The 156-man field for the second major of the year was confirmed earlier this month with some notable absentees, while 16 players from the LIV Golf Tour have been included
The organisers of the PGA Championship have shed light on the selection process that resulted in 16 LIV Golf stars being included in the second major of the year’s lineup.
The finalised roster of 156 players was confirmed earlier this month. Since then, there have been some notable changes. The PGA Championship doesn’t offer direct qualification routes for players based on their LIV results, meaning members of the breakaway tour must qualify either through their Official World Golf Ranking, previous major results or special invitations.
Certain players were assured their spots. Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Martin Kaymer, Cam Smith and Phil Mickelson qualified for the tournament thanks to exemptions from previous major wins, as detailed the Mirror US.
Tyrrell Hatton secured his place due to being ranked 20th in the world rankings, while Richard Bland is in the field owing to his victory at the Senior PGA Championship last year.
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However, special invitations from the organisers mean Dustin Johnson, David Puig, Tom McKibbin, Patrick Reed, Dean Burmester, Sergio Garcia, John Catlin and Joaquin Niemann are also participating.
When asked about the decision-making process, PGA of America CEO Derek Sprague stated “it’s about having the strongest field in golf”, before chief championships officer Kerry Haigh provided further explanation.
Haigh articulated their inclusive approach stating: “I’m happy to answer it. Just as we have for many years, we look at every tour that’s playing worldwide golf and try and identify the best players from those respective tours.”
He added: “When we do that, we certainly look at points list or money lists or rankings and identify who we think are the better players.
“The committee meets and talks about whether or not we should offer them invites, which is why I think through that process we were able to get worldwide players from various tours.
“We use the Federation rankings, the top four from the Federation rankings are playing this week, as well as LIV, as well as the other countries.
“It’s a worldwide field. That’s why we feel it’s the strongest field in golf because of that process where we look at all the different tours and try and include and invite those best players.”
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