Claiming the coveted PGA Championship title is one of the four steps any golfer needs to take if they want to become a Grand Slam winner.

The second Major of the golfing season is unique in that it's the only Major that only allows professionals to compete, giving it an extra air of prestige.

The event has been running since way back in 1916, when a match play format was used, before converting to strokeplay in 1958 and becoming the tournament we know and love today.

Of course, with great prestige comes great payouts, and the PGA Championship purse is naturally among the biggest in the golfing world.

Winning the Wanamaker Trophy is one thing, but landing a share of the huge purse is a very nice bonus indeed.

While Jack Nicklaus holds the records for the most wins at the PGA Championship (during the strokeplay era), he doesn't come close to featuring on the all-time list of top earners from the event.

Interestingly, when we look at the top 10 earners in PGA Championship history, there are two golfers who haven't actually won the tournament.

Justin Rose takes tenth place, with earnings of $3,540,011 across a whopping 23 events. The British star's best finish at the PGA Championship was a tie for third back in 2012, which earned him $384,500.

Bryson DeChambeau is also on the list in seventh with earnings of $4,636,217. He's racked up that impressive amount from just eight involvements in the PGA Championship, with back-to-back second place finishes in 2024 and 2025 earning him $2,837,332 alone.

It probably doesn't come as much of a surprise, at least when you really think about it, that Brooks Koepka is at the top of the PGA Championship money list. He's won the tournament more than anyone else in the past couple of decades with three triumphs coming in 2018, 2019, and 2023.

Koepka is clear out in front, too, with earnings of $9,456,726 from 13 events putting him well ahead of Tiger Woods, who comes in second place with winnings of $7,354,862 from 23 events.

Woods did win the tournament four times (in 1999, 2000, 2006, and 2007), but the money on offer back then is nothing compared to where the game of golf is now.

With 32 involvements, Phil Mickelson is the golfer in the top 10 who has featured in the PGA Championship the most, and his earnings of $6,510,066 put him third in the all-time list.

That's not much of a shock considering Lefty also made the cut in 27 out of those 32 events with two victories.

He's followed by another two-time winner, Rory McIlroy. His wins in 2012 and 2014 earned him a combined $3,245,000 towards his total of $6,349,228 over the years.

Rounding out the top five is 2025 PGA Championship winner Scottie Scheffler. That win secured Scheffler $3.42m last year, and he's already earned $6,152,768 from just six events.

The rest of the top 10 includes Justin Thomas ($5,672,581) thanks to his two victories at the PGA Championship in 2017 and 2022.

2015 champion Jason Day ($4,369,608) is in eighth place and Xander Schauffele, who won in 2024, comes in ninth with earnings of $4,363,822 across nine involvements in the PGA Championship.

Another triumph this year for McIlroy or Scheffler would send them to the top of the pile ahead of Koepka, but that man will be desperate to add a fourth title to his name and extend his lead at the top of the money list.

April is not only Masters month for the world of golf, it's also a time to reflect on the past financial year and see which golfers have earned the most money.

With massive prize funds given out each week across the PGA Tour, the LIV Golf League and the DP World Tour, the best players in the world are racking up huge bank balances throughout the season.

Rory McIlroy has just added another $4.5m to his career earnings thanks to his incredible triumph at Augusta National. That'll give him a nice head start for next year's totals, but it doesn't help him surpass one other golfer for the 2025-26 tax year.

The data comes from Sportico, breaking down the earnings of the top-10 highest paid golfers in the world, with details as to how much they earned on the course and off it through sponsorship deals and the like.

McIlroy was in the top two, and led the way in off-course income, but it's actually Jon Rahm who earned the most in total for the last year.

Rahm benefits massively from his contract with LIV, of course. It is though the Spaniard was offered $300m to join the breakaway tour, with half paid upfront and the other $150m paid equally across the years of his contract.

Last year, Rahm is said to have earned a total of $102m, and is the only golfer to break the $100m barrier. Of that figure, $92m came from on-course earnings, with another $10m in sponsorship payments.

The 31-year-old didn't actually win an event throughout the LIV Golf season in 2025, but he still claimed enough points to come out on top in the individual leaderboard. That earned him a massive $18m, which is exactly how much he beat McIlroy by in the money charts.

McIlroy is arguably the most marketable golfer in the world, especially after his remarkable double Masters win. It speaks volumes that McIlroy's net worth was thought to be around $294m in 2023, and will be much higher now.

But, for 2025-26, he is reported to have earned $84m from golf. $29m of that comes from event payouts, while a whopping $55m comes from off-course deals. That actually makes McIlroy the leader in commercial income, narrowly beating Tiger Woods.

Still, McIlroy's closest competitor is Scottie Scheffler, who recorded $81m in earnings last year. Not surprisingly, given his dominance on the Tour, $51m of that came from winnings on the course, while he's thought to have earned a huge $30m from sponsorship deals with the likes of Turtlebox, Nike, TaylorMade, and Huntington Bank.

Looking elsewhere, there's quite a gap between that top three and the rest of the top-10 highest paid golfers. Bryson DeChambeau is next in line, but his earnings stood at around $65m, with $45m of that coming from his lucrative deal with LIV.

Woods, as we mentioned, is the second highest-earner when it comes to commercial deals. $54m of his total came from that side of the game, while only $200,000 was earned from his performances on the course.

Rounding out the rest of the top-10, Tommy Fleetwood enjoyed a successful year thanks to his Tour Championship win in August. That netted the Englishman a mega $10m payout which contributed to his $42m earnings.

Joaquin Niemann is the third and final LIV golfer in the top 10. The Chilean won five events last year, so it's not surprising that he's up there, with earnings of $41m in total.

Beyond that, we have Hideki Matsuyama sitting at $31m. That's largely thanks to his endorsement portfolio, which contributed $25m. Xander Schauffele ($30m) and Collin Morikawa ($28m) complete the list.

Highest-Paid Golfers 2025-26

As Justin Rose set one record at the Farmers Insurance Open on Friday, another one came to an end.

Rose, in bursting into a four-shot lead, broke his own 36-hole scoring record at Torrey Pines to lead the tournament by four shots on -17.

At the other end of the leaderboard, Xander Schauffele managed a smile despite missing the cut and waving goodbye to a proud record.

The longest active made cut streak on the PGA Tour has come to an end.

Playing on the North Course, Schauffele missed a birdie putt on his final hole of the second round at Torrey Pines to miss the cut by one stroke,.

Missing the number by a single shot is something that will frustrate any player, but for the World No. 6 it ended his remarkable streak of 72 straight cuts made, a period of 1,391 days.

It's bound to be a strange feeling for the 32-year-old, who hadn't missed a cut since the Masters in 2022, when he posted rounds of 74 and 77 at Augusta.

This time around, it was rounds of 73 and 69 that did the damage, but the San Diego native was in good spirits afterwards despite having a rare weekend off.

"I had plenty of golf today to make it and bogeying a drivable par 4 and parring two par 5s in the middle of the fairway, you deserve to miss the cut," reflected Schauffele. "So here I am."

The two-time Major champion and former World No.2 played his first tournament of the year with a new driver in the bag, and he admitted that he didn't feel 100 per cent comfortable with the change.

"I don't like switching stuff and I switched, and then when you switch back, things kind of feel weird," he said.

"You start swinging to fit the club and it kind of affects like everything down the bag. So not a great place to do it."

On the bright side, Schauffele, who grew up in the area, said he was looking forward to spending the free weekend with his family.

"Obviously I don't like missing cuts, I think my record proves that, but it's actually kind of nice, to be honest, if I was going to pick a spot," he said.

"I get to hang out with my family. If I miss the cut in Charlotte or somewhere, I would just be sitting in a hotel room by myself.

"I have the comfort of my family here to hang out. You know what, all said and done it's probably the best place to miss it."

Between 1998 and 2005, Woods made the cut in 142 consecutive events, breaking the previous PGA Tour record of 113, previously held by Byron Nelson.

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler, who started the year with victory at The American Express, his 20th PGA Tour victory, now holds the longest active cut streak with 65.

In terms of active streaks on the PGA Tour, Corey Conners is next on the list with 20, and then Harry Hall and Harris English with 19, which shows just how extraordinary Woods' feat was.

As was Nelson's, of course, and Schauffele's.

It's back to zero for Schauffele, who at least won't have to face any more questions about whether he fancied beating Woods' number.

World No.4 Xander Schauffele picked up his first win since the 2024 Open Championship at the PGA Tour's Baycurrent Classic on Sunday after holding off Max Greyserman by a shot.

Schauffele and Greyserman were tied at 12-under heading into the final round at Yokohama Country Club in Japan before the two-time Major winner showed his class by coming up clutch in the closing moments.

Birdies at the 14th and 17th from Schauffele negated Greyserman's gain at the 72nd hole and ensured the Ryder Cup player was able to stand in the winner's circle for the 10th time on the PGA Tour at the end of an underwhelming year on the course.

Reacting to his win immediately after, Schauffele said: "I was confident, [but] definitely had doubts. I think every player in any sport, at some point in time you feel like you're on top of the world and then you feel like, not that you've lost it but you feel less confident.

"I have a really good team around me, they pick me up when I'm down. You know, this is really special for me. Sooner than I thought, to be fair. I was running out of events in 2025 to sort of put my mark on it. I'm sure when I look back on 2025 at the end of my career I'll smile and think it was a great year."

Rounds of 71, 63 and 67 - reversed by Greyserman through the week - helped Schauffele pull alongside the 30-year-old with 18 holes to play and left him as favorite to go on and complete the job against the New Jersey-born pro who is still looking for his maiden PGA Tour success.

Both leading players made the turn in 33 thanks to four birdies and a bogey before Schauffele hit the front once again via a gain at the 10th.

Although Greyserman chained together consecutive birdies at the 12th and 13th, Schauffele re-established his lead with two birdies in a row at the 13th and 14th.

As the chaser desperately hunted answers, Schauffele - whose grandparents are Japanese - appeared to put a bow on a highly meaningful victory with a final gain at the penultimate hole.

However, Greyserman almost spoilt the party courtesy of a superb approach from 182 yards in which his ball came to rest inches from the hole.

Knowing a par would be enough to close it out, Schauffele completed his task with the minimum of fuss and celebrated with his 81-year-old grandmother, who had walked the entire final round with him.

Post-round, Schauffele called the success "very satisfying" and admitted he was grateful for having experienced winning on the PGA Tour previously as he looked to close it out against Greyserman and third-placed Michael Thorbjornsen (-16).

Asked if he felt his nine other PGA Tour wins played a part in gaining his 10th, Schauffele said: "I think so. I mean I was plenty nervous. It's been over a year since I was even looking at winning a golf tournament.

"I was probably just as nervous or more nervous as they were just because I knew I've done it before and I had to dig kind of deep in my memory to do it again.

"Max and Michael played very solid golf. We were neck and neck through 15, 16 holes, then Max almost holed out on the last hole. It was a very satisfying win because they're great players."

Behind Thorbjornsen in solo third were five players in T4th. Japan's Takumi Kanaya carded a scintillating 62 to clinch the best final round among the group, while Rico Hoey, Alex Smalley, Byeong Hun An and Garrick Higgo all shot in the low to mid-60s as well.

Outside of the top-10, in which defending champion Nico Echavarria ended solo ninth, Matt McCarty was on 59 watch courtesy of an outrageous round at Yokohama Country Club.

The American began on the back nine and made the turn in 31 thanks to four birdies. But it was on the front nine where he simply could do no wrong... right up until the final hole of his day.

An extraordinary run of eight consecutive birdies put 59 on high alert - with 58 the reward via a closing birdie - but McCarty saw his chances all but ended after finding the penalty area off the tee at the ninth. He managed to recover for a bogey, but it was one shot too many and he signed for an 11-under-par round of 60.

Trying to make sense of what had happened to him on the final hole, McCarty said: "Yeah, I don't know, just a little tight and just kind of tried to guide it a little too much and just wiped it.

"I thought I kind of had a chance around the corner but obviously probably hit one of those trees and kicked left. Yeah, tough finish to a really good day."

Later asked what was going through his mind stood on the ninth tee box, McCarty said: "I don't know. It's actually... I feel like similar to being in contention obviously, just kind of the same thing. Yeah, just kind of tried to guide one and came out of it and shoved it in the trees.

"It's weird to like play that well and feel like that walking off the golf course. Yeah, one bad swing, one swing away from a 58 honestly, so tough. Yeah, yeah, a good day obviously."

The PGA Tour will now take a week off before returning with the Bank of Utah Championship at Black Desert Resort between October 23-26.

A 63 in Japan saw a welcome return to form for Xander Schauffele, who extended his run of consecutive PGA Tour cuts to an impressive 72 - but still only put him across halfway in his pursuit of Tiger Woods' all-time record.

Admittedly, the Baycurrent Classic in Yokohama is a no-cut event, but rightly or wrongly it officially counts towards Schauffele's ongoing streak, which is worth mentioning due to it being a landmark number.

Schauffele leads the PGA Tour with his active streak of now 72 cuts made in a row, with Scottie Scheffler next in line with 64 and those two miles out in front as Corey Conners is next best with just 19.

With the current PGA Tour average of just four cuts in a row, and nobody else bar Scheffler on more than 20, it's an impressive effort from Schauffele considering the year he's had.

A rib injury caused him real problems at the start of the year and he's talked about his struggle to find his best form since then, while he's also recently become a father for the first time.

Despite that, the 2024 double Major champion managed to make every cut and saved his best form for the Majors, with two top-10 finishes and worst result of T28.

Those results helped him to maintain his brilliant run, but as good as it has been for Schauffele it shows just why this is one of the most impressive in the long list of Tiger Woods records.

Because as the PGA Tour’s Sean Martin pointed out, with Schauffele making 72 cuts in a row it puts him just over halfway towards Woods' amazing record of 142 consecutive made cuts - which came during a monumental run from 1998-2005.

Woods blitzed the previous PGA Tour record of 113 held by Byron Nelson, and is surely a record that will never be eclipsed.

Schauffele is half the way there though, and if he can battle through his injury and form problems and still keep the streak going then he could stand a chance if he can keep it going long enough.

As Schauffele's record is so impressive, with his last missed cut of any kind coming at the 2022 Masters, just a fortnight after also missing out at The Players, while in 2021 he also missed the cut at The Players alongside the PGA Championship.

In regular PGA Tour events Schauffele's form for making the cut is imperious, as he's not missed one since the 2020 Farmers Insurance Open.

Xander Schauffele has revealed he has become a father.

The two-time Major winner gave the news to AP in a text, stating that his wife, Maya, recently gave birth to a son, whom they have named Victor.

Schauffele and Maya have been together since 2014, after the pair met while in college when he was attending San Diego State University and she was studying at the University of California. The pair got married in Las Vegas 2021.

The birth of their son, the pair’s first child, explains why Schauffele is not in the field for the first of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Fall events, the Procore Championship, which begins on Thursday. Instead, the American is instead spending time with his family at their Florida home.

The event is being used by US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley as preparation for the biennial match, which begins at Bethpage Black on September 26^th.

As a result, 10 of the 12-man team will tee it up at the California event, with only Schauffele and LIV Golfer Bryson DeChambeau from it not in the field.

Schauffele’s most recent start came at the BMW Championship in August, where he placed T28. At that event, he told the AP he wasn’t sure if he would be available for the Procore Championship, saying: “If I don’t think playing is going to help me, then I won’t play.”

The 2025 Ryder Cup will be Schauffele’s third, where he will be a key player as the team looks to avenge a 16.5-11.5 defeat at the hands of Team Europe two years ago at Marco Simone. In the match, Schauffele had a 1-3-0 record.

Two of Schauffele’s teammates on that occasion, Jordan Spieth and Max Homa, have also welcomed new arrivals in recent weeks.

Spieth and his wife, Annie, welcomed their third child, Sully, in July. In August, Homa and his wife Lacey announced the birth of their second son, Austin. However, unlike Schauffele, neither Spieth nor Homa is on the 2025 Ryder Cup team.

During such a hectic time of the season in the world of golf, it can be quite easy to miss out on a story here or there. Several concurrent events require more eyeballs than a human has at their disposal and more screens that most households have available.

Last weekend was a prime example of the golf fan seeing their attention split across too many tournaments in one go.

The PGA Tour's FedEx Cup Playoffs took place with Scottie Scheffler picking up yet another win. Then there was the culmination of the LIV Golf League's Individual Championship and the final of the US Amateur.

But did you also notice who won the Standard Portland Classic on the LPGA Tour or which potential Ryder Cup star claimed the Danish Golf Championship on the DP World Tour?

What about the Korn Ferry Tour or PGA Tour Champions? While the winners of the biggest events might have registered, here are a handful of stories you might have missed last weekend.

