Weekly PGA Recap: Scottie Makes It Three

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

As the PGA Tour season moved into February, then March, then April, Scottie Scheffler could only watch as Rory McIlroy won once, then twice, then a third time at the Masters to creep closer and closer to his world No. 1 ranking. Scheffler was recovering from hand surgery over the Christmas holidays and just wasn't at his best yet. Oh, he was plenty good, finishing in the top-10 or even top-5 almost every week and was better than everyone in golf but one guy: McIlroy.

And so after Scheffler won THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson two weeks ago for his first title of the season, a tournament without McIlroy in attendance, he said: "I feel like my game is trending in a good direction. I'm excited to start the rest of the season."

It was as if the ultra-competitive Scheffler were saying -- as politely as possible -- "Rory, you won the first part of the season, now I'm back at 100 percent."

Yes, Scheffler is back, and at 100 percent, if not more. He put on a spectacular performance to win the 107th PGA Championship by five strokes on Sunday at Quail Hollow Club for his third career major title.

Don't be misled by the winning margin. Scheffler struggled mightily on the front nine and was caught by a surging Jon Rahm early on the back nine. At that point, Scheffler showed why he is the best in the world. He delivered three birdies in a six-hole stretch while the Spaniard imploded to end up in a tie for eighth. Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English and Davis Riley shared second place.

Upon tapping in a meaningless bogey putt on the 72nd hole, Scheffler had a long embrace with caddie Ted Scott. Then – seemingly unsure what to do next – took off his cap and fiercely slammed it into the ground, like a furious baseball manager in an argument with an umpire. He then turned back to Scott and screamed: "THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING 'BOUT!"

When was the last time you saw the genial Scheffler that demonstrative? Oh, how about never?

When asked about that moment, Scheffler said: "Just a lot of happiness. I think, you know, just maybe thankful as well. It was a long week. I felt like this was as hard as I battled for a tournament in my career. This was a pretty challenging week."

The winning score at maligned-but-still beastly Quail Hollow was 11-under. No one else was better than 6-under.

Scheffler once again has a commanding OWGR lead over McIlroy, 5.6 points, and has taken over the top spot in the FedExCup Standings.

McIlroy will always have his Masters and his career grand slam. But Scheffler reinforced that he is golf's preeminent player.

Scheffler became the 15th golfer to win both a Masters and a PGA, a month after McIlroy became the 14th.

He has won his majors by  3, 4 and 5 shots, the first player since Seve Ballesteros in 1983 to win his first three majors by at least three strokes. 

Scheffler ranked eighth in the field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and Approach, and fifth in Around-the-Green, to go along with 25th in SG: Putting.

Yes, he is putting far better than last year and, after 3-4 lost months to begin 2025, it's certainly possible that Scheffler has an even better year than in 2024.

A few days ago, it seemed unthinkable that anyone but McIlroy could win Player of the Year, even though the voting is still four months away. But up ahead are the U.S. Open and Open Championship, then the playoffs, plenty of time for Scheffler to win more majors, more big tournaments and, as impossible as this sounds, have his best season yet.

McIlroy fired the first shot – actually, the first three. He did nothing wrong, was not disrespectful to Scheffler in any way.

But champions use their opponents as motivation. And Scheffler is as motivated as he's ever been.

Asked on Sunday if "you categorize yourself as having competitive fire?" Scheffler replied with one word:

With a little laugh, he said: "Yeah."

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Bryson DeChambeau
In the last six majors, DeChambeau has a win, two runners-up, a fifth and a sixth. He plays four OWGR tournaments a year and he's now ranked 10th in the world. He's clearly among the top three players in the world, and he will be the No. 3 favorite next month at Oakmont for his U.S. Open title defense. The thing is, DeChambeau is still getting better (Scheffler and McIlroy may also be). He is still figuring out how to get more finesse into his otherworldly power game. He's not there yet.

Harris English
This was English's best finish in a major. We did not expect a runner-up, but he is such a solid player who knows how to get the most out of his game, and he was priced in the $6,000s on DraftKings. Historically, the U.S. Open has been English's best major, so we'll probably be on him again next month, like we were at the PGA. He won the Farmers earlier this season at a U.S. Open track in Torrey Pnes. English moved up to No. 17 in the world rankings.

