LIV Golf event coming to Rich Harvest Farms this weekend

SUGAR GROVE, Ill. (CBS Chicago/CBS Sports) — The Saudi-backed LIV Golf is making its way to Rich Harvest Farms this weekend, for the fifth tournament in the tour’s inaugural season.

CBS Sports reports Dustin Johnson – who won the Boston LIV Golf Event earlier this month – will headline a field which features 46 of the same 48 players that played in that earlier event.

David Puig is set to make his professional debut and has replaced Adrian Otaegui in the competition. The former standout at Arizona State was a top-10 player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings who will participate in his third LIV Golf event and first as a professional. 

Outside of Puig and Henrik Stenson returning from a bout with vertigo that forced him to withdraw in Boston, the field remains the same. World No. 3 Cameron Smith and Boston runners-up Joaquin Niemann and Anirban Lahiri are all set for their second experience with LIV Golf. Despite each enjoying a strong 54 holes in their debuts, the mountain to track down Johnson in the season-long race remains steep.

The two-time major winner sets the pace with 94 points, and is followed by LIV Golf Portland winner Branden Grace with 77 points. In third is Johnson’s teammate Talor Gooch with 48 points as the American is coming off a solo fourth-place finish at the BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour.

More than two dozen PGA golfers have defected to the LIV Tour – including Bryson Dechambeau, who has had success in Illinois. He won a couple of events – including the U.S. Amateur, and his first PGA Tour win at the John Deere Classic.

“I love Illinois. I still love ’em anyway no matter what, but the grass here has treated me really well – and I think there’s some quirky holes out here that we all have to strategize and take care of and just execute great golf shots,” Dechambeau said. “But if you plot your way around this golf course and give yourself a couple of opportunities of Par 5’s, you can shoot pretty well out here.”