Scottie Scheffler wins PGA Championship, showing Charlotte why he’s No. 1
Scottie Scheffler scorched the field at the PGA Championship this weekend, providing a worthy winner for Charlotte’s second major championship.
As the crowd at Quail Hollow Club cheered “Scottie! Scottie!” at frequent intervals, Scottie scotched any idea of someone catching him halfway through the round. At that key juncture, Scheffler fixed himself, midstream. The rest of the way he made golf look far easier than it’s ever supposed to look by finishing 11-under par, five clear of his nearest challengers, when the 107th PGA Championship had concluded in the gathering dusk.
“I think it was really important for me to have a lead to play with today,” Scheffler said afterward. “I played with it a little bit more than I would have liked to.”
This guy might just be turning into the Tiger Woods of this generation. Scheffler only has three major championships so far, true, but it’s early yet in his career. He’s only 28. He won his last tournament by eight strokes and this one by five. Those are Tiger-in-his-prime numbers. Scheffler is the world’s No.1 player and even without his best stuff he routinely shoots in the 60s. More than that, his competitors talk about him the way Woods’ rivals used to talk about Tiger.
Said Xander Schauffele about halfway through Sunday’s round of Scheffler, with whom he had played the first two rounds of the tournament: “He goes and practices after his rounds, does his thing with his team, and he rinses and repeats. He’s in a spot where it would be shocking if he didn’t win today.”
No shocks ensued.
It was a coronation for Scheffler, ultimately, but not without drama. He began the day ahead by three strokes after his blistering third-round 65 at Quail Hollow, and ended it ahead by five.
But at the turn, after Scheffler kept hooking the ball left on the front nine and Jon Rahm made a big run, Scheffler found himself suddenly tied for the lead. His lead had evaporated like dew through the first nine holes, and he was in danger of falling behind. On the CBS telecast, analyst Trevor Immelman opined that Rahm now looked like the “man to beat.”
Well, Scheffler beat him all right. Badly.
Rahm is a two-time major champion himself, but he disintegrated down the stretch (finishing 5-over par on the “Green Mile”, Quail Hollow holes 16-18). Scheffler, meanwhile, steadied his game and started looking as inevitable as seeing another pair of khaki shorts at Quail Hollow. When it was time to win a championship, he had three birdies, five pars and one meaningless bogey on No. 18 on Sunday’s back nine.
Scheffler figured it all out right when he needed to, which is what champions do. Even when it’s not going well, they will themselves to keep it together instead of falling apart. Scheffler doesn’t change things by whim — he’s had the same golf coach since he was seven years old — but he can change the tenor of a round in a hurry when he needs to.
After playing the first nine, Scheffler said: “I had a bite to eat. And I told myself if I keep making good swings, I’m not going to continue to hit the ball left every time. Statistically speaking.”
He proved himself right. And after his final putt dropped on 18, Scheffler flung his hat to the ground like he was spiking a football, yelled in happiness and hugged his caddie.
His wife Meredith then gave Scottie his 1-year-old son Bennett following the round, and Bennett never wanted to let his father go. One of Scheffler’s toughest moments of the day was trying to convince Bennett to be held by someone else when it was time for the trophy ceremony.
There was some irony that Scheffler won this particular event, given that a year ago at the PGA Championship in Louisville he was arrested and booked for allegedly refusing to stop his car and trying to bypass a police officer who was directing traffic around a fatal crash site. Scheffler characterized that incident as a misunderstanding and still played in that tournament. All charges were later dropped, but not before the arrest made headlines around the world.
“I mean, it’s definitely very sweet sitting here with the trophy,” Scheffler said Sunday night. “I definitely have a few jokes that I want to say that I’m probably going to keep to myself.”
Rahm had the best chance of catching Scheffler, even though you couldn’t tell it by the final leaderboard. Rahm said afterward he had a “pretty fresh wound right now” after being briefly tied for the lead, only to wind up tied for eighth place. But Rahm, one of golf’s more introspective thinkers, also offered a refreshing perspective after the round.
“I always like to go back a little bit on something that Charles Barkley likes to remind basketball players all the time,” Rahm said. “Like, I play golf for a living. It’s incredible. Am I embarrassed a little bit about how I finished today? Yeah. But I just need to get over it, get over myself. It’s not the end of the world. It’s not like I’m a doctor or a first responder, where somebody if they have a bad day, truly bad things happen. I’ll get over it. I’ll move on.”
The three players who tied for second were Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English and Davis Riley. Said DeChambeau, who was also at the contention at the Masters last month: “The Green Mile did it to me yesterday and kind of did it to me again today. And that’s golf, man. I’ve got to be more precise and fix what I can fix to make myself more consistent and get up there, the likes (of what) Scottie is doing right now.”
Scheffler overcame a “mud ball” in his first round that cost him two strokes and, as he revealed Sunday night, the failure of his regular driver to pass inspection before the tournament began. That meant a backup driver for the week. (This reportedly happened to Rory McIlroy, too. The four-time winner at Quail Hollow barely made the cut, never was a factor in this tournament and didn’t speak to reporters after any of his four competitive rounds).
Was Scheffler’s backup driver the reason for all those errant drives he hit on the front nine Sunday?
“No,” Scheffler said. “I think that was my fault.”
As for Charlotte? That was our last major championship for quite a while. After hosting the PGA Championship in 2017 and 2025, we might get another one in the 2030s. Or even a Ryder Cup, if Quail Hollow Club president Johnny Harris has his way.
But nothing like that is on the books for a while. We will be back to our regularly scheduled programming in Charlotte in May 2026, when the normal PGA Tour event (the Truist Championship) returns to Quail Hollow.
Let’s hope Scheffler comes back in 2026, too. It’s always a treat to witness greatness in its prime, and that’s what we’re getting right now every time Scheffler tees it up.
“I’ve prepared my entire life to become somewhat decent at this game, and to have a chance to win a tournament that I dreamed about as a kid is a pretty cool feeling,” Scheffler said.
Major tournaments are supposed to separate the wheat from the chaff. That certainly happened this week. The world’s No. 1 player won Charlotte’s major and did it with grace and grit. Scheffler was the perfect champion Sunday, largely because he overcame imperfection.
This story was originally published May 19, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
