‘Icons’ of other sports to compete
Ryder Cup-type match features 24 pro athletes
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — For those tired of the dispute between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series, Tom Brookes has something that might be of interest.
The chief executive of Icons Series is bringing a two-day tournament to Liberty National that features 24 professional athletes from all walks of sports in a Ryder Cup-type competition.
It starts Thursday with two-time major champion Fred Couples leading an American team against fourtime major champion Ernie Els and his Team Rest of the World.
Among the players are Hall of Fame football players Marshall Faulk and Michael Strahan, recently retired Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps, baseball Hall of Famer John Smoltz, boxer Canelo Álvarez of Mexico, Tottenham striker Harry Cane, recently retired women’s tennis No. 1 Ash Barty and retired Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh.
Said Brookes: “There’s a lot of disruption and fracture in golf right now. And what we want to do is the opposite. We want to unify icons of all the sports, to unify people, to come together and enjoy an entertainment product that has a golf focus to it.”
This will be the third event in the Icons Series. The first was in Dubai in 2015 and the second in England in 2017. An event planned in Japan in 2019 was canceled because of a tsunami and earthquake days apart. The COVID-19 pandemic kept the event off course in 2021 and Brookes said returning this year was a late decision.
However, he added Icons has signed a deal for the next two years with Liberty National, which hosted the 2017 Presidents Cup and the PGA Tour’s opening postseason event four times.
Both the PGA Tour (John Deere Classic) and LIV Golf (Portland) have events this weekend, the first time Greg Norman’s group is playing in the United States.
PGA TOUR EUROPE: The PGA Tour is awarding 10 cards to European tour players and bringing back a direct path to the big leagues from Q-school as part of an expanded partnership with Europe that aims to strengthen themselves against the Saudi-funded LIV Golf. The 13-year deal goes through 2035.