GRIFFIN'S CREATINE SNOWBALL 'OVERDOSE'

During the early stages of Ben Griffin's final round at the BMW Championship, the American found himself in a spot of trouble after taking a little too much creatine - the organic compound that he has been supplementing his diet with for months now.

Explaining the situation to reporters after, the two-time PGA Tour winner shared that he had taken the supplement on the first but swallowed "a snowball's worth" and found himself shaking shortly after.

He made a triple-bogey at the first thanks to a four-putt and was "freaking out" on the second before making a double-bogey. A bogey at the third did not help his cause, but Griffin's caddie made him down a bottle of water and calm down before the 29-year-old settled down and recovered to shoot seven-under through the remaining 15 holes.

IAN POULTER SURVIVES LIV RELEGATION

Ian Poulter was staring down the barrel of relegation from the LIV Golf League with fewer than nine holes remaining in the season on Sunday.

The Postman had only secured one point-scoring week in 12 events before Indianapolis, but he pulled out a miraculous run with time expiring at Chatham Hills to save his skin and relegate Majesticks teammate, Henrik Stenson instead.

Having started on the fourth, Poulter was two-under on his front side via birdies at the 11th and 12th holes. However, he gave those strokes back at the 14th and 16th to fall outside of the points.

Needing four birdies in his final five holes to even stand a chance of escaping the Drop Zone, the Ryder Cup legend reeled off four in a row to lift himself above the dotted line.

Stenson had one final chance to survive courtesy of a 12-foot putt at the 18th, but he drilled it wide and saw his time with the LIV Golf League end, unless he tries to earn his way back via the Promotions event later in the year.

IWAI WINS PORTLAND CLASSIC

Akie Iwai won the 2025 Standard Portland Classic by four strokes after carding a final round of six-under at Columbia Edgwater's Macan Course.

The 23-year-old finished on 24-under for the week, five strokes ahead of her sister Chisato who shot eight-under on Sunday, and joined her sibling in becoming a first-time LPGA Tour winner in 2025.

It's the latest big win for a Japanese pro this season, too, following on from Mao Saigo and Miyu Yamashita earning their maiden Major victories earlier in the year.

SCHAUFFELE MISSES TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

Xander Schauffele missed out on the Tour Championship for the first time since joining the PGA Tour in 2016-17. His T28th finish at the BMW Championship wasn't enough to propel him into the top-30, with the World No.3 finishing 42nd in the FedEx Cup standings.

Back in 2017, Schauffele became the first rookie to win the Tour Championship when he defeated Justin Thomas by one stroke. Since then, he has finished inside the top-five in all but one campaign. That was 2018 when he finished 15th.

BERGER WITHDRAWS

Before play began at the BMW Championship, Daniel Berger stood 33rd in the FedEx Cup standings and had a perfectly reasonable chance of reaching the Tour Championship a year after finishing outside of the top-140.

However, he was forced to withdraw prior to his final-round tee time due to injury and saw his season end immediately. The four-time PGA Tour winner had carded rounds of 71, 69 and 72 to that point and would have been perfectly capable of booking his spot at East Lake with a solid Sunday outing. As it was, he ended the year 45th in the standings.

WHAT ELSE DID YOU MISS?

• BMW Championship runner-up, Robert MacIntyre moves up to career-high 8th in the OWGR
• Danish Golf Championship winner, Marco Penge is now up to career-high 73rd in the world and 14th in Team Europe's Ryder Cup standings
• Six players confirmed for Team USA's Ryder Cup roster: Scottie Scheffler, JJ Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Bryson DeChambeau and Harris English
• Tyrrell Hatton and MacIntyre joined Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood in Team Europe's confirmed Ryder Cup roster
• Sky Sports and the USGA agreed an extension to their broadcast deal to show the US Open on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland until 2030
• Mexico's Emilio Gonzalez won the Korn Ferry Tour's Albertsons Boise Open by a stroke from USA's Jeffrey Kang
• Neal Shipley joined Austin Smotherman and Johnny Keefer in earning full PGA Tour status for 2026 as a result of his season's results on the Korn Ferry Tour
• Australia's Richard Green won the PGA Tour Champions' Rogers Charity Classic by one stroke from Argentina's Ricardo Gonzalez for his first senior golf title
• Luke Poulter qualified for Team GB&I's Walker Cup roster

Xander Schauffele told reporters that he thinks Scottie Scheffler is using a back-up driver as well as Rory McIlroy after a report emerged on Friday that McIlroy's driver failed a USGA test earlier this week.

The PGA of America issued a statement on driver testing on Saturday, where it said that it had requested the USGA to test around a third of the field's drivers this week and that all results were confidential.

McIlroy has not spoken to the media since the start of the tournament and there has been no official confirmation on the story that was first reported by Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio.

Xander Schauffele, who played with McIlroy over the first three days at Quail Hollow and saw his driver fail a test at the 2019 Open, has strong feelings on the current driver testing process and believes every single player's club should be tested, not just 50.

“I think they should test everyone’s driver,” the World No.3 told Golfweek.

“It’s not right to just test 50 guys. It just doesn’t make sense if you’re in it for the spirit [of the game].

"The whole point of it is to protect the integrity of the field. If you don’t test everyone across the board I don’t think you’re protecting the whole field."

“Do it to everybody, not just a third of the guys and if a player has a hot driver they’re still playing the tournament. Just my take,” Schauffele was also quoted as saying.

Schauffele then went on to reveal that he thought World No.1 Scheffler had switched to a back-up club too.

“I think Scott is winning the tournament and I think he switched to his back-up too,” Schauffele said.

If Scottie Scheffler is using a back-up model this week, it is clearly one he's very comfortable with. The World No.1 ranks 8th in Strokes Gained: Off the tee and 1st in SG: Tee to green at Quail Hollow.

After eight weeks out with injury, Xander Schauffele could hardly have picked a harder spot to return than at a windy Bay Hill for the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

And the World No.3 admitted he "got my a** kicked" during a five-over round of 77 at Bay Hill on his return from a rib injury.

Schauffele was far from the only one to struggle on a tough first day at the Arnold Palmer, and he definitely felt some rust with five bogeys in a row around the turn.

That's tough to take for the double Major winner of last year, but he expected it to be a tough place to make his return, and he took it well with a smile on his face as he discussed his round.

"Yeah, it was, you know, got my a** kicked," smiled Schauffele. "Yeah, it's a tough place to come back to, not going to lie.

"Palm Springs would have been nice, something like that, that would have been a little bit easier, miss a couple, get a way with it."

Schauffele says that the setup at Bay Hill, especially on the greens, was similar to a Major so could hardly have been a tougher place to make his comeback.

"I'm a bit of a masochist I guess. I knew I was going to come in on short notice to what is sort of like a Major championship setup around the greens, and with the greens being crusty, I really felt it there more than anything else."

A plus point for Schauffele was that after his first competitive round back his rib injury did not bother him, and physically he felt "great" as he starts his build-up to The Masters where he could claim a third Major victory.

Golf-wise, Schauffele admitted that conditions got the better of him early on, especially on the greens, but he did see signs of improvement when the wind dropped.

"Just not really seeing lines, not playing enough break, not giving enough respect to certain holes," Schauffele said of his putting.

"Tried hard to prepare, but it really - as the wind laid down I was hitting some nice shots and, you know, that's what I was more used to."

Xander Schauffele has targeted a return to action in March’s Arnold Palmer Invitational after suffering a right rib injury.

Schauffele spoke to Adam Schupak at Golfweek about his ambition to return at the Bay Hill tournament following a frustrating start to the season for the World No.2.

Schauffele has only played once on the PGA Tour this season – a T30 in the first PGA Tour event of the year, The Sentry. He then featured for New York GC in the TGL days later before withdrawing from The American Express. He also wasn’t listed in the field for the Farmers Insurance Open or a scheduled second TGL appearance.

At the time, his team cited a “medical issue” for his absence and days later, Golf Channel reporter Todd Lewis confirmed Schauffele had been suffering from the right rib injury since “late last year.”

There was still no sign of Schauffele by the end of January with the PGA Tour signature event the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and he was again not available for this week’s Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines.

However, there is now light at the end of the tunnel. Schauffele told Schupak: “Taking the Genesis off gives me three weeks leading into Bay Hill. I want to get as many reps under the belt before the Masters. It would be nice to get the competitive blood flowing a few times before going into a really big event and also have the Players coming up."

Schauffele also admitted that he had underestimated how much the injury had been bothering him. He added: “I need a little more TLC, especially at 31 versus 25 and make sure everything is oiled correctly. I thought I’d be fine and kept going and played through it at Sentry and at the first TGL match. I was pretty much tapped. I knew it was getting significantly worse and needed time off."

This time last year at the Genesis Invitational, Schauffele racked up his fourth top-10 finish of the year with a T4 at Riviera Country Club to help set up the best year of his career, which included winning two Majors, and he will be hoping his imminent return to action will ensure he can make up for lost time in pursuit of more glory as the year progresses.

World No.2 Xander Schauffele has reportedly been struggling with a right rib injury since "late last year" and will continue to miss time as he deals with the issue - according to Golf Channel's Todd Lewis.

The Californian withdrew from last week's American Express on Monday night, ultimately won by Sepp Straka, but no reason was offered by the PGA Tour following the announcement.

It was then reported that the two-time Major winner would also be unavailable for New York GC's second TGL match on Tuesday, January 21 due to a medical reason - however, no further details were shared.

In Schauffele's place, Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Young and Rickie Fowler will take on Justin Thomas, Billy Horschel and Patrick Cantlay of Atlanta Drive GC - which is making its TGL debut.

Days later, in the build-up to the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines - marking Schauffele's hometown event - Lewis shared a message on X to clarify a little more about what the San Diego-born golfer has been dealing with and what his plans look like at this stage.

The Golf Channel reporter wrote: "World #2 @XSchauffele has been bothered with a right rib injury since late last year. It is not skeletal but instead soft tissue.

"Played through issue at @TheSentry but resting now and not making any full swings. Not playing hometown event this week. Uncertain about @attproam."

Schauffele's absence will denote the first time since 2015 that he has failed to play the Farmers Insurance Open, with a best result of T2nd back in 2021. That marked a significant improvement on his first five attempts, with four cuts surrounding a T25th finish.

Meanwhile, the 31-year-old has only played the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am twice in his career, ending T54th and T66th in 2024 and 2017, respectively.

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler will also not be a part of the Farmers Insurance Open field this week, and neither will World No.5, Collin Morikawa as they headlined a growing number of players to pull out.

Scheffler is continuing his rehabilitation following hand surgery - required after the two-time Major winner cut his hand making ravioli with his family on Christmas Day - while no official reason has been given for Morikawa's absence.

Speaking to assembled media via a video call this week, Scheffler told reporters that he is not far away from a return but declined to say exactly when that might be.

He said: “Everything went well with the surgery. Body feels pretty good, still making decisions on schedule going forward.

“We should know in the next few days to a week whether I’ll play next week (at Pebble Beach), but everything’s on schedule so we’ll see.”

While a number of big names are not in the field at Torrey Pines, defending champion Matthieu Pavon will take part alongside Hideki Matsuyama, Tony Finau, Jason Day and Ludvig Aberg.

The action begins on Wednesday and ends on Saturday - with the Farmers Insurance Open maintaining its recent record as the only PGA Tour event of the season to take place a day early.

Collin Morikawa is the latest big name to withdraw from the Farmers Insurance Open.

The two-time Major winner will no longer compete at Torrey Pines, with Wesley Bryan taking his place.

The news comes just a day after it was revealed that World No.2 Xander Schauffele would also not be competing in his hometown event. Schauffele’s team cited a “medical issue” for his absence, while he will also not play for New York Golf Club in the TGL on Tuesday evening. Morikawa is also one of the 24 TGL players, although his team, Los Angeles Golf Club, is not in action this week.

Morikawa had played in each of the last two editions of the Farmers Insurance Open. He finished third in the 2023 edition but didn’t fare nearly as well last year and missed the cut after rounds of 67 and 75.

Despite that disappointment, Morikawa had an excellent year where he earned his place back in the world’s top 10 after a loss of form the previous season. This year, he picked up where he had left off with runner-up at The Sentry earlier this month.

As for Schauffele, his withdrawal comes after he also pulled out of The American Express, although at the time, no reason was offered for his withdrawal.

Schauffele’s absence from the Farmers Insurance Open means he will miss the tournament for the first time after nine successive appearances.

See also: How To Watch The Farmers Insurance Open

Morikawa and Schauffele aren’t the only high-profile withdrawals from this week's tournament, which begins on Wednesday. Nicolai Hojgaard will also not play having initially been named in the field. His spot will be taken by Hayden Springer.

Last year, Matthieu Pavon claimed his maiden PGA Tour win at Torrey Pines, and it was Hojgaard who finished runner-up, one shot behind the Frenchman. Pavon will defend his title this week in his third start of 2025 after The Sentry and Team Cup.

Despite the big-name withdrawals, there are still some other high-profile players in the field, including two in the world’s top 10 – Hideki Matsuyama, fresh from his victory at The Sentry, and Swedish star Ludvig Aberg.

Following his withdrawal from The American Express, it has now been reported that Xander Schauffele will also not appear in Tuesday’s TGL match for New York Golf Club against Atlanta Drive GC or the Farmers Insurance Open, which begins the next day.

Last week, PGA Tour Communications released a short statement on X stating that Schauffele was no longer in the 156-man field for The American Express without offering a reason for his withdrawal, but another X account, NUCLR GOLF now reports that his team has cited a “medical issue” as his reason for not being listed in next week’s contests.

Schauffele’s absence from both will be a blow to the 31-year-old for different reasons. Sitting out his team’s second appearnace in the TGL means he won't be able to help it make amends for its 9-2 drubbing to The Bay in the first-ever match. Instead, the New York line-up will consist of Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler and Cameron Young, who will make his debut.

Meanwhile, Schauffele, who is a San Diego native, will miss next week’s Torrey Pines event on the PGA Tour for the first time after nine successive appearances.

In 2024, Schauffele finished T9 in the Farmers Insurance Open to continue an impressive start to the season that began with top-10 finishes in The Sentry and The American Express.

This year, it has been a different story. Schauffele continued his long run of making the cut at events, which began in May 2022, with a T30 at The Sentry in Hawaii earlier this month. However, after his TGL debut defeat, his absence from the following three events in his schedule is hardly ideal as he looks to go even better than last year, when a brilliant run of form saw him win two Majors and finish the year just behind the dominant Scottie Scheffler in the world rankings.

Currently, there is no word on when Schauffle will return to action, but all eyes will be on whether he is named in the field for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which follows the Farmers Insurance Open and is the second signature event of the season after The Sentry.

In 2024, Schauffele played in the tournament for the first time since 2017 and finished T54 in the weather-hit tournament.

World No.2 Xander Schauffele has withdrawn from the 2025 American Express, the PGA Tour announced on Monday night.

In a short message on X, PGA Tour Communications simply stated that the former betting favorite was no longer in the 156-man field and he had ultimately replaced by Philip Knowles at the multi-course event in Palm Springs, California.

Monday's news was a particular blow to the event itself, with World No.1 Scottie Scheffler having already been forced to withdraw after accidentally cutting his hand on broken glass while preparing Christmas dinner.

The 28-year-old consequently required surgery on his right hand and confirmed he would be out until the end of January, having already missed out on a start at The Sentry in Hawaii earlier this month.

In a statement, Scheffler confirmed he next planned appearance. He said: "After consulting with my medical team, I have made the decision to withdraw from next week's American Express tournament to give my injury more time to heal. I am still hopeful to begin my 2025 Season at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am."

Meanwhile, Schauffele's future plans remain unclear after no detail on the reason for him pulling out of the event was offered by either the PGA Tour or on the player's social media accounts.

The Californian was last in action during the opening week of TGL when his New York Golf Club faced off against The Bay, ultimately going down 9-2 as Ludvig Aberg led Shane Lowry and Wyndham Clark to a comfortable success at SoFi Center in Florida.

Before that, the two-time Major champion kicked off his season at The Sentry in Hawaii, coming home in a tie for 30th. Since ending the Tour Championship T4th, Schauffele finished T41st in his only other PGA Tour start - the Zozo Championship.

Schauffele could return next week at the Farmers Insurance Open, an event he has competed in every year since 2016.

Xander Schauffele insists all of Team USA are happy to give away all of their Ryder Cup payments to charity, but they will still "take a lot of c**p" over the entire situation.

The two-time Major champion is starting his 2025 PGA Tour season at The Sentry in Hawaii, but the Ryder Cup remains a hot topic for debate.

