TELFER’S THOUGHTS 19.1.26

Hello again and welcome to the New Golfing Year which is well and truly up and running with the game’s two main tours kicking off last week - the DP World Tour in the Dubai desert and the USPGA Tour in Hawaii.

The Christmas break is usually the quietest week of the year on the course, but this year there was a huge story that broke off the course. Brooks Koepka startled the golfing world two days before Christmas by announcing he was quitting LIV Golf. He promptly applied to be reinstated into the USPGA who, disregarding their own rules and regulatory stand down periods, immediately welcomed Koepka back like a long-lost son. No penalties, maybe a fine, but the burly American is now set to rejoin the Tour within the next couple of weeks. Big victory for the US Tour and potentially a savage blow to the world of LIV Golf.

Much more is still to be played out here. Will other superstars of the LIV stable, viz Bryson DeChambeau, John Rahm, Cam Smith and others follow suit, chucking in the LIV towel and returning to the PGA Tour? As things stand it appears those three are going to stay put. Nonetheless these are nervous times for LIV Golf who simply can’t afford to bleed any more big names. If they do, the whole LIV tent could quickly fold.

Our two top golfers, Ryan Fox and Daniel Hillier, were in action in Dubai where Daniel Hillier came within a stroke of picking up his second DP World Tour win. Midway through the back 9 on the last day the Kiwi was 1 of 5 players who shared the lead which included Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry. Sadly for the two Irishmen, both strayed their tee shoots on 18 so neither was able to make par. Daniel Hillier fared better with a regulation par but that still left him one shot behind the leader Nacho Elvira, a 38-year-old Spaniard who broke the 5-way deadlock with a birdie on 17. That meant all he had to do was par the last hole which he did for a one-shot victory.

However there was much to admire once again about the golf of Daniel Hillier. His 2nd place was his 4th top 6 finish from his last 5 starts which includes a 2nd , two 5ths and a 6th . For his troubles last week in Dubai he earned E258,000 - that’s just a shade over NZ$500,000. His next start is the Hero Dubai Classic which is just a 30-minute drive away. This is the tournament which saw him finish second to McIlroy last year. Another useful pay packet could be on the way for Daniel in this coming week.

Also in that field will be Ryan Fox who, like Hillier, had his first competitive outing for the new year. Foxy, if nothing else, was a model of consistency. He opened the tournament with two 72’s and finished it with two 71’s for a share of 27th place. He might have missed out on the big bucks that went Hillier’s way, but at least he had the satisfaction of returning the best putting figures for the last round of the entire field - just 25 putts for his final 18. I’m sure he’ll want to see his play from tee to green this week a little more accurate though.

On the USPGA Tour opener in Honolulu 25-year-old Chris Gotterup won for the third time in his short career. The 25-year-old American was ranked 195th in the world 12 months ago. Now, after this latest win and thanks to a red hot putter on the last day, he’s now the 17th ranked player in world golf.