Tiger Woods accepted a special exemption to play in the U.S. Open, the United States Golf Association announced on Thursday.

• Woods, who won the U.S. Open in 2000, 2002 and 2008, will be making his 23rd overall appearance at the tournament when it begins on June 13 at Pinehurst, N.C.

  "The story of the U.S. Open could not be written without Tiger Woods," USGA chief championships officer John Bodenhamer said in a statement. "From his 15-stroke victory at Pebble Beach in 2000 to his inspiring win on a broken leg at Torrey Pines in 2008, this championship is simply better when Tiger is in the field, and his accomplishments in the game undoubtedly made this an easy decision for our special exemption committee."

  The U.S. Open does not provide lifetime exemptions to past champions, unlike the PGA Championship or Masters. Woods, who is currently No. 789 in the Official World Golf Ranking, initially was not eligible for the U.S. Open after his five-year exemption for winning the 2019 Masters expired.

  "The U.S. Open, our national championship, is a truly special event for our game and one that has helped define my career," Woods said in a statement. "I'm honored to receive this exemption and could not be more excited for the opportunity to compete in this year's U.S. Open, especially at Pinehurst, a venue that means so much to the game."

  Woods, 48, won the last of his 15 majors at Augusta in 2019.

  This year, he has withdrawn from the Genesis Invitational and limped to a 60th-place finish at the Masters. He has eyes on competing at the PGA Championship in two weeks at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.

  --Field Level Media

Caddie Mike "Fluff" Cowan and Jim Furyk have parted ways amicably after 25 years together.

• Cowan, who was on the bag for Tiger Woods in the late 1990s, is returning to the PGA Tour.

  Cowan is working with Taiwanese pro C.T. Pan at this week's CJ Cup Byron Nelson in McKinney, Texas.

  "It's hard to part ways after 25 years," Cowan said, per USA Today's Golfweek. "Sometimes the right thing to do is staring you right in the face and you've got to have the guys to do it."

  Furyk, 53, and Cowan have worked together since the 1999 Masters.

  The timing of the move for Cowan is based on simple economics, as Furyk has been sidelined with injuries over the past two years. His best finish in three starts on the Champions Tour this season is a T33 at the Hoag Classic in March.

  "We play for $2 million. They play for $8, $20, $25 million," Furyk wrote in a text to Golfweek. "I knew it was a good opportunity for him, and C.T. has been playing pretty good. (Fluff) was hesitant. Because he's a great person at heart. But I pushed and we both knew it was best for him and his family."

  Pan, 32, has earned $674,187 so far this season, compared to $19,464 for Furyk.

  Furyk's son, Tanner, is scheduled to caddie for the 2003 U.S. Open champion at three to four events this summer.

  Cowan has previously caddied for Ed Sabo (1976-78), Peter Jacobsen (1978-96) and Woods (1996-99) in addition to Furyk.

  --Field Level Media

Peter Oosterhuis, whose voice became synonymous with the finishing holes at The Masters, died on Thursday, one day shy of his 76th birthday.

• A force in Ryder Cup play and two-time runner-up at The Open Championship, Oosterhuis was more recently a broadcasting mainstay in CBS' coverage of The Masters' 17th hole. He was part of televised Masters coverage from 1997-2014 following roles as golf director at Riviera Country Club near Los Angeles and Forsgate Country Club in New Jersey.

  Oosterhuis ranked No. 1 in Europe for four years during a prolific rise to prominence that eventually brought him to the PGA Tour.

  The London-born Oosterhuis was DP World Tour Rookie of the Year in 1969 and on the top player award on tour for four consecutive seasons (1971-74). In addition to three Southern Africa Tour titles he won seven DP World Tour titles and became a full-time PGA Tour participant in 1975 as one of the first international players to assume a spot on the US-based tour.

  Oosterhuis won 20 tournaments around the globe and never declined an invitation to represent Great Britain.

  He remains tied for the all-time lead in singles victories in Ryder Cup play with six. He participated in the Ryder Cup six times.

  Among his near-misses at majors were a one-shot defeat to Tom Watson at the Open Championship in Royal Troon in 1982 and a tied for third at the Masters in 1973 after leading for the first three rounds. The final round was played Monday due to weather issues and Tommy Arnold claimed his only major title, beating J.C. Snead by one shot.

  His breakthrough PGA Tour win was the 1981 Canadian Open, a one-shot victory in Toronto over runners up Bruce Lietzke, Andy North and Jack Nicklaus. His Masters tie in '73 included Nicklaus.

  Oosterhuis announced his retirement from broadcasting in the summer of 2014 due to the diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's.

  --Field Level Media

Sungjae Im withdrew from the CJ Cup Byron Nelson prior to his opening round due to illness, the PGA Tour announced on Thursday.

• Im, 26, successfully defended his title at the KPGA Tour's Woori Financial Group Championship last week in his native South Korea. He was scheduled to be part of a featured group that included defending champion Jason Day and Jordan Spieth at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas.

  Im will be replaced by S.Y. Noh, who got off to a fast start with a 60 at last year's tournament before limping to a tie for 74th place.

  Also on Thursday, Russell Knox withdrew for an undisclosed reason. The two-time PGA Tour winner was replaced by Scott Piercy.

  Knox had been named as a replacement earlier Thursday following the withdrawal of Sean O'Hair.

  --Field Level Media

Seemingly stalled merger talks could build a bridge between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, but nearly 11 months since the potential agreement became public, Brooks Koepka cleared up what he believes is a public misconception.

• "I mean, the merger is also between PIF (Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund) and the PGA Tour," Koepka said Thursday at Sentosa Golf Club, site of LIV Singapore. "I think that's the difference. It's not LIV Golf, it's the PIF and the PGA TOUR. I think that's something that needs to be well known.

