Welcome back to GolfStats Insider, your top source for expert tips and insights on the PGA Tour. This week looks a little different. With the Zurich Classic of New Orleans being the only team event on the schedule, we're using this edition as a midseason checkpoint: a look at the field in New Orleans, the uncertain future of LIV Golf, the loss of the Hawaii events, and what to watch for the rest of 2026.

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This week we have a bit of a breather, as the Zurich Classic of New Orleans is being played. It comes at the halfway mark of the 2026 season. It's the only PGA Tour event that's unique, as it's a team event. With the demise of the Match Play tournament a few years back and the cancellation of the Barracuda Championship, which was a Modified Stableford scoring format, the Zurich will be the only unique event in 2026.

As a gambling vehicle, the Zurich Classic is the hardest event to judge and choose well. It's hard enough to find one player to pick; put two into the equation, and it's doubly hard. Now it's not impossible. If you look at the list of the eight winning teams, you have the team of Ryan Palmer and Jon Rahm winning in 2019. In 2021, Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith won; the next year, you had Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay winning. In 2024, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry probably had the best winning team, beating Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer in a playoff. Last year, we saw the springboard effect of Ben Griffin, who won with partner Andrew Novak and took home the title. Griffin's career took off when he won the Charles Schwab a month later, followed by the World Wide Technology Championship in November.

This year, the field is very weak in marquee players. The three top picks are Alex and Matt Fitzpatrick, Brooks Koepka, and Shane Lowry, along with the defending champions, Griffin and Novak. Looking at the field, my top choices would be Aaron Rai/Sahith Theegala, Keith Mitchell/Brandt Snedeker, and Billy Horschel/Tom Hoge. The most interesting choice is to find a team that will make the cut. Of the 74 teams, the cut will be the top 33 and ties.

For the average PGA Tour watcher, this week is a great week to take off. But for 130 of the 148 players, this week can make or break a player. First place pays each team member $1,373,750 and 400 FedEx Cup points. Just ask 2023 winners Nick Hardy and Davis Riley. Their victory made their year, and if it weren't for the victory, both would've had to struggle the rest of the year.

One of the big talking points of this event is the fact that all points and money are official. I, along with others, don't think it's fair for someone to get his tour card on the heels of his partner doing well. The same goes for year-end honors: for someone to miss out on his PGA Tour card because a partner did well is wrong. One organization that feels the same way I do is the Official World Golf Ranking; it doesn't use the Zurich results in its ranking points.

I'm not convinced we should make this event official, but it's a good event to break things up. The schedule is so loaded now that it's affecting the field this week. Zurich is in the middle of hosting the Masters, a signature event. Next week is the new Cadillac Championship at Doral, and it's a signature event followed by the Truist, another signature, and then the PGA Championship. So in a span of six weeks, we have two majors and three signature events. After that, the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, and the Charles Schwab at Colonial. The fields will be weak in both events. After that, we have the summer events, during which there will be two majors, two signature events, and three playoff events over 13 weeks.

So we got the news last week that LIV Golf may finally bite the dust. The big news was that the Saudi PIF was on the verge of pulling its funding. This set of shockwaves reverberated across the golfing world, as nobody really knows what the truth is. In my mind, LIV Golf reminds me of the movie Groundhog Day, in which every day is the same: the same players are in the field with Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, usually fighting for the championship. There is no two ways about it: each week the events are well run, but the courses aren't very challenging, as low scores are the norm. This has gone backward; usually, low scores bring lots of excitement, but the ease of the courses is making it seem like they have to birdie every hole.

Another big complaint is the format: having a stroke-play event run alongside a team event is hard to follow, and the shotgun start makes it even harder to see what is happening. Television, which is run by the tour, used to have many nice features, like a full-page leaderboard with 15 names. But it seems that new management must be running the show; they hardly show this great leaderboard, and now have a lot of meaningless stats that make the show more confusing. We also got used to the three-person booth of Arlo White, David Feherty, and Jerry Foltz. But they have taken Foltz out of the booth and put him on the ground, replacing him with Nicolas Colsaerts and Brett Rumford, who have very little insight to add to the show. Another annoying element is trying to find which Fox network it's on and which network you have to switch to midway through the round. I still can't find Fox Extra on my Fioz system.

Some things are nice: watching golf in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and South Africa is fun, as is the number of people who attend these events. I hope the PGA Tour recognizes there are other great markets outside the United States.

The big question last week was whether LIV Golf would be played in Mexico. But if there are changes, it's getting obvious that LIV is financed through the end of their year in August. But after that is the question mark.

