US PGA Championship 2023: All You Need to Know

The PGA Championship is the 31st event of the FedExCup Regular Season and second major championship of the year. Oak Hill Country Club's East Course in Rochester, New York, will host its seventh major championship and first since the 2013 PGA Championship. Keep reading for your in-depth prelude to the eagerly anticipated second major of the year.

Justin Thomas will be looking to defend his title this year, despite a run poor form. The American world number 13 has had only one top-five finish this year and missed the cut at the Masters in April.

"How you learn is failure and negatives and I've had a great opportunity for a lot of learning," said the 30-year-old.

"There are going to be days where 70 might be the best that I have that day, but it's better than 71. Or 75 might be the best I have, but it's better than 76. That's just kind of how I have always been taught.

"How I described it for a couple months is, I've never felt so far and so close at the same time.

"That is a hard thing to explain, and it's also a very hard way to try to compete and win a golf tournament."

Despite his poor run, Thomas will be hoping that form is only temporary, but class is permanent by channelling some of his playoff heroics from 2022 in this year's championship.

Purse and Honours 

The PGA Champion receives a replica of the Wanamaker Trophy. The purse for the 2023 PGA Championship will not be disclosed until Championship week, but in 2022, it was $15 million, including a winner’s prize of $2.7 million.

Method of Play 

Following the first 36 holes of play, the field of 156 players will be reduced to the low 70 scorers and ties. Those players will advance to complete the final two rounds. In the event of a tie for first place after 72 holes, there will be a three-hole aggregate score play-off on holes #14, #15, and #18. If still tied, there will be a hole-by-hole play-off on hole #18, #14, #15, #18, #14, #15, #18 repeated.

Eligibility 

The total field will be a maximum of 156 players. 

The above summary includes the following 18 LIV Golf Tour players;

Jon Rahm has won four times this season, including the Masters Tournament, and is making his first start since finishing solo-second in his title defence at the Mexico Open at Vidanta.

Rahm is looking to become the first player to win back-to-back major championships since Jordan Spieth did so in 2015 (Masters, U.S. Open). Rahm has made the cut in the last 16 majors, the longest active streak.

Scottie Scheffler finished T5 in his hometown event last week at the AT&T Byron Nelson, earning his 12th consecutive result of T12 or better on TOUR. 

Scheffler, who won THE PLAYERS Championship by five strokes in March, has two top-10s in three starts at the PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy, a two-time PGA Championship winner (2012 and 2014), finished in the top 10 in all four majors in 2022 but missed the cut at the Masters Tournament to begin his major campaign in 2023. 

He enters the week at No. 17 in the FedExCup standings with a win (THE CJ CUP in South Carolina) and two other top-three results (T2/Arnold Palmer Invitational, 3rd/WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play) in eight starts this season.

Defending champion and two-time PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas (2017, 2022) is looking to become the first player to successfully defend a title in a major since Brooks Koepka at the 2019 PGA Championship.

Thomas enters the week No. 69 in the FedExCup standings, and new for the 2022-23 season, only the top 70 in the FedExCup standings through the Wyndham Championship will qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs.

With a win, 13-time Tour winner Jordan Spieth would become the sixth player to win the Career Grand Slam, joining Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan, and Gene Sarazen.

Spieth won the 2015 Masters Tournament, 2015 U.S. Open and 2017 Open Championship, and is making his seventh start in the PGA Championship since the 2017 Open.

Notable tee times for Thursday's first round can be seen below;

2015 PGA Championship winner Jason Day is coming off a win at last week's AT&T Byron Nelson, his 13th career PGA Tour title and first since the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship.

Day has won in back-to-back starts twice in his PGA TOUR career: 2015 PGA Championship - 2015 FedEx St. Jude Championship (then The Barclays) and 2016 Arnold Palmer Invitational - 2016 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. The last player to win on Tour and win a major the following week is Rory McIlroy in 2014.

Two PGA TOUR members are making their major championship debuts: rookies Nico Echavarria and Ben Griffin. Echavarria, who won the Puerto Rico Open, is the only rookie to win on TOUR this season, while Griffin played in the final group on Saturday at THE PLAYERS Championship with eventual champion Scottie Scheffler (finished T35).

Among the other 14 players making their major debuts is David Micheluzzi, a two-time winner on the PGA TOUR of Australasia in 2023 who made his PGA TOUR debut on a sponsor exemption at last week’s AT&T Byron Nelson (T67).

At No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Patrick Cantlay is the highest-ranked player that has not won a major championship. 

Cantlay, the 2021 FedExCup Champion, has seven wins over the last five seasons, the third-most of any player in that span and most of any player that has not won a major. Cantlay has three top-10s in 24 prior starts in majors.

Wyndham Clark is making his first start since winning the Wells Fargo Championship, his first career PGA TOUR title.

Clark is one of eight first-time winners on TOUR this season and enters the week No. 32 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He is making his sixth career major start.

Rickie Fowler has five consecutive top-20 finishes on TOUR and following a T14 at the Wells Fargo Championship in his most recent start, Fowler moved into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time since the ranking published November 29, 2020.

Benefits for the 2023 PGA Champion