Team USA players will get a $500,00 a man payment from the PGA of America - news which sparked a big debate and led to plenty of criticism for the Americans who will tee it up at Bethpage Black.

However, Schauffele says that players being able to pocket the half a million dollars was never the aim.

$300,000 of the payment will automatically go to charity, but even the remaining $200,000 stipend, which players can use as they see fit, will go to charitable causes, according to Schauffele.

Last year's PGA Championship and Open winner says that American players are suffering from a misconception that they're seeking money for their own bank balances - when in truth they're just adding more funds for charity.

"I just see it as a whole lot of money going to charity and we're going to take a lot of c**p," Schauffele was quoted as saying by the Associated Press in Hawaii.

Schauffele insists that USA captain Keegan Bradley had been working on a plan for the team to make a special donation to charity - only for the leak of the extra payments to lead to a change in the narrative.

"I’m looking at it as an opportunity to give away more money,” Schauffele added. “It’s never going to be perceived that way, just with how the media talks about stuff and how things shook down in Italy.

"It’s going to go to charity. I spoke to Keegan and he had a plan before, and that got blown up by the leak of the whole thing.

“Keegan had a plan to get all the boys to do something really nice,” he said. “And now everyone is pointing fingers on how this thing has shaken down.

"Learning from the PGA Tour, we’re going to give back to the community however we can help, whether it’s the Fire Department or NYPD or you name it. Keegan is from the Northeast, and we’ll take his lead.”

Pay row to add "juice" to Ryder Cup

Although unhappy in how the entire saga has played out in the media, Schauffele believes one good thing to come out of it is to add even more spice to the Ryder Cup rivalry for the event in New York later this year.

"We're used to playing in these team events and not getting paid and giving our portion away happily. It's a really nice thing we can do," he added.

"We make plenty of money throughout the year, so we're happy to give money when we can.

"The way the whole thing is shaking down, it's good for this big rivalry. And it's going to be better for the Ryder Cup.

"Whenever there's a feud, what happens? It juices everything up around it. The Ryder Cup is going to do better because of this thing."

Schauffele is star name and betting favourite to win at in Hawaii this week, but he's not made the shortlist for our Golf Monthly betting picks for The Sentry.

Rory McIlroy said recently that one of his aims for 2025 was to catch Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, as the two best players in the world had separated themselves from the pack during stellar years.

But if the top two have cut McIlroy adrift, just how far out in front are they? We've crunched the numbers again to find out.

There's been a debate about whether Schauffele or Scheffler had the better season with the World No.1 winning eight times including The Masters and Olympics, while the World No.2 grabbed two Major titles.

World No.3 McIlroy could well have been in the conversation had just a few things gone his way in a season of near misses.

A couple of missed short putts cost the Northern Irishman the US Open before he came up just short at the Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in what could have easily been five-win season with a fifth Major added.

The margins between success and failure in golf are razor thin, but if McIlroy is going wrong compared to the top two, just where are the gaps in his game he needs to improve?

We've already compared some of the top stats between Scheffler and Schauffele in 2024, but when you add in McIlroy you can see he comes up sometimes a distant third in a number of areas.

McIlroy stats compared to Scheffler & Schauffele

Although they are the top three in terms of overall Strokes Gained on the PGA Tour this year, McIlroy is a clear third and just over a shot worse off than Scheffler - although the American was operating at historic levels in 2024.

One standout immediately is that in 25 statistical categories McIlroy comes third in 20 of them, and top in just one - predictably that being with average driving distance.

Scheffler only comes last of three in two categories, with again no surprise with it being putting - who knows how may wins he'd have had if he'd just had some average putting rounds at times.

Schauffele is the best putter, scrambler and the most consistent in avoiding bogeys. You can be sceptical of stats but those definitely ring true with the eye test as well.

One stat we noticed comparing 2024 McIlroy with 2014 McIlroy is his dip in second round scoring, which really shows up here as he's two shots worse off than Schauffele and three behind Scheffler. That's a problem McIlroy really has to fix.

McIlroy also loses a shot to Schauffele and two to Scheffler in final round scoring - that's just too much if he really wants to get in among the top two next year.

The other major gap is in approach play, again something McIlroy is aware off as with a wedge in hand in particular he just can't get the ball close enough as often as the American pair.

Scheffler is a cut above here, but the gap between him and Schauffle is about the same as Schauffele to McIlroy, so Rory has to start hitting the ball closer on a more consistent basis.

That's perhaps a factor behind his recent swing changes, as it's clear from the stats that he has some ground to make up on the current big two on the PGA Tour.

It's no secret that Xander Schauffele has been one of the best and most consistent golfers in the past few years, with the American racking up multiple wins, including two Major victories in 2024.

In terms of his golf bag, Schauffele is a Callaway staffer so, as you would expect, he has a full bag of Callaway equipment.

Starting with driver, the American has the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond set at 10.1 degrees. Schauffele is known as one of the best ball strikers on the planet and, if you look at his driving stats, he averages 308.5-yards off the tee. Crucially, though, he is second in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, such is his consistency.

Wood-wise, he completes the set with a Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond at 16.5 degrees and an Apex UW at 19.7 degrees. In a video released by Callaway, which you can check out below, the 3-wood goes 280-yards, with his utility wood reaching 255-yards.

Away from the woods and to the irons, which are Callaway Apex TCB 24'. They are now available to buy and, if you look at the top iron in the bag, the 4-iron, it goes a total yardage of 238-yards.

From there, his 5-iron and 6-iron go over 200-yards, 220 and 205, whilst the 7-iron is a whopping 190-yards. That is a seriously impressive distance from Schauffele, especially when the average distance a PGA Tour pro hits their 7-iron is 176-yards!

Rounding out the irons, the 8-iron sits at 175-yards, which shows that Schauffele is around a club longer than average, whilst the 9-iron racks up 162-yards, meaning the gapping sits around 12-18 yards per club.

Into his wedges, and Schauffele's stock distance with a pitching wedge is 148-yards compared to 135-yards with a gap wedge, 123-yards with a sand wedge, and an impressive 110-yards with a full lob wedge.

Below is a complete list of how far Xander Schauffele hits every club in the bag.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE STOCK YARDAGES

Xander Schaufelle lamented a tough break – and a couple of poor decisions – at the Zozo Championship that saw him card a quadruple bogey on the ninth hole to sit 10 shots behind the lead after the first round.

The World No. 2 was back in action at the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Inzai, Japan for the first time since the Presidents Cup last month, and suffered a brutal break on the par-4 ninth when his tee shot wedged against a tree root.

Schaufelle attempted to pitch out from the “bad spot” twice before eventually taking his medicine and declaring an unplayable, leading to an eight on No. 9 and a three-over start to his tournament.

Despite what he described as a “pretty low stress” round for “the most part of the day”, Schaufelle was left to rue his poor decisions on the ninth that stained an otherwise clean card on day one.

“Yeah, overall it was pretty low stress for the most part of the day. Like 85 percent of the day was not very stressful,” he said after carding a three-over 73 for his round. “No. 9 just, it was an incredible spot. I wanted to take a photo of it almost, how bad it was.

“For me to think I can do anything definitely got me in a hole there. I should have just taken an unplayable, but I was an idiot and tried to hit it. Then I was stubborn and then tried to hit it again, then finally took an unplayable. I was going to hit it a third time too just because, but yeah, it was a bad spot.”

After taking two swipes at his ball on his second and third shots on No. 9, which “didn’t go anywhere”, Schauffele eventually took an unplayable.

He remained in good spirits at the time, choosing to laugh off his predicament, but admitted after his round that the “meltdown” was due to being “overconfident”.

“I thought at worst I would hit the ball, hit the tree and go somewhere. The worst thing happened, the worst thing that could have happened happened twice. Just a combination of being overconfident and being really stubborn and it sometimes pays off for me in tournaments and today it bit me in the ass.

“Making an eight on a par 4, I think I led bogey avoidance this last season. It's not something I've done in a really long time. It's probably been like a year since I had a meltdown like that. All you can do is laugh at it at that point because it's just terrible.”

However, the American was thankful that he still had three rounds to right his wrongs at the limited field, no-cut event, and was hopeful of being able to battle his way back into the tournament.

“If this was Sunday and I was in a really good spot and hit my ball – I don't know how it ended up there, I don't even know, if it hit someone; It was really in a crevasse – yeah, if it was Sunday I would be pissed.

“Today I'm just trying to brush it off. I've got three more days in front of me. Depending on what the leaders do tomorrow, it might be hard to get back into it. I'm going out in the morning, the greens should be a little less bumpy. If I can shoot seven, eight, something even lower, that would be incredible, or string together a bunch of three to five under par rounds and I could be right there.”

Schauffele also admitted that he was suffering from a little bit of rust in his first round back since helping the United States to victory at the Presidents Cup in Royal Montreal late last month.

“I didn't feel like I hit it really good or really bad. I've only played the Presidents Cup and then … that was it, played the Presidents Cup since Eastlake [at the Tour Championship]. So I haven't played a ton of golf.

“Overall a little loose on a couple iron shots, instead of hanging them to 15 or inside 10 feet, hitting them to 25 or 40 feet. I'll get the hang of it.”

Taylor Moore leads Max Greyserman, Nico Echavarria and Eric Cole after the first round by one stroke after shooting a seven-under 63.

By anyone's standards, Xander Schauffele has enjoyed an extraordinarily successful season already.

The Californian triumphed in Major championships not once but twice, he bagged three runner-up finishes and ended inside the top-10 15 times in 21 starts. Not to mention, he hasn't missed a single cut and won over $18 million along the way.

Taking a look at his stats, Schauffele was second in Strokes Gained: Total, first in scrambling, and second in scoring average - all compared to 150-plus of his PGA Tour peers.

And yet, there was one pretty talented young man who - remarkably - did even better with eight titles (including Olympic gold). In any other year, Schauffele would have been a dead cert for PGA Tour Player of the Year - following in the footsteps of some of the game's greats.

However, because Scottie Scheffler is around, the World No.2 admitted this week that he feels he is actually nowhere near in with a shout of taking home the title when the award is presented in a couple of months' time.

Speaking at the Zozo Championship ahead of a first individual start since the Tour Championship, Schauffele admitted he would have to enjoy a career year to stand a chance in the future.

Asked what exactly he would have to do in order to win PGA Tour Player of the Year, Schauffele half-joked: "I mean, it seems I need to have the best year ever. I just had my best year ever and wasn't really close.

"I'm pretty content with how I played and where my game is at. If I can keep on doing what I'm doing, I'd be very pleased."

Awards aside, the 30-year-old went on to reflect on his season as a whole - one that featured a victory at both the PGA Championship and the Open Championship.

He said: "[This year] was a dream come true. Winning two majors in a season is, you know, you sort of dream of that stuff and for me to be able to do it is very special. So I will always remember 2024."

Unlikely to be a coincidence in terms of Schauffele's step to the next level, his decision to look externally for a swing coach has certainly paid off.

Prior to hiring swing coach, Chris Como late last year, the two-time Major winner was working with his dad, Stefan. And they were doing well, but Xander wasn't winning Majors.

After receiving his father's blessing to try and find someone else to help him do just that, Schauffele met with the man who has coached the likes of Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau. Cut to a handful of months later - mission accomplished. Two months after that, mission accomplished once more.

Explaining the impact Como has had on his career, Schauffele admitted it was strange to hear advice from a new voice at first.

On Como, Schauffele said: "He's been tremendous. I've known Chris for maybe 10 years now, but I've only been working with Chris for pushing probably just under a year, call it a year now.

"Yeah, I mean, I trust him a lot. I have put a lot of sort of faith in what he's telling me, just believing everything he's telling me and trusting everything he's telling me.

It's a scary thing obviously, I had pretty much the same coach my whole life and to get advice from someone new and to sort of put your whole, I guess, all of my tournament trust and feels and everything that goes into sort of competing at a high level into his corner was a really big deal for myself and my team.

"Chris is an awesome individual and definitely very happy that he's part of my team."

Schauffele tees off alongside Rickie Fowler and Min Woo Lee at 10:24am local time (9:24pm ET) in round one on Thursday.

With the exception of the Presidents Cup, many of the world's best golfers have been absent from the PGA Tour since August's Tour Championship.

Some have opted to take a break ahead of another packed schedule in 2025, while others competed in some of the biggest events of the DP World Tour season as the FedEx Cup Fall section of the PGA Tour season got underway.

The first four events of the FedEx Cup Fall saw fields largely dominated by players who hadn't already secured their full PGA Tour cards for next season, with 125th or above in the standings the all-important cut-off by the end of the next month's final tournament, the RSM Classic.

However, this week's FedEx Cup Fall event is a little different from the others. The action takes place in Japan for the only time in the PGA Tour season with the Zozo Championship.

It's not just the location that is unique. The event, which is being held at Narashino Country Club, also has a limited field of just 78 players, while there isn't a cut. Eligibility is also restricted to criteria including the top 60 in the FedEx Cup standings, sponsor exemptions and the best players on the Japan Golf Tour.

While that hasn't been enough to tempt some of the world's best players to compete, including World No.1 Scottie Scheffler and four-time Major winner Rory McIllroy, there is still a stronger field than in many recent PGA Tour events.

The defending champion is two-time Major winner Collin Morikawa, who is making his first appearance since helping Team USA win the Presidents Cup. However, even at fourth in the world, he is not the highest-ranked player in the field.

That honor goes to World No.2 Xander Schauffle, who won two of the year's Majors among 15 top-10 finishes so far this year.

The third player in the world's top 10 competing is local star Hideki Matsuyama, who is currently ranked seventh. Matsuyama won the 2021 Zozo Championship a little over six months after victory at The Masters, and, after briefly dropping out of the world's top 50, he has rediscovered his best form this year, including two victories.

Two-time PGA Champion Justin Thomas is also in the field as he makes his first start since finishing seventh at the Tour Championship, while six-time PGA Tour winners Max Homa and Rickie Fowler, who finished runner-up in 2022, play too.

World No.12 Sahith Theegala is another big name in the field, along with Sungjae Im, who is ranked 10 places beneath him.

Other notable names competing include rising star Min Woo Lee, former World No.7 Will Zalatoris and nine-time PGA Tour winner Matt Kuchar.

Star Players In Zozo Championship Field

• Xander Schauffele
• Collin Morikawa
• Hideki Matsuyama
• Sahith Theegala
• Sungjae Im
• Max Homa
• Justin Thomas
• Min Woo Lee
• Max Greyserman
• Eric Cole
• Nick Taylor
• Si Woo Kim
• Will Zalatoris

They've both had seasons for the ages, but when it comes down to it, would you rather have had Scottie Scheffler or Xander Schauffele's 2024 seasons so far? PGA Tour pros have been having their say...

Any one of their seasons would be the standout season by a country mile if not for the other, with World No.1 Scheffler's tremendous winning streak and phenomenal stats capped by winning The Masters, The Players and adding an Olympic gold medal for good measure.

Schauffele had been the nearly man for so long and missed out on a few victories this year, but found his stride and swept up two Majors at the PGA Championship and then The Open.

So what would the PGA Tour's finest rather have? Seven overall wins including a Green Jacket, Olympic gold medal and Players Championship title, or 'just' the two wins but those just happening to be two Majors? 

Two-win Major seasons don't come around too often, and given how most golfers value the Majors above all else, it means Schauffele is pushing Scheffler all the way - let's hear what the pros think...

Justin Thomas

It's a no-lose situation for Justin Thomas, but the lure of those Majors gets the nod.

"I've had this conversation with a couple different group texts. It's tough. I think it's very situational of where you are in your career. For me personally, two Majors sounds a lot cooler than one. 

"But then again, winning six times, all of which being elevated events and Players and a gold medal sounds nice, too. Might be better to answer that question if something were to happen the next couple weeks.

"For me personally, I would - I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I would take Xander's just because of two Majors. But yeah, talk about a no-lose situation, those are two pretty good ones."

Rory McIlroy

Considering Rory McIlroy only needs the Green Jacket for the career Grand Slam, this answer shouldn't surprise us.

“Scottie’s. I think winning the Masters, an Olympic gold medal, winning, whatever it is, six times, it’s pretty hard to top that.

"I've described Scottie as relentless, and this is just another example of that. He's had an incredible couple of years. It was sort of like once he won that first one, it's just like the flood gates have opened and he's found a next gear and a next level.

"As a golf fan, it's really cool to see."

Viktor Hovland

Viktor Hovland feels the answer is different today than it will be in the future.

"I think in 20 years' time, I would probably rather have two Majors, what Xander had, and obviously Scottie winning The Players and The Masters is pretty good, too. With some of the other wins, as well, he's definitely had the better season.

"But I think in like 20 years back - 20 years in the future, looking back at the year, I think I'd rather have won two Majors, just personally."

