Three distinct personalities and playing styles make for a tantalising PGA Championship showdown
Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy shake hands on the 18th green during the first round of the 2024 Masters. Picture: by Andrew Redington/Getty Images
For the 106th PGA Championship, it is hard to fathom a more perfect confluence of form, family and favorites colliding in a much-anticipated horse race at Valhalla Golf Club, just down the road from the twin spires of Churchill Downs.
Mystik Dan won a three-way photo finish by a nose at the wire over Sierra Leone and Forever Young in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago – the first leg of the American Triple Crown of horse racing. This week the principal trio of Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka come into town red hot to contend for the Wanamaker Trophy in the second leg of golf’s grand slam.
The handicappers have a lot to consider of the three lead characters on a big-boy golf course seemingly made for each of them.
First there’s world No. 1 Scheffler, winner of two straight and four of his last five starts including the Masters, Players and a pair of signature events. But Scheffler hasn’t played in three weeks after taking leave as he and his wife, Meredith, welcomed their first child – baby boy Bennett – last week.
Then there’s world No. 2 McIlroy, the 2014 PGA winner at Valhalla coming in on a heater with consecutive PGA Tour victories in New Orleans (with partner Shane Lowry) and last week in Charlotte. McIlroy made a detour to his South Florida home after his decisive win Sunday to file for divorce on Monday from his wife of seven years, Erica.
Last there’s Koepka, the defending PGA champion who put all the pieces of his game together to win his last start two weeks ago at the LIV Golf event in Singapore. Trying to successfully defend as champion at a major for the third time in his career, Koepka looked the picture of parental and marital bliss when he lifted his infant son after winning for the fourth time on the breakaway circuit.
Of course, there are a number of other players who could crash the party – relative “longshots” like Jon Rahm, Wyndham Clark and Xander Schauffele all eminently capable of being regarded as favorites in their own right. But all eyes will be staring at the big three out of the gate.
Scheffler’s game has seemed immune to letdown over the last year, and he’s been almost unbeatable since his putter began cooperating again in March. He insists there won’t be any drop-off in his game this week.
“Definitely rested going into this week for sure. I don’t really feel like any rust has accumulated,” he said. “I was able to practice and play a lot at home. I’m able to do stuff at home to simulate tournament golf, especially on the greens, competing and gambling with my buddies.”
Scheffler was filled with beaming with joy and pride regarding his wife and son – whose gender was a genuine delivery room surprise to both parents.
“I don't really know how to describe it, watching the little dude come out of Meredith,” Scheffler said. "It was a wild ride. Extremely proud of Meredith after watching her go through that. It’s nuts. I’m glad it was her going through it and not me because I don’t know if I could have done it.”
McIlroy has his own family drama to deal with on top of trying to snap a 10-year major drought dating back to the last time the PGA was played at Valhalla in 2014. Having filed for the disillusion of his marriage as “irretrievably broken” on Monday, he went right back to work on Tuesday.
The Northern Irishman has a proven record of handling distraction in his career. When McIlroy announced the abandonment of his engagement to Caroline Wozniacki the week of the BMW PGA at Wentworth in 2014, he won that week and soon thereafter won the Open, WGC-Bridgestone and PGA in succession.
“Yeah, look, game feels good coming off the back of two wins – a fun one in New Orleans with Shane, and then a really good performance last week,” McIlroy said Wednesday. “Just trying to keep the momentum going.”
Koepka is his own animal, a player who can never be counted out of a major considering his abilities and mindset regardless of how he coasts along in ordinary events. That his game coalesced just in time for his PGA defense is ominous for the field.
“He’s a contract killer, simply,” Andy North, a two-time U.S. Open winner and longtime television analyst with ESPN, said of Koepka.
“He shows up at a major championship, opens his locker, and there’s like the ‘Mission Impossible’ thing: ‘Here's your assignment, go kill somebody this week.’”
Disappointed with his distant showing at the Masters, Koepka put in punishing workouts to get himself better prepared for the PGA. He hopes Scheffler and McIlroy are at their best this week to push him.
“I'm just looking forward to a major championship. That's kind of my … it gets my excitement going,” he said. “Something I look forward to all year. So yeah, look, I always enjoy competing against these guys, and anytime you get the best, it’s always good, and you just want them to play their best, too. You want to go out and win it.”
Three distinct personalities and playing styles can make for a tantalising showdown if their form all carry over to the next four days. The PGA Tour’s finest against LIV’s most focused player could make for a good show.
Tiger Woods – who set the standard for today’s generation of superstars – has a unique perspective on the top two players in the world rankings. Scheffler’s consistent excellence is eerily reminiscent of Tiger’s peak years while McIlroy’s reiterated on Sunday that he has a higher gear he can shift into above peers – also reminiscent of Woods.
“Two very different styles,” Woods said. “Obviously with Scottie, what he does through the golf ball and with his footwork, or you have Rory who has arguably the best finish of a swing in golf. It looks like a statue. They’re two totally different players.
“The commonality is I think the focus and when you’re on the range and watching them hit golf balls or listening, more so listening to them hit golf balls, there’s a different sound to it because they just don’t miss the middle of the face.
“I think obviously Scottie’s not as long as Rory and can’t probably separate himself on a golf course like that with pure length, but his ball striking, the amount of greens he hits, he just wears you out that way. And then he has an amazing pair of hands around the greens.
"If he putts awful, then he finishes in top 10. If he putts decent, he wins. He putts great, he runs away. So, he’s just that good a ball-striker and that good an all-around player. Rory, just the way he’s able to take over a golf course and just overpower it, I kind of remember that back when I was younger, but it’s been a while.”
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