The PGA Championship returns next week to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, with golfers invited from the Saudi-funded LIV Golf to give the tournament 99 out of the top 100 ranked golfers in the world.
The PGA consistently attempts to have the top 100 golfers in the world participate in the tournament to maintain its reputation of having the toughest competition of any golf competition in the world.
Rikuya Hoshino, who is ranked 94th in the world, ended the possibility that all of the top 100 players would compete when he withdrew his name late Tuesday for unknown reasons, according to the Associated Press.
LIV Golf will be represented in the tournament by 16 players, a slight decrease from the 18 players who participated in the event last year. Of those 16, seven are currently ranked within the top 100 golfers in the world.
One notable absence from LIV golfers is British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen, who is unable to compete due to a personal commitment, according to AP.
The most notable invitee from LIV Golf is Brooks Koepka, who won the 2023 PGA Championship and is the only active LIV golfer to have won a major championship, per AP.
Koepka enters the tournament as the 37th-ranked golfer in the world and will attempt to win his fourth PGA Championship of his career.
The list of invited LIV golfers also includes Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Cameron Smith, Adrian Meronk, Lucas Herbert, Joaquín Niemann, Patrick Reed, Dean Burmester, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Phil Mickelson, Andy Ogletree, and David Puig, according to Golfweek.
One of the biggest surprises of all the players invited was Talor Gooch, who posted on X saying, “Looking forward to Valhalla next week! Thank you for the invitation @PGA See y’all there.”
Gooch is currently the 644th-ranked golfer in the world, but he has won three LIV tournaments since joining the tour in 2022 and was the league’s individual champion in 2023, according to The Athletic.
This is fourth time that Valhalla Golf Club has hosted the PGA Championship. Rory McIlroy won the tournament the last time the event was held at the course in 2014, shooting 16 under par.
The total purse for the PGA Championship will be $17.5 million, with the tournament’s winner receiving a total of $3.15 million, according to The Courier-Journal.
