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McIlroy, if he plays, grouped with major champions at PGA
Posted On Aug 07 2015
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Masters and U.S. Open champion Jordan Spieth can replace him with a victory this week in the World Golf Championship. He joined Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods with his fourth major at 25 or younger.
Spieth would need to win the Bridgestone Invitational this week to replace McIlroy.
Noteworthy: The PGA Championship ended in a playoff both previous times it was held at Whistling Straits. The official field was announced Thursday.
The PGA Championship typically puts the year’s three major champions together.
The World Number 1 hinted that he was to compete in next weekend’s US PGA Championship with this Instagram post earlier today.
Will that be on Spieth’s mind next week?
American Sweep: Americans have a chance to sweep the majors for the first time since 1982. “It will be easier for that to be the only thing on my mind too”.
Spieth has taken much of the spotlight from McIlroy in 2015, having won the Masters and U.S. Open, before missing out on a playoff at the British Open by one shot. The ‘Stone Slam?
DON’T FORGET ZACH: Three times in the last nine years, a player won the final two majors of the year.
Even so, a return to Whistling Straits makes it impossible to ignore Johnson.
But he was always going to be listed in the tee times unless he called the PGA of America to withdraw.
McIlroy won the 2014 PGA championship by one stroke over Phil Mickelson.
His last competitive round was a closing 66 in the US Open at Chambers Bay on 21 June.
The Northern Irishman missed the last major, The Open at St Andrew’s, after he hurt his ankle while playing football with friends.
His chief spokesman, Sean O’Flaherty, said in a text Thursday that rehab was “progressing well as the video posts suggest and still taking it day by day”.
McIlroy specifically ruptured the anterior talofibular ligament, or ATFL, a particularly concerning injury for any athlete, but for golfers it greatly limits the kind of pressure and lower body power necessary for a swing of the club. One picture in particular showed just what kind of trauma that left ankle’s gone through. Friday, he shared a photo from inside a jet of him flying to the U.S.
