Good news, golf fans — Scottie Scheffler did not get arrested at this year’s PGA Championship, and in fact, he won it!
That answered a couple of our burning pre-tournament questions we asked earlier in the week. As for the others? Let’s dig in.
10 PGA Championship questions, answered
Will Jordan Spieth capture the slam next? Well, he still might, but he didn’t this year. He shot 76-68 and missed the cut, delaying his slam quest by another year. Up to bat now is Phil Mickelson, who heads to Oakmont next month still looking for a U.S. Open title to complete his career Grand Slam. There’s even more competition to complete the slam now too, since Scheffler has now completed two of the legs and has a chance at two more this summer. Could he get to three, or even complete it, before Spieth or Mickelson? The way he’s playing, you have to like his chances.
Can Rory get the first two legs of the season slam? He didn’t, but we’ll give him a pass — it’s hard to do! The last player to win the first two legs of the season-long slam remains Spieth in 2015.
Will a star win again? Yes, one did. While the leaderboard was vacant of stars early — and a ton missed the cut — the cream rose to the top over the weekend, with Scheffler battling Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, among others, on Sunday. Look at this updated list of the last nine PGA winners: Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka (3), Justin Thomas (2), Mickelson and Collin Morikawa. No flukes there.
Will Scottie Scheffler get arrested again? He did not. That, paired with his Wanamaker Trophy, makes it a pretty solid week for him.
Will Scottie Scheffler win a non-Masters major? Yes! And don’t be surprised if he wins another this year. He’s all of a sudden won his last two starts and is heating up with summer just around the corner.
Is Justin Thomas… back? Justin Thomas was a trendy pick to win this tournament, but he shot 73-72 and was one of the handful of marquee names who missed the cut. It was an odd one, since he entered having finishing 2nd and 1st, respectively, in his last two starts and was the defending PGA champ at Quail Hollow, where he won his first major in 2017.
Is Collin Morikawa… refocused? Well, he was certainly frustrated with his final-round 72, as witnessed by one of our writers on-site. His T50 also reset a nice string of major finishes he had going — T14, T16, T14, T4 and T3 in his previous five. It was only the second event for Morikawa and his new looper, Joe Greiner. We’ll chalk this one up as an outlier.
Is Max Homa… reenergized? He found something on Friday and shot 64, although he shot more than 10 strokes higher than that on Saturday and Sunday and finished T60. He spoke at length about his game on Friday, and few players are as honest and transparent as him. Here’s hoping he finds the consistency that eluded him at Quail Hollow.
Is THIS Jon Rahm’s major bounce-back? It almost was. Rahm tied Scheffler for the lead early on the back nine and seemed to have all the momentum on his side, but he trailed by a couple of shots late, had to play aggressively and made mistakes coming in on the treacherous Green Mile. He finished bogey-double-double but was surprisingly chipper afterwards, even admitting “it’s been a while since I had that much fun on a golf course.” The leaderboard says he tied for 8th, but anyone watching knows he played much better than that. “A lot of positive to take from this week,” he said. “Pretty fresh wound right now. But there’s been a lot of good happening this week and a lot of positive feelings to take for the rest of the year.”
Are we overlooking Sepp?! Meh, not really. Sepp Straka, the winner of the Truist Championship the week before the PGA, had momentum but didn’t capitalize, shooting 73-71 and missing the cut. Onward.
