Pieters joins LIV Golf League
Belgium's Thomas Pieters is the highest profile new recruit for the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League when it swings into action in Mexico this week.
The world number 35 joins two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson, Talor Gooch and Harold Varner III on the Range Goats team for the first event of a 14-tournament, $405 million schedule at Mayakoba's El Camaleón Golf Course on Friday.
Pieters won a record four points on his Ryder Cup debut at Hazeltine in 2016, including all three matches with Rory McIlroy, who said: "I've got a partner beside me for the next 20 years, I'm not letting anyone else have him."
The 48-man league features 12 four-man teams with New Zealander Danny Lee and American Brendan Steele the other new signings.
The Ladies European Tour, meanwhile, yesterday announced Norway's Suzanne Pettersen will captain Europe in the next two editions of the Solheim Cup.
The two-time major winner, already preparing to captain Europe at Finca Cortesin in Spain in September, was considered "a natural choice", according to LET CEO Alexandra Armas, for the 2024 clash at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia.
The matches are being played in consecutive years as the Solheim Cup moves to even years to avoid clashing with the Ryder Cup.
The R&A, meanwhile, has confirmed golfers aiming to book their place in The Open at Royal Liverpool in July will have opportunities to qualify at 15 professional events in nine countries through the Open Qualifying Series.
A total of 34 places are available through events being played on professional tours worldwide, while the number of places at Final Qualifying has been increased by four to 16 places.
A new exemption has been added for elite amateur golfers in which the player who accumulates the most points awarded by the World Amateur Golf Ranking in the St Andrews Links Trophy, The Amateur Championship and European Amateur Championship will earn a place in The Open.
Meanwhile, five Irish players are through to the last 32 of the South African Amateur Championship at Mount Edgecombe near Durban.
Naas' Robert Brazill beat Royal Dublin's Hugh Foley 2&1 in the first round as Galgorm Castle's Joshua Hill, Malone's Matthew McClean, Castle's Robert Moran and Douglas' Peter O'Keeffe also progressed.
