This week at Colonial Country Club marks 80 straight years of PGA Tour golf at the same spot. With a $9.9 million purse, this edition was supposed to be a big celebration. But things haven’t gone as planned. By Monday morning, the main topic wasn’t about who might win but about who had already left, and 4x Tour winner Wyndham Clark was the latest to go.

Twenty-four hours after shooting a final-round 60 to win the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, Clark withdrew from the Charles Schwab Challenge without a public explanation. PGA Tour Communications confirmed the move on their X account, with Lanto Griffin stepping in as his replacement.

Griffin’s coming in forms the other part of the story. He’s 37 now and just managed to hang onto his card thanks to a solid run in the FedExCup Fall last year. This season’s been a bit up and down for him. He finished T13 at Myrtle Beach. For players like Griffin, who don’t have a full exemption, these rare weeks can be a golden ticket to flip a season on its head.

Clark’s decision to skip out hits a bit harder when you look at the timing. He just made history at the Byron Nelson, becoming the first guy on Tour to win more than once with rounds of 60 or better; he pulled it off earlier this year at Pebble Beach. His CJ Cup victory shot him up the world rankings from 75th to 44th in a single night.

However, Clark was not alone. Brooks Koepka had already withdrawn on Sunday evening after playing three events in a row: the PGA Championship, the Myrtle Beach Classic, and the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. Most people assumed he wanted to rest and work on his putting. Denny McCarthy and David Ford withdrew, and their spots were filled by Jimmy Stanger and Brice Garnett.

The withdrawals had already signaled that change was underway; Monday’s announcement just highlighted it.

Charles Schwab Challenge’s 80th anniversary overshadowed by star withdrawals

Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1 and a two-time runner-up here, has already dropped out, and with Rory McIlroy also skipping both the Byron Nelson and the Colonial, fans will not see the World No. 2 either. The other needle mover to sit this one out is Jordan Spieth, who won Colonial back in 2016 and is missing his hometown event for the first time as a pro since 2013. He’s played seven of the last eight weeks, and with that kind of a packed schedule, Colonial just ended up paying the price.

Colonial is not just another event on a crowded schedule. Known as Hogan’s Alley, this course is where Ben Hogan claimed victory five times from 1946 to 1959. Champions here have received the tartan jacket for eighty years. The Charles Schwab Challenge doesn’t carry Signature Event status, and that distinction is doing real work this week.

Mostly, elite players increasingly build their schedules around majors and signature purses, while Colonial, at $9.9 million and 500 FedExCup points, doesn’t clear the bar for everyone anymore.

Ludvig Aberg is out in front, and we’ve still got Justin Thomas, Russell Henley, Hideki Matsuyama, and last year’s champ Ben Griffin in the mix.