PGA Championship: Rory McIlroy the favorite however Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau chase main glory at Quail Hole

This week’s PGA Championship venue is so well-suited to golf’s latest Grand Slam champion that Jordan Spieth jokingly described it as ‘Rory McIlroy Country Club’.

Whereas the remark from Spieth – additionally seeking to full the profession Grand Slam – was barely tongue in cheek, there is no such thing as a doubt that the Quail Hole Membership presents a wonderful alternative for McIlroy to proceed his spectacular begin to the season.

It is the course the place McIlroy claimed his maiden PGA Tour victory in 2010 and has gained three extra occasions since, together with final yr’s Wells Fargo Championship, making it the venue the place he has loved extra success in his profession than another.

McIlroy has already gained 3 times in 2025, following his AT&T Pebble Seashore Professional-Am success with a second profession win at The Gamers earlier than ending his 11-year anticipate a serious with a dramatic play-off victory at The Masters.

That emotional success – on a roller-coaster Sunday – was the elusive victory required to grow to be simply the sixth participant in males’s golf to finish the profession Grand Slam, with many now anticipating McIlroy to comply with that Augusta Nationwide win with extra main success.

Is McIlroy the person to beat?

McIlroy had already acknowledged he can be heading to Quail Hole with ‘nothing however optimistic vibes’ and ‘lots much less stress’ than previous majors, whereas a powerful efficiency eventually week’s Truist Championship coming with out him being removed from his sensible greatest.

McIlroy discovered simply eight fairways over the ultimate two rounds however nonetheless performed the final 27 holes bogey-free, leaving him six strokes behind winner Sepp Straka and seeing him publish his sixth worldwide top-10 of the season.

“I think I’m in a good place,” McIlroy stated on Sunday. “I didn’t feel like I played all that well this week, I still finished seventh. Even my — what I feel is my bad golf, I’m still there or thereabouts.

“A pair little enhancements and little tweaks, particularly going to a spot I really like like Quail Hole, and I really feel like I am in a extremely great place.”

McIlroy’s earlier two main titles got here in successive occasions, as he adopted a two-shot win in The Open at Royal Liverpool in 2014 by profitable the PGA Championship later that summer season, whereas one other win this week would races hopes of a possible ‘calendar slam’.

“He is that kind of player that when he gets going, he’s very, very explosive,” former main champion Curtis Unusual stated. “He could be the really next great, great story for the [calendar] Grand Slam this year.

“We now have anticipated a lot out of Rory as a result of it is form of a back-handed praise. We love you and we predict you are so good, so why do not you win extra? Rory wins lots however, so far as majors, he had disenchanted himself slightly bit over the past years.”

The Scheffler and McIlroy present forward?

Scottie Scheffler will stay high of the world rankings no matter McIlroy’s consequence this week, with the two-time Masters champion additionally arriving in kind after a dominant eight-shot win in his final begin on the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.

The world No 1 has six top-10 finishes in his 9 appearances this season, together with fourth place behind McIlroy at The Masters, whereas Scheffler has completed no worse than tied-eighth in 4 of his final 5 PGA Championship appearances.

Scheffler contended throughout Xander Schauffele‘s record-breaking success at Valhalla final yr regardless of being arrested forward of his second spherical, the place he started his warm-up in a jail cell in one of many strangest days in main historical past.

Schauffele returns seeking to grow to be the primary back-to-back winner of a males’s main since Brooks Koepka in 2018-19, with the world No 3 at the moment on a run of 12 consecutive top-20 finishes in majors and in addition holding a powerful report at Quail Hole.

“I’m aware that I’ve played really well there and come up short two years in a row,” stated Schauffele, who completed runner-up on the Wells Fargo Championship in 2023 and 2024. “I think it fits my eye for whatever reason and I’ve been up at the top of the leaderboard for the last two years.

“I do not see why this yr ought to be a difficulty. I assume writers name it horses for programs. For us, golfers form of play properly in stretches and like sure programs for some causes. I’ve form of had that feeling once I’m on property there. So the hope is to form of maintain that going.”

Can Spieth comply with McIlroy into the Grand Slam membership?

Jordan Spieth’s final main title got here at The Open in 2017 and he has not gained on the PGA Tour since 2022, however he carded a closing 62 within the current CJ Byron Nelson to point out indicators of a return to kind.

The three-time main champion enters his ninth alternative to finish the profession Grand Slam, ten years on from profitable The Masters and US Open, with Unusual unconvinced that Spieth will make historical past this week.

“I think he’s working very hard at it,” Unusual stated. “Let’s not forget he’s coming off a wrist injury, surgery. That takes time. When he plays well like he did last week, consistently well, shoots a really good last round, that speaks volumes.

“Let’s not neglect when he gained all of the majors and all of the tournaments at such a younger age, they got here so rapidly. Clearly there’s some form of let down after one thing like that and may you maintain that over the following eight or 10 years? He did not.”

Spieth’s childhood buddy Justin Thomas was the final winner of a PGA Championship at Quail Hole, his 2017 success the primary of two main titles, with the previous world No 1 already a winner on the PGA Tour this season.

Thomas gained the RBC Heritage final month and has three different runner-up finishes this season, together with eventually week’s Truist Championship, placing him again contained in the world’s high 5 and a major contender to carry the Wanamaker Trophy for a 3rd time.

Stars discovering kind forward of main season?

It will be incorrect to low cost reigning US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who was runner-up to Schauffele final yr earlier than his dramatic victory over McIlroy at Pinehurst No 2.

DeChambeau has top-six finishes in 5 of his final eight majors and gained a LIV Golf League occasion in Korea earlier this month, having been runner-up in his earlier begin in Mexico, with the two-time main champion one in all a 15-strong LIV Golf contingent in motion.

“My goal is to win every tournament that I show up to,” DeChambeau stated after his win. “Scottie is on a great run. Joaquin Niemann is on a great run. Jon Rahm has been playing well.

“There’s loads of star-studded expertise on the market proper now that is going to be within the PGA Championship. We’ll be battling it out. Glad to have pushed via on this victory and gained this occasion, however there’s much more work to be finished this yr.”

Rahm has maintained his run of top-10 finishes in each LIV Golf League begin, whereas Ryder Cup team-mates Sepp Straka – apart from Rory McIlroy – is the one a number of winner on the PGA Tour this season after his success in Philadelphia on Sunday.

Straka performed on the ultimate day alongside Shane Lowry, who was disenchanted after one other near-miss however is contained in the world’s top-10 after his second second-place end of the yr, whereas Ludvig Åberg and Viktor Hovland are different Europeans to have gained on the PGA Tour this season.

The potential storylines that would unfold over the approaching days are nearly limitless, with so a lot of golf’s largest names are coming into kind at simply the correct time. If the week forward provides a fraction of the drama we noticed at Augusta Nationwide final month, the battle for PGA Championship victory may very well be probably the greatest but.

When is the PGA Championship stay on Sky Sports activities?

Sky Sports activities is the house of the majors, together with the PGA Championship, with over 40 hours of stay protection from the 4 match days and a bunch of additional programming accessible all through the week.

“Live from The PGA Championship” will supply eight hours of prolonged build-up, information and interviews on each Tuesday and Wednesday, earlier than stay protection from the opening spherical begins on Thursday at 1pm on Sky Sports activities Golf. Get Sky Sports activities or stream with NOW.