Defending champ Koepka leads big guns at PGA Tour’s Asian riches

The US PGA Tour kicks off its new-look Asian Swing in South Korea on Thursday with the world’s top Golfers lured by megabucks in three tournaments with no cuts.

This week’s $9.75 million CJ Cup, where four-time major winner and world number one Brooks Koepka is defending champion, will be followed by the Tour’s first foray into Japan at the Zozo Championship next week with an identical purse on offer.

The swing concludes at the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, which has seen its prize fund beefed up to $10.25 million, and the tournaments are a chance to rack up Fedex Cup points early in the season.

Koepka will be joined at Nine Bridges on picturesque Jeju Island by drawcards such Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth and Sergio Garcia who are all making their debut at the event, first held in 2017.

Fellow major champions Justin Thomas, the 2017 winner here, Jason Day, Patrick Reed, Graeme McDowell, Danny Willett and Gary Woodland are also among the world-class cast lifting the curtain on the three-week $29.75 million jaunt.

Koepka on Wednesday took a big swipe at notions of a rivalry with Rory McIlroy, pointing out that the Northern Irishman had not won a major since the American joined the PGA Tour.

“I’ve been out here for, what, five years. Rory hasn’t won a major since I’ve been on the PGA Tour. So I just don’t view it as a rivalry,” Koepka told AFP ahead of his defence of the CJ Cup in Jeju, South Korea which begins on Thursday.

Second-ranked McIlroy’s last major victory came at the 2014 US PGA Championship, while Koepka was still playing on the European Tour and yet to take up his PGA Tour card.

Koepka, 29, equalled the Northern Irishman’s four-major total the US PGA Championship in May while McIlroy, 30, rounded off the season by winning the FedEx Cup for a second time and being voted PGA Tour player of the year. McIlroy stoked the fires by saying he used a rivalry mentality to help him win the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake at the end of August.

“He (Koepka) talked about trying to be the dominant player in the game ... and I thought: ‘He’s going to have to go through me first’,” declared McIlroy.

Next week in Japan all eyes will be on the health of Tiger Woods as he makes yet another comeback, this time from arthroscopic knee surgery, and will be joined by world number two and PGA Tour Player of the Year Rory McIlroy.

But it is also decision time for US Presidents Cup captain Woods, who will pick his four US team wildcards for December’s showdown with the Internationals in Melbourne straight after the Zozo.

Should the 15-time major winner Woods be fit and firing in Japan, he may nominate himself to be the first playing captain since Hale Irwin at the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1994.

But that would reduce his options to just three picks from the likes of Woodland, Tony Finau, Reed, Spieth, Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson and Kevin Kisner.

Although the out-of-form Mickelson has been a key member of the US Team for an amazing 24 consecutive team events, it seems certain that run will come to an end and he may be recruited by Woods as an additional vice-captain.

US Open champion Woodland is looking to nail down his spot having been runner-up here last year, while former number one Spieth and 2018 Masters champion Reed need a return to top form to spring them into contention.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t secure my own spot, so I have two weeks left to go out and prove that my game’s in a good enough spot that I deserve a pick,” Woodland said Tuesday.

Spieth, languishing at 38th in the world, thinks he may have a chance to sneak into Woods’ thoughts with a couple of big weeks.

“Gary (Woodland) won the US Open and didn’t get an automatic pick and Tiger didn’t get in having won the Masters so that’s a pretty competitive American environment,” Spieth said.

Agence France-Presse