The 106th PGA Championship starts at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky on Thursday (16 May) with Brooks Koepka defending his title.
Ahead of the second men's golf major of 2024, Koepka has found form along with some of the sport's other top players. The reigning champion was victorious in the most recent LIV Golf series tournament in Singapore with Masters winner Scottie Scheffler prevailing in his last two PGA Tour events.
And the weekend before Valhalla, world number two Rory McIlroy - who won the PGA Championship the last time it was held at Valhalla in 2014 - beat Olympic champion Xander Schauffele by five strokes in the Wells Fargo Classic to clinch his second consecutive PGA Tour title.
Tiger Woods, who won at Valhalla back in 2000, is also in the field. Woods followed up that successful PGA Championship defence with victory in the 2001 Masters to hold all four major titles at the same time, aka the Tiger Slam.
The 48-year-old struggled to complete four rounds at the Masters, but vowed to return to the site of his fifth major triumph out of 15.
Designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 1986, Valhalla is hosting the PGA Championship for a record fourth time. It also staged the 2008 Ryder Cup with Rio 2016 gold medallist Justin Rose and former PGA Championship winners Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington the only survivors from those matches.
With notoriously firm and fast fairways, accuracy off the tee is a must in what should be a riveting four days of golf.
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Who is playing at the 2024 PGA Championship golf tournament?
A total of 156 will tee it up at Valhalla for this edition of the PGA Championship which traditionally boasts the strongest field among the four majors. Among those are the top 70 men on the PGA Championship Points list up to and including the CJ Cup Byron Nelson at the start of May.
Automatic exemptions also went to the top 20 at the PGA Professional Championship in Frisco, Texas a fortnight ago. That tournament brought together the best club pros from across the United States with Wyoming's Ben Polland taking victory.
After finishing second on his major tournament debut at the Masters, Ludvig Åberg continues his rapid rise up the golf world rankings to sixth place. The young Swede is now just one spot behind Jon Rahm who is among 16 LIV players in the field, seven of whom received "special invitations".
No fewer then 99 of the world's top 100 players will start out on Thursday with Japan's Hoshino Rikuya - ranked 94 - a late withdrawal. There are 16 former winners and 33 major champions in this year's line-up.
2024 PGA Championship - Schedule (all times subject to change)
- Thursday 16 May: First round. Three-balls starting on the 1st and 10th holes at 7.15am (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-4)
- Friday 17 May: Second round, followed by the cut after 36 holes, with only the top 70 players and ties making the weekend.
- Saturday 18 May: Third round. Pairings starting on the 1st hole at 7.45am.
- Sunday 19 May: Fourth round, followed by the Wanamaker Trophy Presentation ceremony after the final player has completed the 18th hole.
2024 Masters Tournament - Players to watch
Scottie Scheffler
With four wins from his last five starts, including his second Masters title, world number one Scheffler remains the man to beat.
In an incredible 2024 so far, his results read T5-T17-T6-T3-T10-1-1-T2-1-1. And after wife Meredith gave birth to their first child at the weekend, Scheffler will try to maintain his stellar run of form at Valhalla.
Having switched to a mallet putter, on the recommendation of his rival McIlroy, Scheffler has found his touch on the greens to match his outstanding ball-striking. Only Tiger Woods has gained more strokes from tee to green over a two-year span, and had a better PGA Tour season average than Scheffler’s 68.63 in 2023.
Having retained his PLAYERS Championship title - golf's unofficial fifth major - and won the Masters, Scheffler looks to have the best chance of any golfer since Woods to complete an unprecedented Grand Slam of majors in the professional age.
After holding off his rivals at Augusta for a second major triumph, the 27-year-old shot a superb third-round 63 at Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina to take the lead in the RBC Heritage before completing his 10th PGA Tour win.
Rory McIlroy
Like Scheffler, McIlroy has won his last two starts on the PGA Tour although the American was missing on both occasions.
The Northern Irishman, who claimed the Wanamaker Trophy at Valhalla a decade ago, ended a barren run of 18 months in the United States when he teamed up with Shane Lowry to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at the end of April. The European Ryder Cup colleagues defeated Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer in a playoff to take victory at TPC Louisiana.
Two weeks later, he made two eagles in a final-round 65 to pull clear of Xander Schauffele and win a fourth Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow. That was his 26th PGA Tour victory and took his tally of professional titles to 40.
Returning to another course where he has enjoyed success in the past could be the answer for the 35-year-old who has not won a major since his Valhalla victory in 2014 which came three weeks after his first Open triumph at Hoylake.
In a warning to his rivals, McIlroy said after his latest triumph, "I'm a way better player now than I was back then. I haven't had the major record to back that up but I've had the wins, I've done everything else there is to do in the game since 2014. The only thing I need to do is get another major.
"A win like this going into the PGA Championship next week is a good way to prep for that."
Brooks Koepka
Koepka's win at last year's PGA Championship at Oak Hill remains the only major victory for a player in the LIV Golf series.
That was a third PGA triumph and a fifth major success for the 34-year-old Floridian who is a man never to be underestimated on the big occasion.
He warmed up for Valhalla in fine style by winning LIV Golf Singapore last week, totalling 198 in his three rounds to prevail by two strokes from Australians Marc Leishman and former Open champion Cameron Smith.
That performance followed some intense practice sessions with coach Claude Harmon III with Koepka saying, "It's all starting to come around. I feel I've put I've put in a lot of work. On the golf course, off the golf course, it's been a good two weeks to say the least.
"Taking a week off and then grinding pretty hard with Claude over the last few days, I thought that was very important. So to see it pay off here is huge."
Koepka will be among the favourites when the players tee off at Valhalla on Thursday.
2024 PGA Championships - Tee times
The full schedule of groups and their starting tee times will be confirmed by organisers on the Tuesday before the tournament.
Further information of the groups can be found on the official PGA Championship website.
2024 PGA Championship - How to watch live action
Event coverage is available in over 200 countries with digital livestreams and TV broadcasts in most regions.
In the United States, ESPN and ESPN+ will broadcast the first two rounds. For rounds three and four, ESPN will only show the early action with CBS taking over the bulk of the live coverage including the conclusion on Sunday.
In the UK, Sky Sports are the exclusive rightsholders. Check local listings for details elsewhere.
