World No. 3 Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) sets out to restore his honor.
McIlroy will challenge to win the PGA Championship (total prize money of 15 million dollars), the second major tournament of the season, to be held at Oak Hill Country Club (par 70, 7394 yards) in Rochester, New York, for four days from the 18th (local time). 156 world-class players compete for the prize money of 2.7 million dollars (approximately 3.6 billion won). The Wanamaker given to the winner is considered one of the most desirable trophies along with the Claret Jug given to the Open champion.
McIlroy is a strong player who has won 23 wins (four major wins) on the PGA Tour. He participated in 8 competitions this season as well and cruised by reaching the ‘Top 10’ three times, including one win. However, at the Masters, which was the final puzzle of the ‘Career Grand Slam’ last month, he suffered the humiliation of being eliminated from the preliminaries. Afterwards, he suffered psychological difficulties, such as not participating in a special match and getting into gossip. McIlroy reached the top in this event in 2012 and 2014.
McIlroy is ninth in the tournament power rankings announced by the PGA Tour before the tournament. In rounds 1 and 2, they will play together with last year’s winner Justin Thomas and 2020 champion Colin Morikawa (above the United States). McIlroy said, “It was very difficult after the cut-off at the Masters. I needed time to get my mind together and reorganize.” He expressed his determination.
World No. 1 Masters Champion John Lam (Spain), No. 2 Scotty Scheffler (USA), and Thomas are strong candidates for the championship. The resurrected Jason Day (Australia)’s two consecutive victories is also of interest. Last week at AT&T Byron Nelson, he won his 13th career victory in five years since winning the Wells Fargo Championship in May 2018. Jordan Spieth (USA) will achieve the ‘Career Grand Slam’ if he wins this tournament.
The players of LIV Golf who are against this are also not easy. A total of 18 attendees. Brooks Koepka, who won two consecutive titles in 2018 and 2019, Phil Mickelson, the oldest major winner and runner-up in the Masters this year, Dustin Johnson (US), who recently won the Tulsa 6th round of the LIV Series, and Cameron Smith (Australia), who won the Open last year. etc. have been named. Once again, we will have a battle of pride against PGA Tour players.
Five players from Korea,안전놀이터 including 2009 winner Yang Yong-eun, will compete. Im Seong-jae, ranked 18th in the world, is the spearhead. It is an upward trend that won the Korean Professional Golf (KPGA) Korean Tour Woori Financial Championship last week by 5 strokes. Overcoming the jet lag is key. The tournament power ranking is 18th. Kim Si-woo is also an ambush soldier. He is in good shape enough to win runner-up at AT&T Byron Nelson. Here, Kim Joo-hyung and Lee Kyung-hoon joined.