When Justin Thomas claimed victory at the 2021 Players Championship, the top 20 on the leaderboard was packed with prominent names like Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith.
The absence of that trio at TPC Sawgrass for this year’s Players Championship, along with several other current LIV Golf players who contended that week – such as Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Talor Gooch – raises doubts about one of the key attractions of this event: “The strongest field in golf.”
Also missing this week are the likes of Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka, who share 13 Major trophies between them. This elevates the question of whether the PGA Tour’s flagship event truly boasts the strongest field.
When questioned, Thomas didn’t entirely disagree, acknowledging it’s “just the reality” of where the sport stands currently.
“I know what you mean in terms of how World Ranking and guys that are or aren’t on the Tour anymore,” he said. “But that’s just kind of the reality that – and what they have put themselves in. I mean, I’m not going to have an asterisk next to my name for winning this because the field wasn’t too good, right.”
The ongoing fracture between LIV and the PGA Tour means that while half of the game’s biggest stars compete at one of the more iconic golf courses, the other half are at home awaiting their next event, taking place at Trump National Doral the week before The Masters.
“I mean, it’s still been the best field in golf for many previous years,” Thomas said. “Yeah, you could always make an argument that there’s other tournaments that are or are not. The PGA Championship has been the deepest field in terms of the most top 100 players, and I’m not just saying that for selfish reasons, it’s just the truth.”
Despite this, the two-time Major champion gave an empathic answer when asked what a win this week would mean.
“I just want to play great golf and win golf tournaments, whether I’m playing for one dollar or 10 million or a billion dollars. Like I still want to win that trophy that they’re giving out on Sunday at the end of the week, and my best opportunity of doing that is probably to focus more on golf than the alternative stuff.”
Photo: Kevin Cox
