The winners and losers of the 2024 PGA Championship

Well we said Things are happening at the PGA Championship! This year’s edition of the golf tournament had more intrigue than a George RR Martin novel, and it ended with an old-fashioned photo finish in Kentucky. Fresh off one of the strangest and most exhilarating weeks of golf in recent memory (and that’s saying a lot, because men’s golf has been extremely weird in recent years), we’re here to sort the winners and losers from four wild days at Valhalla Golf Club. Take a moment to catch your breath, then let’s dive into the real barn burner that just took place in Kentucky.

Winner: Xander Schauffele

Entering this PGA Championship – and seemingly every major championship—Schauffele was a nervous contender for victory. He was in some ways an obvious choice: He has 11 professional tour triumphs, 12 top-10 finishes in the majors since 2017 and the established profile of a future major champion. He was looking to end his frustration.

On Thursday, he shot a first round of 62, and yet, I doubted it. He had come so close so many times that I had roughly begun to wonder if the gifted but often baffled Schauffele had what it took to close the show on the big stage. I’ve never been so happy to be wrong. Schauffele followed that 62 with back-to-back 68s on Friday and Saturday, and on the 72nd hole he made a tricky 6-foot birdie to defeat the resurgent but still strange Bryson DeChambeau to win his first career major. The scene was beautiful – even Bryson congratulated him.

It’s a story of tradition. Now that Alex has crossed the threshold and navigated his way around the “best player to never win a major” nightmare, I can see him doing more of this stuff. He is free.

Winner: a roulette wheel of a ranking

All sorts of names appeared at the top of the leaderboard throughout the weekend. Collin Morikawa remained tight in the final group until a day of errant putting finally brought him in. Shane Lowry secured the title of tournament champion. second 62 Saturday before disappearing early Sunday. Viktor Hovland kept the Norwegian Valhalla dream alive until a costly two-putt at no. 18. And Brooks Koepka lurked menacingly.

But it was Bryson DeChambeau who finally made things tense in the final round. A consummate outsider who won the 2020 US Open with brute force and quickly exiled himself to LIV, DeChambeau has been, at times throughout his career, difficult to root for. That may have changed this week. Operating with five wedges in his bag and a much more approachable demeanor, he came within a whisker of a well-deserved second major title. Time and time again, he neglected to undermine himself with long-range and trick-shooting magic. In a topsy-turvy week, he might have gained the most fans of all.

Winner-Slash-Loser: Scottie Scheffler

Scheffler, the highest-ranked male golfer in the world and the hottest golfer in the world right now, not named Nelly Korda, arrived this week as the heavy favorite to back up his second Masters victory at Augusta on last month. He didn’t do that. But that’s not the same as saying it hasn’t been busy. Scheffler recorded a minus-13 for the week, including a 66 on Friday and an excellent 65 on Sunday. None of this matters. What is absolutely What’s important is that he was the only player on the field who was stopped, fingerprinted and photographed two hours before he left in the second round, then he turned around and shot 7 under. normal in an incredibly composed game. a performance that stunned the golf world…and a little bit of Scottie himself.

For those who don’t know: early Friday morning, a tournament vendor was hit by a shuttle and killed outside of Valhalla. While police investigated the accident, normal entry points into the club were closed. Scheffler was driving up to start his morning getting ready routine when he encountered commotion and basically chaos ensued. Police said they asked Scheffler, who was apparently driving in a median lane in an attempt to avoid traffic, to stop. Scheffler says there was a misunderstanding because it was dark and raining. There is a lot of confusion about what happened next.

Some witnesses say Scheffler drove in the central reservation for some time. The police report says he inadvertently dragged a Louisville police officer a few steps, ruining the officer’s pants. Friends: I wasn’t there and I don’t know. The fact is that Scheffler was treated, he came back on the course, and then he made a series of birdies. It was a truly shocking day.

Now the no. The world’s first golfer is expected to be arraigned Tuesday morning at the Jefferson County Judicial Center. However, the charges against him – including second-degree assault on a police officer and third-degree criminal mischief – could soon be dropped.

Winner: Valhalla Golf Club

Valhalla has its enemies in the underworld of nerd-golf gossip, but for the fourth time in four attempts to host the PGA Championship, the tournament’s finish was an exciting ride. Golf Summary does a good job here of laying out the case against the course’s value as a major championship, from the garish layout to the overall Phoenix Waste Management vibe.

And even.

There is a unique choose-your-own-adventure feature in Jack Nicklaus’s setup that suggests the Golden Bear’s intuitive sense of drama. Four par 3s and a reachable par 5 18th ended up creating another unforgettable finish. The winning score of minus-21 might be considered gauche at the US Open, but in Valhalla it seemed perfect. If this is the last Major we see there for a while, thanks for the memories.

Loser: Rory McIlroy’s Decade of Disappointment

Rinse, wash, repeat. Ten years ago, McIlroy won his last major championship, in this same tournament, on this same golf course. Since then, he has been a magnificent and often dominating player who just can’t seem to grab the break that will finally secure his fifth big goal. A promising first-round 66 this week was followed by stellar but never sensational play, and two flushed balls on his final nine on Sunday allowed him to settle for a tie for 12th place. This begs the question: if the object had not come here, the site of its last great triumph, would this happen?

We all know the strengths of McIlroy’s game – his incredible ball striking, his high IQ route running and his deep imagination – and that has been on display over the past week. But for the 38th consecutive major, it was not enough. So much has happened to McIlroy over the past few years – from anti-LIV passion games to decisive PGA Tour victories and close finals to personal defeats. It was announced this week that he and his wife, Erica Stoll, were divorcing. Now that too. There is always the next major. But will there be a major victory next?

Losers: Tiger and Tiger fans

Listen: I’m a fan of Tiger Standing at the Gates of Hell. I do not tolerate dissent. So it gives me no pleasure to state the obvious: This is the last and best golf – finishing 6 over par and missing a cut – that we are likely to see from this man. He will continue to strengthen his broken body four or five times a year to prove that he can still do it, play incredible holes, and then retreat from our eyes when the real golf begins.

That’s what Tiger Woods is now. Having sacrificed his youth to our endless thrills, he now sacrifices his maturity to the more modest ideas that we must accept about ourselves. In some ways, he represents the most mercenary character at his best. Maybe it’s not losing after all.