Billy Horschel

Billy Horschel would take either one, but suggests Scheffler would get the nod as he rates The Players so highly.

"Which one would I rather have? I'm going to be that guy and say I'll take both of them because I don't have a Major. I don't have a gold medal. I don't have a Players Championship, so either one of them works for me.

"It's literally comparing apples to apples. Xander has got one more Major than Scottie, but I consider The Players Championship a Major. So Scottie has got two Majors, Xander has got two Majors, Scottie has got a gold medal. They've had unbelievable years. They're great players."

Jason Day

The Australian's thirst to add another Major or two to his own tally in his career influences his answer.

"Ooh. I think once you get to a certain point, you start thinking about Major championships. It would be nice for me to be able to cap off a few more Majors I think.

"Even though I'm definitely not knocking Scottie's year because it's tremendous, it's phenomenal, I think he is the Player of the Year currently right now, even though Xander has won two Majors, I would probably go more towards the Majors just because I want to add more Majors to my career."

Ludvig Aberg

Ludvig Aberg is one of those firmly sat on the fence when it comes to this big question.

"I would take any of them, to be honest with you. I think it's really hard to pick. I think both of them are unbelievable golfers, unbelievable players, and I think they're treating the game the right way. I'm very inspired by them.

"But to pick one of them is really difficult for me."

Scottie Scheffler has enjoyed a sensational 2024 season, with the headline statistic being seven victories in 18 starts - including Olympic gold - adding up to a potential $60 million campaign, if he wins the FedEx Cup in two weeks' time.

The closest player to him, both in terms of FedEx Cup points and overall standard of play, is Xander Schauffele - with two wins from 20 starts as well as three runner-up finishes and 13 top-10s. He is set for a season of around $30 million earned if he can remain in second place.

Yet, the one barometer by which Schauffele is undoubtedly ahead of his world-leading rival is number of Majors won. Scheffler picked up the first of the season at The Masters before Schauffele broke his duck at the PGA Championship and then doubled up at The Open.

Nevertheless, the incredibly grounded 30-year-old says the pair's ultimate number of wins this year - regardless of prestige - is the fairest way to rank them.

Ahead of the BMW Championship at Castle Pines, Schauffele said: "I’ve won two times and he’s won seven. We both have a lot of top 10s. That’s kind of how I’m drawing it up. I know that’s how you guys draw it up [in the media].

"But for me, as a competitor, I just have a lot of respect for him. It was cool to get to know him and Meredith a little bit more at the Olympics, and even Teddy, too.

"He’s been playing unbelievable golf. I feel like we’re all just chasing him. I’ve done probably the best job of getting the closest to him, but it’s still very far away. Just a lot of credit to him and his team for putting together a really special year."

California-born Schauffele has arguably enjoyed an equally-spectacular season, with a 100% record of cuts made (which actually stretches back to the 2022 Masters) and only one result outside of the top-25 all campaign.

Despite this, he is likely to miss out on the PGA Tour Player of the Year award in favor of his friendly rival.

Schauffele acknowledged that it may take a sustained period of record golf - similar to Vijay Singh's 2004 season where he won nine times to wrestle the award away from Tiger Woods - if he is to surpass Scheffler to that prize.

Asked if he could have imagined a scenario where he would win two Majors and not win Player of the Year, Schauffele replied: "Yeah. I mean, I think -- didn't Vijay have to win nine times to take Tiger in whatever year that was?

"I think when you're trying to -- Scottie has made himself very dominant and very known in this world of golf we're in, and everyone knows what they have to do now to sort of get on the top of that mountain, and it's going to look like probably something what Vijay did, something crazy like that, to take him."

Xander Schauffele has admitted he was "pretty bummed out" after a disappointing end to the 2024 Olympics saw him miss out on a medal.

The two-time Major champion and Tokyo 2020 gold medal winner was tied for the lead heading into the final round but went on to shoot a closing 73 to miss out on the bronze medal by five strokes after making three bogeys and a double in his last 11 holes.

He ended the week in T9th and seven behind winner Scottie Scheffler, who outscored him by 11 strokes in the final round after equalling the course record of 62.

Speaking ahead of this week's FedEx St Jude Championship, the World No.2 had a chance to reflect on his double-Major year so far but said he was "too busy" thinking about the Olympics disappointment.

"Yeah, it's nice to break off some wins. Major championships are always a bonus. You always dream of doing it, and to do it twice in one year is really special. Over the moon when I let my brain go back to that time," he said of his year.

"But I'm too busy thinking about how I just finished my last event there in Paris. Maybe it's a good thing, maybe it's a bad thing, who knows. But I've been trying to get ready for these Playoffs."

Schauffele then described the moment he realized he wasn't going to be on the podium and had gone from the heat of the battle to simply spectating.

"It was bad. Yeah. I mean, I'm stubborn. My team would be the first people to tell you that. They ask me how I'm doing, I'm fine. I'm always fine. But I was probably more tired than I thought I was," he said.

"Yeah, I take pride in finishing strong, and to do that was - I was pretty bummed out. I went from thinking I could have a good look at gold to maybe silver, then to bronze, and then to, wow, I'm just spectating now. 

"That's sort of what happened the last seven, eight holes of that tournament. So that was a bit of a bummer, especially with how the fans were out there. It must have been such a cool feeling to be in the hunt with important shots coming down that stretch, 15 to 18. 

"Yeah, I look at it, I just want to identify. Sat down with Chris [his coach, Chris Como] already, sort of identified what happened. I don't want to get back into my old habits that I've been trying to get out of in these last two or three months working with him, and I think some old ones sort of slipped in there. When I tried to put my foot down, it got worse, and I paid the price for it heavily."

Schauffele again mentioned Paris and how he pressed too hard when describing this week's test, TPC Southwind.

"It's a hard golf course. It's not the longest of courses, so you really have to be in position often. There's a sneaky lot more water than you'd think, too. I think it's one of those courses if you're slightly off and you feel like you want to press, kind of what happened to me Sunday in Paris, one of those types of courses. Guys can make it look really easy if they're on."

And despite being "butt-hurt", he revealed he was proud to see his rival and fellow American Scottie Scheffler on top of the podium when the national anthem played at Le Golf National.

"It's weird; I'm not going to lie. It's the weirdest feeling. I was watching from the sort of family section, the podium, and when Scottie was up there and our flag was raised and he started crying up there, I was butt-hurt about my own round, and then I was sitting there like, yeah, this is pretty cool.

"I can be rational most times, but I felt so emotional in that state to where I was butt-hurt about how I played and then sorta proud and happy that Scottie won it. It's hard to explain, the swing of it. Then out here this week playing with him these next two days and we're all just trying to beat our heads in. It's a funny feeling."

World No.1 Scheffler and No.2 Schauffele are paired together this week in the FedEx St Jude Championship tee times, with play getting underway on Thursday.

If you were putting odds on who would be the next player to win the career Grand Slam at the start of the year, Xander Schauffele would've been way down the list - but right now he's arguably the favourite.

The 30-year-old Californian was right there with the likes of Patrick Cantlay and Viktor Hovland in terms of possible first-time Major winners at the start of 2024, sure, but still his Grand Slam odds would've been astronomical.

But for a few reasons he's the man to have your money on right now - not least because he's delivered two different Majors so quickly he's already made it halfway there.

That puts him in the same boat as Brooks Koepka, who may have five Major titles but only in two different Majors, while Scottie Scheffler can match Schauffele's two Major titles but both of his Green Jackets mean he's still three wins away.

Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth are just one win away, yet Schauffele's quick-fire one-two punch has given him a great chance of becoming the sixth player ever to win a modern-day career Grand Slam in golf.

And here's why...

Strike while the iron is hot

Schauffele finished in the top eight of every Major this year and won twice for the best season since Jordan Spieth's 2015 when he won The Masters and US Open, and his story is a familiar one.

Brooks Koepka looked like winning every Major when he claimed four titles in eight appearances, while Dustin Johnson won twice in 16 appearances with six other top 10s and multiple chances.

Rory McIlroy got four wins in four years but he's slightly different as a perennial challenger over a winless decade, but the moral of the story is that when players get hot in Majors they need to cash in while they can.

These things go in cycles unless you're a very special talent, and even Scottie Scheffler, who has been head and shoulders the best player on the planet, still only has two Majors on his CV.

Right now, Schauffele has the game, the form, and more importantly the confidence of knowing he can get over the line, which is often the difference down the stretch in Majors.

And with them all coming relatively quickly a month apart, a player hitting Major form can challenge in them all as they come thick and fast - so a good start at Augusta next April could lead to another Schauffele summer.

Schauffele's incredible US Open & Masters stats

Circumstance and luck often dictate when a player peaks just at the right time to win a Major - they're not really able to pick and choose when that happens, but if he could pick, then Schauffele winning his two 'worst' Majors first and leaving his favoured two to complete the set is surely the way he'd go.

The pressure will grow as he looks for that Grand Slam, but luckily for him it's The Masters and the US Open where he's played his best golf and had his best results - plus winning The Open always has the weather involved in some way.

At The Masters, Schauffele has made six out of seven cuts with four top-10 finishes including a second and third - Augusta National is a place that gets easier the more you play so a Green Jacket certainly wouldn't be a surprise.

What would be a surprise would be if Schauffele doesn't win the US Open as his record in his national championship is stunning - making eight out of eight cuts and recording seven top 10s with a lowest finish of T14!

His T7 at Pinehurst was the sixth time he's finished seventh or better, so he loves the tough test the USGA presents him and you'd be amazed if he didn't win one sooner or later.

Now with that confidence only winning Majors can bring, and his two favourite events left to win, Schauffele could not be better placed to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tiger Woods as the only men to win all four current men's Majors.

Issues for McIlroy and Spieth

Another reason you'd make Schauffele favourite is that the guys who only need one more to complete the set have plenty of negatives - not least because having just one left brings a fresh pressure all of it's own.

McIlroy's Major drought is well documented and with his missing title being The Masters it brings even more pressure of the first Major of the year - always the most hyped-up we get.

Throw in his latest and biggest near miss at Pinehurst and there's a lot of demons that will be floating around should he get into contention in April.

Spieth should really have won on his first three Masters appearances, and he could've added at least one more Major in that stunning 2015 season when he finished second at the PGA and T4 at The Open.

His game has not been good enough in Majors to challenge for a while now, and he's not finished higher than T29 in the last five PGA Championships - so as of now you'd back Schauffele to get his two before Spieth or McIlroy get their one.

A lot can change before next April, but McIlroy will carry a lot more heat into Augusta than Schauffele, so the American is in the driving seat of those chasing a place in golf's most exclusive club.

Scottie Scheffler might have had an historic season and he might be ranked No.1 in the Official World Golf Ranking, but he is not the man with the most Major wins this year.

Xander Schauffele's stunning final round 65 at Royal Troon secured his second Major win since May after he held off Bryson DeChambeau to pick up the Wanamaker Trophy at Valhalla.

Schauffele has for some time been the second-best male pro in the world according to statistics but has he overthrown Scheffler as top dog now he's won two of the last three Majors?

Golf Monthly writers have their say...

A very tough one, but I think Scheffler just takes it on the back of his all-round form this season. He's won The Players and four other Signature events and has played such good tee-to-green golf that comparisons have been drawn with Tiger. 

Schauffele has had an unbelievable season, though, and I wouldn't have an issue with anyone voting for him in this category.

I think for the first time in a while we can truly say we have a top two in the men's game. We've seemingly had a 'big three' for years and years but as things stand there are two players head and shoulders above the rest.

When we look back at the history books, Xander Schauffele is the man of 2024. Two Majors beats one. He has overthrown Scottie Scheffler as the player of the year for me.

Sure, Scheffler has had an historic year but he's 'only' won one Major. All the other wins are great - especially The Players Championship - but when push came to shove, Xander shot 65 on Sunday at Royal Troon to make the year his.

There’s not much between them stats-wise and while Scottie Scheffler has the total victories, Xander Schauffele has the two Majors and my answer this time next year might be different - but right now I’d still give Masters champ Scheffler the nod.

It’s just his continued excellence that was just a notch above, that run of six wins in 10 is just hard to put into words how special of an achievement it is. Yep, just one was a Major but winning any golf tournament is hard and to keep winning big ones like that, including the week after the Masters, takes some doing.

And not to diminish Xander, but if Scheffler doesn’t get arrested at the PGA that may have been a different story. He still finished T8 by the way which tells it’s own story.

Two fabulous players but just Scheffler for me.

Scheffler looked a little irritated at times at The Open – and he hit some strange shots. Still, even with what looked like his C or D-game, only six players scored better than him.

One of those, of course, was Xander Schauffele, who was in a league of his own at Royal Troon. Even the undisputed World No.1 couldn’t lay a glove on him.

Schauffele’s PGA Championship victory has clearly had a positive effect mentally – he now knows he has what it takes to beat the best players in the world on the Major stage.

However, Scheffler is still top dog – by a distance in my opinion. He’s won six times this year already. We haven’t seen such a run of dominat performances since Tiger Woods was in his pomp – and that says it all.

The numbers don't lie, and Scheffler has six wins to Schauffele's two. 

Yes, Xander is 2-1 ahead in terms of the Majors this year, but Scottie hasn't exactly been winning his local club championships - they've largely been Major-like fields. 

Both of their consistency is incredibly impressive, too, with 14 (Scheffler) and 12 (Schauffele) top-10 finishes, respectively. Scheffler has played 16 times without missing a cut while Schauffele has teed it up 18 times in 2024. He also hasn't missed a cut in over two years. 

While Scottie is my (and the official) World No.1, both of them are MILES ahead of the chasing pack.

Almost down to the letter in their surnames, there's not much between Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler who have both had stellar seasons - but what do the stats say?

The biggest stat in golf is easiest to see, and that's the win column, where Scheffler has six victories this season including that one Major at The Masters but also several other huge events including The Players Championship - the PGA Tour's flagship event.

And with those six wins coming in the space of 10 starts, it's a truly remarkable run of form from Scheffler, especially when you remember that during all this he not only welcomed his first child into the world but also spent the morning in prison at the PGA Championship!

Schauffele can't match the volume of victories but he can sure pick his triumphs, with just the two wins this season but both of them Majors - picking up the PGA Championship with a winning putt on the last to quash talk of him not being able to close out.

Then he picked his moment perfectly on the back nine on Sunday at Royal Troon to add the Claret Jug to the mix and go from nearly man to half a Grand Slam in the space of two months.

Even before the wins, Schauffele had been the only man in touching distance of Scheffler in the major statistical categories, as the two-time Masters champ was producing numbers not seen since Tiger Woods was in his pomp.

The consistent excellence was something most players could just not live with. Schauffele was right there with him, as neither has missed a cut this year, but while he finished outside the top 10 five times Scheffler only fell that far twice out of 16 events.

That in itself is incredible, but it was his stunning play with the irons that really stood out from a statistical point of view - as overall although Schauffele is his leading competitor it's really not that close.

Elsewhere, though, it's a much closer call between the two Americans and Xander has the upper hand in a couple of categories - most notably on the greens.

Scheffler vs Schauffele 2024 stats

(Individual events only)

Scheffler's putting woes raised their ugly head again at Royal Troon and while Schauffele is 10th in Stroke Gained: Putting, the world number one is ranked all the way down in 86th on the PGA Tour.

It's the flat stick that prevented Scheffler from winning Majors last year, but we thought he'd got on top of that until his poor effort up in Ayrshire in Scotland.

Overall, Scheffler still leads the way in Strokes Gained, which is even more impressive considering those putting numbers, and he's the best birdie maker on the tour too, with Schauffele in 10th.

The diminutive Schauffele can knock it past his taller opponent off the tee though, with Scheffler's shoe-shuffling drives not quite making it as far down the fairway.

Schauffele fans will point to the two in the Majors column, which means they're level with two career wins, and rightly so as when it's all said and done Majors are why most players play the game.

But Scheffler is so good elsewhere, and has won so many other tournaments that, backed up by the stats, he can rightly claim to be the best in the world right now - but the gap is closing.

For the man who operates as Xander Schauffele's caddie, Austin Kaiser, 2024 has been pretty sweet. Working with his long-time friend, Kaiser has watched Schauffele cement his standing in the game by going on to win, and win big, this year.

While Scottie Scheffler has more overall victories than the Californian (six), Schauffele ended the campaign with one more Major - having collected his first ever at the PGA Championship before quickly going on to notch his second via The Open Championship at Royal Troon.

Sprinkled in among those red-letter days have been 19 top-25 finishes, 14 top-10 results, and three runner-up places in 20 starts, with an extraordinary mound of cash piling up as a result.

So far in 2024, Schauffele has earned approximately $24.35 million, although he is second to PGA Tour money leader Scheffler by almost $11 million, if Comcast Business Tour Top-10 Bonuses are not taken into account...

