The 8 BIG NAMES missing the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow

By , Digital Editor. Tour golf nerd. World No.1 at three-putting.

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Tiger Woods is among the big names missing the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.

Even with 156 spots and the PGA of America handing out invites like they’re hosting a kids’ birthday party, plenty of big names will still miss the year’s second men’s major at Quail Hollow.

The PGA Championship boasts the strongest field in major championship golf, with all the Official World Golf Rankings Top 100 players normally handed a spot for their shot at lifting the Wanamaker Trophy (see the full field and qualification criteria here).

Add in a host of special invites and opportunities for players to qualify for the event and you’re left with a stacked field, but even then, there are always a host of big names that miss out.

Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler looked set to be two of those but were handed unexpected invitations just days before the event gets underway. Johnson, who’s endured an awful run in the majors since joining LIV in June 2022, will aim to add the Wanamaker trophy to his US Open and Masters victories. Fowler, who earned the first PGA Tour win of his career at Quail Hollow in the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship, will be hoping to take advantage of his late call-up to win his first grand slam event and remove himself from the list of best players never to win a major.

Elsewhere, DJ’s LIV colleagues Tom McKibbin, David Puig and Jaoquin Niemann (who was also invited to The Masters, finishing T29) have been given spots in the field. In fact, a third of the players from the rebel Saudi tour are in the field hoping to follow Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau as those who’ve won a Major since joining LIV.

On Sunday, New Zealand’s Ryan Fox bagged the final automatic qualifying spot in the most dramatic circumstances as he canned a 50-foot chip to win a three-way play-off at the Myrtle Beach Classic for his first PGA Tour victory on his 68th start.

With the major getting underway on Thursday, the final field of 156 players is now set.

Big names missing the PGA Championship 2025

Tiger Woods

The biggest name of them all, but it’s getting to the stage where we can’t consider Woods an active player for these lists. After his latest injury setback, we’re questioning if we’ll ever see the 49-year-old play in a major again. It’s impossible to rule the 15-time champion out, but the ruptured Achilles he suffered in March means he won’t be in Charlotte (or at any of 2025’s other majors). He hasn’t made a competitive appearance since missing the cut at last year’s Open Championship (no, the PNC Championship and TGL don’t count) and his appearances in this event, which he won four times between 1999 and 2007, have been seriously limited across the last decade.

Aside from a runner-up finish two shots behind Brooks Koepka at Bellerive CC in 2018, he’s only completed four rounds on one other occasion – finishing T37th at the Covid-affected 2020 event at TPC Harding Park. Of the other eight playings, he’s missed four with injury, withdrawn once, and missed the cut the other three times.

Luckily, Woods has plenty of other things to keep him busy, including planning for the expansion of TGL 2026 and, seemingly, hanging out at the White House. He was spotted in Washington, DC on Thursday in one of the first sightings since he announced his relationship with President Trump’s former daughter-in-law, Vanessa.

Billy Horschel

Billy won’t be a hero in Charlotte. The American, arguably the best active player missing from the field as the World No.24 (or No.52 if you go by Data Golf – more on that later), has been ruled out for this and likely the rest of the season’s events by injury.

Days before the major, the 38-year-old announced he’d undergone hip surgery that will keep him out for several months to all but end his hopes of winning a first grand slam event and making his first Ryder Cup team.

Horschel recorded his best finish in 12 PGA starts last year with a T8, before finishing T2 at The Open and lifting the DP World Tour’s flagship title at the BMW PGA Championship. He’d endured a tricky start to 2025 with only two top 10s and a raft of missed cuts to his name, including at The Masters, before his season ended unexpectedly.

Zach Johnson

The two-time major champion and former Ryder Cup captain made a surge for a second Green Jacket during a stunning weekend at Augusta, last month, shooting a career-best 66 on the Saturday before finishing T8, but it wasn’t enough to earn him a spot at Quail Hollow.

It’s the second successive PGA Championship the 49-year-old has missed, having previously played every one since his debut in 2004. He came close to winning in 2010, missing out on joining Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson in a playoff at Whistling Straits by just one shot. Beyond that, it’s never been overly kind to him with just two other top-10s among a host of missed cuts and middle-of-the-road finishes.

Seeing Luke Donald in the PGA Championship field might sting for Johnson. Leading Team Europe’s big victory over ZJ’s American team in 2023 gained the Englishman another stint as Ryder Cup captain… a role that comes with a special invite to the PGA Championship. Salt. Wound. Etc.

Lucas Herbert

Few will have sympathy with LIV players failing to secure a spot in a major, especially when they’re ranked 324th in the world. But when John Catlin, a LIV reserve player who has made just three starts all season without finishing higher than T39, is deemed worthy of an invite, then Herbert has every right to feel hard done by.

