The world’s top five players will tee off in next week’s Charles Schwab Challenge, the first event in the long-awaited restart of the 2019-20 PGA Tour season.
World No 1 Rory McIlroy will be joined at Colonial Country Club in Forth Worth, Texas, by the next four ranked players in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), namely Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson. Both McIlroy and Thomas will be making their debut appearances in the storied event, inaugurated in 1946 by the host club.
This will mark the first time that the top five ranked players in the world compete at Colonial since 1986, when Dan Pohl edged Payne Stewart in a playoff.
Kevin Na (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Also in the field is two-time winner Phil Mickelson, making his 16th start at Colonial. The five-time Major winner played in last week’s The Match: Champions for Charity where he and NFL quarterback Tom Brady lost to Tiger Woods and NFL legend Peyton Manning.
Of the top 20 players in the PGA Tour’s FedExCup standings, 17 have signed up for the US$7.5 million event including defending champ Kevin Na. A total of 15 of the world’s top 20 players are in the field at Colonial.
The Charles Schwab Challenge was originally scheduled for May 21-24 but was moved to June 11-14 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The will be the first full PGA Tour event to be staged since the season was halted following the cancellation of The Players Championship in March after the first round – PGA TOUR
