CNN
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A star-studded area will contest a file $25 million prize purse at The Gamers Championship on Thursday.
The sector features a trio of stars who’ve already held the world No. 1 spot in 2023 – Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm, who presently tops the rankings – however there will probably be one evident absence at TPC Sawgrass for the PGA Tour’s flagship occasion.
Within the championship’s 49-year historical past, no participant has ever efficiently defended the title and with reigning champion Cameron Smith barred from competing as a result of his involvement within the LIV Golf Sequence, that run is assured to tick over to half a century.
“Sure, it’s awkward,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan advised reporters Tuesday when quizzed on the Australian world No.5’s absence.
“He was a deserved champion … however in the end that’s a choice he made, and we’ve received an unbelievable area right here this week and a historical past and custom that one among these 144 goes to go search to get.”
Smith headlines a bunch of massive names who won’t tee up in Florida due their involvement within the breakaway Saudi-backed tour.
5 of final 12 months’s prime 10 on the occasion – Smith, Anirban Lahiri, Paul Casey, Harold Varner III and Dustin Johnson – have joined LIV Golf.
Guaranteeing a area full of the most effective golfers has been a cornerstone of The Gamers Championship’s declare to being golf’s “fifth main,”, but six of the world’s prime 50-ranked gamers – together with Chilean duo Joaquin Niemann and Mito Pereira – will probably be absent for identical causes as Smith and co.
And as main champions within the earlier 5 years, LIV Golf gamers Brooks Koepka, Bryson Dechambeau, Patrick Reed, and Phil Mickelson would all have been eligible to characteristic.
Because of this, a string of questions posed to gamers forward of the event centered on who was not taking part in, versus who was.
“Wouldn’t it be higher if the defending champion was right here this week? Completely,” McIlroy, champion in 2019, advised reporters.
“However he decided that he felt was the most effective factor for him, and he knew that call was going to return with penalties, and one of many penalties is true not with the ability to play on the PGA Tour.”
Rahm’s response to Smith’s exclusion echoed that of McIlroy’s, with the Spaniard including that “completely different circumstances” mitigated his perception that “defending champions ought to at all times be there.”
Some gamers made a selection of going to a distinct golf league figuring out that they weren’t going to be allowed to play right here,” Rahm stated.
“And sure, it is a huge occasion. It is vitally near main high quality occasion, but it surely’s nonetheless a PGA Tour occasion.”
Smith will probably be watching, however precisely the place from stays to be seen. In an interview shared on Twitter by Golf.com, the Australian – who lives in Florida – stated he could be tuning in by way of TV earlier than including he would “like to get out” to TPC Sawgrass for the occasion.
“I don’t know the way it might be obtained,” Smith stated.
“However even getting on the market and watching, strolling round within the crowd, is likely to be fairly humorous.”
Arguably probably the most dominant theme of the pre-tournament press conferences although, involved final week’s announcement of the PGA Tour’s revamped 2024 calendar.
Underneath the brand new schedule, eight “designated occasions” will supply elevated prize purses, smaller fields, and no cuts – all options of the LIV Golf Sequence.
The restricted area sizes – between 70 and 78 gamers – twinned with eligibility standards designed to reward “prime performers” on the PGA Tour, has led to considerations that the revamped schedule might result in a “closed store,” leaving lower-ranked golfers out within the chilly.
A gamers assembly was held Tuesday morning to debate the adjustments, McIlroy stated. The Northern Irishman, who joined Scheffler in backing the brand new schedule final week, believed these talks have been constructive.
“When extra info and knowledge was offered to them, the those that perhaps had reservations about it I believe got here round, or no less than have been extra knowledgeable on their opinions,” stated McIlroy.
“It was good for them to see that and to see what the considering is behind what we’re actually attempting to do right here. I believe the temperature within the room was nowhere close to as scorching as I anticipated it to be as soon as the knowledge was laid out.”
Rahm, who stated he didn’t attend the gamers assembly as he was spending time along with his kids, added that whereas he understood among the grievances, he believed the adjustments have been “the most effective for everyone” in the long run.
McIlroy has been an outspoken critic of the LIV Golf Sequence since its arrival final 12 months.
Nevertheless, in mild of the PGA Tour’s adjustments, the four-time main winner believes the breakaway collection has in the end been useful to golf.
“I’m not going to take a seat right here and lie – I believe the emergence of LIV or the emergence of a competitor to the PGA Tour has benefited everybody that performs elite skilled golf,” McIlroy stated.
“Whenever you’ve been the largest golf league within the greatest market on the planet for the final 60 years, there’s not lots of incentive to innovate.
“This has triggered a ton of innovation on the PGA Tour, and what was fairly, I’d say, an antiquated system is being revamped to attempt to mirror the place we’re at on the planet within the twenty first century with the media panorama.
“The PGA TOUR isn’t simply competing with LIV Golf or different sports activities. It’s competing with Instagram and TikTok and every thing else that’s attempting to take eyeballs away from the PGA TOUR as a product.”
Once more, Rahm agreed with McIlroy, including that such adjustments would “by no means” have occurred with out LIV Golf.
“So to an extent, like I’ve stated earlier than, we ought to be grateful this menace has made the PGA TOUR need to change issues,” Rahm stated.
“I want it didn’t come to the PGA TOUR being underneath fireplace from someone else to make these adjustments and make issues higher for the gamers, however I suppose it’s what we would have liked. It’s due to LIV Golf, in any other case we wouldn’t have seen any of this.”
Play begins with the primary trios teeing off at 6:50am ET on Thursday, as a glittering area throws up a bunch of big-name groupings.
7:34am – Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau, Tom Kim
7:45am – Collin Morikawa, Rickie Fowler, Adam Scott
7:56am – Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm
12:34pm – Matt Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland, Shane Lowry
12:45pm – Kurt Kitayama, Will Zalatoris, Xander Schauffele
12:56pm – Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Max Homa
Golf Channel will probably be broadcasting the primary two rounds of the occasion from 12pm to 6pm ET on Thursday and Friday, earlier than protection switches to NBC – from 1pm to 6pm ET – for the 2 ultimate weekend rounds.
Viewers in the UK and Eire can watch by way of Sky Sports activities from 11:30am Thursday.
Extra info on the way to watch will be discovered on the PGA Tour’s web site right here.