The 29-year-old, one quarter of the all-Australian Ripper GC, is 4th in LIV’s 2025 season rankings through seven events with only Joaquin Niemann, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia ahead of him. He’s finished T4, T31, 4, T14, T18, T2, T13 to date, and, as we write, he’s leading the International Series Japan event after rounds of 62 and 69.

Data Golf, which many consider a more accurate reflection of the world’s best players, has the Aussie ranked 44th – 280 places higher than OWGR, and with 18 of LIV’s 54-man roster teeing it up at Quail, Herbert can consider himself unfortunate. Still, only four weeks until LIV Golf Virginia.

Marc Leishman

Leishman is another in-form Ripper who will be watching from home as his team captain, Cameron Smith, pegs it up with a third of LIV’s roster in Charlotte. The 41-year-old, who has six PGA Tour wins to his name and has been in the hunt at a host of past majors, has dropped to 488th in OWGR, but is 78th according to Data Golf. The Aussie is 10th in LIV’s individual standings and has a win (his first on LIV), a T6, and a T12 to his name through the seven events, which is far more impressive than Dustin Johnson, Tom McKibbin, and the aforementioned Catlin, who have all been invited to Quail.

To be fair to the PGA of America, Leishman has never torn up any trees in their event. In 12 appearances between his 2010 debut and last start in 2022 his best finish came in 2013 when he was T12. In his last five outings at the major he’s missed three cuts in-between a T71 and a T34. Bummer, mate.

Active PGA Champions not playing at Quail Hollow

Jon Daly

Wild Thing will be teeing it up in a major, just not the PGA Championship, where he hasn’t made a cut since 2012 (and has only made six in 29 appearances since his 1991 win). Instead, the 59-year-old has instead opted to play in the Regions Tradition in Birmingham, the first of five majors on the PGA Tour Champions.

“I can go there and miss the cut and get $6,000,” Daly said of the PGA Championship. “But I’m playing Birmingham. I love Regions. They’re a great sponsor. But why are they scheduling Regions the same week as the PGA Championship, where I can see Brooks (Koepka) and all the guys?”

We can answer part of that, Jon. The PGA Tour Champions was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Playing Regions earlier would have meant a clash with NASCAR. Playing later wasn’t possible due to the Senior PGA Championship. Instead, they’ll go head-to-head with their own sport and the small matter of Mother’s Day in the US.

As for where he’ll see Brooks and the guys, there’s always The Open or, failing that, Hooters at Augusta next year.

Rich Beem

‘Beemer’ will walk all 72 holes at the PGA Championship, but the 2002 champion won’t hit a single shot. Instead, the American will revert to his current day job as on-course commentator for Sky Sports UK.

“I got my (butt) handed to me last year,” he said, referring to his last-placed finish (+20) at Valhalla. “Even though I had success at Bethpage (T80, 2019), you lose 10 yards, you might as well lose 100.”

Beem famously downed Tiger Woods to hoist the huge trophy 23 years ago in a victory that shocked the golfing world. He didn’t finish better than T15th in any of the big four before or after his maiden grand slam win at Hazeltine, and he didn’t add a single PGA Tour win after his triumph in Minnesota.

The 54-year-old has only made the cut five times in 20 starts at the tournament since his victory and his best finish since hoisting the huge trophy was T36 in 2012.

He’ll also skip Aronimink next year but will return at PGA Frisco in his home state of Texas in 2027 for what we assume will be his goodbye.

Vijay Singh

The back injury that saw ‘The Big Fijian’ pull out of The Masters at the start of the week of the year’s first major has also put paid to him playing the PGA Championship. The two-time champion was pencilled in to make his return at Quail Hollow but had been removed when the final field was confirmed on Monday (May 12).

The former world No.1’s victory at Sahalee Country Club in 1998 was the first of his three major wins. He slipped on a Green Jacket in 2000 and added his second Wanamaker Trophy four years later at Whistling Straits, beating Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco in a playoff.

Singh, now 62, would have been making his first appearance at the PGA Championship since 2018, when he finished 78th in his 27th consecutive start at the event.

YE Yang

The South Korean did the unthinkable when he reeled in and beat Tiger Woods to win the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine, becoming the first male Asian golfer to lift a major in the process.

That was as good as it got in the majors for Yang, with a T3 at the 2011 US Open the closest he came to winning another of the big four.

Now 53 and playing on the PGA Tour Champions, this will be just the second time Yang has missed this major since his victory – the other coming during Covid in 2020. In 14 starts since the win he’s missed 10 cuts, was disqualified for signing for an incorrect score in 2021, and his best finish was a T36 in 2012. Still, nice that he’s taken part.

Other familiar names missing the PGA Championship

Joel Dahmen
Charley Hoffman
Kevin Kisner
Matt Kuchar
Matteo Manassero
Adrian Meronk
Francesco Molinari
Jordan Smith

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