Although Schauffele has made it look very easy at times, the man himself has admitted on several occasions that his success is very much a team triumph and could not have been achieved without his trusted sidekick.

And Kaiser - who has been Schauffele's looper throughout his entire PGA Tour career so far - has likely been extremely well compensated for his hard work, too.

It is widely believed that the standard cut of a player's prize money the caddie receives out on tour will range from 5-10%, depending on how high up the leaderboard they end up. It is usually around 10% for a victory and drops to 7% for a top-10 finish - anything between 11th and making the cut could well be in the area of 5%.

Bag staff are often paid a yearly salary or kept on a retainer anyway, with each week offering a fresh chance for an extra bump in their earnings. With all that said, Kaiser could well have collected an extra $1.44 million in 2024 alone.

That is, remarkably, well short of the amount of money that Ted Scott - Scheffler's caddie - has potentially picked up this year with Scott collecting roughly $2.7 million through 19 events. 

Meanwhile, Joaquin Niemann's looper, Gary Matthews banked a possible $800,000 in just two events earlier this season after the Chilean won both LIV Golf Mayakoba and LIV Golf Jeddah. That figure has only continued to rise since.

Turning attention back to Schauffele and Kaiser, the Californian started 2024 with a hat-trick of top-10s at The Sentry (T10), the American Express (T3), and the Farmers Insurance Open (T9). As a result, he accumulated $1,401,850 and - using the aforementioned theory - passed on $98,129.50 to Kaiser in January alone.

February brought a rare off week for the 30-year-old as he ended T54 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am - which was shortened to 54 holes as a result of stormy weather off the Californian coast. Schauffele secured $42,500 after making the cut, $2,125 of which was likely passed on to his looper.

Between the Genesis Invitational and The Masters, Schauffele generated four top-10s from five starts as a worst result of T25 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational ruined his consistent streak of high finishes. In that run was a T2 at The Players which brought in a paycheck of almost $2 million, with Kaiser possibly rewarded to the tune of $265,534 in a five-event spell.

Following a relatively disappointing T18 at the RBC Heritage and a T23 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans which collectively earned Schauffele $243,863 - roughly $12,193.15 for Kaiser - the American finished runner-up to Rory McIlroy at the Wells Fargo Championship to land $2.16 million. And in the very next start - the PGA Championship - Schauffele went out and won it, collecting a $3.33 million check. For Kaiser, he could well have scooped $484,200 in a fortnight.

Two more top-10s at the Memorial Tournament (T8) and the US Open (T7) earned the nine-time PGA Tour winner $1,218,289 - $85,280 of which could have been passed on to his bagman.

This lucrative season for both continued via a couple of top-20 results at the Travelers Championship (T13) and the Scottish Open (T15) which helped Schauffele pick up $530,800 and his caddie likely take $26,540.

It was then significantly improved by the pair's second Major success of 2024 at The Open Championship. Schauffele collected $3.1 million as a result of his victory and Kaiser may have seen $310,000 of that.

And in the opening tournament of the FedEx Cup Playoffs - the FedEx St Jude Championship - Scheffler ended T2 alongside Viktor Hovland to earn $1.76 million for himself, $112,000 of which could well have been sent on to Kaiser.

The very next week, Schauffele ended in a tie for fifth at the BMW Championship and picked up a check for $728,750, with a potential $51,012.50 kept aside for Kaiser.

So far this season, Kaiser's total bonus payment could well stand at $1,447,059 from 20 events.

New Open champion Xander Schauffele says he always had completing a career Grand Slam in his mind even before breaking his Major duck in superb style in 2024.

The 30-year-old entered the year without a Major to his name and as a top-10 machine in the big events it brought into question his abilities as a closer.

Another top 10 at The Masters in between high-profile runners-up finishes at The Players Championship and Well Fargo only added to those rumblings.

Schauffele blew them away though by getting over the line with a pressure putt on the final hole of the PGA Championship giving him his maiden Major - and no doubt the confidence to then add a quick second at Royal Troon.

In the blink of an eye, Schauffele is halfway towards a career Grand Slam, something only achieved by five players in the Masters era, and he's admitted it's definitely in his sights.

"Yeah, I mean, before I had any Majors, it's something I've always wanted," Schauffele said about his Grand Slam ambitions.

"I'm one step closer and still have a long way to go. But if you don't see yourself doing it, you're never going to do it."

And that Grand Slam ambition may just be his next motivating factor now he's pocketed two Major trophies - as Schauffele insisted he's not about to take his foot off the gas now.

"If you look hard enough, you can always find it [motivation]. It's something, when you feel like you need an extra kick in the butt, there's several easy ways to motivate yourself. 

"There's still a lot of things that I'd like to do in my career, and this is a very big leap towards that. The fire is still burning, maybe brighter than ever."

While the golf course was obviously harder for his Open win than at Valhalla for the PGA - Schauffele said that winning his first Major helped him during the tough slog at Troon.

"It was hard. It was very difficult. I think winning the first one helped me a lot today on the back nine," Schauffele added. "I had some feeling of calmness come through. It was very helpful on what has been one of the hardest back nines I've ever played in a tournament.

"I mean, it's a dream come true to win two Majors in one year. It took me forever just to win one, and to have two now is something else."

And a lesson from Valhalla Schauffele learned was to look at the scoreboards, know exactly where he was and what he needed to do to claim that second Major - and from there make sure he didn't let it slip.

"I was looking at the boards all day," he admitted. "I've tried it in the past where I haven't done it, but at Valhalla I was looking at them all day, and I really wanted to embrace it. 

"I kind of grabbed onto it, and there was no chance I was going to let go of it. I was pretty aware of that and really wanted to make sure I did that.

"But for the most part, all those tough losses in the past or those moments where I let myself slip up and dream too early on that back nine, I was able to reel myself in today and make sure that didn't happen."

Open champion Xander Schuaffele has admitted he was “calm” during the closing holes of his second Major victory of the year, although the same couldn’t be said for his caddie, Austin Kaiser.

Schauffele followed up victory at May’s PGA Championship with the win at Royal Troon helped by an assured 65 in the final round to leave him on nine under for the tournament, two ahead of runners-up Justin Rose and Billy Horschel, and he revealed that his win at Valhalla, where he edged out Bryson DeChambeau for his maiden Major title, had helped settle his nerves as he closed in on the title in Scotland.

Speaking to Sky Sports after coming off the 18th green following his win, he said: “I thought it would help me and it actually did. I had this sense of calm, a calm I didn’t have when I played earlier at the PGA and for some reason I was calm and I felt collected.”

While Shauffele was taking the occasion in his stride, it was a different story for Kaiser. He continued: “I was telling Austin, my caddie, on the 18th hole that I felt pretty calm coming down the stretch and he said he was about to puke on the 18th! I just tell myself to hit it down there like I have all day and really just kept moving along.”

As for what claiming the Claret Jug for the first time meant to him, Schauffele admitted it was a “dream come true.” He said: “It means a lot. It’s something all of us play for and it really is a dream come true to be holding this and it definitely hasn’t sunk in yet. My brain is still grinding on this amazing property here and just tried to get through the holes, so I can’t wait to sit back and have a moment with this Claret Jug.”

Schauffele’s performance in the final round certainly suggested nerves weren’t coming into play. The American produced six birdies in a bogey-free round to emerge on top of what had been a congested leaderboard heading into Sunday’s play, where Billy Horschel held a one-shot lead, with 11 others – including Schauffele – within four shots of him.

Schauffele’s performance handed him a winner’s check for $3.1m, of which Kaiser will claim around $310,000 to add to the approximately $330,000 he will have earned at the PGA Championship.

When Kaiser's nerves have settled, attention will surely turn to Schauffele's next high-profile appearance. He will represent the US as he looks to bag his second successive gold medal at the Olympics, with the tournament beginning on 1 August.

Xander Schauffele says he hopes Tiger Woods continues to play for “as long as possible” ahead of teeing up alongside the 15-time Major winner at this week’s Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Club. 

Speaking to the media this week, Woods had a defiant response to recent comments made by Colin Montgomerie suggesting that he should think about retiring.

“I’d have thought we were past there [retirement],” Montogomerie told The Times. “There is a time for all sportsmen to say goodbye, but it’s very difficult to tell Tiger it’s time to go. Obviously, he still feels he can win. We are more realistic.”

In response, Woods hit back at Montgomerie and said he has no intentions of hanging up his clubs any time soon.

"As a past champion, I'm exempt until I'm 60. Colin's not. He's not a past champion, so he's not exempt. So he doesn't get the opportunity to make that decision. I do," Woods said with a smile on his face.

Montgomerie later said on social media that he was taken "out of context", and wished Woods "an enjoyable and successful week".

Asked about Montgomerie’s comments, Schauffele – who is in the same group with Woods and Patrick Cantlay in the first two rounds of The Open this week – defended Woods and said golf still “desperately” needs him.

“He's still El Tigre to me,” Schauffele said. “He's still wearing that red on Sunday. Yeah, I just heard some of those comments that were said by Colin. Whether it's his honest opinion or not, the game of golf needs him, needs him desperately.

“Selfishly, I want him to play as long as possible. It just helps all of the guys out here, just with the amount of eyeballs that someone like Tiger Woods brings to golf.

“He's still got a lot of fight in him. I think he's pretty honest with his own assessment. He'll hang them up when he feels he's ready, and he's still got a lot of bite and a lot of fight in him. I'm not too worried about him, and I look forward to playing with him the first two days.”

Asked if he still believes Woods is the biggest draw in golf, Schauffele replied: “I mean, if you just want to come out and try to watch a single shot on Thursday and Friday, you can be my guest.”

After coming close several times, Schauffele finally broke his Major duck at the PGA Championship this year.

He said coming to Royal Troon for the first time as a Major winner has given him more confidence.

“Probably a little more [confidence] than before,” Schauffele said. “I've never been on property here. Just trying to learn the course as quickly as I can.

“I really enjoy playing links golf and all the challenges that come with it. It's always fun for me to come here and play golf.”

He said he is relishing the challenge at Troon, with the weather set to be a major factor this week.

“I think links golf, there's a certain attitude that you need to have to play at a high level. That comes with playing links golf. That's sort of the first thing I learned when I was here.

“Back home in the States when it starts raining, people always feel like, oh, one wave gets the rain, and out here it can rain the entire day, and it's just part of it. It's something we're not used to playing in the States. With that rain comes a lot of wind, as well.

“I really enjoy the challenge of it. This is my seventh start now, and I don't feel like quite a veteran on links golf yet, but again, I really do enjoy it, and I think it helps me learn quicker.”

Xander Schauffele ended his wait for a maiden Major at the PGA Championship in a brilliant wire-to-wire win at Valhalla in May.

But the American almost got his hands on his first Major title six years ago at the 2018 Open at Carnoustie. 

After opening with a level par 71, Schauffele carded rounds of 66 and 67 to tee it up at Carnoustie in the final pair with a superb chance of getting his hands on the Claret Jug in the 147th Open.

But his final round imploded with bogeys on the fifth and the sixth before a double bogey six on the seventh hole en-route to a disastrous three-over par 74 as Francesco Molinari recorded a two-shot win.

Schauffele, who also bogeyed the 17th after birdies on the 10th and 14th,  had to settle for a tie for second place instead alongside Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy and Kevin Kisner on -6. 

He reflected: "Carnoustie, man that was brutal. An important experience for me, though. It was tough – ‘Carnasty’ was playing nasty and it got the best of us early in the day on Sunday unfortunately.

"I kind of clawed my way back into the round a little bit and got myself back in touch after a bad opening stretch, and then missed some putts late on. I had that costly bogey on 17. I hit a really good approach on 16 under pressure and just wasn’t able to convert the putt. The rest is history. It was really cool to be in the thick of things at that Major. It just feels different being in the thick of things at an Open versus the other Majors."

Schauffele's tied second finish is his best performance in an Open in six attempts but after breaking his Major duck earlier this year, he is hungry for more success. And the American believes he has the game and attitude to cope with everything a links championship can throw at a player as he prepares to compete at Royal Troon this year. 

He added: "Links golf is very cool. There’s usually only one side that you can miss it on. There are times at The Open where you know you just have to send it towards the trouble and trust it’s coming back on the wind. 

"You’ll have times where you aim at bunkers that are clearly crossed out as not in play in your yardage book and you literally have to hit it into the strong winds. You almost have to hit it at the bunkers – try to hit a little fade just so it doesn’t hook that much. It’s a pretty wild feeling. You can have fun with it and embrace that it’s part of the links golf experience. That always seems to be the right approach for me.

"You’ve got to be a little more creative. If you’re not comfortable with a certain part of your game, you can play to other strengths. I remember during a practice round at Carnoustie, I hit a putt from like 100 yards to six feet on the 9th hole – that’s how fast the course was playing.

"I wouldn’t do that in a tournament round, but you can always sort of bump shots or putt from 20 yards off the green if you’re not super comfortable with chipping around the greens out there. I think there are a variety of ways in which links courses allow you to get creative."

Xander Schauffele admitted it was initially "surprising" that Keegan Bradley was appointed Team USA's next Ryder Cup captain but believes the 38-year-old's youth may actually serve as a huge positive for the home team at Bethpage Black.

Bradley was revealed as Zach Johnson's successor on Monday after it was reported that Tiger Woods turned down the role due to the number of captain's obligations in the build-up.

The Woodstock, Vermont-born golfer is a six-time winner on the PGA Tour and landed the biggest prize of his career at the 2011 PGA Championship but has not been involved in a Ryder Cup since losing as a player in 2014.

Despite controversially missing out on a call from Johnson ahead of Marco Simone, Bradley remains competitive still - having won twice last season - and almost added to his list of achievements at the recent Charles Schwab Challenge when ending in a tie for second behind runaway champion, Davis Riley.

During his pre-Scottish Open press conference on Tuesday, Schauffele suggested that rather than it being a drawback, Bradley's current status as a PGA Tour regular could aid him in helping the Americans fulfil their potential in September 2025.

Schauffele said: "Yeah, it's surprising. You typically expect someone that's a little bit older to get selected as a captain. I think a lot of people were banking on Tiger to do it. He obviously has a lot on his plate.

"Keegan expressed his love for the Ryder Cup publicly, which we all saw, and I'm sure -- I haven't talked to him or seen him yet, but I'm sure he's over the moon and is going to do a great job."

Schauffele continued: "I think having someone that's a little bit younger, I'm going to look at it, I'm a glass-half-full guy. And I think him playing and knowing sort of the trends on tour, you start to see a lot more recovery centers here. You start to see a lot of things of that nature of how we practise and stuff.

"I feel like Keegan would understand sort of when we need to get up, when we need to practise, and when you need to do this and hopefully dodge anything you don't have to do and maybe that will help us."

Given Bradley was so close to making the US squad at Marco Simone, there remains a realistic chance that the 38-year-old could put himself in a similar position again next time. Yet, there has not been a Ryder Cup playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963.

Schauffele stated that Bradley could reset that particular historical record, though, and says it will be intriguing to see if Team USA's skipper can make it happen given all of the obligations he will have to contend with at the same time.

Asked if the trend of playing captains could return with Bradley, Schauffele said: "The younger captains that I've selected are just more likely to be playing. I think when you select guys in their 50s and their 40s, it's less likely they will be playing.

"Yeah, if Keegan is in a really good spot coming in, I mean, Tiger was a playing captain in The Presidents Cup. He was telling us about how much stuff he has to do besides playing.

"So knowing Keegan and how good of a job he's going to want to do, he's going to love doing the press and talking about the tournament and the Cup and proud to be an American, all those things. It's going to be really interesting and fun to see."

Schauffele has never been involved in the same team as Bradley but clearly knows him well from their time together out on tour.

The Californian is confident the man just eight years his senior can be an excellent captain, explaining more about what he is like as a person.

Schauffele said: "He is so laid back off the course. If you get him in like a dinner setting or something, he loves sports. He'll talk about sports all night long if you like. He's very passionate individual.

"On the course, he's intense. That's just how he competes and how he is. I'm sure as a captain he's going to have sort of a mixed bag. He won't be afraid and will get everyone going. I don't know if he's coached or captained any other teams in his life, whether it's his kids' teams or something like that, but when someone is really passionate about something, they usually do really well."

A message from the editor, Neil Tappin:

The vagaries of the magazine production cycle mean I am sitting down to write my editor’s letter on the Monday after the US Open. Pinehurst No.2 was a stage befitting of such an exciting tournament and Bryson DeChambeau deserves huge praise for the sheer grit and determination that enabled him to capture his second Major title.

