Butch Harmon exclusive
Golf coach and Sky Sports Golf Analyst Butch Harmon believes that there is still a chance of Rory McIlroy’s major drought ending in 2024. The Northern Irishman will be looking to go one better than his runner-up finish to Wyndham Clark at Los Angeles Country Club 12 months ago. “Pinehurst is a great course, Royal Troon is a wonderful test and I think Rory will have a good chance at the US Open & The Open Championship”, said Harmon. McIlroy has won recent Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Shane Lowry & Wells Fargo Championship and Harmon is happy with the golf lesson they had before Augusta in April. “Yeah I think Rory has done a good job, I worked mostly on shots from 150 yards and I made it more of a three-quarter wider swing shoulder to shoulder”.
The four-time major champion will have to bring his a game to Pinehurst especially with a world class field assembled. “You would have to go with Scottie Scheffler right now he is the hottest player on the planet, said Harmon. Tommy Fleetwood finished tied third at Augusta and is another player that Harmon has worked with over the last couple of years. “If you are looking for an outsider the guy that has been on the verge of winning several tournaments is Tommy Fleetwood and his golf game tee to green is as good as anyone that plays the game”. The first two majors of 2024 have been extremely entertaining especially the battle between Xander Schauffele & Bryson DeChambeau at Valhalla and hopefully Pinehurst provides similar drama.
In May Jimmy Dunne resigned from PGA Tour policy board and it’s a year since the announcement of merger between Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund & PGA Tour. “We only see it now in the majors is all the best players playing together at the same event, we don’t have that at the moment and we have to figure out a way to get back to it”, said Harmon. The rise of breakaway LIV Tour has changed professional golf since been created in 2022 and only nine of their players are currently ranked inside top 100 of World Golf Rankings. “Golf in the USA TV ratings are way down it’s too bad because a lot of these young players are really good but you have to understand the golf ratings are driven by superstars”, said Harmon.
15 time major champion Tiger Woods has only played three tournaments this year and only made one halfway cut which was The Masters at Augusta. “I think Tiger has to play more than just the majors, I think the big problem with Tiger is not his golf game but his inability to walk 72 holes”, said his former coach. The next Ryder Cup will take place in 2025 at Bethpage Black and USA are still yet to name their captain. “I would say the talk has been Tiger will be the next captain ideally it was going to be Phil Mickelson in New York but unfortunately he is on LIV and they don’t allow that to happen anymore”