CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Scottie Scheffler sat at the podium on Sunday at Quail Hollow Club, basking in the glow radiating off the Wanamaker Trophy he had just won by lapping the field at the 2025 PGA Championship.
Scheffler has levitated above everyone else in the world of elite men’s professional golf since his prolific 2024 run started with wins at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Players and the Masters. A freak ravioli accident combined with Rory McIlroy’s blistering hot start put Scheffler, who has been World No. 1 for 117 consecutive weeks, seemingly in the background.
But Scheffler’s romp at Quail Hollow was an emphatic reminder that men’s professional golf is his kingdom and everyone else is trying to play catch-up. Scheffler started the PGA Championship fighting his swing. Despite having less than his best, Scheffler posted scores in the first two rounds to put himself in contention. Then, on Saturday, he put the tournament in a chokehold with a blistering five-hole run that saw him enter the final round with a three-shot lead over Alex Noren and a five-shot lead over the next closest major champion, Jon Rahm.
With his name on top of the leaderboard, Scheffler put the pressure on the chasers to play perfect golf if they wanted to have a chance of catching him. Even if Scheffler didn’t play flawless golf on Sunday (he didn’t), the chasers would need to push him and empty the tank even to have a chance. He is, after all, Scottie Scheffler.
Bryson DeChambeau, who started the final round six shots back of Scheffler, felt it. He knew who was at the top of the leaderboard and understood what it would take to have a chance to track Scheffler down.
With Quail Hollow’s first eight holes getting chewed up by the early wave, the chasers needed to get off to a hot start, post birdies and make Scheffler aware of their presence.
DeChambeau missed the green at the 1st and shook his head when his birdie chip came up short. His birdie putts at No. 2 and No. 3 drew frustrated reactions. Hands on the head, a gesture at a break that wasn’t, a long exhale. When his shot from the bunker on the par-3 4th didn’t break left as expected, DeChambeau smacked his leg and called his caddie over in frustration.
There’s major championship pressure, and there’s major championship pressure when Scheffler is on top.
When DeChambeau’s birdie putt on No. 8 missed, he waved his arm again at a misread break and walked off to the tee knowing he’d missed his chance to fully apply pressure to the best golfer in the world.
“There were times where I feel like I pressed,” DeChambeau said after a T2-finish at Quail Hollow. “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.”
Rahm went out a little later than DeChambeau and rattled off seven pars to start but made birdies on 8, 10 and 11. When Scheffler stumbled on the front nine due a string of the lefts, Rahm suddenly found himself tied for the lead. But knowing what holes Scheffler still had in front of him, Rahm was acutely aware that catching the World No. 1 was only the first step in an unlikely comeback. He’d likely need three more birdies to give himself a realistic chance at a playoff. Scottie Scheffler isn’t going to give you anything.
With Rahm on the 12th hole, Scheffler poured in a birdie at No. 10 to retake the lead.
When the ball hit the bottom of the cup, a message ripped through the course to Rahm.
“You know what position you’re in because, even if you don’t want to look at leaderboards, the crowd lets you know,” Rahm said. “They’re so excited, it doesn’t matter, they’ll tell you. Even when you don’t know exactly what’s going on on a hole, if you hear a cheer, you do know what’s going on. Like on 12 green when I hit my putt, at the same time I heard a cheer from 10; I was fully aware that was a Scottie birdie. I just could tell.”
When Rahm was unable to take advantage of the short par-4 14th or the par-5 15th, he knew his chances of overtaking Scheffler were close to dashed.
“If there’s ever a time where it felt like it was slipping away to an extent, it was not birdieing 14 and 15; that was definitely the mistake,” Rahm said.
Rahm bogeyed 16 and then doubled his way home as he tried to go for broke to catch Scheffler.
When Rahm’s par putt at 16 missed, Scheffler was across the lake, walking to his ball in the 15th fairway. Minutes later, Scheffler made birdie to stretch the lead to four, and all that was left was a Green Mile coronation and the celebration.
As Scheffler was teeing off for his final-round romp at Quail Hollow, his close friend Sam Burns was putting the finishing touches on his PGA Championship.
Burns has played a lot of golf with Scheffler. While he wasn’t in chase mode on Sunday at Quail Hollow, he understood what Rahm, DeChambeau and others felt as they attempted to track Scheffler down.
“I’ve played a lot of golf with him, and it seems like every shot has a magnitude of force and just finds its way up there,” Burns said.
Even before he took the lead on Saturday, Scheffler’s presence on the leaderboard made the outcome feel inevitable. As contenders came off the course Saturday, they all talked about how they had given themselves a chance to win on Sunday. Behind them, Scheffler torched Quail Hollow’s Green Mile to make their statements moot, crush their aspirations 24 hours before the tournament concluded and set up a walk to a third career major for himself.
“Magnitude of force.”
Scheffler made everyone at Quail Hollow feel it.
Josh Schrock
Golf.com Editor
Josh Schrock is a writer and reporter for Golf.com. Before joining GOLF, Josh was the Chicago Bears insider for NBC Sports Chicago. He previously covered the 49ers and Warriors for NBC Sports Bay Area. A native Oregonian and UO alum, Josh spends his free time hiking with his wife and dog, thinking of how the Ducks will break his heart again, and trying to become semi-proficient at chipping. A true romantic for golf, Josh will never stop trying to break 90 and never lose faith that Rory McIlroy’s major drought will end (updated: he did it). Josh Schrock can be reached at josh.schrock@golf.com.