  "Look, we have no idea. The PGA Tour has no idea. Our job is to go play golf, and that's it. That's what we're here to do. But I think it's important that the merger is that way."

  Koepka said he's focused on fixing his putting this week with the PGA Championship at Valhalla two weeks away. He is the defending PGA Championship winner, taking his third Wanamaker Trophy at Oak Hill in 2023. But his game isn't in the same place by his own assessment following a 45th-place finish at Augusta National last month. Koepka was 20 shots off the pace of winner Scottie Scheffler.

  Koepka is 16th in LIV Golf's individual standings and working primarily on his short game. He lamented Thursday that he left Georgia last month with the feeling he wasted the four-month buildup to the tournament, which was anchored by a transition from a button-back style putter in his bag for a dozen years to a mallet putter.

  "Something we've just been putting some work into, so trying to find some answers," Koepka said.

  Asked to describe the main issues with his putting at the moment, Koepka quipped: "The ball doesn't go in the hole, that is usually one of them. I don't know how else to simply put it. I feel like I'm hitting good putts, they just keep burning lips. Eventually it starts to wear on you after a while. All you can do is hit a good putt and see where it goes from there. Hopefully they start falling soon."

  Bryson DeChambeau was in the final pairing with Max Homa on Saturday at the Masters but was left in Scheffler's wake and tied for sixth.

  He said more LIV golfers are certain to be in contention in majors with three on the schedule in the next three months.

  "I think us LIV golfers are prepared as ever to play major championships," DeChambeau said, adding the lighter tournament scheduled "allows us the opportunity to have a little bit more time every once in a while to get ready for those majors. But I think we all have the firepower to play well and win a major championship. There's a lot of major champions over here that know how to get it done, so it's just a matter of time."

  DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson agreed with Koepka's statement that LIV Golf is strong and has staying power, regardless of how "merger" talks progress.

  Mickelson was among the players hailed with a rock-star treatment last week at Adelaide in Australia and finds Singapore to be more energetic about LIV's arrival this time around.

  "There's also a lot of uncertainty. I think the things that I do know is I think the quality of the players will continue to get better each year," Mickelson said of the future of LIV Golf. "I think that the ability and the sites that we move throughout the world will continue to excite players and excite fans. We'll be going to more countries outside of the United States that really are starving for world-class professional golf, and we'll have a lot more receptions like we had at Adelaide."

  --Field Level Media

It's been a rough season for three-time major winner Jordan Spieth.

• Spieth has just one top-10 finish in his past seven events, a stretch that has also featured a disqualification and three missed cuts. The 30-year-old finished tied for 39th at the RBC Heritage on April 21 in his most recent outing.

  But Spieth believes it is often darkest before the dawn, and he hopes to begin turning things around at this week's CJ Cup Byron Nelson in McKinney, Texas.

  "Sometimes that can be disguised right before it happens," Spieth said of a turnaround. "I'm believing that has been the case and need a couple confidence-building rounds or whatever it may be, and feel like I go on a really nice run. That's the plan."

  Over the past week, Spieth has tried to put his mediocre performances behind him as he tries to head into the Byron Nelson with a clear mind.

  "Kind of looking at this as kind of a restart. I haven't had the year I wanted to have after getting off to a pretty optimistic start in Hawaii," Spieth said. "I feel really good about the work I put in since the weekend into the few days this week, so I believe that I'm really close to some great things."

  Before falling off the rails a bit, Spieth had opened the 2024 campaign with a third-place finish at The Sentry before following up a T39 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with a T6 at the Phoenix Open.

  But then the rut started, as Spieth signed an incorrect scorecard at the Genesis Invitational, leading to the disqualification.

  As he attempts to get back on track, Spieth is drawing inspiration from Scottie Scheffler, who has won four of the past five tournaments he has participated in. Scheffler tied for second in the only event he didn't win during that stretch.

  Scheffler is not in the field for the Byron Nelson as he awaits the arrival of his first child.

  "I am inspired by what he is doing," Spieth said of Scheffler. "It makes me want to go out and get better. ... And that's always been someone that's older than me. Kind of the first time I felt that way about somebody that's younger."

  Since both Spieth and Scheffler live in Dallas, the two frequently hit the links together, and Spieth is eager to elevate his game to Scheffler's current level.

  "I have nothing in my way of being able to make that happen but my own self," Spieth said. "I've got enough. I believe in my ceiling, and I believe my ceiling is as high as anybody's. I have to get each part of my game up toward its ceiling."

  The Byron Nelson begins Thursday at TPC Craig Ranch.

  --Field Level Media

Preparing for his first title defense of a PGA Tournament in five years, Australian Jason Day said that he hadn't been "pleased" with his game of late, saying his iron play had been "letting me down."

• Day made the comments Wednesday at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, ahead of this week's CJ Cup Byron Nelson.

  Day ended a five-year winless drought last year, a "little too long if you ask me," and is now a defending champ for the first time since winning the Wells Fargo Championship almost six years ago, May 6, 2018.

  And while he spoke of how "mentally tough" he can be in general, right now it's his irons giving him fits. He's finished 30th or worse three times in his last five tournaments with a missed cut mixed in, too.

  "In regards to my play, I hadn't been that happy with it or that pleased with it. My short game has been great. Putting has been great. Off the tee has been great. The iron play has been kind of letting me down," Day said, coming off a T18 at RBC Heritage. "So just working on a few things with (coach) Chris (Como) to try and like alleviate some of the stress and pressure that the iron play is putting on the rest of my game.

