Meet the Team of 20 Competing in the 2020 PGA Championship - Part IV

The 2020 PGA Championship is fast approaching and the ‘Team of 20’ PGA Professionals competing will be looking to make their mark at TPC Harding Park.

The 2020 PGA Professional Championship -- which had been scheduled for July 19-22 at the Fazio Foothills and Coore Crenshaw Cliffside courses at Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin, Texas -- was canceled on June 29 due to COVID-19. That meant the top 20 on the 2019 PGA Player of the Year list were eligible for the 2020 PGA Championship.

We’ll be taking a look at the ‘Team of 20’ over the next few weeks leading into the championship. Here are five of the PGA Professionals who will be teeing it up at TPC Harding Park Aug. 6-9.

A two-time National PGA Professional of the Year (2012, ’13), Rod Perry will be playing in his seventh-career PGA Championship and second in as many years. He became the first left-hander and first graduate of a PGA Golf Management University Program to claim a PGA Professional Championship title in 2013.

J.R. Roth will be making his sixth-career PGA Championship appearance — his first in 16 years at the age of 62. He made his PGA Championship debut in 1988 at Oak Tree Golf Club in Edmond, Oklahoma and his last start came in 2004 at Whistling Straits. Roth was inducted to the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame in 2005 and has recorded 17 Michigan PGA Section Championships in his career.

Bob Sowards will tee it up at the PGA Championship for the 11th time in his career, tied for the second-most all-time among PGA Club Professionals. He has claimed the PGA Professional Player of the Year plaudit five times in his career and was named Senior PGA Professional Player of the Year in 2018 and 2019. Sowards has played a total of 40 events on the PGA Tour.

Ryan Vermeer will be playing in his fourth-consecutive PGA Championship after claiming the top spot on the PGA of America’s 2019 Professional Player of the Year standings. He is also assured of exemption in the 120th U.S. Open Championship at Winged Foot Club. Vermeer was named the OMEGA PGA of America Professional Player of the Year in 2018 and 2019, becoming the first member of the Nebraska PGA section to garner the honor.

Shawn Warren returns to the PGA Championship field for the second time after making his debut at Bellerive in 2018. The 2019 New England PGA Section Professional Championship winner, Warren became the third PGA Club Professional from Maine to play in a PGA Championship in 2018.