BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP FIELD MISSES THREE TOP PLAYERS AT WENTWORTH

Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm headline the field for this week's BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, a Rolex Series event on the DP World Tour offering a $9 million purse. Three players who have featured prominently at the tournament in recent years will not take part: Billy Horschel, Min Woo Lee and Hideki Matsuyama. Organisers and reports on the absences say scheduling conflicts, rather than injury or any dispute, are behind all three withdrawals. Horschel is staying in the United States because he needs FedExCup points to retain his PGA Tour card. Lee and Matsuyama have already secured their positions on the International team for the Presidents Cup at Medinah, which begins the week after Wentworth concludes.

Horschel has won at Wentworth twice, with a final-round 65 in 2021 and a playoff victory over McIlroy and Thriston Lawrence in 2024, and has played every edition since 2020 except for the year disrupted by COVID-19 travel restrictions. He underwent surgery in May 2025 to repair a torn labrum and two microfractures sustained at the Zurich Classic, which kept him out for close to six months and caused him to miss three majors. This season he has made 24 PGA Tour starts with 10 missed cuts, including at all three majors he entered, with a best solo finish of T12 at the Wyndham Championship.

Horschel says he must finish inside the top 100 in FedExCup points to keep his tour card, with results in the autumn Series determining whether he returns in 2027. Lee and Matsuyama will instead prepare for the Presidents Cup at Medinah, where they are set to represent the International team.