  "I feel like I've kind of turned a corner now, which has been great."

  Day said he didn't celebrate his win last year, the 13th of his career.

  "I typically don't celebrate after a win, which is kind of weird," he said.

  He also said he's striving for the kind of balance that Scottie Scheffler is playing with amid his hot streak.

  "Right before last year when I was playing some nice golf I was kind of playing golf for the wrong reasons I thought," Day said. "You know, like I feel like looking kind of in the future and understanding that golf is like more of a marathon and it's a long career if you want it to be; kind of playing from more of a position of like love and passion of the game is I think far healthier to play from than having a chip on your shoulder.

  "There are guys that play from a good position of balance and love. Looking at Scottie Scheffler right now, he is playing some of the best golf we've seen in a long time, probably since the Tiger days," Day added. "He seems like a very well-balanced person. It's very difficult to do."

  --Field Level Media

This week's PGA Tour stop at TPC Craig Ranch for The CJ Cup Byron Nelson makes up for what it lacks in star names with plenty of intrigue.

• Players who are not already exempt for next week's signature event at the Wells Fargo Championship have a final opportunity to work their way into the Aon Swing 5 or the Aon Next 10.

  Our golf experts preview the event and provide their favorite prop picks along with best bets to win this week.

  The CJ CUP BYRON NELSON

  Location: McKinney, Texas, May 2-5

  Course: TPC Craig Ranch (Par 71, 7,414 Yards)

  Purse: $9.5M (Winners: $1.710M)

  Defending Champion: Jason Day

  FedEx Cup Leader: Scottie Scheffler

  HOW TO FOLLOW

  TV: Thursday-Friday, 4-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS)

  Streaming (ESPN+): Thursday-Friday, 7:45 a.m.-7 p.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.

  X: @CJByronNelson

  PROP PICKS

  --Ben An to Beat Jason Day (+100 at DraftKings): An is a streaky player who can go low when his putting is even mediocre. That includes four rounds in the 60s in tying for 14th here last year -- six shots off Day's winning mark. Day is coming off a T18 at the RBC Heritage, but had failed to crack the top-30 in his four previous starts. An is quietly third at DraftKings with 7 percent of the money backing him to win at +2500.

  --Tom Kim Top 20 (+140 at BetMGM): Kim is one of several South Korean players on tour who now call the Dallas area home. He finished T34 here last year and has scuffled through the first half of the 2024 schedule, but he is coming off a T18 at the RBC Heritage following a T30 at the Masters.

  --Jake Knapp to Make Cut (-155 at DraftKings): Knapp has found tour life more challenging since backing up his maiden win with a T4 at the Cognizant. He has failed to break the top 45 in five starts since, including a missed cut in Houston. Knapp posted a T55 at the Masters before a T62 at the RBC Heritage, which both sported far stronger fields than what he'll contend against this week.

  2024 Prop Picks Record: 23-26-1

  BEST BETS

  --Jordan Spieth (+1600 at BetMGM) is the top-ranked player in the field at No. 20. He has missed three of his past five cuts, but the Texas native did finish T10 at the Valero Texas Open and was runner-up here two years ago. He's the book's third-biggest liability this week while leading the field with 10.4 percent of the total bets and 9.3 percent of the money backing him to win since opening at +1400.

  --Si Woo Kim (+1600) tied for second last year and enters with four consecutive top-30 results, highlighted by a T6 at The Players. The four-time winner on tour is third with 8.7 percent of the money backing him, which has driven Kim's odds down since opening at +2000.

  --Jason Day (+2000) claimed his most recent victory at last year's Byron Nelson, but his most recent top-10 finish came at the Genesis in February.

  --Sungjae Im (+2500) is coming off a win on the Korean Tour last week following a T12 at the RBC Heritage.

  --Tom Kim (+2800) has finished T30 and T18 while showing improved form in his past two starts. He has been a popular wager at DraftKings, where Kim is tied for third with 7 percent of the money backing him to win.

  --Tom Hoge (+2800) has received heavy action since opening at +4000. Backed by 9.0 percent of the money, Hoge is BetMGM's biggest liability.

  NOTES

  --This is the final of three events that count toward the Aon Swing 5 for the Wells Fargo Championship, with the five players not otherwise exempt who earned the most points in those three events qualifying for the next signature event. The current top five are Billy Horschel, Chad Ramey, Wesley Bryan, Martin Trainer and Kevin Tway. The top 10 players in the FedEx Cup standings after this week who are not otherwise exempt will also qualify via the Aon Next 10.

  --Will Zalatoris withdrew on Tuesday, citing the need to rest his surgically repaired back. He was replaced in the field by Nick Watney.

  --A total of 2,021 birdies were recorded at TPC Craig Ranch in 2023, the third most of any course on tour last season.

  --Zach Johnson will make his 500th career PGA Tour start this week.

  --England's Kris Kim, the 16-year-old son of former LPGA Tour player Ji-Hyun Suh, will make his tour debut.

  --Field Level Media

Tiger Woods remains hopeful he can play one tournament per month for the rest of 2024 season.

• Woods, appearing on the "Today" show on Wednesday morning, said he's still following the calendar he mapped out before the season began. But physical limitations continue to give the 15-time major winner pause.

  He completed the Masters last month but requires a "cold plunge every day, religiously" to get his body going and was "extremely sore" when he left Augusta National.

  "I have basically the next three months -- three majors -- and hopefully that works out," said Woods, 48.

  Woods last won a major in 2019, but he's focused on what's ahead. Up next is the PGA Championship at Valhalla in two weeks. The U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club's Course No. 2 begins on June 13, and The Open Championship at Royal Troon in Scotland begins on July 18.

