Scottie Scheffler Wins The PGA
Things got interesting for a bit before he cruises to a five-stroke win over English, DeChambeau and Riley. Plus, Scheffler by the numbers, the repercussions of driver test failures, and Quotables.
Round Four By The Numbers
-11: Winning score of Scottie Scheffler (69-68-65-71-265)
-9: Scheffler at the 14th and 15th holes this week
278: Score of the runners-up (English, DeChambeau, Riley)
65: Low Sunday round by Harris English (T2)
80: High round by Garrick Higgo
15: Final Round scores in the 60s
4:09: Round time for Sunday’s final pairing
$3,420,000: Winner’s check
$23,420: 74th place
$4000: Pay to cutmissers
9-way: Tie for 8th and a spot in the 2026 PGA (Niemann, Griffin, McCarthy, Gerard, Highsmith, Fitzpatrick, Bradley, Rahm, Si Woo Kim)
72.505: Cumulative scoring avg (73.092 in 2017)
304-353-335-343-329-300-336-344-317-350-322-355-331-343: Bryson DeChambeau’s final round non-par 3 tee shot distances.
3-2-1: Difficulty ranking of the 16th, 17th and 18th holes
+519: Scoring on the 16th, 17th and 18th holes for the week
+172: Holes 1-15 for the week
This one was as dull as the Masters was thrilling.
Not that Scottie Scheffler failed to inject a little intrigue into the 2025 PGA Championship. He opened with a front nine 37 while sporting a problematic left-miss that fueled bogeys at the first, sixth and ninth. But the epic bounce-back skills shown during Scheffler’s remarkable four-year run would see him follow up those first and ninth hole stumbles with birdies. A slight aim adjustment suggested by caddie Ted Scott and a light snack at the turn inspired him to come home in 34 to record a four-stroke win for his third major title.
“Finishing off a major championship is always difficult, and I did a good job of staying patient on the front nine,” the 28-year-old said. “I didn't have my best stuff, but I kept myself in it, and I stepped up on the back nine and had a really good nine holes. That's about it.”
Turns out, there was more to this one than the early round hiccups and a charge by two-time major winner Jon Rahm.
The added layers were nothing as emotional as Scheffler’s first Masters win when he admitted to breaking down prior to the round when pondering how a Green Jacket might change his and new wife Meredith’s life. Nor did it resemble last year’s PGA when he briefly donned jailhouse orange. But we learned Sunday—via Xander Schauffele in a story reported by Adam Schupak—that Scheffler was en route to winning after his driver of the last year failed the same early week testing believed to have claimed Rory McIlroy’s gamer.
“My driver did fail me this week,” Scheffler said after his name had been engraved on the Wannamaker trophy. “We had a feeling that it was going to be coming because I've used that driver for over a year. I was kind of fortunate for it to last that long, I felt like.”
The layers to that answer will be unpeeled later on in this edition and in the coming days. But they should not overshadow the mastery displayed in winning his first non-Masters major. Scheffler won this PGA fair and square by overcoming a Christmas Day hand injury, then rounding into form at the Nelson two weeks before the PGA, and arriving early to Quail Hollow (where he’d never played a stroke play event). But Scheffler’s pre-tourney preparation was limited by the early week downpours.
“I was battling my swing the first couple days,” he said. “I didn't have as good a prep week as I wanted to. It was a battle out there.”
Scheffler opened the warm and breezy final round with a bogey at the first followed by a birdie at the second hole. For someone who can turn angry, pouty, annoyed—whatever unflattering adjective you’d like—Scheffler’s bounce-back ability remains unmatched. Freakish, really.
He made bogey or worse nine times this week and responded with a birdie six times. No other player batted at-or-above .500 for the week.
“The shots on the golf course that are most important, those are the ones I feel like I did my best at this week and maybe at times out there, some of the easier ones maybe I lost a bit of focus or something, but overall when I needed to I feel like I hit the shots.”
Starting the day five back of Scheffler, Rahm made birdies at Nos. 8, 10 and 11 to tie Scheffler when the eventual champion bogeyed the long par-4 ninth following another pulled tee shot into the rough.
Rahm, clad in all black except for a neon fuchsia cap paying tribute to Barbie representing Legion 13 of the LIV league, gave himself multiple opportunities down the stretch to keep things close. But birdie tries at the 14th (7 feet) and 15th (12 feet) were rally killers before a pulled 16th tee shot found some of the worst rough on the course. That led to a lay-up, a missed par putt from 14 feet, and a three-shot deficit when Scheffler birdied the drivable 14th.
Moments later, Scheffler hit a fairway wood into the 15th from 267 yards out while Rahm desperately aimed at 17th’s left hole location and donated a Chrome Soft X to the Green Mile’s massive lake.
Back at the 15th, Scheffler got up-and-down and the lead was suddenly six over Bryson DeChambeau heading into the Green Mile. Rahm played the final three holes +5 and finished T8 while Scheffler bogeyed the last to make it a five-stroke win.
“To step up when I needed to the most,” Scheffler said, “I'll remember that for a while.”
He credited his team as is standard practice these day whether they mean it or not. In Scheffler’s case it’s a small operation light on razzle dazzle. No one doubts their role in his success. Caddie Ted Scott deftly suggested Scheffler aim more to the right after pulling tee shots on the front and after what Scheffler thought was a perfect drive at the ninth.
Shoulders realigned, he drove it beautifully the rest of the way.
“Teddy did a good job of keeping me in it, and Randy [Smith] helped me figure out things on my swing,” he said. “It was a real team effort this week. I'm proud of the whole squad. Looking forward to celebrating this one.”
With the win Scheffler captures his third major and 15th career PGA Tour victory. He joins elite company with a short span between Tour victory number one and fifteen by doing so in 3 years, 94 days, only taking 49 more days than Jack Nicklaus and 62 more days than Tiger Woods.
Scheffler’s three major wins have been by three, four and now, five strokes.
His short PGA Championship career is also impressive: T4-T8-MC-T2-T8.
Given the early week downpours and relative setup similarity to the Quail Hollow seen during the annual (Big Bank Name Here) Championship, Sunday at least saw the greens start to feature some major sheen and terror. The PGA of America’s Kerry Haigh tried to spice up the setup by keeping the par-4s at eight and fourteen drivable while using plenty of hole locations that seemed to befuddle the leaders. Except one.
Scheffler By The Numbers
The PGA of America employs the PGA Tour’s ShotLink and as always, it’s fascinating to pick through the numbers.
No surprise: Scheffler was excellent in all departments. He ranked first in Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green, 8th in SG Approach, took only 107 putts over four days and played the par 5’s 8-under-par.
His only blemishes: Friday and Sunday rounds hitting just 6 of 14 fairways.
Driver Test Failure And Repercussions
