Steve Stricker withdraws from PGA Championship

Steve Stricker has withdrawn from the PGA Championship, the tournament announced Sunday. He was replaced in the field by Alex Smalley.

There are currently 154 players in the field for the PGA Championship, which begins Thursday at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. Spots are being held in the field for the winners of the Wells Fargo Championship and Myrtle Beach Classic. If either winner is already exempt for the PGA, then players will get into the PGA off of the alternate list.

Stricker is currently competing in the Regions Tradition. Stricker, the two-time defending champion, held the 36-hole lead but will enter Sunday’s final round in fourth place after shooting 73 on Saturday.

Stricker said earlier in the week that he was undecided if he had the stamina to play the PGA one week after one of PGA TOUR Champions’ majors. Stricker also is scheduled to defend his title at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship on May 23-26, one week after the PGA Championship.

“I'd love to be there because it is a big event, but it's a big course,” Stricker, 57, said earlier this week. “I'm tired. I'm old. You know, I know where my place is. I'm gonna assess where I'm at. But I'm kind of leaning towards I'm not going."

Smalley, a second-year PGA TOUR player from Greensboro, North Carolina, is 124th in the FedExCup standings with one top-10 in 14 starts. He is T7 entering Sunday’s final round of the Myrtle Beach Classic.

Stricker’s victory in last year’s Senior PGA Championship got him into the field at Valhalla. The Senior PGA was one of six PGA TOUR Champions victories last year for Stricker, who also won the Charles Schwab Cup.

Stricker played the three previous PGA Championships at Valhalla, finishing T26 in 1996, missing the cut in 2000 and T7 in 2014.

The PGA will be Smalley’s third major championship. He missed the cut in the 2017 U.S. Open while still an amateur, then finished T23 in last year’s PGA.