  Woods said he hopes to capture his 16th major title and ruin the "15 Stripes" logo design -- each stripe represents a major victory -- on his new apparel line, Sun Day Red.

  "My goal is to ruin the logo. I want to keep ruining the logo," Woods said.

  To get the elusive win in one of golf's marquee events, Woods must contend with World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. Woods said he remains wide-eyed by the Masters champion.

  "If you just stand back and watch ball flight, there's something different about his," Woods said. "It's just so consistent. It's just a matter of -- if he putts decent he's going to win. If he putts great, he blows away fields. If he has a bad putting week, he contends. He's just that good a ball-striker."

  --Field Level Media

He may have been a target of LIV Golf, but at least for the foreseeable future, Viktor Hovland isn't leaving the PGA Tour.

• The No. 7 player in the Official World Golf Ranking committed to June's Travelers Championship to defend his title, tournament organizers announced Tuesday.

  Hovland crashed out of the Masters earlier this month by shooting 81 in the second round to miss the cut. The Norwegian subsequently withdrew from the following week's signature event, the RBC Heritage.

  But Hovland has said in the past he prefers to work through issues in his game by training rather than fixing them during competition. It was the same case when Hovland withdrew from the WM Phoenix Open in February after a tough run at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am the week before.

  Hovland has also denied interest in joining LIV in the past, though players like Jon Rahm of Spain have been swayed to defect for the right price.

  Hovland, 26, won the FedEx Cup last summer by winning the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship in consecutive weeks. But he is off to a rough start in 2024, with only one top-20 finish in six starts, as he tries to fix his swing.

  The Travelers will take place June 20-23, the week after the U.S. Open. It is a signature event for the second year running, featuring a prize pool of $20 million.

  "Viktor is one of the promising young players we gave a sponsor's exemption to in 2019, and it hasn't taken him long to show why he deserved that opportunity," Travelers executive vice president Andy Bessette said in a statement. "He's made an impression with his play -- he's won on the PGA TOUR each of the past four seasons -- but he's also one of the nicest, most down-to-earth people you'll ever meet. We're excited to watch him compete and be part of our world-class player field this year."

  --Field Level Media

For many years, Hayden Springer attended the PGA Tour event named in honor of Byron Nelson, but only as a spectator.

• Springer also has a slightly more special connection to the legendary golfer: his four years attending Byron Nelson High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Trophy Club.

  After grinding his way onto the PGA Tour, Springer is ready to make his tournament debut at this week's CJ Cup Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas.

  "It's an exciting week for me because I grew up coming to this tournament, and so I have a lot of memories from when I was really little," Springer said Tuesday. "My dad would take me on Monday or Tuesday, come out to a practice round, and so it's special for me now to get to be playing in this event."

  Springer picked up autographs from a previous generation of players, names like Sergio Garcia and Corey Pavin and Tim Herron. He recalled Pavin seeing him "hobbling around" with a fractured ankle one year and going out of his way to sign Springer's hat.

  Once it was time for Springer to start high school, he dropped the other sports he was playing to focus exclusively on golf. Byron Nelson High School adopted its namesake because Nelson, who died in 2006, lived on a ranch close to the school.

  "He's obviously a big name in golf, you know, historically one of the best," Springer said of the five-time major winner who once won 11 straight starts. "And then going to Byron Nelson High School and kind of getting to have that legacy carry over to my high school team. And then his wife Peggy was a part of some of our events and we got to know her as well. So that was pretty special."

  Knowing Peggy Nelson meant the occasional treat like seeing a medal from Augusta National that Byron Nelson received for winning one of his two Masters.

  "Maybe other people have seen it. I don't know," Springer said, smiling. "She's shown the team. In high school she showed our team that."

  After growing up in Texas and playing collegiately at TCU, Springer took a less traveled path to get his tour card. He was on the PGA Tour Canada at this time last year and won two of the final three events of the season to clinch the tour's order of merit. That got him into the final stage of Q-School, where he stayed hot and tied for fourth to earn his card.

  "I mean, early on kind of this was a dream that was in my head to play professional golf, to do it at the highest level," Springer said. "Definitely being able to get up close and just kind of be able to interact (with players at the Byron Nelson), even if it's just getting an autograph, you know, it definitely helped to fuel that dream."

  --Field Level Media

Will Zalatoris withdrew from The CJ Cup Byron Nelson due to a flare-up with his surgically repaired back.

• Zalatoris, 27, underwent back surgery following the 2023 Masters and was sidelined until January, when he returned and finished 20th out of a 20-man field at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.

  "My back needs some rest and recovery," the 30th-ranked Zalatoris wrote Tuesday on Instagram. "I am ahead of schedule according to my doctors, but unfortunately the first six months back are the most important for the longterm health of my back. I need to be prudent to make sure I don't miss a big chunk of time again. I hate that a flare-up happened during one of my favorite weeks all year, but knew something like this was a possibility early on in my return to golf."

  Nick Watney will replace the Dallas-area native at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas. Jason Day is the defending champion of the event.

  Zalatoris has one career PGA Tour victory (2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship) under his belt, although he has runner-up finishes at the 2021 Masters, 2022 PGA Championship and 2022 U.S. Open.

  --Field Level Media

LIV Golf's 2024 individual champion will be crowned at the Sept. 13-15 LIV Golf Chicago event at Bolingbrook Golf Club.

• "The passionate sports fans of Chicago have embraced the intense competition and fan-first experience that LIV Golf delivers, and this year it will be an incredible setting for a high-stakes event as players battle it out for the individual title and a roster spot for 2025," LIV Golf commissioner and CEO Greg Norman said in a formal statement Tuesday. "We're thrilled to return to Illinois with an event at Bolingbrook Golf Club as we celebrate the season-long race and set the stage for the 2024 finale."