The Saudi PIF has invested between 5 and 7 billion (yes, billion with a b), and this barely keeps the doors open. Between appearance fees, tournament purses, infrastructure setup for each event, and television cost, the overall costs are high. Even LIV CEO Scott O'Neil has admitted that the league will need more funding and will probably take 5 to 10 years to become profitable. So if the Saudi money leaves, will any company want to invest between half a billion and a billion to keep it alive for 2027? According to the New York Post, even their main player, Bryson DeChambeau, is putting the screws to them by seeking $500 million in appearance fees for 2027, something that will not happen.

But the biggest problem with LIV Golf is that after five years, it's nearly impossible to know who the players are or which events they've won. There is no historical element to LIV golf, which makes the PGA Tour, along with the Major championships, so important. So it's nothing more than white noise and disposable entertainment.

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The PGA Tour confirmed on Monday that Hawaii will not host any PGA Tour events next year. To shorten the schedule, it was decided to end The Sentry and the Sony Open in Hawaii. For Hawaii, they not only lose two great events that showcase the islands to the rest of the world, but also lose tens of millions of dollars in economic activity.

As for the Sentry, the event may cease, but the sponsor, Sentry Insurance, which had a contract to sponsor it through 2025, will likely host it in San Diego at Torrey Pines. Its sponsor, Farmers Insurance, decided to drop its sponsorship after last February's event. Waialae Country Club, which has hosted the Sony Open in Hawaii since 1965, may host a PGA Tour Champions event next year. Sony's sponsorship for the PGA Tour tournament expired after 2026, and there had been discussions about it returning on a one-year basis, possibly as the first tourney of the season. But now the tour is focused on securing Sony's sponsorship of a senior event.

For someone who has been to both events about a dozen times, it's a bummer.

Rory McIlroy has taken over the mantle as the most talked-about player in 2026. His Masters win looked easy, and we have to wonder how many more championships Rory will win. As for Scottie Scheffler, even on Sunday in the playoff at the Heritage, Scheffler seemed out of touch. How many times have we seen Scheffler hit such a poor second shot while playing in the playoff? Scheffler may still be a bit off, but will he be able to regain the same dominance he has had the last three years? Of course, we know that Scheffler is a slow starter, so the next month will be important. I can see him winning one of the three majors left, and I can see him winning three times in the next three months.

We will also see whether Matt Fitzpatrick wins again. Seems he was a win-every-two-years type of player in the past. But in 2026, he has won twice in the last five weeks, and he will be a player to watch at the majors.

We still wonder what the deal is with Ludvig Aberg. He came close to winning the Players Championship, but he self-imploded on Sunday, and that has carried over to other events. Still, he is young and learning, and I can see him winning in the next couple of months.

Xander Schauffele still seems to be struggling, and we have to ask: why? He is over his back problems from last year, but still seems to struggle to maintain consistency over 72 holes. I see all this getting worked out, and Xander is close to breaking out of this 18-month funk.

Is Cameron Young really as good as some think he is? Yes, he is, and he will show it by winning two more times this year. Watch him at Shinnecock and Royal Birkdale.

Can Collin Morikawa work out his psychological problems? For the last month, Morikawa has been worried on every swing, worried that he will hurt his back. That has been his problem of late, and despite putting well and striking the ball, he has to regain the confidence that he can hit every shot pain-free.

It would be interesting to see if Jacob Bridgeman, Chris Gotterup, and Akshay Bhatia will win again. All three have had a great 2026, and I can see all three winning again in the coming weeks.

Ryo Hisatsune and Sahith Theegala have quietly played well; both have four top-ten finishes for the year. I can see both of them winning sometime this year, probably in the summer.

The fan favorite of 2026 has to be Gary Woodland. After revealing to Golf Channel his PTSD struggles, what did he do? He won the Texas Children's Houston Open and contended at the Masters. He has a lot of confidence for the first time in years; I wouldn't be surprised if he won again.

After winning the Tour Championship last August, we thought that Tommy Fleetwood would be in contention every week. He ended his year winning in India, then was 2nd at Abu Dhabi and T-3rd at the DP World Championship. But since then, Fleetwood has struggled with his game. His main problem is putting, but in nine starts, he has not really contended, even with a T-4th at Pebble, T-7th at Genesis, and T-8th at the Players. Fleetwood needs to put four good rounds together, and when he does that, he will find a way back into the winner's circle. We aren't writing off Fleetwood, but he needs to be better with the putter and find the same consistency he had in 2025.

Another is Brooks Koepka, who left LIV Golf and has spent considerable time and money to rejoin the PGA Tour. I thought he would rebound after showing boredom during his LIV Golf appearance. In seven starts this year he has one top-ten, T-9th at Cognizant. His big problem is putting.

If this newsletter was forwarded to you, we would really appreciate you subscribing. Please forward to a friend if you are already a subscriber. See you next week with a full preview of the Cadillac Championship at Doral.