The PGA Tour's alternate event tees off Thursday in Myrtle Beach. Brooks Koepka and Aaron Rai headline a solid field at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic.
While the Tour's biggest names head to Charlotte for the Truist Championship, the PGA Tour's opposite-field event gets Thursday underway at Dunes Golf and Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The third edition of the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic runs May 7-10 with a $4 million purse, 300 FedExCup points and a PGA Championship invitation on the line for the winner.
READ MORE: Rory McIlroy Leads Loaded Truist Field
Brooks Koepka headlines the field in his continued return to the PGA Tour after his time at LIV Golf. The five-time major champion is the slight betting favorite and brings the kind of name recognition this opposite-field event needs while the Truist runs concurrently up in North Carolina.
Koepka is playing Dunes Golf and Beach Club for the first time in competition, a par-71 layout stretching 7,347 yards that rewards ball-striking and precision on approach.
Aaron Rai is the highest-ranked player in the field and one of only two players inside the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking alongside Marco Penge. The Englishman has shown a consistent ability to get around courses like Dunes, which suits his precise, controlled ball-striking game.
He does not overpower courses but he rarely makes mistakes and on a layout that demands accuracy over length, that profile tends to show up on leaderboards by Sunday.
Marco Penge is the other top-50 player worth watching. The Englishman has been one of the most consistent ball-strikers on Tour this season and multiple analysts have him ranked as the top pick in the field this week.
Davis Thompson, fresh off his Zurich Classic pairing with Austin Eckroat, is among the betting favorites as well and has a track record of performing well in opposite-field events where the pressure is slightly different than at a Signature event.
The Danish brothers Nicolai and Rasmus Hojgaard are two of the more interesting names further down the board. Both have the ball-striking credentials to contend at Dunes and a course this demanding tends to filter out the weaker iron players by the weekend.
The name drawing the most curiosity is Blades Brown, the 18-year-old phenom competing on a sponsor exemption as he continues his push toward a full PGA Tour card. Competing against Tour veterans on a demanding ball-striker's course will tell you a lot about where his game actually stands.
Coverage begins Thursday at 10 a.m. EDT on Golf Channel.