While Masters champion Jon Rahm is competing at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai and Open winner Brian Harman is in the field for the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic, the remaining two Major winners of 2023 will be playing at the prestigious Dunlop Phoenix Tournament on the Japan Golf Tour this week.
Brooks Koepka, who won May’s PGA Championship and Wyndham Clark, who held off the challenge of Rory McIlroy take the US Open title the following month, are two of the biggest names in the field for the event at Phoenix Country Club in Miyazaki.
As well as his fifth Major title at Oak Hill, LIV Golf player Koepka has enjoyed a successful 2023, including two wins on the circuit, while he was also a member of Zach Johnson’s US Ryder Cup team.
While the LIV Golf League season has concluded, the American heads to the tournament with another victory in his sights having taken the title in 2016 and 2017, when he set a record for the winning margin at the event of nine shots.
As for Clark, his win at Los Angeles Country Club was his second of the year after victory in the Wells Fargo Championship. He also finished third at the Tour Championship before joining Koepka for the Ryder Cup at Marco Simone, which the Americans lost to Luke Donald’s Team Europe.
The two Major winners are not the only big names in the field hoping for a share of the 200m yen prize money (approximately $1.3m). Sahith Theegala, who claimed his maiden PGA Tour title at the Fortinet Championship, plays too, along with 2021 Masters champion and local hero Hideki Matsuyama. Koepka’s fellow LIV Golf pro Scott Vincent appears too.
Each of the players is appearing on an organiser recommendation as the event continues a tradition of attracting some of the world’s best. Other previous winners include Tiger Woods, who claimed back-to-back titles in 2004 and 2005, Padraig Harrington, who triumphed in 2006 and Ian Poulter, who won by three shots in 2007.
Another former winner of the event is Donald, who claimed victory in 2012 and 2013, and famously went to considerable lengths to claim part of his prize for the first of those victories, a Miyazaki cow. He eventually took delivery of the meat – worth around $80,000 – to his Chicago home around six months after his victory.
The Dunlop Phoenix Tournament takes place between 19 and 22 November.
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