Aug 28 (Reuters) – PGA Championship winner Rory McIlroy will
be a conspicuous absentee from the elite end-of-season PGA Grand
Slam of Golf in Bermuda in October due to a scheduling conflict,
organisers said on Tuesday.
Northern Irishman McIlroy, who clinched his second major
title by a staggering eight shots at Kiawah Island earlier this
month, had already committed to the European Tour’s BMW Masters
in China, the PGA of America said in a statement.
The BMW Masters, which was added to the European Tour
schedule in April, will be played at Lake Malaren Golf Club in
Shanghai from Oct. 25-28.
The PGA Grand Slam of Golf, a 36-hole strokeplay event which
brings together the winners of the year’s four majors, will be
held from Oct. 23-24 at Bermuda’s Port Royal Golf Course.
American Keegan Bradley will replace world number one
McIlroy on the picturesque Atlantic Ocean island of Bermuda
where he will defend the title he claimed by one shot last year
when he qualified as the 2011 PGA Championship winner.
Fellow Americans Bubba Watson, who won this year’s Masters,
and Webb Simpson (U.S. Open), plus South African Ernie Els
(British Open), complete the elite four-man field.
The Grand Slam of Golf, billed as ‘the most exclusive
tournament in golf’, was held in Hawaii from 1991 to 2006 before
moving to Bermuda in 2007.
(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by
Frank Pingue)
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