  The 7,104-yard Bolingbrook Golf Club is located 30 miles from downtown Chicago in Bolingbrook, Ill., and features a 156-yard island green on its signature 15th hole.

  Talor Gooch is the defending individual champion and Dustin Johnson won the circuit's inaugural individual title in 2022.

  The Chicago tournament will also determine the seedings for the 2024 LIV Golf team championship. Details of that event will be announced at a later date.

  --Field Level Media

DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings told reporters Thursday in London that a potential reshaping of men's professional golf is not likely to occur until 2026 at the earliest.

• Kinnings took over at the tour, formerly called the European Tour, earlier this month after Keith Pelley left for a role with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.

  Kinnings told the select group of British and Irish reporters that the leaders of the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund have spoken over recent months -- but not while in the same room, around the same table.

  "Has there been a big negotiation where all the parties have sat round and talked about the future product? I don't think that meeting's happened yet," Kinnings said.

  That shock comes nearly 11 months after the three parties stunned the sports world by announcing a "framework agreement" for a merger. The PIF had been bankrolling the LIV Golf League and paying massive guarantees to players to peel them away from the PGA and European tours.

  "All I know now, because I have actually directly been involved in it, is there's a lot of work going on in terms of looking at a working plan, so there is significantly more momentum than there was," Kinnings said.

  "There is an intent to get the right people in the room. And it's no different from what you need to do in business -- don't leave until you've got a deal done."

  Kinnings then said he doesn't see any tour shifting their schedules in 2025.

  "If you could get a resolution now, maybe you could do some stuff towards the end of ‘25, but the reality is the ‘26 season needs to be the one where there are significant changes," Kinnings said.

  The CEO said he was not trying to set hard and fast deadlines, but he believes the different tours will need to take 2025 to prepare in order to get it "right."

  Kinnings also mentioned the PGA Tour's separate business partnership with the Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of U.S.-based sports owners led by the Fenway Sports Group that owns the Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Liverpool of the English Premier League.

  "It's a joint exercise," Kinning said of negotiations. "So practically, we are being listened to. I have dealt with the guys at Fenway, who were fascinated by the history of the DP World Tour and our internationalizing of the game. They know that we have the relationships around the world. We've built them for 50 years.

  "Plus, two of the biggest financial institutions in the world want to invest in golf. Rory (McIlroy) put it best when he said we need to find a way for them to do that. They clearly think golf works for them. Otherwise they wouldn't be putting money in. So it's our job to give them something that works for them and for the fans. We need to look forward, not back."

  --Field Level Media

Jon Rahm of Spain and England's Tyrrell Hatton have a path to playing in the 2025 Ryder Cup for Europe. Now, they just must follow it.

• Guy Kinnings, the CEO of the DP World Tour, said Rahm and Hatton won't be kept off Team Europe when it defends its title next year at Bethpage Black in New York, provided they meet minimum requirements. Since winning the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome, the two European stars joined LIV Golf, but that won't necessarily be held against them, Kinnings told reporters from the United Kingdom and Ireland on Thursday in London.

  Kinnings said that in looking at 2023 rules, a player must remain a member of the DP World Tour and play in four tour events, outside of the majors, to be eligible for Ryder Cup consideration.

  "The reality is that until we announce the qualification process, which we don't need to do yet as that doesn't start for another four to five months, it's kind of speculation," he said, per The Scotsman.

  "But, if you look at what the qualification/eligibility criteria was for 2023, then I think there has been a slight misconception because the reality is under the current rules, if a player is European and is a member of the DP World Tour and abides by the rules as they currently are -- so, if you don't get a release, there are sanctions and if you accept those sanctions and take those penalties and work with that --- there is no reason why players who've taken LIV membership but maintain membership with the DP World Tour could not a) qualify or b) be available for selection."

  European stalwarts Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood renounced their DP World Tour memberships ahead of the 2023 event as they faced sanctions for playing in LIV Golf events without permission from the organization. Therefore, they were ineligible for the Ryder Cup.

  --Field Level Media

World Golf Hall of Famer Bernhard Langer will return to action next week for the first time since tearing an Achilles tendon in February.

• The PGA's Champions Tour announced Friday that the 66-year-old German will compete in the Insperity Invitational from May 3-5 in The Woodlands, Texas, an event he has won four times.

  "This tournament has a special place in my heart," Langer said. "It was my first victory out here on the PGA TOUR Champions in 2007, and it is just a fantastic event all around. I am looking forward to making my return to competition in The Woodlands."

  Langer underwent surgery on Feb. 2 to repair the Achilles injury sustained while playing pickleball.

  Langer won the U.S. Senior Open and the Chubb Classic last year to give him a record 46 career Champions Tour victories, besting Hale Irwin's 45. Since joining the tour in 2007, he has won 12 senior major tournaments.

  Langer is a six-time winner of the senior tour's Charles Schwab Cup championship, most recently in 2021. He won three times on the PGA Tour, including twice at the Masters in 1985 and 1993.

  --Field Level Media

Grace Kim, looking for her second LPGA victory in her fourth season, holds the lead after the first round of the JM Eagle LA Championship on Thursday in Los Angeles.

• Grace Kim shot a 7-under-par 64 at Wilshire Country Club, leaving her one shot ahead of Sweden's Maja Stark, Thailand's Chanettee Wannasaen and South Korea's Sei Young Kim.

