Valhalla Country Club will welcome 99 of the top 100 players on the Official World Golf Rankings as the Louisville layout prepares to host its third US PGA Championship.
Rory McIlroy will head to Kentucky in high spirits after he claimed a maiden World Golf Championship title after a thrilling final round in which he overcame a three stroke overnight deficit to Sergio Garcia to eventually triumph by two from the Spaniard at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
This is the latest in a line of tournament victories this summer, which started at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in May, where he also came from behind to take the title, while his Open win at Royal Liverpool saw him out in front all week en route to a third Major title.
He is only the second European to win at Firestone since 1999, following compatriot Darren Clarke 11 years ago, and he will line up in the PGA of America’s customary Major three ball during the first two rounds.
Masters Tournament winner Bubba Watson and US Open Champion Martin Kaymer will play alongside the 25 year old on Thursday and Friday, and there will be no doubt that McIlroy will be the favourite once the tournament gets under way.
Garcia will be disappointed to have given up his WGC advantage on Sunday in Akron, but a balky putter cost him in the final round.
The man from Castellon has a fine record at the US PGA though, an event in which he has finished in the top three on a trio of occasions, the most famous of which came on his debut at Brookline in 1999 when he hit his iconic shot from behind a tree on the right of the 16th fairway.
That year he recorded the first of four runner-up results in the Majors after he lost out to Tiger Woods on Sunday, and plenty would fancy him to go one better this week.
Three Europeans have triumphed in the US PGA since 2008, the year that Padraig Harrington ended a 78 year victory drought in the year’s final Major, and Justin Rose will hope to follow in the footsteps of Messrs Kaymer and McIlroy and continue that run of winners every two years.
The Englishman is possibly in the best form of his career after his recent Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open triumph, and he heads to Louisville fresh off a tie for fourth place last week.
Henrik Stenson was the leading European in this event a year ago thanks to a third place finish at Oak Hill, and his quest for a first Major Championship will continue in Kentucky.
All of those in contention for those all-important Ryder Cup berths will also be in attendance. Jamie Donaldson is the last man qualified through the World Points list currently, and a strong showing in the US would help him to hold off the advances of Luke Donald, Stephen Gallacher, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Ian Poulter.
European captain Paul McGinley had been due to tee it up this week alongside his opposite number Tom Watson on the week the American team is decided, but he has had to withdraw with a shoulder injury.
One of the men who had been looking to play his way onto Watson’s team would have been Woods, but his withdrawal last week with what seemed to be a recurrence of the back injury he had surgery on earlier in the year, has his participation at Valhalla in some doubt.
