PGA Championship: Top-ranked Scheffler isn’t sweating soggy start to week
The schedule for the final day of practice rounds at Quail Hollow Club was briefly derailed by torrential rain and a thunderous midday storm Tuesday in Charlotte.
As top-ranked player, Scottie Scheffler, 28, prepares for the big week ahead, he’s not letting the weather get in the way of his plans to win his third major championship.
“It doesn’t really matter that much,” Scheffler said about the lack of practice. “I mean, I think a lot of times at majors you can almost over prepare. So coming into this week, making sure you’re rested, it’s a big golf course, and it’s pretty wet out there, but the greens are still staying pretty firm. They’re still fairly new.
“When you get that new Bermuda, the greens can stay firm. The golf course will play long, but it should be a good test.”
Scheffler, who previously won the 2022 and 2024 Masters tournaments, is hoping to add the PGA Championship to his trophy case.
In five career starts at the PGA Championship, he’s had four top-10 finishes. The Ridgewood, N.J., native who lives in Dallas tied for second place at the 2023 tournament and then tied for eighth in last year’s competition. Scheffler, the reigning FedExCup champion, won the THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson last week. He also finished fourth at the Masters in April.
Overall, Scheffler — who turned pro in 2018 — has 14 career PGA Tour wins.
“Every time you win out here, there’s definitely a feeling of that burden being lifted just because it’s such a great accomplishment,” Scheffler said. “It’s not easy to win out here on any level, and every time you win a tournament, it’s a pretty cool feeling.”
Right place, right time?
Justin Thomas realizes he might be in the right place at the right time.
After nearly three years without a victory on the PGA Tour, Thomas looks the role of a weekly contender again.
He broke the winless streak last month by capturing the RBC Heritage championship at Hilton Head Island and has been in contention three of his last four Tour outings.
And now he has arrived at the Quail Hollow Club, where he won the first of his two PGA Championships eight years ago.
“Definitely,” Thomas said Tuesday, when asked if feels comfortable about returning to Charlotte for the PGA Championship, which begins Thursday at Quail Hollow. “I have a lot of good memories from here.”
Thomas burst on the scene nearly a decade ago and became a dominant PGA Tour player in the 2017 season, when he won five times — including the PGA Championship title in August at Quail Hollow.
Thomas said that walking up the 18th fairway, with fans cheering for him, was a great memory. That season ended with a FedEx Cup title.
He reached No. 1 in the world the following year, won twice in 2020 and remained a leading player through the 2022 PGA Championship, which he won at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla.
Then things seemed to slip away. He failed to finish among the top 30 players in 2023 and again last year.
“I think it’s good for you, in the long term,” he said of the victory drought. “It’s just part of the game.”
In addition to winning at Hilton Head, Thomas finished second last week in the Truist Championship in Philadelphia. He has rounds this season of 61 (first round of the RBC Heritage) and 62 (second round of the Players Championship).
Thomas said that, at age 32, he is a different player. He talked Tuesday about being more patient, about not trying to force things.
“I’d like to hope I’m a more mature golfer,” he said. “I firmly believe some of my best golf is still ahead of me.”
A ‘pretty fair’ course
Xander Schauffele knows Quail Hollow Club well.
The 31-year-old standout made his PGA Championship debut on the course in 2017. He has also finished second in the Truist Championship Tournament in each of the past two years.
And while the course has its critics, Schauffele, who has had a relatively successful streak in Charlotte, isn’t one of them.
“There’s probably an emphasis or a certain weight that driving carries if you’re able to hit it in the fairway and hit it a certain distance,” Schauffele said Tuesday when asked for his take on the course. “Shoot, you can hit it in the fairway all day and miss a lot of greens, and you’re going to have a really tough go around. I think it’s a really tough golf course. I think everyone knows what they need to do. There’s no sort of trick to play this golf course.