It was a tournament that will also live long in the memory as a reminder of just how cruel this sport can be. Rory McIlroy, having clearly learned difficult lessons from other Major Championship near-misses, played with power and control, with a deft touch and with the patience of a seasoned professional. 

And then, right at the very end, the golfing gods struck and two relatively straightforward short putts slipped by. All that hard work and brilliant play was undermined in a flash. It was tough to watch.

Finding a silver lining in all of this is a challenge up there with those devilishly quick Pinehurst greens, but with The Open Championship just around the corner, McIlroy can’t afford to stew for long. Shortly after Royal Troon, the world’s best men and women will be in Paris for the Olympics Games. 

To get you in the mood, we’ve combined preview pieces around The Open and the Olympics with some game-changing instruction advice to help all areas of your game. No matter whether you are watching, playing or both, there should be plenty within this issue to get your teeth into...

FREE Royal Troon Strokesaver & Ping Fitting Guide

We've teamed up with Strokesaver to bring you a FREE pocket guide to Open Championship venue Royal Troon, which will enhance the viewing experience of the tournament for any golf fan. On top of that, we've partnered with Ping to bring you a FREE iron-fitting guide to help you build your perfect set.    

Xander Schauffele Exclusive

Xander Schauffele recently claimed his maiden Major Championship title at the US PGA. Now, he’s setting his sights on The Open at Troon and defending his Olympic Gold Medal in Paris.

Open Championship Preview

Bill Elliott looks forward to another gruelling week of golf at Royal Troon, where the world’s finest players are always tested to their limits.

The Finest Instruction

Our Top 50 Coaches have every part of your game covered so you can make this season your best yet. 

Georgia Hall Exclusive

With the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews, the Olympics and the Solheim Cup still to come, Georgia Hall has everything in place for a summer charge.  

Olympics Preview

The Olympic golf tournaments for men and women take place at Le Golf National near Paris from August 1 to 10. Fergus Bisset gives the lowdown on golf at the Games.

The Hottest New Gear

We feature 21 pages of the best new equipment to hit the market this month, including our guide to the best golf drivers of 2024 and our biggest ever putter test.

The Best Courses You Can Play

Our team of course experts travel the length and breadth of the UK and Ireland to bring you a mix of well-known clubs and hidden gems to add to your wish list. This month we also include a special feature on what makes a Golf Monthly Top 100 course.

For those people not named Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau or Scottie Scheffler, staying relevant in the increasingly busy world of men's pro golf can be quite a tough task.

While Woods and McIlroy are generational talents who captured the imaginations of millions through an unquenchable thirst for winning over a prolonged period, Scheffler has just begun his victorious march to World No.1.

Everyone else is just trying to keep up, it seems. Even those who have won their first Major championship in thrilling style recently.

DeChambeau has taken to YouTube in order to boost his profile - a choice which is really paying off, proved by the crowds that were cheering him on over McIlroy at last week's US Open.

But for Xander Schauffele, who is more of an introvert as far as the watching public is concerned, showing off on social media does not come as naturally. However, with the introduction of the Player Impact Program - which was designed to encourage PGA Tour golfers to increase both their and the circuit's popularity - the American has put himself out there a little more often.

Recently starring in separate Good Good and Bob Does Sports content, the San Diego-born player has channelled a little bit more of his Hollywood side in order to keep up with the likes of DeChambeau and McIlroy.

Discussing the subject ahead of the Travelers Championship, Schauffele said: "I mean, [shooting content with BDS and Good Good] is brought to me by my team. I’m not super big on social media, to be completely honest, but we have a thing called the PIP and it’s important to participate in things like YouTube and other things of that nature to keep your relevance.

"You either do the Scottie Scheffler route and you win every tournament you play in or you got to sprinkle in some YouTube stuff every once in a while.

"Both the guys, Good Good guys and Bob Does Sports, they’re really nice guys and it’s a really chill atmosphere that you kind of hang out in, and I think that’s why fans or people like to watch it. So every once in a while it’s cool, but I don’t see that being my sort of everyday thing."

More familiar to the 30-year-old is playing top-level golf every week, and Schauffele is set to return to action at this week's Travelers Championship - which will not include McIlroy after his decision to withdraw.

Almost a month after Schauffele's debut Major victory, McIlroy - who already has four - suffered a late collapse at the US Open to miss out on adding number five.

Unfortunately no stranger to Major heartbreak, Schauffele - who has a litter of top-5 results on his resume before ending that hoodoo at Valhalla - explained that he sincerely feels for the Northern Irishman and stated that he completely understands McIlroy's decision to take a few weeks away.

Schauffele said: "As a competitor, all of us have had our highs and lows to a certain degree. It's a tough spot. It for sure is a tough spot.

"I'm sure him and his team are discussing what happened, and sometimes you just need to step away from it all and really try and be as objective as possible, because you're very much in the moment there, and it obviously didn't go his way. He needs some time away to figure out what's going on."

World No.2 Xander Schauffele has once again strongly criticized commissioner Jay Monahan's leadership of the PGA Tour - accusing his boss of "not once" standing up for all players and protecting them during a period of turmoil for the sport.

Schauffele said he felt "betrayed" by Monahan in the days after the shock framework agreement came to light in June 2023, going on to suggest it would be difficult for the PGA Tour boss to regain the trust of the circuit's members.

And in a pre-Players Championship press conference earlier this year, the current PGA Championship holder stated Monahan "still has quite a way to go" in seeing that trust return.

But Monahan has continued to fight on in his post and helped to successfully secure billions of dollars of funding from Strategic Sports Group around the turn of the year - thus securing the future of the PGA Tour for a little while longer.

Yet, despite that, two PGA Tour board members recently resigned citing a lack of meaningful progress in talks with the PIF regarding a possible merger. There was a further twist when the New York Times reported that deal sheets were recently exchanged between the two key parties.

Away from the boardroom, Schauffele was asked during an exclusive interview with The TImes whether or not the resentment he had built up towards Monahan had subsided in any way.

Schauffele said: “What I can say is that throughout all of this turmoil, what’s probably bothered me the most — now more than ever — is that we need someone to lead us, we need a leader. My job is to do what I did [at Valhalla] and play good golf and be an entertainer and show how exciting golf can be.

"I’ve criticised Jay in the past, but the fact is not once has our commander-in-chief stood up for all of us players and said, ‘This is happening, this is where we’re going,’ and protected us, basically.

“He didn’t take a stand when anyone left, he didn’t come out to the public and face the music, none of that. Obviously, there were reasons [Monahan took a medical leave of absence in the immediate aftermath of the announcement], but historically in tough situations you need a strong leader who can make the big waves smaller and make us feel better about what we’re doing. Right now, we don’t have that.

“Whether I trust him or not doesn’t matter. There are around 250 guys on tour. That’s a lot of people to satisfy. But what I know can help and know is right is that we need someone to stand up in front of everyone and lead the charge, whatever direction we’re going in, and wear the hard shots so the players don’t have to and take command of a fractured and sensitive situation.”

From his own point of view, Schauffele has echoed the majority of his peers in stating that men's pro golf really needs to come back together in one way or another - highlighted by the TV ratings his thrilling battle with LIV Golf's Bryson DeChambeau generated at the recent PGA Championship.

He said: “Bryson makes people turn the television on and there are several guys on LIV that are missed in terms of the full package we can provide a golf fan, so it’s got to come back together at some point."

In the same interview, Schauffele admitted he did once meet with LIV officials in Saudi Arabia over a potential switch in tours. But the 30-year-old Californian said he quickly realized the move would not work for him and returned his focus exclusively to the PGA Tour.

Schauffele said: “It’s funny, my friends used to send me screenshots of me as the favourite to join LIV, and the odds were solely based on me not commenting much, but actions speak louder than words.

“I’ve shown up to play PGA Tour events week in, week out. I love my job, this is where I’m at, and I don’t really see myself going anywhere else. I had to at least sit down and listen to what was being offered, but once I realised it wasn’t really going to fit in with how I envisioned my career, it just fizzled out.”

Xander Schauffele has cemented himself as the world's second-best male golfer right now after finally capturing his maiden Major title at the 2024 PGA Championship.

The American has consitently been a world's top-10 player for a number of years now but his game has been elevated in 2024 after joining up with renowned coach Chris Como towards the end of last year. 

He has nine top-10 finishes in 12 starts this season on the PGA Tour, including a Major win, a runner-up at the Players Championship and another runner-up at the Wells Fargo Championship.

We obviously knew he was a better golfer than when he joined the PGA Tour in the 2016/17 season, when he won the Rookie of the Year honors and became the first rookie to win the Tour Championship, but just how has Xander's statistics improved in those seven years?

He arrived on the PGA Tour as a very complete player already after making it through the Korn Ferry Tour Playoffs. He managed four top-10s in 23 starts on the PGA Tour's feeder circuit but recorded a stand-out season in his debut year in the big league.

As well as capturing the Tour Championship, he also won his maiden title at The Greenbrier and became the highest-ever rookie finisher in the FedEx Cup at 3rd.

In terms of his statistics, he was gaining strokes in all areas of the game barring around the greens. He ranked 138th around the greens and was also outside the top 100 in Strokes Gained: Approach. 

The best part of his game was his driving, where he gained over half a stroke vs the field to rank 17th.

Fast forward to 2024 and Schauffele now ranks 2nd off the tee, and he's also gone from 34th to 2nd in SG: Total, too.

Around the green remains his weakest statistic but he is no longer losing strokes vs the field and has gone from 138th to 36th. That 36 number is also his lowest ranking in all categories of the game - so the weakest part of his game is still the 36th-best on the PGA Tour.

One area has become weaker since his rookie season though, but only just. In his rookie season he gained 0.402 strokes on the greens but now only gains 0.398. It's almost identical and luckily hasn't harmed his total SG number of 2.265.

That means he gains 2.265 strokes vs the field in every single PGA Tour round he plays, and that's gone up by 1.384 since his first year on tour.

Xander Schauffele Strokes Gained stats: 2017 vs 2024

So how is Schauffele managing to rank so highly in these crucial statistics?

There's a couple of clear improvements in 2024 vs his rookie season, which are his driving accuracy and his greens in regulation percentage.

His clubhead speed has increased but driving distance hasn't, albeit that is only measured on two holes each round so that's one to take with a healthy pinch of salt.

What is important, though, is the fact that he is now finding over 68% of fairways vs just under 59% in 2017. If a course has four par 3s and 14 par 4s and 5s, that means he's finding an average of 9.57 fairways per round vs 8.23 in 2017, which is an increase of 1.34 each day and over five more in every tournament he plays.

More fairways equals more greens, right? In Xander's case, that's correct, with his greens in regulation percentage rising from an impressive 68% in his rookie year up to 70.41%. He was already a very strong ball striker, ranking 26th as a rookie but he's now up to 11th.

But when he missed greens back then, he 'only' got it up-and-down 57.55% of the time, which left him down in 125th on the PGA Tour. Seven years later and he's up to 3rd with an incredible total of 71.18%.

In 2024, Schauffele finds more fairways, hits more greens, scrambles MUCH better, makes more up-and-downs from bunkers, has fewer putts per round, makes more birdies and takes an average of more than 1.5 fewer strokes per round.

The stats show a supremely impressive improvement and a sign that Schauffele is one of the game's true all-round players.

It's important to note that these 2024 statistics are only based on 13 events vs 28 in 2016/17, and the ever-increasing money in the game, along with his improved play, has meant he has earned a massive $6.7m more already.

The Olympic gold medallist now has a very well deserved Major title to his name as well as seven other PGA Tour victories and a huge 14 runner-up finishes.

His earnings stand at $50m on the PGA Tour with 152 cuts made from 175 starts. More wins, and potentially Majors, are sure to follow.

We're halfway through the men's Major season, so it's time to digest what we've seen after Scottie Scheffler's second Masters victory and Xander Schauffele's maiden Major win.

Scheffler romped home at Augusta to claim his second Major title, shooting a final round 68 to finish four clear of the seriously impressive Ludvig Aberg in his Major debut. It was pretty much over after Scheffler birdied 13 and 14 on Sunday in what was the World No.1 stamping his authority on the sport.

It was his third triumph in four starts, and he would then go on to win the very next week at the RBC Heritage, too.

At the PGA Championship, Schauffele birdied the 72nd hole to pip Bryson DeChambeau in a record week of scoring as he finally secured a very well deserved first Major title. It was a much tighter affair, with Viktor Hovland also in the running late on, in what was a true birdie-fest Major.

So, what are some of my takeaways now that we're two Majors down?

Scheffler

There was a point last year - and earlier this year, when he successfully defended the Players Championship - that it was hard to believe he had only won one Major.

Now he's won two, it still seems mad that he's only a two-time Major champion. Scheffler went on a similar run in 2022, but it fizzled out in terms of wins. Yet, this year does seem like it could be different.

His ball striking is better (and better than anyone on the planet) and he finally has the putter behaving. He's favorite to win the US Open next month, and many fans will expect him to be a three-time Major champion by the time the year's up.

There's no time for resting on his laurels, though, as he needs to make hay while the sun is shining and continue to eek the most out of this historic run as he possibly can. You never know when your game or confidence can leave you in this incredibly difficult and competitive sport.

Scheffler has truly pulled away from the pack over the last 12 months and I think we're all half-expecting him to continue doing just that. Would he be disappointed with just one Major win this year? Of course not, but he will surely feel like he can pick off another one at Pinehurst or Royal Troon.

Xander comfortably 2nd best male golfer in the world

To be honest with you, he already was the second best player in the world in many aspects. He wasn't getting over the line but in terms of strokes gained and the statistics, only Scheffler was better.

I think that's fair to be an official take now - and he's moved to No.2 in the OWGR now as well. Xander has elevated his game in such an impressive way this year to remain 2nd in Data Golf's ranking with a strokes gained of +2.55 vs the average PGA Tour player (every single round).

His work with Chris Como is paying off and he's gained 3mph clubhead speed this year, too, according to his PGA Tour stats. He's noticeably driving the ball further and hitting those high 180s in terms of ball speed.

Had Valhalla been more of a ball-striking test, he may have separated himself from the field a little bit more. He's got to be fancying his chances to pick off another Major over the next two months - and maybe even add another gold medal to his collection as well.

Rory

McIlroy's Major drought continues despite admitting the stars could be aligning after his brilliant Wells Fargo Championship win two weeks ago - where he took down Schauffele in the final group.

Schauffele got the last (or most recent) laugh as McIlroy added a T12 at Valhalla to his T22 at Augusta in what can be described as a decent showing in the Majors so far this year.

He's won three times in 2024 (Dubai Desert Classic, Zurich Classic, Wells Fargo Championship) so his game is clearly still there, he just needs things to go his way.

He rued a cold putter on Saturday at the PGA but finished strong on Sunday to almost crack the top-10. He's clearly got a lot going on after filing for divorce and attempting to rejoin the PGA Tour's board, but his play has been great so far this year.

The Northern Irishman is once again among the favorites for the US Open, and he will certainly be a factor at Pinehurst or Royal Troon over the next couple of months.

It's going to be a huge moment when McIlroy wins his fifth Major, and it could still be right around the corner.

A disappointing start for Rahm

Jon Rahm was seemingly the only story in December when he made the shock switch to LIV Golf after previously criticizing the league's 54-hole, shotgun start format. Money was arguably the biggest factor, and it's seen him become the highest paid golfer, according to Forbes, but he most certainly has not had a Major season to savor so far.

In LIV Golf, Rahm hasn't finished outside of the top-10, but in the Majors this year he has a best finish of T45, which came in his title defense at The Masters.

He then missed the cut on the number at Valhalla following a torrid start to his opening round where he was four-over after six holes. It was his first missed cut in a Major since the 2019 PGA Championship.

Rahm said he was surprised with his game and blamed his driving. He'll be hoping to put in some better showings at Pinehurst and Troon.

Hovland now best male golfer without a Major?

Now that Schauffele has ridden himself of the 'best male golfer yet to win a Major' tag, is the new man Viktor Hovland?

Hovland played incredibly well at Valhalla after returning to swing coach Joe Mayo following a poor start to the year that included a missed cut at Augusta.

He was right up there as one of the world's top players last year, where he won the FedEx Cup and put in a stunning display at the Ryder Cup.

He has six PGA Tour wins, two DP World Tour wins and four top-seven finishes in his last seven Majors.

If it's not him, the other contenders for best male player yet to win a Major have to be Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa, Tommy Fleetwood, Will Zalatoris, Joaquin Niemann, Ludvig Aberg, and Tyrrell Hatton.

These 'best players yet to win a Major' have seemingly won Majors fairly quickly based on the past few years, so there's every chance we'll see them pick off one or two over the next couple of years.

Tiger Woods...

For the first time I've found myself doubting Tiger Woods' ability to win tournaments again after his showings at the first two Majors.

