Spain’s Jon Rahm, defending champion, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, four-time Major winner, and a varied Latin American legion will meet starting Thursday at the PGA US Open, the third Grand Slam of the season.
Leading stars from LIV Golf, backed by Saudi Arabia and led by American Phil Mickelson, will also take part.
Latin America will have a large participation led by the Colombian Sebastián Muñoz, the Chileans Joaquín Niemann and Mito Pereira, the Mexican Abraham Ancer and the Brazilian Fred Biondi.
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The main groups and a great absence: Tiger Woods
Rahm, 27 years old and also second in the world ranking, who won his first major title last June with the US Open in Torrey Pines, will open his career in the competition alongside local James Piot, winner of the US Amateur last year, and the also American Collin Morikawa, reigning champion of the British Open and winner of the PGA Championship 2020.
For his part, McIlroy, third in the world rankings and winner last Sunday at the Canadian Open, will start in the first round alongside Japanese Hideki Matsuyama, winner of the 2021 Masters, and American Xander Schauffele, Olympic champion in Tokyo last year. .
The also American Scottie Scheffler, number one and current champion of the Masters, will do it together with the Australian Cameron Smith and his compatriot Brooks Koepka, winner of four ‘Majors’.
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While, Tiger Woods, who had returned after serious leg injuries sustained in a car accident 16 months ago, skipped this tournament to better prepare for next month’s British Open in St. Andrews.
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Phil Mickelson, six-time Major winner and LIV Golf’s most visible star now, will take the course alongside Louis Oosthuizen and Irishman Shane Lowry.
“Whether it’s positive or negative for me directly, I think it will provide (the Brookline tournament) an incredible atmosphere,” Mickelson noted about his participation in LIV Golf.
Also American Dustin Johnson, another LIV Golf rebel, will start his first round together with his compatriot Webb Simpson and Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick.
American Patrick Reed, a former Masters champion who also joined LIV Golf last weekend, starts alongside England’s Tommy Fleetwood and South Korea’s Lee Kyoung-hoon.
If Rahm made anything clear in this tournament, it was his disagreement with the Saudi league. The 27-year-old Spaniard practiced this week alongside Mickelson and Kevin Na, players who made the jump to LIV.
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Rahm, who also won the Mexican Open last month, made it clear that he has no interest in playing in the LIV Series, considering that he doesn’t like random starts or 54-hole formats. But he does worry that the players who make the switch, including his compatriot Sergio Garcia, will not be able to play in the Ryder Cup.
“The only thing that keeps coming out of all this and what can happen, I hope the Ryder Cup doesn’t suffer,” Rahm stressed. “I think the Ryder Cup is the biggest draw the game of golf has to attract new people.”
Rahm and Garcia were part of the Europe team that won the Ryder Cup in 2018 in France and also last year in the loss at Whistling Straits.
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with AFP
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