  Auston Kim, South Korea's Haeran Ryu and Russia's Nataliya Guseva are tied for fifth at 5 under. Defending champion Hannah Green of Australia, Amy Yang of South Korea and Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines share eighth place at 4 under.

  The tour's hottest player, Nelly Korda, is taking the week off after winning the Chevron Championship last week for her fifth victory in five starts.

  Grace Kim produced a bogey-free round, capped by a birdie at the par-3 18th hole.

  "I think if I was to compare my round today compared to last week, I really focused on just not having too much in my mind," she said. "I think I overthought a lot of things through my first and second round last week and struggled a little bit mentally.

  "So just that self-belief, not forcing anything, and trusting that my muscle memory of a golf swing would work. Yeah, I guess that kind of worked out well."

  Grace Kim, 23, earned her lone tour victory last summer at the Lotte Championship. Looking ahead to her chances of adding another win this week, she said, "Obviously I had a good day today, but it's a fresh day tomorrow and the weekend.

  "So hopefully just another nice, easy round tomorrow. Not too hard on myself. Just accept mistakes if they do come and just take the birdies as they come."

  Stark began her bogey-free round on the back nine and was 2 under through 10 holes before making four birdies the rest of the way. She is coming off a second-place finish behind Korda last week.

  "(I am) much more confident in my game," Stark said. "I still like chickened out on a couple shots today which is just like me. I feel like I've been better at not chickening out as much.

  "Then just knowing I can be patient and not have to chase birdies to actually make them, because I think when I'm chasing birdies, that's when I make my mistakes. Didn't feel like I did that today. I was just kind of bobbing along, and then the putts start falling in."

  Wannasaen was 7 under for the round before finishing bogey-par-par on the back nine.

  Sei Young Kim climbed into contention with four consecutive birdies on the back nine, and she ended her day without a bogey.

  --Field Level Media

Charlie Woods fell short in his first-ever attempt to qualify for a U.S. Open on Thursday.

• The 15-year-old, whose father is three-time U.S. Open winner Tiger Woods, shot a 9-over 81 at the qualifier at The Legacy Golf & Tennis Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla., Golfweek reported.

  The U.S. Open is scheduled for June 13-16 at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club No. 2 in North Carolina. Players who aren't tour pros can attempt to enter the tournament through local qualifiers, as Charlie Woods did.

  The teen's scorecard included one birdie, four bogeys and three double bogeys, per Golfweek. He shot a 40 on the front side and 41 on the back nine.

  It's been a busy stretch of golf for the younger Woods. He won a state high school championship with his team in Florida last fall, and in February, he played in a qualifying event for the PGA Tour's Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, a tournament formerly known as the Honda Classic.

  He shot a 16-over 86 at Lost Lake Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla., and did not qualify.

  --Field Level Media

Englishman Alex Fitzpatrick feels like he has come a long way since his last appearance at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

• Fitzpatrick and his brother, Matt, are back in the field for this year's edition of the event at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, La., after tying for 19th in 2023. Alex Fitzpatrick currently sits at 44th on the DP World Tour, and he is also coming off a strong performance at the PGA Tour's Corales Puntacana Championship, where he tied for 23rd.

  "I think it's all learning experiences for him last year, and even this year to an extent, but obviously through that, his game has changed over time," Matt Fitzpatrick said of Alex. "He's had more time to work with his coach and more time to work with his team and just grown as a player, I think, more understanding his own game, how tour life works, how he manages his time.

  "I think there's all these things that he's had to try and figure out, and even I'm still learning, and this is my 10th year as a professional. ... I don't think you ever get to the point where you've cracked it, so I think he's still very early on in his career, and he'll keep learning."

  Alex Fitzpatrick has played in just four events on the PGA Tour. Last year, in addition to the Zurich Classic, he also participated in The Open Championship after landing in the Valspar Championship in 2022.

  While he might not be the most experienced player on the PGA Tour, Alex Fitzpatrick believes he has what it takes to perform on one of golf's biggest stages.

  "I'm kind of still finding my feet a little bit, and you're always trying to figure the game out, but I think definitely this year I feel like I've developed a lot as a player and as a person," Alex Fitzpatrick said. "We have a good blueprint for where I want to go and what I want to do."

  As for the team aspect of this week's Zurich, Matt Fitzpatrick plans on leading the way since he has more knowledge of how tournaments on the PGA Tour operate.

  "I've got more of a feel for it than him, so I feel like some of it is guiding him around, as well, and just helping him with maybe where to aim, where we're going to play, particularly in foursomes when it's about keeping the ball in play," Matt Fitzpatrick said. "He's probably going to make more birdies than me because he's a bit more aggressive and can kind of -- I can play the safe ball and he can kind of go for it."

  --Field Level Media

Rory McIlroy all but confirmed on Wednesday that he will return to the PGA Tour's policy board and is just waiting to be asked.

• At a press conference before the start this week of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, McIlroy was asked to confirm a report that he's coming back to the board that he left in November and will take a seat on the board of PGA Tour Enterprises.

  He said, "Not as of yet, no."

  The four-time major champion from Northern Ireland believes he can be helpful after stalled negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia-financed LIV Golf league after a "framework agreement" for a merger announced last June.

  "I don't think there's been much progress made in the last eight months, and I was hopeful that there would be," he said. "I think I could be helpful to the process. But only if people want me involved, I guess."

  He said he talked with Webb Simpson, who discussed potentially coming off the board.

  "I said, look, if it was something that other people wanted, I would gladly take that seat, and that was the conversation that we had," McIlroy said. "But yeah, I think that's the whole reason. I feel like I can be helpful. I feel like I care a lot, and I have some pretty good experience and good connections within the game and sort of around the wider sort of ecosystem and everything that's going on.