“A lot of people will hit it to the same spot. A lot of people will miss it to the same spot as well, and it’s about who — it’s not bad because it’s like who can get up-and-down better when they’re out of position, and who can capitalize when they’re in a good position. It seems to be pretty fair. Yes, maybe it does err — or if you do hit it far, it does help, but for the most part, I think it’s a pretty fair property.”
Schauffele won last year’s PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky by one stroke., shooting a record 21-under par that included a 62 on the first day. He also won the British Open last year.
He’s trying to be the first player to successfully defend the PGA Championship since Brooks Koepka did it in 2019.
Through seven starts this season, Schauffele has one top-10 finish. He currently ranks third in the world.
Seeking the ‘Slam’
About a month after Rory McIlroy completed golf’s Grand Slam by winning the Masters, Jordan Spieth comes to Quail Hollow with a chance to duplicate the feat.
He won the Masters and U.S. Open titles in 2015 and added the British Open two years later. Spieth, 31, needs only a victory this week in Charlotte to complete the ‘Slam.” He said Tuesday that winning the PGA Championship hasn’t preoccupied him.
“It’s funny,” he said. “If Rory didn’t, then it wouldn’t have been a story line for me here necessarily. I just feel like I’ve been asked about it more than other times.”
He said the PGA Championship often is played on courses that favor long hitters, and that wasn’t always one of his strengths. But that’s changed, he said.
“I think, because of my driver becoming a weapon more than it used to be, that leaves me in a position where I feel a little more comfortable on these courses,” he said.
Separating the field
Keegan Bradley enters this week as the 19th-ranked golfer in the world. He knows the power that a major tournament can yield.
The results can push a player up the rankings in a dash or sink him further down the board. A major is where the top guys become the top guys, and Bradley is going to be checking out the competition all week leading into the final day.
“I think these majors kind of separate guys,” Bradley said. “You see a guy hang in there on Sunday, that’s an impressive thing, especially around a course like this. ... I’m still out there playing and trying to do my thing.”
Bradley, 38, made his PGA debut in 2011 and won that year’s PGA Championship. The win helped Bradley jump into the top-30 rankings, and he ultimately landed the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year honor.
An up-and-comer could put forth a similar effort this week and attain comparable glory. Bradley understands the stakes of such an accomplishment.
He also can relate to the pressure that comes with a big tournament like this one.
“These majors, there’s a lot of points at stake here, and the movement on the points list, it can be a lot in these events,” Bradley said. “You see a guy, maybe a younger guy, that stands up to the pressure and can feel this, this is as close as we’re going to get to Bethpage in that the pressure on Sundays is a lot in a major, and you can see a lot there.”
Chip shots
▪ Want to know where most of the gallery will be at 8:22 a.m. Thursday? You can look for fans at the 10th tee, where a trio of golfers named Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Xander Schauffele are scheduled to tee off. They just happen to be the top three ranked golfers in the world. The trio opens second-round play at 1:10 p.m. Friday from No. 1.
▪ For the second straight day, weather affected events at Quail Hollow. Unlike Monday, when the course was closed to the public all day, Tuesday’s problem was relatively brief. A thunderstorm swept across the area at midday, and everyone was ordered to shelter due to lightning. About 1/3 of an inch of rain fell in 25 minutes. An hour later, the sun was shining again, and practice rounds resumed.
▪ The last nine PGA Championship winners have been U.S. golfers. That’s the longest streak since the 10-year-run from 1980 to 1989. The last non-U.S. player to win the Wanamaker Trophy was Australia’s Jason Day, in 2015.
▪ If you believe consistency leads to championships, look to these golfers as favorites this week. They have the best career scoring averages at Quail Hollow Club (10 or more rounds): Rory McIlroy (69.33, 46 rounds); Xander Schauffele (69.63, 16 rounds); Jason Day (70.08, 24 rounds); Keith Mitchell (70.19, 16 rounds); and Max Homa (70.29, 17 rounds).
This story was originally published May 13, 2025 at 4:47 PM.
