The 106th US PGA Championship gets underway this week, with 28 Challenge Tour alumni among the field at Valhalla Golf Club.
Teeing it up in the US PGA Championship for the first time will be Swede Jesper Svensson, who enters ranked third on the Race to Dubai after graduating from the Challenge Tour in 2023. This week will mark the 28-year-old’s first major start and comes almost a year after his first Challenge Tour victory at the B-NL Challenge Trophy in May 2023.
Making their US PGA Championship debut alongside Svensson will be Frenchman Matthieu Pavon and fellow Swedes Tim Widing and Sebastian Soderberg, who secured qualification earlier this month after finishing atop the DP World Tour Asian Swing Rankings. Joining them from Scandinavia will be Thorbjørn Olesen, Alexander Norén, twins Rasmus and Nicolai Højgaard, and Alexander Bjork.
Also qualifying through a top three Asian Swing Ranking is Spaniard Adrian Otaegui, following his victory at the Volvo China Open. The 2013 Challenge Tour graduate is joined by classmate Tyrell Hatton, who is one of seven Englishmen in the field alongside fellow Ryder Cup stars Justin Rose, Matthew Fitzpatrick, and Tommy Fleetwood, as well as Aaron Rai, Matt Wallace and Jordan Smith. Rounding out the British contingent at Valhalla will be Scot Robert MacIntyre.
Frenchman Victor Perez will be looking to improve on a 12th place finish in last year’s tournament, while Pole Adrian Meronk and Belgian Thomas Detry – who shared a tie for 40th at Oak Hill in 2023 – will also chase their first Wannamaker Trophy this week.
A strong contingent of Challenge Tour alumni who hail from outside Europe will also be at Valhalla this week, including South Africans Dean Burmester, Erik Van Rooyen and Thriston Lawrence, South Korean An Byeong-hun and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox.
Rounding out the alumni in the field are a pair of past champions in German Martin Kaymer – who tasted victory at Whistling Straits in 2010 – and American Brooks Koepka, who enters the tournament as defending champion after taking victory at Oak Hill last year, adding to wins at Bellerive in 2018 and Bethpage Black in 2019.
