Numerous LIV Golf stars are competing this week at the PGA Championship held at Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia. All eyes are on Crushers GC Captain Bryson DeChambeau this week as the second major championship of 2026 takes place. The PGA Championship is being held this week at Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia.
Eleven LIV Golf players are in the field. Here is the list of players and their primary exemption categories:
- Bryson DeChambeau – 2024 U.S. Open win
- Thomas Detry – Special Exemption
- Tyrrell Hatton – 2025 Ryder Cup participant
- Dustin Johnson – Special Exemption
- Martin Kaymer – Former Champion
- Tom McKibbin – Special Exemption
- Joaquin Niemann – Top 15 finish at the 2025 PGA Championship
- David Puig – Special Exemption
- Jon Rahm – 2023 Masters win
- Cameron Smith – 2022 Open Championship win
- Elvis Smylie – Special Exemption
Key Storylines
Current season points leader Jon Rahm and his closest pursuer, Bryson DeChambeau, have each won two tournament titles this season, with DeChambeau triumphing in consecutive starts through playoffs in Singapore and South Africa. Rahm won in Hong Kong and Mexico City, and is heading towards a potentially third consecutive season-long individual championship. Rahm and DeChambeau are among the four LIV Golf players with multiple major wins competing here; the other two are Dustin Johnson and Martin Kaymer. Kaymer, the 2010 PGA Champion, is the only LIV Golf player competing this week as a former champion.
Five players are competing after receiving Special Exemptions from the PGA of America – two-time major winner Dustin Johnson and top-100 players Thomas Detry, David Puig, Elvis Smylie, and Tom McKibbin. Puig, Smylie, and McKibbin are among the group of rising young stars under 25 on the LIV Golf roster, with Smylie winning in his LIV Golf debut at this year's season opener in Riyadh. The league's youngest captain, 27-year-old Joaquin Niemann of Torque GC, hopes to build on his T8 finish at last year's PGA Championship – his best result in 26 major starts. Phil Mickelson, as a two-time PGA Championship winner, automatically qualified but chose to withdraw due to family health issues.
Seven of the league's 13 teams are represented, with Legion XIII (3 players), 4Aces GC (2 players), and Ripper GC (2 players) each having multiple representatives. Fitting for the World's Golf League, eight different nations are represented by these 11 players – Australia (2), Belgium, Chile, England, Germany, Northern Ireland, Spain (2), and the United States (2). Five of the eleven players already have experience at Aronimink, having competed in the 2018 BMW Championship; DeChambeau achieved the best result, a tied 18th place at 12-under par.
