The PGA Tour's most impromptu event will feature plenty of starpower as the circuit begins a two-week stay at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
This week was supposed to be the John Deere Classic, but when tournament organizers opted to cancel the event because of COVID-19 concerns, the Tour stepped in and created an event out of thin air. Enter this week's Workday for Charity Open, which will be played against a familiar backdrop but with a slightly unique course setup.
Here's a look at some of the featured early-round groupings this week, as Phil Mickelson returns to action and three of the top five players in the world join him in Ohio (official tee times expected Tuesday afternoon):
Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay
Lefty will be back inside the ropes, continuing his trend of playing every other week since the Tour returned to action. Mickelson missed the cut at Colonial but finished T-24 in Connecticut, and his Muirfield Village credentials include just three top-10s in 19 prior trips. He'll be joined by Spieth, who struggled in his last two starts but has a history of going low on this course, and Cantlay, who won last year's Memorial and finished T-11 at Travelers in his first start since February.
Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Jason Day
Thomas cracked the top 10 in each of his first two starts last month upon returning to action before missing the cut in Connecticut. Koepka will make his first start since withdrawing from the Travelers as a COVID-19 precaution once his caddie tested positive, while Day has missed three of four cuts since returning, including last week in Detroit, and has dropped out of the top 60 in the world rankings for the first time since August 2010.
Why Phil will always be a notable in the field
Patrick Reed, Matthew Wolff, Rickie Fowler
Reed already has a win (Mexico) and a playoff loss (Kapalua) to his credit this year, and has mixed top-25s and missed cuts since the Tour's return. This will mark his fifth start in as many weeks, and he'll be joined by Wolff who coughed up a three-shot lead Sunday in Detroit before settling for a runner-up that still marked his first top-10 in a year. Fowler will round out the group after a T-12 finish at the Rocket Mortgage that marked his first made cut since returning from hiatus.
Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Gary Woodland
The world No. 2 remains in search of his first top-30 since returning to action, as a missed cut in Fort Worth was followed by middling finishes in South Carolina and Connecticut. Rahm will play the first two rounds alongside Hovland, who won earlier this year in Puerto Rico and has top-25s in each of his last four starts. Rounding out the trio will be Woodland, as the reigning U.S. Open champ will look to bounce back from a missed cut at the Travelers on a course where he finished T-4 in 2016.