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PGA Tour: Charles Schwab Challenge has loaded field

By Tim Letcher

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 12: Jon Rahm of Spain plays a shot on the eighth hole during the first round of The PLAYERS at the TPC Stadium course on March 12, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 12: Jon Rahm of Spain plays a shot on the eighth hole during the first round of The PLAYERS at the TPC Stadium course on March 12, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /
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The PGA Tour will get started with a bang at the Charles Schwab Challenge

As the PGA Tour gets back underway, beginning with the Charles Schwab Challenge beginning June 11, the fields for early events are starting to take shape. And, as expected, the tour will resume with a bang when golf officially restarts in just under two weeks.

The field for the Schwab is set and it appears that all five of the world’s top-five ranked players will be playing when the tour hits Fort Worth, Texas in a few days. It will be the first time since 1986 that the event at Colonial will have all five of the world’s top players in the event.

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World number one Rory McIlroy will play in the Schwab for the first time in his career. The same can be said for the world’s fourth-ranked player, Justin Thomas, who will also be playing at Colonial.

Jon Rahm, ranked number two in the world, will be playing at Colonial for the fourth time in his career, while third-ranked Brooks Koepka is playing in Fort Worth for the second time. World number five, Dustin Johnson, will be playing at Colonial for the fourth time, but the first time in six years.

Having so many highly-ranked players in a field is not a surprise, given the circumstances that have produced the situation the tour currently finds itself in.

There are multiple reasons that the PGA Tour fields, especially early in the season, figure to have loaded fields

First and foremost, the players have been without competitive golf for almost three months. The competitor in all of the players is driving them to play. The Schwab is the first chance for these players to get back on the course, so they are taking advantage of the opportunity.

Second, the PGA Tour schedule is quite condensed for the remainder of the season, so the jockeying for positions in the FedEx Cup playoffs starts now. In just under three months, the playoffs will be over, so there’s not much time for players to mess around.

Speaking of the playoffs, 17 of the current top 20 players in the FedEx Cup standings will be in the field at the Schwab next week. That includes Sungjae Im, who currently leads the standings.

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A number of high-profile former champions will be in the field as well. Those include 2016 winner Jordan Spieth and 2018 champion Justin Rose. Defending champion Kevin Na will also be at Colonial this week to defend his title.

As the tour resumes, expect tour events to have loaded fields, especially at the beginning. And as a golf fan, enjoy the fact that these fields will look like majors, even though they’re not.

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