GB&I romping ahead at TEAM CUP... full results, Sunday singles matches

 DP World Tour : TEAM CUP Leaderboard

This Ryder Cup warm up, TEAM CUP sees Justin Rose and his GB&I ahead 11-4 after the Saturday morning foursomes, and afternoon fourballs.

Trailing 11-4 to Great Britain & Ireland Matthieu Pavon will try to lead Team Europe back in Sunday singles.

For all the scoring click on my link above which includes the 10 Sunday singles matches. 

Many of the players on either team will be team mates at this year's Ryder Cup matches at Bethpage, where as usual the Americans are favourites in front of what will be a hostile New York State crowd.

Since Team USA plays the Ryder and Presidents Cups and Team Europe does not, they decided to open each season with this friendly Ryder Cup format warm up in Abu Dhabi before the first full field event next week in Dubai.

Bryan Angus

Sony Open weekend story....5 Canadians make cut...busy leaderboard

 PGA Tour : Sony Open Leaderboard

There are 5 Canadians in the field for the weekend at this version of the Sony Open the two that missed are Corey Conners and Mac Hughes, our Canadian Olympians...

Nick Taylor T18 66 68 -6

Adam Svensson T28 70 65 -5

Taylor Pendrith T28 69 66 -5

Adam Hadwin T42  65 71 -4

Ben Silverman T58  69 68 -3

There are 25 players within 4 shots of the lead -10 Americans Pat Fishburn and Denny McCarthy.

Hideki Matsuyama looking for the Hawaiian Double is T42 67 69 -4.

Gone is the -35 on the Plantation resort course built on a mountain, wide open fairways to a shorter tight course built along the beach on Oahu, a 2nd shot course.

Others who M/C Ben An, Si Woo Kim, Chris Kirke, and Billy Horschel. 

Bryan Angus

GB&I lead after opening day at TEAM CUP....Saturday morning foursome matches

 DP World Tour : TEAM CUP  Leaderboard

Great Britain & Ireland took a 3½ -1½ lead after the first day of the 2025 Team Cup. 

Matthieu Pavon and Romain Langasque won Friday's opening four-balls match for Continental Europe, but wins for Tyrrell Hatton and Tom McKibbin and then Jordan Smith and Laurie Canter quickly turned the tables.

Tommy Fleetwood and Aaron Rai ensured GB&I would lead overnight at Abu Dhabi Golf Resort before Matthew Jordan and Paul Waring halved with Thorbjørn Olesen and Niklas Norgaard.

For full match reports click Leaderboard

Thirteen points are needed across the three days to win the competition. Francesco Molinari led Continental Europe to a 14½ -10½ victory against a Great Britain & Ireland team captained by Fleetwood when the event was held as the Hero Cup in 2023.

Saturday morning foursome matches

07:35 | Thorbjørn Olesen & Niklas Nørgaard vs Tyrrell Hatton & Matt Wallace

07:45 | Francesco Molinari & Julien Guerrier vs Justin Rose & Tommy Fleetwood

07:55 | Rasmus Højgaard & Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen vs Aaron Rai & Tom McKibbin

08:05 | Matteo Manassero & Antoine Rozner vs Paul Waring & Matthew Jordan

08:15 | Matthieu Pavon & Romain Langasque vs Jordan Smith & Laurie Canter

europeantour.com

Bryan Angus (edit)

Corey Conners off to a great start for 2025.

 Corey Conners is off to a great start for his 2025 season. He T5 last week at the Sentry but more important led the field in putting, which has always been his achilles. He plays this week at the Sony Open along with 6 other Canucks. Mac Hughes Adam Svensson and Ben Silverman make their debuts along with Adam Hadwin, Taylor Pendrith and Nick Taylor who has T7 T7 T11 in his last 3 starts on the Waialae course .

Corey Conners, of Canada, hits his tee shot at the third hole during the second round of The Sentry golf event, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, at the Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (Matt York/ CP)

Bryan Angus

DP World Tour TEAM CUP...Europe vs GB&I.....Format

 DP World Tour : TEAM CUP.. Entry List

Matthew Jordan and Romain Langasque have been selected as the final representatives of Great Britain & Ireland and Continental Europe’s Team Cup sides ahead of the match play contest at Abu Dhabi Golf Resort from January 10-12, 2025.

Selected by European Ryder Cup Captain Luke Donald in consultation with Team Cup Playing Captains Justin Rose and Francesco Molinari, Jordan and Langasque round out the ten-man sides who will compete across three days in the United Arab Emirates.

