Rory McIlroy set to face 16 LIV Golf players in Dunhill Links

Rory McIlroy will have a posse of LIV Golf players among his title rivals on Scottish soil in a fortnight’s time in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

Sixteen players in total and ten teeing up in this week’s LIV Golf Invitational in Chicago are among the entries for the $5 million event, which takes place at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns.

They include American Talor Gooch and Mexican Abraham Ancer, the two players singled out for criticism by Billy Horschel for taking up spots in last week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Ignoring the controversy, Gooch finished fourth behind Shane Lowry in Surrey, where Ancer also claimed a top-20 spot.

Charl Schwartzel pictured with LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman after winning the LIV Golf Invitational at The Centurion Club in June. Picture: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images

Other rebels heading to play in the Dunhill Links include South African stars Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen.

Schwartzel and Grace were the winners in the first two LIV Golf Invitational events at Centurion Club near London and Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon respectively. Grace is a former Dunhill Links champion, having landed the title a decade ago.

Oosthuizen, who won the 2010 Open on the Old Course, was praised last week by DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley for handling his departure to Greg Noman’s Saudi-backed breakaway circuit in a “professional and classy manner”.

He added: “He’s not said one word against us publicly since. He’s a gentleman and I wish him nothing but the best.”

Four other South Africans – Shaun Norris, JC Ritchie, Hennie Du Plessis and Oliver Bekker – are also set to be among the LIV Golf contingent in Scotland, with English duo Richard Bland and Laurie Canter, American Peter Uihlein and Australian Jediah Morgan the other LIV players competing in Chicago on the Dunhill Links entry list.

It also includes Spanish duo Adrian Otaegui, who has played in three of the LIV Golf events so far but is not in the Chicago line up and is playing in this week’s DS Automobiles Italian Open on the DP World Tour instead, and Pablo Larrazabal, as well as Australian Blake Windred.McIlroy, who is making his first appearance since 2019, is also set to be joined by Lowry, Horschel, US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, two-time winner Tyrrell Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood in the last DP World Tour event to be held on Scottish soil this year.