PGA Tour's Bermuda Championship Fails To Fill Out 132-Player Field
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Even though the Butterfield Bermuda Championship is offering a two-year exemption to the winner, full FedExCup points, a Masters invite and a week at Port Royal, the event is only going to be played with 127 players instead of the 132 planned.
A whopping 8 of the world top 100 are entered and just 28 from inside the top 200 will be there. An amazing 34 of the players are not in the world top 1000.
Golf.com’s Dylan Dethier explains what went wrong and some of the names called upon who passed. The main issue appears to be a long season, tough travel from Japan, product oversaturation fueled by the need to pad executive bonuses, and most of all, Bermuda’s vaccination requirement, whined about a few weeks ago by former Tour player with apparent status, and brief Golf Channel tryout, Charlie Beljan (his deleted Tweet above).
This is amazing:
Soon the alternates who had initially accepted places in the Port Royal event started revoking their acceptances, too.
Bradley was in, then out. In came Jonathan Kaye and Frank Lickliter II. Then out they went. Tommy Armour III got in, as did Will MacKenzie. One by one, they each dropped, too. There’s room in here for a Bermuda Triangle joke about mysterious disappearances but folks, we’re steering clear of that one and sailing for safer waters.
Others declined before their number had even been called. Jason Gore of USGA fame. Smylie Kaufman of Spring Break fame. Omar Uresti of PGA Professional fame. The 132-player field is already smaller than summertime Tour events, due to daylight this time of year, but the number of eligible players was shrinking quickly.
While Olin Browne didn’t make the featured groups, he’s in the field. Some amazing names on display here.
The featured groups headlined by tournament betting favorite Matthew Fitzpatrick:
