Court cases and cups set to dominate golf world in 2023

It’s set to be the year of the ‘C’ - courts and cups - for golf and the two are going to be inextricably linked.

After tasting defeat in the 2021 contest in Florida, Stuart Wilson will be hoping to lead Great Britain & Ireland to victory in the 2023 Walker Cup at St Andrews. Picture: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images.

Court cases are pending on both sides of the Atlantic early in 2023 and the outcome of those is set to shape the golfing landscape for the foreseeable future.

Victory for the DP World Tour and DP World Tour in those respective lawsuits could see the door effectively being slammed shut on LIV Golf players in terms of playing on those circuits.

But, if the verdicts go in favour of the LIV Golf rebels, then it will be interesting to see how things unfold in what, of course, is going to be a Ryder Cup year.

Catriona Matthew lifts the trophy after leading Europe to a second successive Solheim Cup victory in 2021 and now Suzann Pettersen is aiming to make it an unprecedented hat-trick at Finca Cortesin in Spain in 2023. Picture: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images.

As things stand, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed won’t be part of the United States side defending the trophy at Marco Simone Golf Club in Rome next September because they currently aren’t eligible for Ryder Cup points after being suspended from the PGA Tour when they joined Greg Norman’s Saudi-backed breakaway circuit.

The absence of that quartet would certainly be a blow to the American captain, Zach Johnson, but, with the likes of Max Homa, Sam Burns and Cameron Young all shining in a Presidents Cup win in 2022, the holders will be a formidable force in the Italian capital whatever happens in court.

For Europe, the lawmakers will effectively decide the Ryder Cup futures of Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell - all great servants over the years in the biennial contest.

Yes, of course, most of them would be missed in whatever capacity they might have been in if they’re not involved and that certainly seems likely due to some friendships probably being beyond repair.

The European team looked disconsolate following a hammering in the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits and now a court case will determine whether or not the likes of Ian Poulter and Paul Casey have a chance of playing in September's match in Rome. Picture: Andrew Redington/Getty Images.

But, even without the LIV Golf factor, a changing of the guard was on the offing for Europe and that was probably the case even before the hammering at Whistling Straits in the 2021 match.

It looks as though Luke Donald, the European captain, will already have six players on his wishlist, namely Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Matt Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood, with the tenacious Tyrrell Hatton and back-in-form Alex Noren two others you’d probably want to see on that team.

That would still leave a handful of spots up for grabs and the new Hero Cup, which takes place in Abu Dhabi in January, will be a perfect platform for players to show why they should be part of that new era for Europe in golf’s greatest team event.

Two Scots - Ewen Ferguson and Bob MacIntyre - have made the Great Britain and Ireland team for that event against Continental Europe and what an exciting year can lie ahead for both of them.

Having won the DS Automobiles Italian Open on the Ryder Cup course in one of the first qualifying events, MacIntyre is certainly a strong contender for that September showdown but not any more really, it must be said, than Ferguson because he is now held in equally high regard by lots of people in the game after winning twice in his rookie season on the DP World Tour and coming very close indeed to making that a hat-trick.

One of the Hojgaard twins and probably even both of them - Nicolai and Rasmus - are surely going to be in the mix, as will ever-improving Irishman Seamus Power and the polished Pole, Adrian Meronk.

And it would be absolutely brilliant, albeit not imperative, if either Francesco Molinari, whose brother, Edoardo, is one of Donald’s assistant captains for the event’s 44th edition, or his exciting young compatriot, Guido Migliozzi, made the team and gave those Italian fans an additional reason to turn up the volume at Marco Simone.

The Americans will undoubtedly be the favourites and rightly so, but let’s not forget that you have to go way back to 1993 to find the last US win on European soil, so don’t dismiss Donald’s hopes of seeing his side come out on top in this battle of golfing gladiators.

That takes place the week after the Solheim Cup, which will see Europe attempt to make it an unprecedented three wins in a row over the Americans in that transatlantic tussle.

Catriona Matthew, the winning skipper at Gleneagles in 2019 then again at Inverness Golf Club in Tulsa two years later, has handed the reins over to Suzann Pettersen and the Norwegian is one of the toughest competitors in the game.

She’ll be looking for Ireland’s Leona Maguire to be a star on that stage again, having picked up four-and-a-half points from five matches as a debutant in 2021, and the home team at Finca Cortesin in Spain will also definitely include the likes of Celine Boutier, Charley Hull and Georgia Hall.

Maybe Gemma Dryburgh, too, for the first time because the Aberdeen-born player is certainly now on Peterssen’s radar after recording a brilliant breakthrough win on the LPGA Tour in Japan in November and, after backing that up with a strong finish to the season, she’s climbed to 70th in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

Adding to an exciting team theme, the Walker Cup at St Andrews in early September will provide another 2023 highlight, with two Scots - Connor Graham and Calum Scott - in contention to be on a team that will be captained by Forfar man Stuart Wilson.

The match will mark 100 years since the Walker Cup was first played at the Fife venue and, after three successive defeats at the hands of the Americans, Great Britain & Ireland will be determined to get back to winning ways on the Old Course.