PGA Tour and LIV Golf players will tee it up on the same stage, with the PGA of America’s event once again arguably containing the strongest field in golf.

Some players from the LIV side of golf’s “battle” won’t be teeing it up in New York, including Sergio Garcia who ends an amazing major championship streak, but it still poses as a tantalising week of golf on a renovated, and experienced, major venue.

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Justin Thomas claimed a second Wanamaker Trophy at Southern Hills in 2022 after coming from seven strokes back at the start of the final round.

Mito Pereira led through 54-holes and still had a one stroke advantage playing the 72nd hole before finding the water from the tee and an eventual double bogey that saw him miss a play-off with Thomas and Zalatoris by a shot in his PGA debut.

Thomas triumphed over Zalatoris in the three-hole aggregate play-off to add a second major to his PGA Championship won in 2017 at Quail Hollow.

COURSE: Oak Hill Country Club in New York hosts its seventh men’s major this week, having also staged three senior majors, two US Amateurs and a Ryder Cup in 1995.

RIGHT: Justin Thomas hoisted the oversized trophy in 2022 at Southern Hills after extra holes. PHOTO: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images.

It is the venue’s East Course that hosts its big events, the par-70 designed by Donald Ross with changes made by Robert Trent Jones and Tom Fazio over the journey before Andrew Green led a restoration project completed in 2019 that saw the course return to its Ross roots.

Square greens will be amongst the biggest changes to the course Jason Dufner won his lone major on in 2013 at this event, while tree removal has also played a major role in the renovation.

Difficult rough and bunkering with extreme faces are part of the challenge, so too tightly mown areas around the greens that will present a bevy of options for the field this week when missing the greens.

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PRIZEMONEY: US$15,000,000.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: With a field as strong as this, it is often easier to list the players with lowly hopes of lifting the trophy rather than those with a chance to contend.

The obvious start to the list is the World No.1 and latest major winner Jon Rahm.

Since his win at Augusta, the Spaniard recorded a T15 and runner-up to look absolutely primed to contend for a third leg of the career grand slam this week.

Rahm loves golf history and will have delved into the video archives to go deep on Oak Hill, which will reward his top class ball striking.

Already twice a winner this year, Scottie Scheffler’s other results have included finishes high on the leaderboard and a worst result of T12 across seven starts in 2023

Another premier ball striker, the American is a likely contender here, whereas the next man on the world rankings, Rory McIlroy, has more of a question mark over his form.

The renovated Oak Hill will be one of the stars of the show this week in New York. PHOTO: Gary Kellner/PGA of America.

Since a missed cut at The Masters, and skipped designated event, Rory has only played once and was reportedly “scrappy” in that start at Quail Hollow.

From the LIV Golf side of things, Dustin Johnson enters fresh off a win and seemingly ideally suited to this week’s venue, while Brooks Koepka showed his major chops again at Augusta.

Koepka loves the PGA Championship and Oak Hill is right up his alley, so too the return to New York where he already has a Wanamaker win on his resume.

Cam Smith will head the Aussies in terms of rankings and fresh off a play-off loss to Johnson, while Jason Day finally returned to the winner’s circle last week and has history at Oak Hill from the 2013 staging.

So too does Adam Scott, who was 8th last week in Texas and is geared up to add a second major to his career record, while David Micheluzzi makes his major debut after a made cut in his first PGA Tour start at the AT&T Byron Nelson.

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Rounding out the players to watch is Phil Mickelson who will tee it up in the PGA Championship for the first time since his historic win at Kiawah Island back in 2021.

The Hall of Famer has shown some very positive signs with his game since roaring up the leaderboard on Sunday at the Masters, but Phil failed to fire last week in Tulsa and the move of the PGA Championship to a setup akin to US Opens want necessarily favour the left hander.

AUSTRALIANS IN THE FIELD: Cam Davis, Jason Day, Lucas Herbert, Min Woo Lee, David Micheluzzi, Adam Scott and Cam Smith.

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PAST AUSSIE WINNERS: Jason Day (2015); Steve Elkington (1995); Wayne Grady (1990); David Graham (1979); Jim Ferrier (1947).

72-HOLE RECORD: 264, Brooks Koepka (2018)