What impressed you most about Scottie Scheffler’s latest major victory?

Each week, we ask our panel of writers, PGA members and golf industry experts to weigh in with their views on the hot topics of the day.

Scottie Scheffler won the PGA Championship last Sunday by a wide margin, although he teased everyone mid-round on Sunday with a slip that allowed Jon Rahm to temporarily catch him. What most impressed you about Scheffler’s victory?

Jim Deeks, Fairways Magazine (@jimdeeks): I wish I could comment from first-hand experience, but I’m in France this week, and wasn’t able to watch.  But what impresses me so much about Scottie’s success is his apparent unflappability, and inability to choke.  Nothing spectacular or flamboyant, just slow and steady wins the race.  Much like Jack in his heyday.

Craig Loughry, Golf Ontario (@craigloughry): Scottie’s composure impressed me most. At no point after he lost the lead did, I think he’d be leading by 6 shots heading to the final hole! I still believed he would win even when Rahm stole the lead for a blink of an eye. I doubt I’m alone in that thinking. He was the only name in those top 5 (other than DeChambeau) that I thought had an honest shot at winning.

Michael Schurman, Master Professional / Hall of Fame Member, PGA of Canada: Scheffler is here at the right time. The Tiger Show is over. The Tiger Phil Show is over. Prize money has exploded, and fans were left to wonder who would fill the vacuum.  Rory was projected to be the #1 player, but he is either great, very good or average, and his attitude is inconsistent. Then along comes a player with a hayseed personality, very handsome, and has an odd swing, but seems to be unbeatable. What I like about Scottie is that you can rely on him. He does make some poor shots and misses putts, but he is money in the bank. Once the fun starts on Sunday, regardless of at what point, if Scottie is in contention, he plays like Jack did, no openings. You have to beat him.

TJ Rule, Golf Away Tours (@GolfAwayTJ): He’s just so clutch when it matters, and nothing seems to faze him.  All the talk about him not being a great putter and he made a couple of clutch ones in the last round to keep him ahead and maintain his momentum.

Hal Quinn, Freelance Writer, Vancouver: Well, he crushed it on the same holes that LIV’ers Rahm and DeChambeau blew up. That was the difference in the tourney and told the story of Scheffler’s astounding ability to —in the awful TV -Talk vernacular — bounce back. That calm after a stormy hole or shot or inexplicable putt separates him from the current field. Still have to look away from his footwork.

Peter Mumford, Fairways Magazine: His focus and his ability to re-set when things aren’t quite right. On the front nine on Sunday, he missed every fairway left. Then he did a re-set, and I don’t think he missed one at all on the inward nine. So steady. So impervious to any distraction. Not sure how long he can keep this up, but he sets a very high bar for the rest of the Tour.

Quail Hollow challenged the field as host of the PGA Championship and seemed like a worthy test for a major, yet many believe that major championships should not be contested on courses the players see as part of their regular Tour schedule. What’s your opinion? 

Deeks: Again, I can’t comment on Quail Hollow specifically, but in principle, I agree that majors should be played on elite courses, like Merion or Baltusrol or Brookline… not Valhalla or Quail Hollow or even Pebble Beach, which we see on regular Tour events.

Loughry: I agree, I think this is part of the problem with the identity/image crisis with the PGA Championship. The event should be played on iconic non-PGA Tour courses. They’re not easy to find, but that should be part of their long-term strategy. They’ve done a pretty good job of it: Valhalla, Oak Hill, Southern Hills, Kiawah Island, Hazeltine National, and Medinah all come to mind.

Schurman: The layout might be the same, but the setup was different. Rory won there in ’24 by 5 shots with -17. Scottie also won by 5 shots, but his total was -11. Anyone with the time to complain about an event organizer acquiring such an outstanding facility as Quail Hollow needs to put their name forward to volunteer. Not every course is available, not every course can provide the amenities, and not every course is enough to test the players. Quail Hollow G.C. did an excellent job.

Rule: Quail Hollow doesn’t excite me at all, it’s a challenging course with some very good holes, and a tough finish, so it plays well for a major championship venue, but it just doesn’t get me excited.  I do agree that using a course that we see for regular Tour events takes something away from the major championship being special.  Like when the US Open is at Torrey Pines for example.  I think it would be great if the tournament found a permanent home at an exclusive course that we don’t otherwise see, I believe that would help with the excitement and viewership for the event.

Quinn: Good point. The biguns (ok, Augusta National, you be special) should not be played on Tour regular venues. Full stop. Sure, Quail Hollow served it all up again, but even with tweaks, a Tour stop ain’t a “Go Down in History” venue. Don’t like an American rota idea. Better the PGA spend more time surveying the American landscape.

Mumford: Apart from Pebble Beach, which is quite a different course in June than February, I think the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open should look elsewhere for host venues. A unique course adds to the mystique and excitement of a major and clearly can’t be seen as favouring one player like Quail Hollow did for Rory, although it seems he didn’t get the memo.

It’s been suggested that men’s professional golf is no different than men’s professional tennis, with all of the focus on four major tournaments. As hard as the PGA Tour tries to beef up purses and hype other Tour events, many fans and many in the media still place outsize emphasis on the majors. Are they wrong?

Deeks: No, they’re not wrong, but it’s been this way for as long as I can remember, and well before that.  The majors have always taken precedence, and rightly so.  Quick – can anyone tell me who won the 1930 Western Open?  But you probably know who won the US Open that year.  The 1953 Florida Citrus Open?  Nope, but you can probably tell me who won the 1953 British Open.  How about the 1986 Quad Cities Open?  But I know you can tell me who won the Masters that year.  Or the US Open in 2000.  Or the Masters in 2003.  The majors just mean more, period.

Loughry: NO. Majors matter. The PGA Tour is an entertainment company, and it’s up to them to find their way to entertain the masses in the travelling road show. The Players themselves use the Tour as a training ground for Majors, you hear it all the time, “I’ll get some reps in before the next major” the players actually plan their schedule around the Majors.  So, nobody is wrong saying and focusing on majors, majors matter.

Schurman: Major-level sports have ‘painted’ themselves into a corner. They need a market large enough to sustain an event, but the same market is too sophisticated to support it. They need lower-profile centers where the magnitude of the event is elevated, but those centers can’t absorb the financial requirements.

Rule: Nope.  The year is definitely based on the majors, and then the team events in the fall.  The team events in golf get more eyes than the Davis Cup in tennis but for the regular year, it’s all about the majors, and that won’t change anytime soon.

Quinn: Boosting the purse to unconscionable levels for ‘Designated cum Signature’ Events because of the Saudi oil money pressure has not gotten the attention of any golf fans (i.e. folks who actually play and care about the game). The generation of ‘golfers’ who play boom boxes (is that still a term?) and pound back hi-test beers and vodkas between club selections could not name the four. The traditionalists among the previous generation can, but don’t really care that much. Those of us left, shake our fists and try to care about the Four. No one is wrong, it’s just a game after all.

Mumford: We have way too many options for entertainment, so it’s hard for any sport to be our focus of attention all the time. Does anybody watch 162 baseball games? Or even 82 hockey games? Playoffs matter. Majors matter. Much as the PGA Tour tries to change the narrative, all the rest is filler for the main event.