The world No. 1 is back and leads the most loaded field of the major season. Here's how the PGA Championship field is built.
The PGA Championship annually boasts that it has the strongest major championship field of the year. The exemptions at the other majors follow a similar pattern, awarding spots to the top of the world rankings, amateurs, and a set of other qualifiers. This is the only major with no amateurs and the PGA of America has created a set of qualifying exemptions that ensures they get almost every single player among the top 100 in the world a spot in the field. The way they build their field has much more flexibility and discretion compared to the others, and they usually get a most loaded group at the season's final major.
Rory McIlroy, the world No. 1, obviously boosts the strength of the field after missing the British Open. The defending champ will return after more than 50 days since his last competitive round, and he'll start right away alongside the one guy who has a shot to take his spot atop the rankings -- Jordan Spieth.
Both Spieth and McIlroy obviously qualified for the PGA in several ways. Rory holds six different exemptions and Spieth four, but the following lists each player just once in the first spot they show up according to the PGA's order of methods to get into the field. The full group is 156 players, the same size as the U.S. and British Open. That's as big as it gets in golf and it can become a logistical challenge to get that group through the first 36 holes in groups of three off split tees. But even with the occasional weather disruption, the PGA of America has most of this down to a science. Here's this year's full field and the way it was built.
Past PGA winners
The Masters gets much more publicity for the lifetime invite perk that all its past winners enjoy. But the PGA of America grants the same exemption to all its champions. It's probably because the PGA rotates venues so there's not that usual collection of winners making the annual pilgrimage to the same spot for the same routine. But there's a champions dinner here too. The U.S. Open only gives its winner a 10-year exemption, while the British gives their winner a spot in the field until he's 60 years old.
This exemption leads to those random and fleeting champions like Rich Beem or Shaun Micheel popping back up again on the world golf stage. There are 23 former winners choosing not to play, almost all of them no longer active or playing competitive golf on any tour. Steve Elkington, who almost made the playoff and contended deep into Sunday at Whistling Straits in 2010, is the one former champ not playing that might have a shot to be competitive. Here are all your past winners teeing it up:
| Past PGA Championship winners |
| Rich Beem |
| Keegan Bradley |
| Mark Brooks |
| John Daly |
| Jason Dufner |
| Padraig Harrington |
| Martin Kaymer |
| Davis Love III |
| Rory McIlroy |
| Shaun Micheel |
| Phil Mickelson |
| Vijay Singh |
| David Toms |
| Tiger Woods |
| Y.E. Yang |
Other major winners
This is the standard agreement that all the major championships have with each other. If you win one major, you get a five-year exemption into the other three. Here are some of those names cashing in that exemption -- all these players, save for Darren Clarke, would have qualified for a spot via another exemption too:
| Winners of other 3 majors from past 5 years |
| U.S. Open |
| Justin Rose |
| Webb Simpson |
| Jordan Spieth |
| Masters |
| Charl Schwartzel |
| Adam Scott |
| Bubba Watson |
| British Open |
| Darren Clarke |
| Ernie Els |
| Zach Johnson |
Current Senior PGA Champion
Both the U.S. Open and British Open play their senior edition the week after the main event. But the Senior PGA Championship is typically played at the end of May and the winner there earns an invite to the season's final major in August. Colin Montgomerie, a hall of famer and one of the most decorated European players ever, was notorious for his lack of success in the States and at the majors. He's had no such troubles on a the senior circuit, however, and the Scot won the Senior PGA for the second straight year back in May.
| Reigning Senior PGA Championship winner |
| Colin Montgomerie |
Top 15 from last year's PGA
The 2014 PGA at Valhalla was one of the best majors in recent years, with a cadre of world-class superstars shuffling around on the leaderboard all weekend. It will be remembered largely for that Sunday duel between Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, and Phil Mickelson that went deep into the darkness. The forgotten man out of those last four on the course will always be Bernd Wiesberger, who seemed a bit out of place among all the renowned names on the first page of the leaderboard. Nevertheless, Wiesberger used that solid result last year to earn his invite back this year.
This exemption is also the only way Steve Stricker qualified, although the Wisconsin native may have gotten a special exemption and invite from the PGA of America given the venue. He's synonymous with Wisconsin golf and a superstar around Whistling Straits. Here are the others from the top of last year's leaderboard -- minus Graham DeLaet, who withdrew on Monday due to injury.
| Top 15 (including ties) from 2014 PGA Championship |
| Kevin Chappell |
| JasonDay |
| Victor Dubuisson |
| Rickie Fowler |
| Jim Furyk |
| Mikko Ilonen |
| Brooks Koepka |
| Hunter Mahan |
| Louis Oosthuizen |
| Ryan Palmer |
| Brandt Snedeker |
| Henrik Stenson |
| Steve Stricker |
| Marc Warren |
| Lee Westwood |
| Bernd Wiesberger |
The club pros
This is the one major where amateurs need not apply. While the Masters and Opens like to romanticize the antediluvian notion of amateur golf, this major does not hold Bob Jones in such high esteem and is reserved only for the pros. The PGA of America is their organization and its marquee championship reserves 20 spots for club pros from the Professional National Championship. These are the guys who give lessons and sell sweaters at your local pro shop. One or two will make some noise at some point, but the goal here is usually just making the cut.