Or, now I've written that out, his chance to win a PGA or US Open.

Woods' showing at Augusta was incredible. To make the cut after playing less than two rounds all year when some huge names missed the cut - including two reigning Major champions in Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman - was extraordinary. He ended up last of the players to make the weekend, but I could forgive him for a bad, rusty round. 

His showing at the PGA felt different, though, as he now had five competitive rounds under his belt for the year, but the rustiness still showed. He was one-under after 16 holes in round one before falling away, but it got me thinking that even if he was playing well, I would have found it hard to believe he could shoot 21-under around that course.

Schauffele, Scheffler, McIlroy, Rahm, Hovland and co. are just so good that when they're on form (like Scheffler at Augusta and Schauffele at Valhalla) they're realistically too fresh and too good for a rusty, 48-year-old Tiger Woods. Around a big and soft course like that, anyway, that isn't Augusta.

For him to win a Major again - which I do still believe he can do - I'm starting to think it can only come at The Masters and The Open, and he has to have had some competitive reps a week or two before. One tournament per month doesn't seem to be working for him at the moment at least, so why doesn't he try and get some reps in a regular PGA Tour event?

He's fighting for the PGA Tour in the boardrooms and would be well aware of what his presence at a regular event could do for the viewing figures in the face of a battle vs LIV Golf, and he'd love nothing more than to finally get past Sam Snead and win his 83rd PGA Tour title.

He looked much better physically at Valhalla, which was a huge positive. I just hope he can continue to play as much as his body will allow him to. If he's feeling sharp and can hit it well and putt and chip like we know he can, he can easily still win again. 

That just seems like quite a big 'if'.

Bryson

When Bryson DeChambeau joined LIV Golf in 2022 for a huge fee while struggling with form and injuries, golf's great showman had been somewhat forgotten about on the Major stage.

Yet, he is well and truly back, and he is now a firm crowd favorite thanks to his entertaining style of play and his new-found love for content creation, which has seen him grow his YouTube channel to over 600,000 subscribers. I wrote earlier this week that DeChambeau's move to LIV Golf was perfect for him - and it really seems like it has been.

Away from YouTube and inside the ropes, DeChambeau looks more than ready to win his second Major title. He clearly learned a lot from his slow fall back at Augusta, where he held the round-one lead and eventually finished T6th.

At Valhalla, he matched the previous record score-to-par in a men's Major of 20-under (just a shame Schauffele beat it) and reminded us all of why he was such a big loss for the PGA Tour.

He's fun to watch and he's a generational talent (you don't win the NCAA Division 1 title, US Amateur and US Open if you're not).

His career continues to be a fascinating and enjoyable one to follow. It's great to have him back.

Who will stop the American run of Major wins?

Americans have now won five Majors in a row (Koepka, Clark, Harman, Scheffler, Schauffele) after a run of three consecutive international winners (Fitzpatrick, Smith, Rahm).

So will they make it six in a row or can an international player stop them?

Scheffler, Schauffele, Koepka, Morikawa, DeChambeau and Homa are among the strong US contingent favored for the US Open, but European golf is looking very strong right now.

McIlroy, Rahm, Hovland, Aberg, Fleetwood, Lowry, Fitzpatrick, Hatton, and Nicolai Hojgaard are all capable of winning the biggest events, and many have thrown in some very strong performances so far this year.

Then there's Australia's Cameron Smith and Jason Day, Chile's Joaquin Niemann, Japan's Hideki Matsuyama, and Korea's Tom Kim.

I'm not sure that this really means anything, but it's one to follow.

Spieth and JT still not quite back yet

Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas are two of golf's biggest names with 28 PGA Tour wins and five Majors between them - but they still don't quite seem to be in that upper-tier right now.

The pair haven't won in over two years (Spieth 2022 RBC Heritage, Thomas 2022 PGA Championship) and you feel that the game needs them back challenging and winning Majors.

Thomas looks like he's making a return to form after a poor season by his standards last year, while Spieth has just one top-10 and four missed cuts in his last eight starts.

I'm hoping we see them both back challenging on Sunday afternoon at Pinehurst and/or Troon.

If you win a Major championship, you're going to celebrate accordingly, right? Xander Schauffele certainly enjoyed his moment in the spotlight after securing the PGA Championship for not only his maiden Major but also his first victory since July 2022.

Schauffele more or less led from start to finish at Valhalla Golf Club, taking advantage of his excellent form this year and the kind scoring conditions in Louisville to ultimately reign supreme on an all-time record 21-under-par.

His birdie on the 72nd hole provided a moment of relief for the 30-year-old, ending his Major drought, but only after he had pulled off a sublime recovery shot from the rough - later copied (or at least attempted) by Golf Channel analyst, Johnson Wagner.

Once the final putt dropped and he had been showered with congratulations, including from beaten rival Bryson DeChambeau, though, Schauffele expressed his delight at winning one for his family and friends.

He said: "Yeah, my family and my team [brought me here]. They've been the most concrete thing that I have. My family, my wife and my team, everyone that's on it, they know who they are. But they're steadfast. They keep me in line, and it's so awesome for me to win one for them so we can all celebrate together."

And celebrate they did. In a video shared by Schauffele's wife, Maya on Instagram which was accompanied by DMX's iconic hit 'Party Up', a whole group of people can be seen drinking champagne from the famous Wanamaker Trophy with pizza boxes on the table behind them at their accommodation for the week.

As well as Schauffele drinking from the trophy he won, his caddie Austin Kaiser was also captured still wearing his looper bib from the tournament.

Explaining who might have been there in his post-tournament press conference earlier that evening, Schauffele said: "My uncle is my agent. He's been with me from the beginning of the year. My brother cooks for me. He's not a professional cook, but he can make some tasty food, so he's been willing to help me. Hopefully, he stays out with me a little bit longer. He just got engaged.

"My wife, she's sort of the rock in my life. She's constant for me. My two dogs. I had an old buddy and his girlfriend travel down from New York. I think you saw probably Max's caddie Joe was there. He's really close with Austin [Kaiser].

"I'm good buddies with Joe, and Dave [Pelekoudas], Taylor Moore's caddie, as well. Those are the people that I saw coming off the green, and then Chris was there, as well. He kind of hung around and was here for it, which was awesome."

Schauffele is not included in the field to play the Charles Schwab Challenge on the PGA Tour this week, with a return expected at the Memorial Tournament which starts on June 6.

Xander Schauffele admitted that it was a relief to finally claim his first Major Championship without needing to go head to head with Bryson DeChambeau in a playoff – something he said would not have been “a whole lot of fun”.

DeChambeau had posted the target at 20-under to apply huge pressure on the man chasing his maiden victory in one of the coveted 'Big 4' events, but Schauffele showed terrific mental strength to get the job done by a single stroke, courtesy of a birdie on the last hole.

Afterwards, he offered a fascinating insight into what was going on in his head at various stages of what was an enthralling final day.

“Someone like me has pretty much tried everything, to be completely honest, that hasn't won in two years,” admitted the new World No.2, whose last win came at the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open.

“You try not to look at the leaderboards until the back nine, you try not to look at them early, you try not to look at them at all.

“Today I looked at them. I looked at them all day. I really wanted to feel everything. I wanted to address everything that I was feeling in the moment.”

On what was racing through his mind in the closing moments, he said: “I really did not want to go into a playoff with Bryson. Going up 18 with his length, it's not something that I was going to have a whole lot of fun with.

“If he tomahawks a draw off the water it's literally going to be like a driver, 9-iron maybe – you can ask him – 8-iron.”

After being comprehensively outplayed by Rory McIlroy the week prior, when the Northern Irishman overturned an overnight deficit to take the Wells Fargo title, Schauffele would have been wondering if history was about to repeat itself.

Viktor Hovland and DeChambeau made it a three-horse race down the stretch and Schauffele was forced to dig deep on more than one occasion, which made victory all the sweeter.

“I just kept telling myself I need to earn this, earn this and be in the moment, and I was able to do that,” said Schauffele, who faced a six-footer on the final hole to win – a putt that he wasn’t too convinced about.

“I was pretty nervous. I walked up, I saw a little left to right. I kept reading it, kept kind of panning,” he explained.

“Started to look right to left to me and I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is not what I want for a winning putt. I ended up playing it straight. It did go left, caught the left side.

“When it lipped in, I don't really remember it lipping in, I just heard everyone roaring and I just looked up to the sky in relief.”

Not long after the final putt dropped for a 65, Schauffele was on the phone to his father, but he joked that the conversation became too emotional and he had to hang up.

“He was crying on the phone. It made me pretty emotional. I told him I had to hang up because I had to walk down,” said Schauffele, after claiming the Wananaker trophy. “I couldn't show up looking like the way I was.”

Describing his father as his mentor, he added: “My dad is referred to as the ogre, but he's a big teddy bear.

“Steve Stricker wins a tournament and he's crying. My dad is sitting there right on the couch crying with him. That's the kind of guy he is.”

Despite winning his first Major Championship and ridding himself of the ‘Best player never to have won a Major’ tag, Schauffele says there’s still just one player in the game that everyone has to chase.

“All of us are climbing this massive mountain. At the top of the mountain is Scottie Scheffler,” he said. “I won this today, but I'm still not that close to Scottie Scheffler in the big scheme of things.

“I got one good hook up there in the mountain up on that cliff, and I'm still climbing. I might have a beer up there on that side of the hill there and enjoy this, but it's not that hard to chase when someone is so far ahead of you.”

Xander Schauffele stepped out of the shadows and ripped the “best player never to have won a major” monkey off his back by capturing the 2024 USPGA Championship at Valhalla. Leading pretty much from start to finish, it was an emphatic display and one that Schauffele will be hoping propels him to further major glory over the coming years.

At first glance, Schauffele’s equipment choices seem fairly conventional, but diving a little deeper into his bag uncovers a few interesting choices…

1. Raw irons

Shauffele’s iron play was imperious throughout the week and was a huge factor in his success. A Callaway Staff player, Schauffele uses the Apex TCB iron, but the eagle-eyed amongst you might have noticed a slightly unusual appearance with regard to the brownish color of the heads. This is because Schauffele prefers a raw finish on his irons. Essentially, what this means is that Callaway has deliberately missed out the final stage of protective finishing that it would ordinarily undertake for retail equipment which allows Schauffele’s irons to rust and discolor over time. This practice is relatively commonplace in the best wedges but for some reason not so with the rest of the irons. 

Callaway and a few other major OEMs have released selected models with a raw finish in recent years but for some reason, the finish hasn’t captured the imagination of the wider audience and remains more of a 'tour only' option.

I for one, love this rusty, industrial look and would welcome more models being offered in a raw finish.

2. 10-iron

If you were paying close attention throughout the broadcasts this week, you might have seen one or two close-ups of the new PGA Champions bag and spotted a slightly unusual sight, a 10-iron. With traditional iron numbers stopping at 9, some of you may have been wondering what a 10-iron actually is? Well, the answer is very simple and probably as you would imagine. The 10-iron is just a direct pitching wedge replacement, same loft, same bounce, same everything, just with a far more logical name in my opinion.

As someone who games the Callaway Apex CB irons, I can also tell you that I play with both a 10 and 11-iron. Once again, as you would imagine, the 11 iron is simply a re-labeled gap wedge. In my set, the 10-iron is 46 degrees and the 11-iron sits at 50 degrees.

3. Two Different Grip Types

Congratulations if you spotted this during the course of the week, you are officially as big of a geek as me. Xander has an interesting nuance when it comes to the grips he uses. Throughout the bulk of his bag, he uses the Golf Pride Multi-Compound Align grips, which feature a very prominent raised spine down the back, allowing you to easily find the correct finger placement and replicate this time after time. 

However, when it comes to the wedges, he switches to a standard, round Golf Pride Multi-Compound Grip without the Align feature. This is a practice I have seen in only a handful of Tour players' bags before but it makes a lot of sense. With the wedges, top players will generally spend a lot of time manipulating the face either open or closed to produce different shots, so if you have a perfectly aligned raised spine on the back of the grip, as soon as you alter the face angle, that spine is now in a different and potentially uncomfortable position. Using a round grip in the scoring clubs is a good way of alleviating that problem and allowing more freedom.

4. Alignment Sticks

The next interesting point in Xander’s equipment comes in the form of his alignment sticks. Now, as potentially one of the most inanimate and boring pieces of equipment in the bag, you may be wondering where I am going with this, but bear with me...

A stickler for a disciplined routine, Schauffele actually uses one of his alignment sticks at the start of his practice sessions to ensure he is standing the correct distance from the ball. This stick, marked with specific measurements is placed on the edge of the ball closest to him, perpendicular to his footline. This allows Schauffele to see exactly how far his toe line should be from the ball with each club and he can consistently reinforce these good habits throughout his practice.

It may seem like nothing, but when you consider that just being a half inch too close or far away from the ball can result in significant heel or toe strikes, surely this simple preventative practice method is worth the minimal effort.

5. Mixed Brand Wedges

Unlike many touring pros who are seeking constant feel, Schauffele employs a mixed brand wedge set-up at the bottom of his bag. After his aforementioned 10-iron, Xander uses a Callaway Jaws Raw 52-degree gap wedge before, like so many, deciding to trust Bob Vokey with the shortest of shots, using a Vokey SM10 56-degree wedge and a Vokey WedgeWorks Proto 60-degree. 

Another interesting point on his Vokey wedges, that again is fairly common in the professional ranks, is that they are bent a little weaker than their stated loft. This will predominantly be to hit a certain yardage but can also be to remove offset. Bending weaker will reduce the appearance of offset while bending strong will increase it, and with most better players preferring little to no offset in the scoring clubs, you will rarely see a wedge bent stronger than its stated loft in the pro game.

6. Very Custom Putter

You don’t win major championships without putting well, and Schauffele certainly did that. Those putts were holed with a (very) custom Odyssey Toulon Las Vegas putter. The first thing you will notice is that it is bright red! Now, this isn’t the first bright red putter I can recall winning a major championship, Jason Day and Sergio Garcia spring to mind with their TaylorMade Spider putters at the USPGA and Masters respectively, so maybe there is something in it?!

Schauffele’s Odyssey version is the popular number 7 and he uses the CH (or plumber's neck) version. The face is very deeply milled and painted black which is interesting of itself. This may be because Schauffele prefers the visual distinction of a contrasting face, or it may simply be a marketing trick from Odyssey attempting to create the illusion of its DFX face. It is fitted with a matt black shaft and Superstroke Zenergy Tour 2.0 grip. While you might not be able to pick up Xander’s exact model, the First Run Las Vegas H1 is available from the Toulon website with some pretty cool customization options.

Xander Schauffele insists his game plan at the PGA Championship on Sunday will not be any different to normal - despite the American standing on the precipice of a first Major title.

Schauffele and Collin Morikawa lead a tightly-bunched leaderboard at Valhalla on 15-under, with Morikawa hunting a second PGA Championship and a third Major overall.

Schauffele opened up the week with a superb 62 before chaining together consecutive rounds of 68 to put himself in a strong position at Valhalla. It could have been even better, too, if not for a double bogey on the 15th on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Morikawa - who won the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park for his first Major - has gone 66-65-67 and appears well capable of going low once more.

But the pressure is likely to be felt more intensely by Schauffele on Sunday given the 30-year-old has not lifted a trophy since July 2022, despite being in several excellent positions to end that run - most recently at the Wells Fargo Championship and before that, the Genesis Invitational.

The San Diego-born golfer held a one-stroke advantage over Rory McIlroy at Quail Hollow earlier this month but ultimately fell by five. Schauffele also trailed close friend Patrick Cantlay by two at Riviera prior to both fading badly as Hideki Matsuyama stormed to victory.

Far from promising he will correct past mistakes and use learned lessons on a day where a low score is likely to be required in order to reign supreme, Schauffele says he will stick to his tried-and-tested game plan.

Asked how he will approach Sunday, Schauffele said: "Just like any other tournament for the most part. It's another Sunday. I typically love Sundays. I think I need to really just stay in my lane and do a lot of what I've been doing and just worry about myself.

"I mean, I said it yesterday... it's funny, so there's blood in the water. Everyone kind of laughed, and then Shane Lowry almost shot 61 today. Yeah, I imagine someone in that threshold now that it's been done twice is going to shoot something low and post a number early. I imagine that's going to happen. Like I said, just staying in my lane is what's going to make me play well."

Schauffele was later asked about what it would mean for him to make a long-awaited return to the winner's circle - a trip that is overdue given the World No.3's supremely-consistent play in 2024.

In classic Schauffele style, his response was modest. He said: "It would mean a lot. At the end of the day, it's just a result. Winning a tournament is just a result. All I can focus on are good golf shots and striking good putts.