  "But at the end of the day, it's not quite up to me to just come back on the board. There's a process that has to be followed," he continued. "But I'm willing to do it if that's what people want, I guess."

  Simpson is on the board with fellow current PGA Tour player directors Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods. A vote could have been scheduled for Wednesday, according to a report in the Guardian.

  McIlroy, 34, said that if he comes back, he would push for unification as "the only way forward for the game of golf." He initially had been a sharp critic of LIV Golf but now would consider compromises and also communicate his point that unification is best for the sport and for the PGA Tour in particular.

  "We obviously realize the game is not unified right now for a reason, and there's still some hard feelings and things that need to be addressed," McIlroy said, "but I think at this point for the good of the game, we all need to put those feelings aside and all move forward together."

  McIlroy, who is partnering with Ireland's Shane Lowry in Zurich's two-man team format, doesn't think being on the board hindered his performance, saying he played some of his best golf. It did require his time and took a toll as he spent less time on other interests.

  "We're golfers at the end of the day," said McIlroy, who joined the Player Advisory Council in 2019. "We don't need to be trying to run a $15 billion business. We need to go out there and play golf and let the business people do the business things."

  The PGA Tour and DP World Tour have not completed a final merger agreement with LIV's financiers, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), in the months since a self-imposed Dec. 31 deadline came and went.

  In the meantime, LIV poached its highest-profile golfer to date in two-time major winner Jon Rahm. The Spaniard was ranked among the top three in the world when he signed with LIV Golf in December.

  The PGA Tour entered a separate partnership with Strategic Sports Group (SSG), a consortium of U.S.-based sports team owners.

  --Field Level Media

The PGA Tour's only official team event hits the Big Easy with the start of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans on Thursday.

• The field includes three top-10 players, with Rory McIlroy making his event debut alongside Ryder Cup teammate Shane Lowry. Our golf experts preview the event and provide their favorite prop picks along with best bets to win this week.

  ZURICH CLASSIC

  Location: Avondale, La., April 25-28

  Course: TPC Louisiana (Par 72, 7,425 Yards)

  Purse: $8.9M (Winners: $1.286M each)

  Defending Champions: Davis Riley, Nick Hardy

  FedEx Cup Leader: Scottie Scheffler

  HOW TO FOLLOW

  TV: Thursday-Friday: 3:30-6:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday: 12:45-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS)

  Streaming (ESPN+): Thursday, 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. ET; Friday, 9:15 a.m.-6:30 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday, 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m.

  X: @Zurich_Classic

  PROP PICKS

  --Daniel Berger/Victor Perez to Beat Davis Thompson/Andrew Novak (+115 at DraftKings): With the difficulty of projecting how most tandems will fair in this format, we looked for the best value and return. Berger has mostly struggled since returning from his long layoff due to a back injury, but he has made consecutive cuts and is teamed with the steady Perez, ranked 95th in the world. Thompson is 120th after a T18 at Corales last week, while Novak has dipped to 155th with a T58 and T53 in his past two starts.

  --Nick Taylor/Adam Hadwin to Make Cut (-175 at BetMGM): Hadwin is coming off a T42 at the RBC Heritage, where Taylor finished T49. TPC Louisiana is a lengthy track and neither Canadian is exactly a bomber, but both are excellent ball-strikers who should make for a very consistent pairing. The Taylor/Hadwin pairing is the book's second biggest liability to win this week.

  --Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele Top 10 (-190 at DraftKings): Not only are the good friends and Ryder Cup teammates the lone pairing of top-10 players, they've won this even before and were in contention to repeat last year until a disappointing final round. It's difficult to see them not in contention, much less falling outside of the top-10 in the 80-team field.

  2024 Prop Picks Record: 22-25-1

  BEST BETS

  --Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele (+450 at BetMGM) followed their victory in 2022 with a T4 showing last year and are the only pairing of top-10 players in the field.

  --Rory McIlroy/Shane Lowry (+750) have the top-ranked player in the field, with No. 2 McIlroy making his event debut along with Ryder Cup teammate Lowry.

  --Sahith Theegala/Will Zalatoris (+850) are both winners on tour and young stars with the ability to go very low. This pairing is the biggest liability for the book as they lead the field with 16.3 percent of the total bets and 24.8 percent of the money since opening at +1000.

  --Collin Morikawa/Kurt Kitayama (+1200) are led by Morikawa coming off a T3 at the Masters and a ninth-place finish last week. Kitayama, a fellow Las Vegas resident, has a high of T19 at the Players in making four consecutive cuts.

  NOTES

  --This is the seventh year the Zurich has been a team event. The field is comprised of 80 two-player teams that will play fourball in the first and third rounds and foursomes (alternate shot) for the second and fourth rounds.

  --Each player from the winning team will earn 400 FedEx Cup points, a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour through 2026 and entry into the three remaining signature events this year.

  --Horschel, who won his first stroke-play event in two years last week, teamed with Scott Piercy to win in New Orleans in 2018. He also won the Zurich Classic as an individual event in 2013.

  --Hardy and Riley set the tournament record of 30-under 258 in each claiming their first PGA Tour titles last year.

  --This is the second of three events that count toward the Aon Swing 5 for the next signature event, with the five players not otherwise exempt who earn the most points in those three events qualifying for the Wells Fargo Championship.

  --Charley Hoffman/Nick Watney and Kevin Tway/Kelly Kraft are the only pairs who have competed together in all six previous editions of the team format.

  --Field Level Media

Australian Cam Smith said Wednesday he believes the greatest growth potential for LIV golf is in international markets given the amount of tournaments there are in the United States.