Donald, who will Captain Europe for a second time at Bethpage next September, said: “Matthew and Romain are two fantastic talents who will add a lot to their respective sides at next year’s Team Cup.

“The teams have come together really nicely and we are all looking forward to seeing how individual players react in what promises to be a very competitive environment.”

He is eager to see how would-be Ryder Cup players fare under the pressures of team golf as the Team Cup returns in Abu Dhabi.

FORMAT

Rose and Molinari will lead Great Britain & Ireland and Continental Europe respectively during the three days, with teams competing in one session of fourballs on the Friday, two sessions of foursomes on the Saturday and one session of singles on Sunday. All 20 players will take part in every session, competing for 25 points.

Molinari Captained the Continental European side to a 14½ - 10½ victory in 2023, with six players going on to represent Europe at the Ryder Cup at Marco Simone later that year.

europeantour.com

Bryan Angus (edit)

TEE TIMES Sony Open : 7 Canadians

 PGA Tour : Sony Open  Tee Times

Hawaii and Dubai are the places to look if you want to see a pro golfer at this time of year when so many of us are in the clutches of winter.

On the island of Oahu the traditional opening full field event of the year is the Sony Open on the Waialae CC on the PGA Tour with many of the the seniors on the Champions Tour already booked in with families preparing for the Mitsubishi Electric over on Ka' Upulehu-Kona on January 16.

Meanwhile in Dubai at Abu Dhabi it's time for the DP World Tour Team Cup, a Ryder Cup format with Frankie Molinari captaining Europe and Justin Rose doing the honours for GB&I keeping in mind its a Ryder Cup Year at Bethpage Black in September.

There are 7 Canadians in play.

Adam Hadwin, Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith and Nick Taylor played last week on Maui and they are joined by Ben Silverman who gets in as a top 125, Mac Hughes and Adam Svensson as a tournament winner in the last 2 seasons. 

Hideki Matsuyama who set an all time low PGA Tour scoring record -35 last week on a benign Plantation Course will start as the favourite to do the Hawaiian double.

Grayson Murray is the defending champion.

Others 

Ben An lost here in a playoff last year, Chris Kirke has been 2nd in 2021 and 3rd in 2023, Maverick McNealy and Russell Henley both play well on Waialae, and a shout out to Nick Taylor who had a slow start but a good weekend at the Sentry (66,69) and has been T7 T7 T11 in his last 3 outings on this course.

Bryan Angus

Matsuyama sets new PGA Tour scoring record.. Final results/ prize money at The Sentry

 PGA Tour : The Sentry Results

I won't write this PGA TOUR storyline again this season....

65 65 62 65 -35 is the new record low winning score on Tour, set by Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama who apparently loved his new putter so much he went out and won himself $3,600,000 and 700 Fed Ex points to kick off his 2025 season winning the Sentry on a defenseless Plantation Course at Kapalua on the becalmed island of Maui.

Those of you who have made the trip to the Hawaiian islands will know it's a 12 hour direct flight from Toronto, 6.5 hours from Vancouver but remember it's also just 6.5 hours from Tokyo. There are many Japanese people living in Hawaii who originally came to labour in the sugar cane fields

Collin Morikawa whose family are Japanese was 2nd  66 65 62 67 -32 which would have won it most times but Matsuyama was "just relentless" in his words.  ($2,160,000)

Click on my "results" link above for all the scores..

Canadians 

( note Taylor Pendrith made an albatross 2 on par 5 5th hole a 205 yard 6 iron)

Corey Conners  T5  66 66 69 67 -24  ($744,166)

Taylor Pendrith T13  71 65 67 67 -22 ($410,000)

Adam Hadwin 29th  67 69 68 70 -18  ($148,000)

Nick Taylor T48  73 73 66 69 -11   ($57,000)

Opinion " Distasteful"

This reward for the players performance over the 2024 season is an incredibly soft, luxurious start for these players, two or three weeks with family in paradise all expenses paid, such is life on the PGA Tour these days, all originally driven by the controversial Saudi PIF money that has made the game at this level so distasteful to many, even some of the players especially when the masses of this world are struggling so mightily on all fronts these days.

Meanwhile former world #1's like Dustin Johnson or Jon Rahm have all but disappeared from the game except for majors, with bank accounts of billionaires just for showing up, playing some hybrid made up 54 hole, who cares team game, when they already had more than they needed before this all started, including the most important tenet, integrity. 

This week many here have flown over to the island of Oahu for the annual first full field event, the Sony Open.

Bryan Angus