The world’s top three players, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka, will be paired together for the first two rounds of the Charles Schwab Challenge, which starts this Thursday at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
The trio are one of four featured groupings announced by the PGA Tour for the US$7.5 million event, which marks the tour’s return to competition after a 12-week hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The tournament will be aired ‘live’ on the Golf Channel (Astro Channel 822 in Malaysia).
Full groupings and starting times for the first two rounds of the Charles Schwab Challenge will be released officially on Tuesday, June 9.
Charles Schwab Challenge Featured Groupings:
Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka
- McIlroy, who is making his first start at the Charles Schwab Challenge, has two wins in his PGA Tour career when making a tournament debut – 2010 Wells Fargo Championship, 2019 RBC Canadian Open
- In three starts at Colonial Country Club, Rahm has earned two top-fives, highlighted by a T2 in 2017
- In his lone Charles Schwab Challenge appearance in 2018, Koepka shot a pair of 63s (R2, R4) to finish second, marking the only time in his PGA Tour career he recorded multiple sub-65 scores
Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth
- Fowler has two top-10s in six starts on the season (T5/Sentry Tournament of Champions, T10/The American Express)
- Thomas enters the week No. 2 in the FedExCup standings as one of two players with multiple wins on the season (The CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges, Sentry Tournament of Champions)
- A Dallas native, Spieth has one win (2016) and two T2s (2015, 2017) in seven starts at the Charles Schwab Challenge
Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose
- DeChambeau has finished in the top five in his last three starts (T5/The Genesis Invitational, 2nd/WGC-Mexico Championship, 4th/Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard)
- 20-time PGA Tour winner Johnson enters the week No. 111 in the FedExCup standings and has not missed the Tour Championship since his rookie season (134th/2008)
- In 2018, Justin Rose became the first player to win the Charles Schwab Challenge and go on to win the FedExCup in the same season
Phil Mickelson, Kevin Na, Gary Woodland
- Mickelson, a 44-time PGA Tour winner, holds two Charles Schwab Challenge titles (2000, 2008)
- Defending champion Na earned his third PGA TOUR title at the 2019 Charles Schwab Challenge; he earned his fourth earlier this season at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open
- Woodland, the reigning U.S. Open champion, has four top-10s on the season, including a T8 at The Honda Classic in his most recent start
