The second men’s Major of the year is upon us and we know the full field for the PGA Championship, which is theoretically the strongest field in the game with almost all of the world’s top 100 players set to tee it up.
As well as the PGA Tour’s best, there are 18 LIV players in the field as the likes of Masters runners-up, and double PGA Champions, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson return to Major golf as well as plenty more of the Saudi-backed league’s stars like Cam Smith, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau.
The field for Oak Hill is stacked, but as always with Majors, there are some big names missing out. Below we take a look at some of the most well known and highest ranked players who will be watching on from the sidelines…
Tiger Woods
The biggest name in the sport isn’t listed in the field after undergoing a subtalar fusion surgery in his ankle following last month’s Masters. Woods withdrew prior to the final day’s play after aggravating his plantar fasciitis and he opted to go for a fusion surgery – which should remove all pain but slightly hinder the movement of his foot.
Woods has won the PGA Championship four times – in 1999, 2000, 2006 and 2007. It remains to be seen when he’ll tee it up next.
Will Zalatoris
The American, runner-up to Justin Thomas last year at Southern Hills where he lost in a playoff, is out injured for the entire season. Zalatoris said he will be back in the fall after undergoing back surgery last month while ranked 8th in the world at the time.
It means he’ll miss all three of the remaining Majors as well as the chance to make his Ryder Cup debut in Rome later in the year.
For the first time since the 1999 US Open, Sergio Garcia has failed to qualify for a Major. The LIV Golfer has dropped out of the world’s top 100 after joining the Saudi-backed league, meaning he no longer makes the entry requirements.
His best finish in the PGA Championship came in his memorable debut in 1999, where the 19-year-old famously hit a shot from a tree root at Medinah and finished one stroke shy of Tiger Woods.
Louis Oosthuizen
The South African misses his first Major in five years – since the 2018 PGA Championship – after seeing his world ranking tumble to 163rd since joining LIV Golf last year.
Oosthuizen, captain of Stinger GC, was T2nd at the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island as well as in 2017 at Quail Hollow.
Daniel Berger
The former World No.12 is somewhat of the forgotten man in golf and misses his third consecutive Major, having still not played since last June’s US Open. He is out with an injury in his lower back and recently told the Golf Channel that he still doesn’t know when his next start will be.
The four-time PGA Tour winner will be missing his first PGA Championship since 2015.
Lee Westwood
The Englishman is another 2021 Ryder Cupper – along with Garcia, Ian Poulter and Bernd Wiesberger – to have joined LIV and not made the entry requirements of being in the world’s top 100. Paul Casey is another, but he has received a special invite after missing last year’s championship with injury.
Westwood has played in 23 PGA Championships, with his best finish a T3rd in 2009.
Ian Poulter
Westwood’s fellow Majesticks GC co-captain is also not going to be at the PGA Championship after seeing his world ranking slide to 197th. The Ryder Cup legend and former World No.5 also missed last month’s Masters.
Poulter, who was T3rd at Kiawah Island in the 2012 PGA Championship, has played in the event 20 times and will miss it for just the third year since 2001.
Bernd Wiesberger
The Austrian, who made his Ryder Cup debut in 2021, is the fourth member of Team Europe’s side at Whistling Straits to have not qualified for Oak Hill.
Wiesberger, who plays for the Cleeks in the LIV Golf League, famously played with Rory McIlroy in the final group of the 2014 PGA Championship. He’s played in the Major nine times.