South Africa will host two events in March, the Joburg Ladies Open at Modderfontein Golf Club and the Investec South African Women’s Open at Steenberg Golf Club in Cape Town.

The first of five $1 million Aramco Team Series events will then take place in Singapore, followed by two more events in Asia.  The LET will return to Europe in May for the Jabra Ladies Open at the world-famous Evian Resort Golf Club in France, followed by the second Aramco Team Series event at Trump International, West Palm Beach, in Florida.

After a successful launch in 2022, the Mithra Belgian Ladies Open will be played again at Naxhelet Golf Club. Then, in June, the Helsingborg Open will return to the schedule for the first time since 2015 and will be played at Allerum Golf Club. Remaining in Sweden, the LET will move on to Ullna Golf Club for the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed, where the players will attempt to follow in the footsteps of Linn Grant, who earlier this year became the first woman to win a DP World Tour event with a nine-shot victory over a mixed gender field in the co-sanctioned tournament.

From there, the LET will move on to Berlin for the Amundi German Masters at Seddiner See Golf Club, followed by the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open at Beroun Golf Club and then the Ladies Open by Pickala, at Pickala Golf in Helsinki, Finland.

In mid-July, the third Aramco Team Series event will be played once again at Centurion Club near London. In the third week of July, the €1 million La Sella Open will debut on the calendar at La Sella Golf in Alicante, Spain.

In July and August, the Tour will play in four co-sanctioned tournaments with the LPGA, opening in France with the $6.5 million Amundi Evian Championship, the first Major on the LET schedule, followed by the $2 million Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open, the $7.3 million AIG Women’s Open, the second Major Championship in Europe, to be played at Walton Heath in England and finally the $1.5 million ISPS Handa World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics, in Northern Ireland, before returning to Dromoland Castle in Ireland for the second KPMG Women’s Irish Open.

Early September will see Hilversumsche Golf Club in the Netherlands host the Big Green Egg Open and then the VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open will be played once again at the picturesque Golfpark Holzhausern.

On September 22-24, the Solheim Cup, featuring the 12 best players from the United States versus the 12 best European players, will be held at the stunning Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain, where Team Europe is going for the hat-trick. Golf fans are readying themselves for what will be a truly unmissable event.

The Lacoste Ladies Open de France will then return to Golf Barriere in Deauville, ahead of the fourth Aramco Team Series event in Asia in October.

The Hero Women’s Indian Open at DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon will precede the fifth Aramco Team Series event, in Riyadh, at the beginning of November.

Finally, the 2023 season will culminate with the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de Españaat Real Club de Golf Las Brisas, Marbella, where the winner of the Race to Costa del Sol will be crowned.

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The European Challenge Tour has announced its schedule for 2023, with Europe’a second tier tour set to feature a record overall prize fund and a minimum of 29 tournaments staged across three continents in 18 different countries.

Players will compete for total prize money of €8.2m, which will begin with the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open in February, the first of four co-sanctioned events with the Sunshine Tour in South Africa.

India returns as a host country for the first time since 2013 with two events in March, the Duncan Taylor Black Bull Challenge followed by The Challenge presented by KGA.

The Challenge Tour also returns to the UAE in April for the first time since 2018 with back-to-back events, including the Abu Dhabi Challenge, as part of the European Tour group’s long-term partnership with the Emirates Golf Federation.

It will then head to Spain in May for the Challenge de España, which will kick-start a run of 20 tournaments in 22 weeks and see the Road to Mallorca travel through 15 countries in Europe, including Italy for the Italian Challenge at Golf Nazionale, the venue which will then host the first two days of the 2023 Junior Ryder Cup in September.

The 2023 season will conclude with the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A, at Club de Golf Alcanada from November 2-5, as the top 45 players on the Rankings battle it out for one of the life changing 20 DP World Tour cards.

Those 20 players who benefit from this formal pathway to the DP World Tour will then be eligible for the DP World Tour’s Earnings Assurance Programme, guaranteeing them minimum earnings of $150,000 for the 2024 season if they play in 15 or more events. The top five graduates will also benefit from the John Jacobs Bursary, similarly designed to provide security and a strong platform for their first season on the European Tour group’s top tier.

The full Challenge Tour schedule for 2023 can be viewed by clicking here.

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Following its counterpart’s announcement on Tuesday, the United States team revealed its six captain’s selections for the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow in two weeks. Captain Davis Love III dealt with twists and turns of his own as presumed pick Will Zalatoris bowed out of consideration following his withdrawal from the 2022 Tour Championship due to two herniated discs in his back.

In his place, Love’s selections of Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Billy Horschel, Cameron Young and Kevin Kisner will don the red, white and blue in Charlotte. They join the six automatic qualifiers of Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Sam Burns, Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas and Tony Finau, and make up the 12 men responsible for defending the dramatic 2019 triumph at Royal Melbourne led by Tiger Woods.

Burns is the lone automatic qualifier who will be making his team-competition debut, but he is joined by a number of rookies among the captain’s selections. While Spieth is set to compete in his fourth Presidents Cup and eighth team event, this marks the first Presidents Cup for four of the selections. Only Kisner has any prior Presidents Cup experience under his belt, while Morikawa was an integral part of the U.S. Ryder Cup team last fall.

