The CJ Cup will have to wait yet another year before it makes its way back to South Korea but in the meantime, Rory McIlroy heads a very strong fall field that will compete in this week’s 2022 version at the Congaree Club in South Carolina.
Congaree is about 30 minutes outside Savannah. It’s a tough par 71 that can be stretched to 7,655 yards. Garrick Higgo won the 2021 Palmetto Championship at Congaree with an 11-under par score for 72 holes.
Rory hasn’t played in a PGA Tour event since winning the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup but he’s been busy playing in three DP World Tour events as he looks to make it a world-double, going for the European equivalent — the Race To Dubai. Rory’s most recent event was the Dunhill Links where he tied for fourth. Before that he finished fourth at the Italian Open after a tie for second at the BMW PGA at Wentworth.
It’s a strong field at Congaree. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is back in action. McIlroy is now No. 2. No. 5 Jon Rahm is back in the U.S. after playing in the Open de Espana. No. 8 Justin Thomas, No. 9 Collin Morikawa and 10th-ranked Matt Fitzpatrick make it six of the world’s top 10.
Morikawa finished second to McIlroy in Las Vegas last year, shooting 24-under. The win last year was McIlroy’s 20th PGA Tour win — making him a lifetime member of the Tour.
Rory’s final round 66 held off Morikawa, who shot a 10-under par 62 on Sunday.
There are other familiar names coming to South Carolina. Tom Kim and Sungjae Im along with Hideki Matsuyama were all at the Zozo and are making the long trip.
In addition to those International team members from the Presidents Cup — Max Homa, Jordan Spieth, Cam Young and Sam Burns will compete.
LIV Lawyers Continue Bickering In Court:
LIV and its anti-trust lawsuit against the PGA Tour is a thorn in the side of golf but Judge Susan Van Keulen laid down some groundwork last Friday in U.S. District Court.
Lawyers representing LIV Golf – along with plaintiffs Matt Jones, Bryson DeChambeau and Peter Uihlein – argued that their initial request for discovery was appropriate, while attorneys for the Tour cited the expedited schedule for the lawsuit, which is set to go to trial in January 2024, and called LIV’s request “burdensome.”
“I appreciate LIV’s idea of throwing the net far and wide, but you don’t have time for it to be that broad,” Van Keulen said. “Similarly, the Tour’s response is too narrow. It’s frankly just too fine. Both sides are going to have to compromise on this.”
LIV Golf’s initial request covered nearly all of the Tour’s employees for any communications over a four-year period of “any prospective or any new professional golf tour or league or promoter of professional golf events.”
Since Oct. 1, the Tour has produced 25,000 pages of requested documents with another 7,500 pages scheduled for delivery Friday that cover e-mail searches, relevant documents, board meeting minutes and financial statements. And this is just the beginning of a process that’s already become contentious.
