Scottie Scheffler is going to win the CJ Cup Byron Nelson this week. He’s got another round to play, but it’s over. Bryson DeChambeau is going to win LIV Golf Korea this week. He’s got another round, too, but it’s over.
Doesn’t that get you excited for the PGA Championship? We sneaky need it.
We’ve got another week to pass before we get to Charlotte, and it’ll be a fun one coming ahead of it at Philly Cricket Club. But Scheffler won’t be playing in Philadelphia. DeChambeau won’t be either. And everyone who will be playing at the Truist Championship, a Signature Event, will have the following week top of mind.
Isn’t that how it goes with major championships? We really start focusing on them two weeks out. Who’s playing well? Who’s not playing at all? Who’s striking it well but not making any putts?
Scheffler and DeChambeau are striking it well and making a lot of putts, on two different tours, on two different continents. Like two distant stars destined to collide in a separate universe. They’ll both be among the betting favorites at Quail Hollow, but they’ll also just be reduced to talking points. The water cooler topics that inspire gambling and Thursday morning streaming-from-the-office. It’s a great thing because we have been straining for PGA talking points.
There will be no Tiger Woods in Charlotte. There will also be no Rory McIlroy Major Drought to fill the air. That storyline is cooked, and we’ve been relying on it for at least the last eight years. There’s a career grand slam to think about, with Jordan Spieth, but not one that bettors are particularly confident in. The man we’ve come to rely on during major weeks, Brooks Koepka, has slid outside the top 50.
Quail Hollow, despite its obvious quality and its ability to test elite golfers, is an annual stop for pros. It is not new; it is not mysterious. It hosted a Tour event 12 months ago and will host one 12 months from now. As a Major Championship Host, it leaves something to be desired in the form of discourse. There won’t be the typical element of learning the course that pros must do at most majors. They’ll talk all about learning Oakmont next month. We don’t have that storyline this month.
And yet, this has been a massive week of ideas percolating. Things are happening for the golfers the world really cares about. There’s Scheffler, popping the top off a to-this-point winless season, the only win that might actually scare the rest of the field. There’s DeChambeau, who has risen to No. 4 in the world, according to DataGolf. Charlotte will be screaming his name, given he nearly fist-pumped his way to the trophy last year. There’s the guy who beat him — yes, Xander Schauffele — lurking. T12 at Valspar, T8 in Augusta, T12 at Hilton Head.
Rory McIlroy’s Masters win lightens his burden of pre-tournament pressure. Normally, we wouldn’t believe in that affecting a pro of his caliber, but he admitted to it at Augusta National. Does that free him up, like everyone seems to believe? Maybe. At the very least, we can guarantee a happier McIlroy than we had at Valhalla last year, the week in which he filed for divorce. He’s playing with house money for the rest of 2025. Also, no one has played this course better than McIlroy.
There are the caddie swaps kicking around the league. Max Homa’s former guy filled in for Justin Thomas, in a long-awaited win, and has since landed on the bag for Collin Morikawa, a guy who badly needs one himself. And now that we mentioned Thomas, we can acknowledge that no one in the field has won a more important event at this course than he has, the 2017 PGA.
Then, of course, there’s Spieth. He is the definition of percolating. Something, slowly but surely, is brewing in his game. He finished T12 before the Masters, T14 in Augusta and then T18 a week later. He’s 18 holes away from carding another top 15 this week, and will play as a sponsor’s exemption next week in Philly. The first time he had a chance at the career grand slam? 2017, at a place called Quail Hollow.
Percolating, percolating, percolating….