Morikawa collected a 3-0-1 record in the 2021 Ryder Cup victory at Whistling Straits and Kisner was a member of the 2017 Presidents Cup team at Liberty National where he garnered a 2-0-2 record. A native of South Carolina and a staple at the WGC Match Play, Kisner was the likely the last man selected and the beneficiary of Zalatoris’ injury.

“There are a lot of great players who excel in match play, but Kisner thrives off of this format and I know he is eager to compete at Quail Hollow,” said Love. “As a South Carolina native and one of the more popular players on Tour, he will bring some vocal fans with him and help to build an atmosphere that our team embraces.”

Homa enjoyed the strongest season of his PGA Tour career in 2021-22. Winning the Fortinet Championship and the Wells Fargo Championship, he was one of nine multiple-time winners on the season and gained strokes in each area of the game for the first time in his career. Known to play his best golf on long, classical golf courses, the return to Quail Hollow — the site of his first career victory in 2019 — should bring a sense of comfort for the rookie.

Horschel brings a fieriness to the U.S. side that is typically reserved for the likes of Thomas. Not receiving a phone call last fall for the Ryder Cup, the former FedEx Cup champion harnessed this disappointment into a victory at the DP World Tour’s flagship event, the 2021 BMW PGA Championship, the following week. A player capable of making putts in bunches and having won at Muirfield Village this past summer, 35-year-old Horschel will be ready for his debut.

As will Young, who appears to be wise beyond his years. Likely to be bestowed the honors of PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, the former Wake Forest Demon Deacon returns to state of North Carolina with plenty of confidence and game. The 25-year-old finished inside the top three on seven different occasions in his first season on the PGA Tour, including his T3 finish at the PGA Championship and runner-up result at The Open.

2022 Presidents Cup teams

With half the U.S. team boasting zero experience in this particular competition, it will need to lean on their form — of which there is plenty. All but one player — world No. 26 Kisner — find their names inside the top 20 of the Official World Golf Rankings and are led by world No. 1 Scheffler, who will be making his Presidents Cup debut.

This is a stark contrast to an international team that boasts only two top 20 players in the world and featured zero top 40 players in its captain’s selections. With the recent dismissal of Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann from the team, the international side has seen its chances dwindle without sticking a peg into the ground.

Previously listed as -330 favorites at Caesars Sportsbook, the U.S. team can now be found at -500. Having won each edition of the Presidents Cup on home soil, oddsmakers believe this one will be no different.

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International team captain Trevor Immelman had an impossible task in front of him as he made his 2022 Presidents Cup picks. He had to fill up spots that would have otherwise been taken by the No. 2 player in the world, Cameron Smith, as well as another top 20 guy in Joaquin Niemann after both left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf and became ineligible for the competition. 

On Tuesday, with two weeks to go until the Presidents Cup begins at Quail Hollow, Immelman made his selections.

Cameron Davis, Si Woo Kim, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, K.H. Lee, Sebastian Munoz and Taylor Pendrith will join Adam Scott, Mito Pereira, Tom Kim, Corey Conners, Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im — all of whom qualified on points — on the international team. Originally, Immelman was slated to have just four picks, but the departures of Smith and Niemann gave him two more openings.

None of these six captain’s picks are ranked among the top 40 golfers in the world — K.H. Lee is the highest-ranked at No. 41 — but all are intriguing as talents, which will be needed against a loaded United States team. Pendrith and Davis are monsters off the tee. Munoz and Lee are former PGA Tour champions. Bezuidenhout is arguably one of the best putters in the world, and Kim is an immense (if enigmatic) talent who has won three events, including a Players Championship, and lost three others in playoffs by the age of 26.

Kim is the only player with any previous Presidents Cup experience.

One of the international team problems’s (among many) is Quail Hollow’s length and how little of it the team possesses, which is something they clearly tried to solve with these six captain’s picks.

“Quail Hollow is a golf course which rewards length,” said Immelman in a statement. “And [Pendrith] is without doubt one of the longest drivers of the ball in our sport. The way he responded to the adversity of a serious injury in his rookie season, rejoined the PGA Tour and had five top-15 finishes in his last six events highlighted by a T2 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, meant that he was someone we couldn’t look past.”

Immelman joined The First Cut Podcast last week to talk about some of the players on his squad, and he was unsurprisingly high on both Im and Tom Kim, both of whom had terrific years. They will be among the better players on this team and looked at to carry much of the load against the Americans.

2022 Presidents Cup teams

* Projected captain’s picks for the U.S. team on Wednesday

The international team is up against both a tepid past and an overwhelming present. Only six players automatically qualified for U.S. captain Davis Love III, but he is expected to pick Jordan Spieth, Max Homa, Billy Horschel, Cameron Young and Collin Morikawa for his captain’s picks. With Will Zalatoris’ injury, the 12th is undetermined, but the U.S. depth is staggering compared to the international team.

Immelman will try and combat the immense U.S. talent with all the talent he has at his disposal. He could have easily gone with some other older players with more experience, but instead, he chose five rookies who are unproven but also not scarred. This is a methodology that the U.S. team actually employed last year against the European Ryder Cup team, and it worked splendidly.

While I don’t really expect the international team to ultimately compete with the U.S. squad at Quail Hollow given the depth and strength of the latter over the former, Immelman has at least been wise with how he’s gone about constructing his team in the wake of the LIV departures and team anchor Smith not getting another run. He’s at least given himself and his team a chance.

The international team has not won a Presidents Cup since 1998 and has never won one inside the United States.

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