John Daly skips the PGA Championship weekend to hit up a barbecue joint

The PGA Championship includes a big field of 156 players, and this year's tournament is extremely competitive. John Daly was one of the prominent players who withdrew from the competition and instead decided to take part in the Regions Tradition on the PGA Tour Champions circuit. However, after just seven holes, Daly withdrew from the event.

Boo Weekley, who is also taking part in the Regions Tradition event, shared a photo with John Daly on Instagram. He also shared photos along with singers like Taylor Hicks, Jamey Johnson, and Brandon Elder.

The caption for this post read:

"Got to hang with some great peeps this week!"

The post featured a montage of everyone celebrating at a restaurant called Saw's Juke Joint, which is situated in Birmingham, Alabama, which is where the PGA Tour Champions event is also taking place.

Daly had also shared his reasons for missing the PGA Championship, saying via AP News:

"I can go there (PGA Championship) and miss the cut and get $6,000. (Instead) I’m playing Birmingham (Alabama). I love Regions. They’re a great sponsor, (but) why are they scheduling Regions the same week as the PGA Championship?"

John Daly's last appearance on the PGA Tour Champions was at the Insperity Invitational, where he finished 77th.

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The PGA Championship field has been extremely carefully selected this year

PGA: PGA Championship - Practice Round - Source: Imagn

The PGA Championship is the year's second major, with a total purse of $18.5 million. It is one of the four majors, and Derek Sprague, the CEO of the PGA Tour of America recently stated that their goal is simply to put together the best field for this tournament.

In an interview, chief championships officer Kerry Haigh also talked about this and shared all the specifics regarding the PGA Championship's field, saying (via Irish Star):

"The committee meets and talks about whether or not we should offer them invites, which is why I think through that process we were able to get worldwide players from various tours. We use the Federation rankings, the top four from the Federation rankings are playing this week, as well as LIV, as well as the other countries."

He continued:

"It's a worldwide field. That's why we feel it's the strongest field in golf because of that process where we look at all the different tours and try and include and invite those best players."

The PGA Championship even has a large number of LIV Golf players to make the field more competitive. And the strategy clearly succeeded, as the standings have remained tight since the first round.