LIV rebel receives special invite for PGA Championship after Woods ruled out

10 May 2023 , 20:12

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LIV rebel receives special invite for PGA Championship after Woods ruled out

Tiger Woods will miss the US PGA Championship as expected after undergoing ankle surgery last month.

Woods was not included in the 155-strong field issued by the PGA of America on Wednesday for next week’s event at Oak Hill Country Club. The final spot will be filled by the winner of the AT&T Byron Nelson in Texas.

Jordan Spieth was included in the field despite withdrawing from this week’s PGA Tour event with a wrist injury. LIV Golf rebel Paul Casey has also been entered as one of 18 players from the breakaway series.

Casey didn't qualify through the various different routes and is not inside the world top 100. However the PGA currently states it "reserves the right to invite additional players not included in the categories."

It appears he has been invited after he missed out last year through injury. Casey finished 4th in 2021 and would have returned last year as a result, but had a back problem.

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Woods pulled out of the Masters during the third round in April, saying at the time it was due to plantar fasciitis.

However, the 47-year-old then had a subtalar fusion procedure in New York to address the problem caused by a previous fracture of his talus, a bone in the ankle joint.

Woods feared his leg would have to be amputated due to the serious injuries he suffered in a car accident in Los Angeles in February 2021.

Paul Casey will play at Oak Hill (SNS Group)

He made a remarkable return to action 14 months later and finished 47th in the Masters, but withdrew from the US PGA following a third-round 79 and did not contest the US Open before missing the cut in the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews.

Woods has accepted that he can only play a handful of times a year going forward and is targeting majors and events with which he has a personal connection.

The US Open takes place at Los Angeles Country Club in June and Woods will hope to defy the odds and be able to compete in July’s Open at Royal Liverpool, where he won a third Open title in 2006 in his first tournament since the death of his father Earl two months earlier.

Liam Prenderville