• Smith made the comments at Adelaide, Australia, ahead of this week's LIV tournament there.

  "I think the Australian fans (are) pretty hard to recreate around the world, but you just pick a city or a country that's been kind of -- I guess hadn't seen good golf for a long time," Smith said. "It worked last year. It's going to work again this year here.

  "I can see it definitely working internationally a lot better than the U.S. because there's just so many tournaments in the U.S."

  Of LIV's 14 events in 2024, seven are played internationally.

  "I'm definitely putting my hand up for more of an international schedule and getting fans out that haven't seen quality golf for a while and showing them what LIV is all about," Smith said.

  --Field Level Media

Amy Olson announced her retirement Wednesday on social media after 10 years on the LPGA Tour.

• Olson, 31, had been on maternity leave with the birth on Sept. 15, 2023, of daughter Carly Gray Olson with husband Grant Olson, the defensive coordinator at North Dakota State University.

  "What. A. Ride," Amy Olson tweeted on her X account. "My journey in professional golf is officially ending. Call it quitting, retirement, a VERY extended maternity leave. ... I am turning the page to the next chapter in my life. I couldn't be more thankful to the places God took me through this game of golf."

  A native of Oxbow, N.D., Olson turned pro after setting an NCAA-record with 20 titles at North Dakota State but did not win on the tour. She told Golfweek that was an unrealized dream along with not playing on the U.S. Solheim Cup team.

  "I've had to come to terms with that," Olson told Golfweek. "I'm just realizing OK, that's not part of my story, and realizing I have different dreams and bigger dreams, rather than clinging to the same ones that motivated me for a number of years."

  Olson has 13 career top-10 finishes, including rallying to tie for second at the 2021 Kia Classic.

  She also tied for second at the 2018 Evian Championship with a double bogey on the 72nd hole, losing to Angela Stanford. The 2020 U.S. Women's Open was especially painful, as her father-in-law Lee Olson died the night before the final round, and she ended up tied for second in a highly emotional performance.

  "Unfortunately, a couple of the pivotal ones of my career were actually really sad moments," Olson told Golfweek. "But I think one of the things I've always been most proud of is keeping golf in perspective and realizing that life is bigger than golf. In a lot of ways, some of those bigger moments that people remember me for, I was able to live that out in front of them."

  Olson last played on tour in July 2023 at the U.S. Women's Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links, when she was seven months pregnant and missed the cut.

  --Field Level Media

Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and other PGA Tour stars are about to receive massive bonuses for their loyalty.

• The Telegraph reported Wednesday that Woods will receive $100 million in equity as part of the newly created for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises, with McIlroy earning about half that amount.

  The payouts are a way to thank players for sticking with the PGA Tour instead of jumping to rival LIV Golf and huge paydays from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

  Several hundred players will receive a stake, with most of it going to the top 36 players based on a formula that weighs career success and cultural popularity.

  PGA Tour Enterprises received a reported $3 billion investment earlier this year from Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of sports owners that includes the New York Mets' Steve Cohen and the Atlanta Falcons' Arthur Blank.

  --Field Level Media

CEO Greg Norman and LIV Golf will consider the 72-hole, traditional professional golf tournament format while also weighing the financial implications of an added round to the upstart tour's current three-day events.

• As constituted, LIV Golf uses a no-cut, 54-hole format designed to soften what Norman termed the "economic impact" relative to the four-round template the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour and other professional leagues follow.

  Norman, seated alongside big-ticket free agent acquisition Jon Rahm in Adelaide, South Australia, said Wednesday that Rahm's suggestion in a public setting last week to adapt to the existing format of traditional golf isn't a new conversation at LIV Golf. Rahm outlined with a new analogy before his debut in Norman's home country event why he brought up the format last week before the Masters.

  "I made the analogy a little bit ago of why I think we can end up with a great product: In football, European football, you have the Premier League, you have the Spanish League, you have the German League, you have Serie A, you have the Champions League, the Euro Cup, many other things. The one thing I realized is they all play under the same set of rules," Rahm said. "While we play under most ... rules, the one key difference is 72 holes."

  Rahm nodded in Norman's direction when he said, "LIV is a business. If it doesn't fit the product, it doesn't fit the product. I'm just a player. There are a lot of people that are a lot smarter than me that can figure it out and explain why they believe 54 holes may be better for them."

  Norman took a swing at just that.

  "Jon hits the nail on the head. There's no -- when you can tee up on Friday, it's a sprint to the end. There's no warm-up time period to get you -- I'm talking about from a player's perspective now. ... It is intense pressure on it straight away because you have to perform immediately right off the bat.

  "It's a great conversation to have. We will continue to have that conversation going forward. But we sit back and say, what value do we get on putting on television on Thursday? Now, how do we build out in the future? How do we get more people to the golf course? Maybe it is Thursday and you allow another 30,000 people coming in on a Thursday. There are things that we sit back and look at to see what is the most optimal solution to make this a better and better and better event, and 72 holes is discussed."

  Norman said he had nothing to update more than 10 months after the framework agreement between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour was reached last June.

  "I would love to give you insight but I don't have any. We at LIV are totally separate to that part of the negotiation," Norman said.

  He also denied reports LIV attempted to lure World No. 2 Rory McIlroy from the PGA Tour with an offer of more than $800 million.

  "LIV never put an offer to him," Norman said, concurring with McIlroy that the two sides weren't in talks about a contract. "We didn't need to make a comment about this. This is just typical white noise that gets out there in the industry. If Rory was willing to sit down and have a conversation with us, would we be happy to sit down with him? Onehundred percent, no different than any other player who would be interested in coming on and playing with us."

  --Field Level Media