Rory McIlroy has ensured that the old pals act with Shane Lowry will be part of the new made-for-TV pre-Christmas golf challenge event which will take place at Trump National in Jupiter, Florida.
The Masters champion has named Lowry, Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald and – in a play for the exploding golf market in China – Haotong Li, along with himself on his four-man team that will take on Scottie Scheffler’s team – which includes Sam Burns, Keegan Bradley and Luke Clanton – in a series of challenges on December 17th which will be screened live on the Golf Channel.
The various challenges will include a timed drive competition (players competing in head-to-head duels with two minutes on the clock to hit to a scoring grid); timed short game competition (involving chipping and putting in a three-minute quick-fire game); 14-club challenge (players must try to hit closest to the pin using all clubs in the bag), two players, one bag (in a closest to the pin competition from designated distances on the fairway); timed shoot-out (a four-player alternate shot on four holes with players positioned on the tee, fairway and around the green with all 14 clubs used); and a captains’ challenge pitting McIlroy against Scheffler in a variety of long-game and short-game challenges.
“They give players the chance to showcase their skills across unique challenges and offer fans a new way to enjoy the game in the postseason,” explained McIlroy of another attempt to widen golf’s appeal.
Mark Power the only Irish player to survive cut at DP World Tour Q-School
Of the five Irish players competing in the DP World Tour final qualifying at Infinitum Golf Resort in Tarragona, Spain, only Mark Power managed to survive the 72-holes cut to progress to the final two rounds of the marathon in his bid to win a tour card for next season.
The Mount Juliet-attached former Walker Cup player made a 10-strokes improvement on his third round in firing a 66 to spectacularly move up 44 places on the leaderboard to a share of 54th to survive on the cut mark, but with some work yet to do to move into the top-20 and ties who will earn status on the main tour next season.
Conor Purcell, Max Kennedy (who each have the cushion of HotelPlanner Tour cards for 2026), JR Galbraith and Cormac Sharvin all missed the cut.
Word of Mouth
“Anytime I can be on a list with those two names, it means I’m doing something pretty good. It was helpful both of those guys weren’t in the field this week. But no, it’s been a lot of hard work. Been playing a lot of golf this year, just been keeping my head down and just trying to play my best and see how far I can go in this game” – Ben Griffin after his win in the World Wide Technology Championship enabled him to join Scheffler and McIlroy as a three-time winner on the PGA Tour this season. Griffin also moved to a career-best ninth on the official world rankings.
By the Numbers: 1
Leona Maguire is the lone Irish player in the field for this week’s Annika tournament on the LPGA Tour, the penultimate event of the season. Maguire is currently 56th on the CME Globe order of merit, with the top-60 after the Annika moving on to next week’s megabucks Tour Championship.
Social Swing
“Played lovely this week but too many mistakes” – Shane Lowry after his Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship performance where he suffered six bogeys and a double bogey (along with 23 birdies and two eagles). Lowry gets a chance to eliminate those mistakes on his return to The Earth course in Dubai for this week’s Tour Championship, the final event of the DP World Tour season.
First time in Abu Dhabi, and I really enjoyed my time here. Did some touristy stuff like checking out the Grand Mosque. One of the coolest buildings I’ve been to. Dubai will be my very last solo tournament for the yr! Let’s end it the right way – American golfer Michael Kim, who has enjoyed his late-season globetrotting (and sightseeing) on the DP World Tour which included a win in the French Open.
England’s Aaron Rai eyes the ball at Abu Dhabi. Photograph: Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty In the Bag: Aaron Rai (Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship
Driver: TaylorMade M6 (set at 9°)
3-Wood: TaylorMade Qi10 3-wood (15°)
5-Wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (18°)
Hybrid: Titleist GT2 (24°)
Irons: TaylorMade P7TW (5-9)
Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM9 (46°, 49°, 54° and 60°)
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour V
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Know the Rules
Q: The player’s second shot lands in the greenside bunker. The player hits the ball out of the bunker and it comes to rest just short of the green. The player removes the sand that landed both on the green and off the green using a towel as it was on their line of play. What is the ruling in stroke play?
A: The player gets a two-stroke penalty. There is no penalty for removing sand that lies on the putting green (Rule 13.1c), but the player gets the general penalty for improving their line of play by removing sand in the general area (Rule 8.1a (4)).
