached.

“I believe their motivations are pure. They’re trying to save this game.”

Dunne reiterates he appreciates Sen. Blumenthal’s concerns over the deal.

11:38 a.m. ET: Sen. Blumenthal: “The simple fact here is that the Saudi government is dominant owner here… It has the money and the money is the reason you surrendered in this agreement… I think the American people can see through some of things you say with the best intentions.”

11:35 a.m. ET: Sen. Blumenthal questioned whether or not the PGA Tour could have raised enough money to combat LIV GOLF privately.

Blumenthal making the case that, instead of partnering with PIF, the PGAT could easily raise private-equity investment or make the players owners of the Tour. "There is something that stinks about the path that you're on." — Alan Bastable (@alan_bastable) July 11, 2023

11:25 a.m. ET: Ron Price to Missouri Senator Josh Hawley on taking a potential $1 billion investment from Saudi Arabia: “We faced a choice. One was to allow professional golf to be taken over and operated by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The second was to continue and lead it in accordance with our values and charities.”

11:15 a.m. ET: When asked who stands to gain the most from the deal financially, Dunne says it’s Yasir Al-Rumayyan. “I hope that in a more constructive way, Yasir gets a more productive role in the game of golf.”

Price answered the same question by saying it was the players, fans, sponsors, etc.

11:00 a.m. ET : Documents released ahead of the hearing show a proposed “best of both worlds” outcome to PGA Tour leadership had Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods would each own LIV Golf teams and play in 10 LIV events a year. Additionally, PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan would gain an R&A membership AND Augusta National membership.

10:50 a.m. ET: In testimony, Dunne details the threat LIV could have been to the Tour if a deal was not reached.

“The PGA Tour is not that big in terms of players. If [LIV] take five players a year, in five years they can gut us.”

10:45 a.m. ET: Sen. Blumenthal reveals documents stated Greg Norman would be removed as LIV CEO and placed in a new role determined by the PIF if the deal goes through.

Sen. Blumenthal says documents showed Greg Norman would be "reassigned" from LIV CEO "an advisory role decided by PIF" upon the completion of the PIF/PGA Tour agreement. — James Colgan (@jamescolgan26) July 11, 2023

10:40 a.m. ET: In his opening statement, PGA Tour Policy Board member Jimmy Dunne says that if the PGA Tour-LIV Golf war continued, “golf as we know it would be damaged forever.” Explains that the only firm detail of the framework agreement is the end of all litigation. Very ademant the PGA Tour will retain complete control.

10:30 a.m. ET: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) speaks next, offering opening remarks, saying in part: “Sportswashing is also a legitimate issue, but no amount of money can wash away the stain of the brutal Khashoggi assassination and other human rights abuses. But it would be grossly unfair to expect the PGA Tour to bear the full burden of holding Saudi Arabi accountable. After all, anyone who drives a car or who uses oil-based products has helped fill the coffers of the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

“Foreign investment in the U.S. is generally a good thing, and I would rather have the Saudis reinvest their oil wealth in America as opposed to China or Russia. Also, if the Kingdom’s involvement in golf and other sports helps it to modernize and offer more rights to women, wouldn’t that be a good thing?”

He added, “There is nothing wrong with the PGA Tour negotiating its survival.”

10:20 a.m. ET: Sen. Blumenthal thanks PGA Tour COO Ron Price and PGA Tour Policy Board member Jimmy Dunne for agreeing to appear at the hearing.

PGA Tour board members being sworn in before congress. What a world pic.twitter.com/YnAc6P06Uo — Jack Hirsh (@JR_HIRSHey) July 11, 2023

PGA Tour COO Ron Price and Board Member Jimmy Dunne arrive to testify before a Senate Subcommittee about the PGA Tour/LIV deal —> pic.twitter.com/cxCFJX4eIU — Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) July 11, 2023

10:15 a.m. ET:

one surprise guest on senate panel: Ran Paul (R-KY), noted Saudi critic — Alan Bastable (@alan_bastable) July 11, 2023

T-minus 2 min – no sign yet of our protagonists, but a hush has fallen over the room. Standing-room only pic.twitter.com/iisP0edeeF — Alan Bastable (@alan_bastable) July 11, 2023

10:10 a.m. ET: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) opens the proceedings with an introductory speech, noting that the PGA Tour is a “cherished American institution” and that the purpose of the hearing is to probe how the involvement of Saudi Arabia, whose government he called a “repressive regime,” will affect the Tour and game of golf in the future.

9:50 a.m. ET: GOLF.com Executive Editor Alan Bastable is in attendance in D.C. He reports that the hearing was “originally scheduled for smaller room but due to interest was moved to bigger space: Hart 216, same room where Supreme Court confirm hearings are conducted.”

another sleepy day on the #golf beat pic.twitter.com/sXWMyFhYAH — Alan Bastable (@alan_bastable) July 11, 2023

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2024 RBC Heritage prize money payouts for each PGA Tour player

It pays to play well on the PGA Tour. Just ask  this week’s winner, Scottie Scheffler .

The 27-year-old won the 2024 RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, on Monday after play was suspended for two-and-a-half hours on Sunday due to inclement weather and then later for darkness. The win is the world No. 1's fourth in his last five starts and 10th of his PGA Tour career.

Last week Scheffler won $3.6 million at the Masters and he earned another $3.6 million for his win this week in the PGA Tour's latest big-money signature event. Sahith Theegala, who finished three shots back in second, banked a hefty $2.18 million for his runner-up showing. Patrick Cantlay and Wyndham Clark, who finished T-3 at 15 under, each banked $1.18 million.

With $20 million up for grabs, check out how much money each PGA Tour player earned this week at the 2024 RBC Heritage in Hilton Head.

Prize money payouts

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: 2024 RBC Heritage prize money payouts for each PGA Tour player

Update on EA SPORTS PGA TOUR

Game launching during the week of the masters tournament.

Hi Golf Fans,

We have an update to share on EA SPORTS™ PGA TOUR™ . 

EA SPORTS PGA TOUR will now launch the week of the Masters Tournament, with an early access release on Tuesday, April 4 and worldwide launch on Friday, April 7. Creating an authentic golf experience has been our goal, and this small shift in release date allows us to add a few final touches to the game that we are very excited to deliver to all of you, including updates to some favorite courses to reflect 2023 designs.

In the last couple months we’ve shown all the great content we’ve packed into EA SPORTS PGA TOUR – the exclusive home of all men’s four majors – and we have a few more details to share in the weeks ahead. If you haven’t already, check out the deep dive videos on gameplay , including the all-new Pure Strike shot system, and the 30 bucket-list courses that will be available to play at launch.  We’ll have more to come as we get closer to launch, so stay with us at @EASPORTSPGATOUR on Twitter , Facebook , and Instagram for the latest updates.

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RBC Heritage

Harbour Town Golf Links

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina • USA

Apr 18 - 21, 2024

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