How this week’s LIV Golf and PGA Tour fields compare
By Bill Felber
Three events into its existence, the LIV Tour has achieved approximate qualitative parity with one of the weaker fields on the PGA Tour.
Make of that what you will.
The 48 players in this week’s LIV Tour event at Trump Bedminster include four who are ranked among the top 25 in this week’s Official World Golf Rankings. Those four are Dustin Johnson (17), Abraham Ancer (22), Brooks Koepka (23), and Louis Oosthuizen (25).
That roughly equates to the five members of the top 25 teeing it up Thursday as part of the 156-player field at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit. Those five are Patrick Cantlay (5), Will Zalatoris (13), Tony Finau (16), Cameron Young (19), and Max Homa (20).
The Rocket Mortgage Classic is one of the PGA Tour’s end-of-season tournaments whose role is to give lesser-knowns a window to qualify for the season-ending FedEx Cup tournament series.
Like last week’s event, the 3M Open, and next week’s Wyndham Championship, most of the game’s top stars choose these weeks between the British Open and the FedEx Cup to take an extended vacation.
The $1.35 million first prize is among the smaller ones of the 2021-22 PGA Tour season.
Among the world’s top 50 players, 11 will be in Detroit for the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Aside from those already mentioned, the others are Kevin Kisner (27), Harris English (33), Joohyung Kim (39), Adam Scott (40), Keegan Bradley (46), and Cameron Tringale (50).
Again, the LIV Tour is making progress.
Among the 48 starters at Trump Bedminster, 10 are ranked in the top 50. Aside from the four already mentioned, those 10 include Bryson DeChambeau (30), Paul Casey (31), Kevin Na (34), Jason Kokrak (36), Talor Gooch (41), and Patrick Reed (45).
There are 28 members of the top 100 playing in Detroit with an average world rank of 55.2. That’s better, but not a lot better, than the average rank of 61.5 of the 22 LIV top 100 guys playing at Trump Bedminster.
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That roster of top 100 players now committed to LIV does not include Henrik Stenson, who signed last week and in doing so forfeited his Ryder Cup captaincy. Stenson is only ranked 173rd in the world.