| Top 20 from PGA Profressional National Championship |
| Brian Cairns |
| Matt Dobyns |
| Sean Dougherty |
| Charles Frost |
| Brian Gaffney |
| Ryan Helminen |
| Brett Jones |
| Ryan Kennedy |
| Johan Kok |
| Alan Morin |
| Jeff Olson |
| Austin Peters |
| Ben Polland |
| Adam Rainaud |
| Brent Snyder |
| Bob Sowards |
| Grant Sturgeon |
| Omar Uresti |
| Daniel Venezio |
| Steven Young |
Top 70 from the PGA points list
Another way the PGA is different from all the other majors is that it does not use the Official World Golf Rankings for a wide net exemption. The others typically take everyone inside the top 50 at different cutoff dates. The PGA, on the other hand, has their own special "points list." This is basically just an accumulation of money earnings from the last 12 months. It sweeps in most of the top names in those world rankings, but it is a different method for getting there. This list is also where the PGA chooses most of the players for special exemptions and alternates.
| Top 70 from PGA Championship points list |
| Sang-Moon Bae |
| Daniel Berger |
| Jason Bohn |
| Steven Bowditch |
| Paul Casey |
| Brendon de Jonge |
| Harris English |
| Matt Every |
| Tony Finau |
| Sergio García |
| Fabián Gómez |
| Bill Haas |
| Chesson Hadley |
| James Hahn |
| Brian Harman |
| David Hearn |
| Russell Henley |
| Charley Hoffman |
| Morgan Hoffmann |
| J. B. Holmes |
| Billy Horschel |
| Dustin Johnson |
| Matt Jones |
| Kevin Kisner |
| Russell Knox |
| Matt Kuchar |
| Danny Lee |
| Marc Leishman |
| David Lingmerth |
| Ben Martin |
| Hideki Matsuyama |
| Troy Merritt |
| Ryan Moore |
| Kevin Na |
| Geoff Ogilvy |
| Scott Piercy |
| Ian Poulter |
| Patrick Reed |
| John Senden |
| Shawn Stefani |
| Robert Streb |
| Kevin Streelman |
| Justin Thomas |
| Brendon Todd |
| Cameron Tringale |
| Camilo Villegas |
| Nick Watney |
| Boo Weekley |
| Gary Woodland |
Ryder Cup players
After the PGA Championship, the PGA of America's other big event is the Ryder Cup. They're the organizers and beneficiaries of that massive event on the US side. All 24 players from both rosters, so long as they're still in the top 100 in the world, earn an invite to the next year's PGA. Thomas Bjorn dropped out of the top 100 but earned a special invite from the PGA.
| 2014 Ryder Cup participants (must be ranked in top 100) |
| Jamie Donaldson |
| Stephen Gallacher |
| Graeme McDowell |
Winners of PGA Tour events from the last 12 months
Winning a tournament on the PGA Tour, the world's deepest and most competitive circuit, triggers a set of perks and rewards. Two are invites to the Masters and PGA Championship. Most winners from the past 12 months qualified in other ways because those wins boost your world ranking and earnings so much. But here are the few that got into the field thanks to those titles. J.J. Henry was the latest addition -- he won the Barracuda Championship in Reno in a dramatic playoff late Sunday night.
| PGA Tour event winners from past 12 months |
| Alex Cejka |
| JJ Henry |
| Shane Lowry |
| Nick Taylor |
Filling out the field from the points list
There are always some vacancies after going through all the exemptions. So to get to 156, the PGA of America draws on those just outside the top 70 from their own points list. Sean O'Hair was the last man into the field. His spot opened up on Monday when DeLaet withdrew.
| Alternates just outside top 70 on PGA points list |
| Charles Howell III |
| Martin Laird |
| Sean O'Hair |
| Pat Perez |
| Rory Sabbatini |
| Brendan Steele |
Special Exemptions
This exemption is used to fill out the field and ensure that most, if not all of the top 100 in the world rankings will be in attendance. No prior exemption specifically uses the World Rankings and because there's so much weight to PGA Tour wins and money earnings, a lot of international and European players are left out of the field. This exemption sweeps most of them in and also gives the PGA the ability to invite local favorites or someone who's important to the organization, such as Tom Watson last year because of his status as Ryder Cup captain.
There are no obvious locals or upcoming captains that were not otherwise qualified. George McNeill, currently 91st in the world, is the only American among this group.
| Special exemptions granted by PGA of America |
| Byeong-Hun An |
| Kiradech Aphibarnrat |
| Thomas Bjørn |
| Rafael Cabrera-Bello |
| Tim Clark |
| George Coetzee |
| Luke Donald |
| Ross Fisher |
| Tommy Fleetwood |
| Branden Grace |
| Emiliano Grillo |
| Tyrrell Hatton |
| David Howell |
| Hiroshi Iwata |
| Thongchai Jaidee |
| Miguel Ángel Jiménez |
| Søren Kjeldsen |
| Anirban Lahiri |
| Pablo Larrazábal |
| Alexander Lévy |
| Joost Luiten |
| George McNeill |
| Francesco Molinari |
| James Morrison |
| Koumei Oda |
| Eddie Pepperell |
| Richie Ramsay |
| Marcel Siem |
| Cameron Smith |
| Andy Sullivan |
| Danny Willett |
| Chris Wood |
Source: Brendan Porath http://ift.tt/1J9peoZ
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