Champions, 2025 PGA
Winners from the 107th playing at Quail Hollow.
Kicking off The Quad’s annual post-major tradition with best from PGA week at Quail Hollow…
Scottie Scheffler. Two elements of his victory must be pretty depressing for his peers: the man does not play for fame or fortune so he’s not going to lose interest any time soon, and Scheffler’s better attitude last week helped carry him to victory while sporting his B game. Having taken the week before meant Scheffler was rested and hungry. Whether you agree with him on mudballs or not, his answers also suggested a certain mental clarity and reflection about last year’s often chaotic approach to improving his putting. Avoiding wasted energy during a major week is essential to winning and there was less of Scheffler’s tendency after missed putts to look at caddie Ted Scott as if he’d been arrested again. Even losing his driver to a non-conformity test Tuesday did not appear to fluster Scheffler. He has no interest in building a brand, “growing the game”, or increasing his YouTube subscriber base because he doesn’t have one and never will. Scheffler’s a driven performer in the purest golf sense and should have only one real concern in what looks like a path to more major wins: remaining healthy. He’s off to a good start by pledging let others make the ravioli on Christmas Day. Tall golfers have generally experienced more injuries and sticking with an approach of letting longtime instructor Randy Smith monitor his technique instead of launch monitors or video should help on the longevity front. Oakmont, here he comes.
Vegas, English, Riley. They each recorded their best finishes in a major after experiencing career peaks and valleys. Vegas ended up T5, English T2, and Riley T2. Of the three, English has been quietly building a nice U.S. Open record since 2020 (4-3-T61-T8-T41), so he should be a legitimate threat at Oakmont in a few weeks.
Keith Woods. The super who oversees a crew of around 90 for tournament week pulled off miracles just to get the course playable on Thursday. Even on Wednesday afternoon, players and caddies I ran into predicted preferred lies. Huge swaths of several fairways were still largely casual water 12 hours before the first tee time. A lot of supers would have resisted putting mowers over the soggy fairways. But Woods, his mechanic, and a seasoned crew featuring several volunteer GCSAA supers used the mowers to pushed water to the rough and avoided doing damage. They didn’t let the horrid weather get their spirits down. An incredible effort. Just ask Padraig Harrington, as quoted by Michael Bamberger: “It’s startling that we played that course as we played it, given what we had here for the three practice rounds.”
Short 14th. Another major, another short par-4 livened up proceedings that desperately needed a little architectural intervention. Fun stuff happened at the 14th. The hole livened up the round after the series of utterly forgettable holes from the eighth to the 13th. The difficult finishing holes were made more palatable by the opportunity to score here and at the par-5 15th. Eventual Champion Scheffler played 14/15 in a field-leading nine-under-par. For the inevitable next PGA when the field is carrying it 10-15 yards longer, it would nice to see the lake banks cut a bit closer. They don’t need a tight shave ala Augusta’s 15th, but a bit more fear factor and visual crispness would add a little more tension.
CBS. The investment and upgrades of recent years continued to make the PGA Championship a fantastic viewing experience: constantly improving use of drones, informative on-screen graphics rarely used during The Masters (including wind gauges), realistic hole portrayals to highlight green contours, and crisp work from all the broadcasters. While traditionalists might think it’s all too much, the gizmos salvaged an event dulled by playing at a regular PGA Tour stop. The announcers fed us just the right amount of stats to highlight trends or bolster points. And unlike NBC’s four-wide mess where it’s not clear whose role is what and when they should speak, it was obvious which holes were the primary responsibility of Frank Nobilo, Ian Baker-Finch and Andrew Catalon (who was a tad too excited at times working his first PGA, as evidenced by several declarations of any non-rainy day as spectacular even when it was in the high 80s and muggy). On-course reporters Dottie Pepper, Colt Knost and Mark Immelman stood out with quick, sharp and informative takes, but Knost needs an acting class to learn how to be surprised when great shots he’s just witnessed are shown to the audience on tape. Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman continue to gel as a lead team, with Immelman having a Johnny Miller-like week of immediate, succinct, and pointed takes when necessary. He and brother Mark do superb swing analysis when allowed. As promised by the producer, viewers got new perspectives of several key holes and wind gauges proved handy on a breezy Saturday (but still could have been used more). The drone tracers remain spectacular, even though the jarring cuts to show a ball hitting the ground remain annoying if it’s clear tee shots are going to finish in the fairway. We really don’t need to see what the ball does unless it might roll into a hazard or if it finishes in a divot. An 18th hole crane shot was a great addition, but over four days, there was no view to tell us whether balls were in or out of the fake creek. Maybe a creek cams in some fake rocks for 2033?
