Golf

Rory McIlroy Headlines a Stacked Field at the Charles Schwab Challenge When the PGA Tour Returns

Luke Norris Sports Editor

Published05 Jun 2020

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Following a three-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 outbreak, world number one Rory McIlroy headlines a star-studded field at the Charles Schwab Challenge when the PGA Tour returns next Thursday at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

Let’s get one thing out of the way now. No, Tiger Woods will not be in the field at Colonial. But that doesn’t mean that the PGA Tour’s first tournament back isn’t loaded with star power.

Rory McIlroy will certainly be the favorite at the Charles Schwab Challenge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2Pkq-2Y5NU

Top-ranked Rory McIlroy, who has held the No. 1 spot since early February, will be the clear favorite at Colonial. When the PGA Tour shut down following the first round of The Players Championship, McIlroy was playing some of the best golf of his career, which is certainly saying something given his track record.

In his last 11 tournaments, beginning with his victory at the Tour Championship last year, McIlroy had finished outside the top 10 just once and outside the top five only twice. And if there were any thoughts that he might be a little rusty, one only needs to go back and watch his performance in the Seminole Skins Match a few weeks back to see that he’s swinging the club quite well.

16 of the top 20 players in the world will tee it up at Colonial

Rory McIlroy certainly won’t be the only big name in attendance at the Charles Schwab Challenge. He’ll be joined by the other four players in the top five of the Official World Golf Ranking, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, and his partner at Seminole, Dustin Johnson. This will be the first time since the OGWR was established in 1986 that the top five in the world will tee it up at Colonial, which only goes to show how excited these players are to get back to work.

In addition to the top five, 16 of the top 20 players in the world will be in action. Only Adam Scott (No. 6), Patrick Cantlay (No. 7), Tommy Fleetwood (No. 10), and Tiger Woods are skipping the event.

Other notable names at the Charles Schwab Challenge include Patrick Reed, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson, and Jordan Spieth, who is one of a dozen past champions of this event in the field, including defending champion Kevin Na.