Letter from PGA Championship: LIV has much more at stake than it did at the Masters

The withdrawals of Martin Kaymer and Paul Casey leaves only 16 current LIV players in the 156-player field at Oak Hill.

BIG PHIL: Phil Mickelson watches his tee shot on the second hole during a practice round for the PGA Championship. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

LIV Golf made quite a meal of its stout showing last month in the Masters. Placing three players among the top six finishers – co-runnerups Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson as well as Patrick Reed in a tie for fourth – has been a major bragging point for golf’s breakaway rebels fighting for relevancy on the game’s biggest stages.

The continued whining about the lack of Official World Golf Ranking points and access to major championships hit crescendo in recent weeks as LIV traipsed from Australia to Singapore to Tulsa, Oklahoma since the Masters. The chief screamer has been Mickelson, who caught lightning in a bottle to win the 2021 PGA at Kiawah a month shy of his 51st birthday and made a spirited run at a fourth green jacket last month at age 52.