Davis Riley
Everybody who follows golf saw that Riley missed his first five cuts of 2025, then turned his season around with seven straight made cuts, including two top-10s. But this shared runner-up was still a level Riley had never reached before. So we'll see where his game goes from here, beginning this week with his title defense at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Riley moved from 100th in the OWGR to 53rd, meaning he has qualified for next month's U.S. Open. Everyone in the top 60 on Monday (and again in two weeks) is exempt. Three other players who moved into the top 60 after the PGA: Si Woo Kim and Joe Highsmith, both of whom tied for eighth, and the next golfer on the list.

Jhonattan Vegas
What an incredible week for Vegas, who led for the first half of the tournament. So many times, a player of his caliber fades away on the weekend. He didn't have a chance to win on Sunday, but he still tied for fifth, moving him to 49th in the world rankings to qualify for the U.S. Open, while getting a return invite to next year's PGA for this high finish. Vegas has always been a great ball-striker and has four career wins. His putting often holds him back. This week, he ranked 40th in the field.

J.T. Poston
Here's another guy who turned in his best major finish, tying for fifth. He had never before had so much as a top-25. There was such a purge of top guys on Friday, as you'll see below, that it opened the door for a lot of guys, such as Poston. It's hard to read anything into it other than one very good week.

Taylor Pendrith
In four tournaments leading to the PGA, Pendrith finished MC-T42-MC-65. So naturally, he tied for fifth in a major. Regardless, he's up to a career-high 38th in the OWGR.

Jon Rahm
For the first time since leaving for LIV, Rahm contended in a major. Heck, he had a share of the lead on the back nine on Sunday and had a birdie putt for the solo lead on No. 12. But then he absolutely fell apart. He failed to birdie either of two of the easier holes on 14 and 15, then played the Green Mile closing three-hole stretch in bogey-double-double. He tied for eighth. To say it was uncharacteristic for the former world No. 1 would be an understatement. Then again, so many guys who play on LIV have seen their games change.

Joaquin Niemann
Niemann finally showed up in a major, registering his first top-10 in 24 starts. It was even his first top-15. The next step for Niemann was to contend – truth be told, this was a back-door top-10 as many later finishers fell back after Niemann was long done. With all the success that he has had on LIV – three wins this year – it's past time for him to step up.

Keegan Bradley
The Ryder Cup captain's spectacular season continued with a tie for eighth, doing nothing to stem the talk that Bradley could be a playing captain.

Xander Schauffele
Schauffele tied for 28th in his title defense and had his best round of the week on Sunday, a 68. Both he and Scheffler missed time at the start of the season. No injury is the same. Scheffler is clearly 100 percent. It's hard to know where Schauffele stands with his rib injury, if it still is a concern. But he has not contended for a title yet this season, and he's now made eight starts.

Rory McIlroy
McIlroy opened with a 74 and never was in the mix at a course where he's won four times. He tied for 47th. As good as he's been playing, winning multiple majors in one season was always going to be super hard. Oakmont should set up nicely for him next month, so we shall see.

Max Homa
Golf fans really like Homa, they really do. And so the excitement was real when Homa shot 64 on Friday to reside on the first page of the leaderboard. But he's been playing terrible golf all season, and Friday turned out to be an aberration. Homa shot 76-77 on the weekend to tie for 60th. His game is still a mess, outside of his putter. He's now down to 83rd in the world rankings and missed the first cutoff point to qualify for the U.S. Open without a top-60 spot in the OWGR. The next top-60 cutoff comes in two weeks. Otherwise, Homa will have to go through qualifying just like everyone else. And then he'd had to play well or not play in the Open at all.

MISSED CUTS

Justin Thomas
As well as he is playing, his best work is coming on shorter tracks, including his win at the RBC Heritage. On longer courses, such as Quail Hollow, his wayward driver is killing him. He needs to fix that before the U.S. Open or he'll be looking at another MC.

Jordan Spieth
Not only will winning the PGA to complete the career grand slam be hard, winning anywhere will be hard. Spieth is not playing badly -- he was ranked 27th by the DataGolf website before the PGA. He's just not among the best players anymore.

Brooks Koepka
Rahm finally showed up. Koepka appears to have zero interest anymore.

Dustin Johnson
DJ needed a special invite from the PGA of America to get in. They then put him in a featured group. And he absolutely mailed it in, finishing around 140th out of 156. Club pros beat him. Why even bother to show up?

The list is too long to discuss everyone, but Quail Hollow was an absolute bloodbath, and all the following also failed to make the weekend. Ludvig Aberg, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Cantlay, Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry, Justin Rose, Russell Henley, Min Woo Lee, Jason Day, Sungjae Im, Cameron Smith, Patrick Reed, Phil Mickelson.

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