The world’s best players are beginning to throttle back from a fast restart to PGA Tour’s season.
Three of the top 10 players in the world committed to play in this week’s second annual Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit. In the three previous weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic, the top five players in the Official World Golf Ranking were entered. However, last week at the Travelers Championship, Brooks Koepka and Webb Simpson, who were ranked Nos. 4 and 5, respectively, withdrew because of their potential exposure to COVID-19. They since have tested negative for the virus.
Simpson will join Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed, Nos. 6 and 7, respectively, in headlining the field this week at Detroit Golf Club. Johnson won the Travelers Championship on Sunday, extending to 13 the number of consecutive seasons in which he has won at least once on the PGA Tour. It was his 21st career victory.
Tee times are expected to be announced by midday Tuesday. Play runs Thursday through Sunday. No 11 Bryson DeChambeau, No. 16 Tyrrell Hatton, No. 17 Tony Finau, Jason Day, Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson also were among the commitments.
The biggest name in golf, Tiger Woods, will be sitting out his fourth consecutive tournament since the season restarted. Woods, 44, who remains tied with Sam Snead atop the PGA Tour’s all-time victory list, with 82, hasn’t competed in an official event since he shot 77 in the final round of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera and finished last among players who made the cut. He and Peyton Manning defeated Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in The Match: Champions for Charity, an exhibition played May 24 at Woods’ home course, Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla.
Last year, in the Tour’s first event in Michigan since 2009, the 5-under 36-hole cut represented the lowest score on Tour since 2016. Tournament organizers were expected to grow the rough this year to boost the difficulty at Detroit Golf Club’s North Course, a 1914 Donald Ross design that was stretched to 7,334 yards for the Tour’s debut last year and plays to par 72.
THE FIELD
Anderson, Mark
Armour, Ryan
Atwal, Arjun
Baddeley, Aaron
Baker, Chris
Bezuidenhout, Christiaan
Bjerregaard, Lucas
Blair, Zac
Bozzelli, Dominic
Bramlett, Joseph
Brehm, Ryan
Brown, Scott
Bryan, Wesley
Burgoon, Bronson
Burns, Sam
Cabrera Bello, Rafa
Cappelen, Sebastian
Castro, Roberto
Chalmers, Greg
Chappell, Kevin
Cink, Stewart
Clark, Wyndham
Cook, Austin
Davis, Cameron
Day, Jason
DeChambeau, Bryson
Donald, Luke
Dufner, Jason
Duncan, Tyler
English, Harris
Every, Matt
Finau, Tony
Fowler, Rickie
Frittelli, Dylan
Gay, Brian
Gellerman, Michael
Ghim, Doug
Gibson, Rhein
Gligic, Michael
Glover, Lucas
Gooch, Talor
Gordon, Will
Grace, Branden
Griffin, Lanto
Grillo, Emiliano
Gómez, Fabián
Haas, Bill
Hadley, Chesson
Hadwin, Adam
Hagy, Brandon
Hahn, James
Harman, Brian
Harrington, Padraig
Harrington, Scott
Hatton, Tyrrell
Hearn, David
Hickok, Kramer
Higgs, Harry
Hoag, Bo
Hoge, Tom
Hossler, Beau
Hovland, Viktor
Hubbard, Mark
Hughes, Mackenzie
Im, Sungjae
Jones, Matt
Kim, Michael
Kim, Si Woo
Kirk, Chris
Kisner, Kevin
Kizzire, Patton
Knox, Russell
Kuest, Peter
Lashley, Nate
Lebioda, Hank
Ledesma, Nelson
Lee, Kyoung-Hoon
Lewis, Tom
List, Luke
Long, Adam
Lovemark, Jamie
Malnati, Peter
Martin, Ben
Matsuyama, Hideki
McCumber, Tyler
McNealy, Maverick
Merritt, Troy
Murray, Grayson
Muñoz, Sebastián
Na, Kevin
Nicholas, James
Noh, Seung-Yul
Noren, Alex
Norlander, Henrik
Oppenheim, Rob
Pan, C.T.
Percy, Cameron
Perez, Pat
Poston, J.T.
Potter, Jr., Ted
Power, Seamus
Putnam, Andrew
Redman, Doc
Reed, Patrick
Roach, Wes
Rodgers, Patrick
Ryder, Sam
Sabbatini, Rory
Scheffler, Scottie
Schenk, Adam
Schwartzel, Charl
Seiffert, Chase
Senden, John
Shelton, Robby
Simpson, Webb
Singh, Vijay
Sloan, Roger
Snedeker, Brandt
Spaun, J.J.
Stallings, Scott
Stanley, Kyle
Stefani, Shawn
Straka, Sepp
Streb, Robert
Stricker, Steve
Stroud, Chris
Stuard, Brian
Sucher, Zack
Swafford, Hudson
Taylor, Ben
Teater, Josh
Theegala, Sahith
Thompson, Michael
Todd, Brendon
Trahan, D.J.
Trainer, Martin
Tringale, Cameron
Tway, Kevin
Uihlein, Peter
Van Pelt, Bo
van Rooyen, Erik
Varner III, Harold
Ventura, Kristoffer
Wagner, Johnson
Walker, Jimmy
Wallace, Matt
Watson, Bubba
Werenski, Richy
Whaley, Vincent
Wilkinson, Tim
Willett, Danny
Wise, Aaron
Zhang, Xinjun
ALTERNATES
Blaum, Ryan
McNeill, George
Barnes, Ricky
Campbell, Chad
Cejka, Alex
Crane, Ben
Merrick, John
Gainey, Tommy
Lingmerth, David
Pampling, Rod
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