"At the end of the day, wherever the cards fall, they fall. Yeah, it would mean a lot, obviously. It really is just a result. But yeah, like I said, it would mean a ton."

Schauffele and Morikawa will begin their final rounds at 2.35pm local time on Sunday, with the weather forecast in Louisville set fair for an uninterrupted day of action.

Xander Schauffele is a Major champion after holding off charges from Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland to win the PGA Championship at Valhalla.

The American began with a record-equalling 62 in the first round and finished with a record -21 total to win by one shot from Bryson DeChambeau. His final round of -6 featured a display of superb ball-striking as Schauffele made just one bogey on the 10th and responded with successive birdies.

Then Schauffele, who was beaten last weekend by Rory McIlroy at the Wells Fargo Championship, had to hold his nerve when DeChambeau got in the clubhouse on -20 which put him level. But the world No.3 kept his composure to produce clutch up and downs on the last two holes to finish with a par and then birdie putt, which went in the edge of the hole.

Schauffele ,30, said: "I was emotional after the putt lipped in. It has been a while since I won. I tried all day to keep focused. I had some weird breaks coming into the house but it is all good now. I really didn't want to go into a Play-Off with Bryson. I spoke to my dad on the phone who was bawling and he started to make me cry. I am just happy to win this one for my team."

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP LEADERBOARD

• -21 SCHAUFFELE
• -20 DECHAMBEAU
• -18 HOVLAND
• -15 DETRY, MORIKAWA
• -14 LOWRY,  ROSE
• -13 HORSCHEL, SCHEFFLER, THOMAS, MacINTYRE

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP QUICK LINKS

• PGA Championship Tee Times
• PGA Championship Prize Money Payout
• PGA Championship Live Stream
• Valhalla Golf Club: 9 Things To Know
• Perks of winning the PGA Championship

Hello and welcome to day four of the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa share the lead heading into the final round of the 2024 PGA Championship, but there's a stacked leaderboard right behind them. Stay tuned to find out how everything unfolds. Thank you for joining us!

START OF ROUND TWO DELAYED

The PGA has said that round two will be delayed by at least one hour due to "a serious accident" near the course.

REPORTS OF SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER BEING ALLEGEDLY DETAINED BY POLICE

Day two of the PGA Championship has descended into chaos with reports world No.1 and favourite Scottie Scheffler has been detained by police outside the club for allegedly trying to drive past cops following a deadly car crash.

SCHEFFLER'S PARTICIPATION NOW IN DOUBT

Scheffler, who shot four under in the first round, was due to tee off locally at 8.48am (1.48pm BST) with Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman but all tee times have now been pushed back an hour while officials try to resolve the drama which has seen Scheffler allegedly detained and handcuffed for a breach of traffic regulations following an earlier fatality on the roads nearby. Scheffler was not involved in the original accident but is in potential trouble for failing to stop.

CONFIRMATION OF NEW STARTING TIMES

The PGA Championship organisers have released a statement confirming all round 2 starting times are delayed 1 hour and 20 minutes from the originally published time. All spectator gates will open at 8:00 AM (local time).

LOUISVILLE METRO POLICE DEPARTMENT ISSUE STATEMENT

The Louisville metro police department have explained the circumstances behind a fatal accident outside Valhalla GC , which led to a large police presence outside the club before Scheffler later tried to drive past them as he was allegedly detained and handcuffed. The statement said: "About 5.00 ET this morning, the LMPD responded to a call of a vehicle collision involving a pedestrian and a bus. Our preliminary investigation found that an adult male pedestrian was crossing Shelbyville Roadsouth to the north when he was struck by a shuttle bus that was travelling eastbound in the compulsory centre land dedicated for buses. As a result, the pedestrian received fatal injuries and was pronounced dead on the scene. The LMPD traffic unit is investigating."

PROS FORCED TO WALK TO COURSE IN RAIN

The traffic chaos outside Valhalla following an earlier fatality, has forced players to get out of their courtesy cars and walk in, despite the wet weather. 

LOUISVILLE METRO POLICE RELEASE MUGSHOT OF SCHEFFLER 

Louisville Metro Police have confirmed they have booked world No.1 Scottie Scheffler over an earlier incident. We are waiting to learn if he will play today amid reports Scheffler has since been released. His caddy Ted Scott is at the course. According to ESPN, Scheffler has allegedly been charged with: "Second-degree assault of a police officer, Third-degree criminal mischief, Reckless driving and Disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic."

SCHEFFLER DUE TO RETURN TO VALHALLA SHORTLY

After an astonishing morning , including being detained and charged by local police for driving around the flow of traffic to get into the golf club, world No.1 Scottie Scheffler is due at the course shortly ahead of his tee time in an hour's time. We are expecting him to tee it up but it has not been confirmed yet.

SCHEFFLER BACK ON THE PROPERTY

Scottie Scheffler has returned to Valhalla following his shock earlier arrest and is due off in around 36 minutes. He is walking to the range now and has just been fist-pumped by Rickie Fowler.

SCHEFFLER WARMING UP ON THE RANGE

Scheffler, following his earlier arrest, was greeted by huge cheers back at Valhalla where he is now warming up on the range ahead of his imminent tee time. He has hit regular caddie Ted Scott by his side and his long-term coach. He is preparing to play but former champion John Daly has withdrawn due to a thumb injury.

MORE DETAILS ON THE MAN KILLED OUTSIDE THE CLUB 

"This morning we were devastated to learn that a worker with one of our vendors was tragically struck and killed by a shuttle bus outside Valhalla Golf Club. This is heartbreaking to all of us involved with the PGA Championship. We extend our sincere condolences to their family and loved ones.” - PGA of America

PLAY UNDERWAY

A very sombre tone at the club, but we are underway. It's wet. The course measures one yard than it was than yesterday but it's going to be playing very long. Remember last year's Open at Hoylake?!

SCHEFFLER'S STATEMENT 

This is the statement released by Scheffler. He's about to get his second round underway after being released. 

"This morning, I was proceeding as directed by police officers. It was a very chaotic situation, understandably so considering the tragic accident that had occurred earlier, and there was a big misunderstanding of what I thought I was being asked to do. I never intended to disregard any of the instructions. I’m hopeful to put this to the side and focus on golf today. 

"Of course, all of us involved in the tournament express our deepest sympathies to the family of the man who passed away in the earlier accident this morning. It truly puts everything in perspective."

APPLAUSE FOR SCHEFFLER

Lots of cheers as the World No.1's name is announced on the 10th tee. Will Scheffler hit the fairway after what can only be described as a bizarre start to the morning? No. It's a bit of a wide but no major troubles. That weather looks nasty, as does the rough.

SCHEFFLER'S LAWYER ON THIS MORNING'S INCIDENT...

KICK-IN BIRD FOR SCHEFFLER ON 10

Well, that was nicely done. A wedge from about 100 yards. As much as dealing with what's gone on this morning, the World No.1 appears to be fine playing in the wet. A little bit of spin takes that wedge back to the side of the hole and he'll move to -5. I'm guessing it's a bit of a bonus starting on a par 5, ease yourself into the round and get accustomed to the grim weather conditions. 

SCOTTIE, SCOTTIE, SCOTTIE

The crowd is getting behind the World No.1. And Scheffler is looking quite relaxed, even more so after that delightful wedge that helps him move to -5. Kim, meanwhile, makes a nice save to remain at -6, just three shots back of leader Schauffele. 

11TH NO PICNIC 

212 yards to the pin and that's where we find Scheffler, who is now just four shots behind Schauffele. The drizzle continues to fall but it's not actually as grim as I made out a short while ago - lots of players in polo shirts. All three players (Clark, Harman and Scheffler) miss the green. Scheffler won't face too many difficulties where he is in the fringe. 

MEMORIES OF HOYLAKE

Brian Harman rolls a 6-footer in for par at the 11th after a 7/10 bunker shot, before hiding back under his umbrella. I can't help but think of Royal Liverpool last year, where the man in black and gray waterproofs holed putt after putt in the rain en route to winning the Claret Jug. 

Scheffler faces a putt of a similar range for his par, but it's a bit of a wide and he drops back to -4. One step forward and one back. 

TOM KIM TO GO -7...

From range and it hangs on the lip. Kim remains on -6. On 12, Scheffler finds the semi rough with his tee shot - should be fine there. 

HOLE-IN-ONE ALERT

Take a bow, Sebastian Soderberg. It's the first ace of the week, 169 yards on the 8th. 

COLLIN ON THE MOVE, SCOTTIE TO -5

Morikawa trickles one in to move to -6, three back. He wasn't that happy with his approach to the 13th, but he rolled that one in beautifully from about 12 feet - just grabs the edge of the cup. Kim, also -6, hits hybrid into the 14th and finds the heavy rough. He won't be the only one shaking his head at the 246-yard par-3 today. Birdie 13, bogey 14 and most players will be happy - just avoid those big numbers on the brute that is 14. 

Meanwhile, Rahm is fighting hard today. He finished his round nicely yesterday and has a very makeable putt coming up to get under par. Then back to the World No.1 who holes a one in 10 putt to get back to -5: birdie, bogey, birdie start. 

KIM BACK TO -5

After some good recovery work, Kim misses from about eight feet on the tough par-3 14th and slips back to -5. Rahm does indeed get into the red, converting from shortish range to move to -1. He's fighting hard. Scoring is Ok despite the wet - nice soft greens, just keep the ball on those fairways and out of the long stuff. 

LOWRY LOOKING GOOD

The man with the lovely soft hands, Shane Lowry, strokes one in to get to -4. His beard is on a par with Scottie Scheffler, very neat and tidy, just like their short games. Talking of the World No.1, he's in the middle of 13 with a gap wedge - and that only mean one thing: birdie time. He leaves himself a very makable 15-footer. 

HUBBARD TRIMS XANDER'S LEAD

The lead is two. Not a lot Schauffele can do about that - he's still sitting inside by a nice, warm fire. Hubbard gets to -7, while Scheffler misses an opportunity to get to within three at 13. He hits a very aggressive putt and still has some work to do. Kim gets his dropped shot back at 14 back straight away at the next. 

ARTISTRY FROM RAHM

The Spaniard in not in an ideal position on the par-3 14th. He opens the blade and flies the ball all the way to the hole from heavy greenside rough. He should escape with a par. Does so. Good work, picks up half a shot there. 21 players through 14 so far, 2/21 have found the green. Scheffler to make it 3/22... nope. Comes up short. It's the perfect leave, though, and he might even fancy holing it from there. 

FURTHER DOWN THE LEADERBOARD

We've not seen much of Sweden's Alex Noren, but he's alongside Scheffler at -5. He's -1 today and playing the 9th. Harris English also at -5. 

GREAT TOUCH

Scheffler has all the shots. Not a bad strategy on the brutal 246-yard par-3 14th. Leave it short just in front of the green, lag a 50-foot putt to tap-in distance. 

HELLO HUBBARD

Quietly going about his business is Mark Hubbard. -8, just one shot back. His latest birdie comes on the monster 12th. It's hard work updating this leaderboard. Tom Kim narrowly misses a chance to get to -7. 

RAHM MAKING PROGRESS

Jon Rahm is fighting back well. He'll be liking these conditions and he's looking more and more like himself with each putt that drops. Needed to get on a roll and he's certainly on one. Now -2 after a birdie on 15 - that's two birdies in three holes for the Spaniard. 

WHO WILL JOIN XANDER AT -9?

They're circling. Hubbard is just one back but there is a big group at -6. I'm not sure Xander will have the lead by the time he tees off - this is bubbling nicely. Back out there, then, and we find Cam Young right at 15 on some rocks. He's just above ground and weighing up his options. I want to see him hit this. However, I do worry about his wrists and he might want to ask for a pair of goggles to guard against stray shards of rock. 

Here we go. No problem, perfect ball first contact and he's back on the fairway. Scheffler from distance at the 15th, safe par. The rain is starting to come down a bit more heavily now. Still warm enough for polo shirts but if this was knockabout with your pals, you'd go back to the clubhouse for a nice cup of coffee. 

WHO'S HUBBARD?

I hear you say. I know all about him, of course, being a golf journalist and all that. He's 34 years old, was born in Denver and attended San Jose State University. He hasn't won on the PGA Tour and sits at number 81in the OWGR. No wins in 214 events. Could the PGA Championship be his first? 

JD WITHDRAWS

Former champ John Daly is a WD - injured thumb. He posted 11 over in the first round and we'll be seeing no more of the two-time Major winner, sadly. 

BIRDIE CHANCE FOR SCHEFFLER

The World No.1 plays an absolute bullet on the 509-yard par-4 16th, a laser of an approach that rolls out just behind the flag to about 12 feet. A lot of players are hitting woods into the green, but Scottie picks that one off with a long iron with the minimum of fuss and off it flies through the drizzle - what a sound. 

Harman shows how it's meant to be done on the green - end over end it rolls for a birdie. Looked like the Open champ hit a hybrid in. It was a beauty, as was the putt. Wyndham Clark makes an impressive up-and-down. Then Scheffler (it's more like 10 feet) steps up... and burns the edge. Just a par. 

TROUBLE FOR HUBBARD

Hubbard is in a spot of bother hacking out of thick hay. Talking of struggles, Phil Mickelson is +3 but holes a monster putt for a big roar. I'm not sure we'll be seeing the former champ this weekend, but nice to see that little tip of the cap from Lefty.

Morikawa reaches -7 with a birdie on the par-5 18th. A nice positive stroke. He's obviously had a recent taste of being back in Major contention with a good week at the Masters. Elsewhere, Aaron Rai is going along nicely. The Englishman nearly gets another one to drop, stays -4. 

Harris English plays a sublime pitch to set up a birdie opportunity in the 4th. He'll move to -7 if he makes that. Alex Noren is on that number after a birdie on 12. The phrase 'bunching up' comes to mind. More on Hubbard's struggles shortly... 

RAHM LOSES GROUND

It's been an up and down day for Rahm so far today. He was at -2 but threw in a double at the 17th. Hubbard makes par on 15 after looking nailed on to drop a shot. English makes his birdie to get to -7. 

MIN WOO LEE LOVING LIFE

Just the three chip-ins from Min Woo Lee today. The Aussie currently sits at -2. 

WEATHER UPDATE

Just drizzle. No wind. Not exactly cold, either. Scheffler's not bothered. Plays a beauty of a chip/pitch from the thick greenside rough and I'm going to give him that short birdie putt. It's looking like -6 for Scheffler who continues to climb the leaderboard. 

HARMAN TO -3, SCHEFFLER TO -6

Brian Harman holes one of those mid distance putts - he's really good at those. I said it earlier, it's like watching a repeat of his Open performance. This is a long course and he's not the longest, but tell him that and throw in some bad weather and he'll show you what he can do. Scheffler also birdies 18. He's closing in is the World No.1. 

SCHEFFLER SPLITS THE FAIRWAY

Scottie is now onto his 'back nine' which starts on the 1st. No real point in showing his drives, may as well join him for his approach shots from the center on the green. I mentioned how he's Tiger-like yesterday, but Woods in his pomp kept us guessing a bit with some wild drives. The current World No.1 would rather not make the game harder than it needs to be - just fairways and greens. Repeat.   

Sunset

Sunset is officially at 8.49pm, so just over seven and half hours away. The last group out is due to tee off 4 hours and 37 minutes before that. Doesn’t look like we will be finishing the second round today, especially as the day is overcast which will hasten the evening gloom. But I will be here until the last ball is hit, whenever that may be.

When are the remainder of the first-day leaders out?

Xander Schauffele tees off in about an hour and a half. Rory McIlroy is out 22 minutes after him, and Sahith Theegala and Tony Finau take to the course just over half an hour after Rory.

Hubbard soon to go into joint lead?

He is one shot off the lead and he is playing the 18th hole, which has yielded the most birdies this tournament.

Hubbard into co-lead

He achieves that birdie on the par-5 18th hole. His drive is 307 yards and into the rough. He then sends the ball 125 yards further forwards and onto the fairway leaving him with a 111-yard approach shot. He hits a good 'un and then drains the 7ft putt that he has left himself. 

He has played his first nine holes today with three birdies and six pars. He now goes to the 1st tee to play his second nine.

Collin Morikawa makes it a three-way tie for lead

He does so courtesy of a 17ft birdie putt. He is four under today thru 14.

The first PGA Championship

The PGA Championship started in 1916. On January 17 that year Philadelphia businessman Rodman Wanamaker hosted a lunch at the Taplow Club in New York City where, among the guests, were Walter Hagen and Francis Ouimet. At this lunch Wanamaker outlined his vision for an organisation which would promote interest in professional golf and advance the welfare professional golfers. Thus the PGA of America was formed.

The PGA Championship was founded by the PGA of America, with Wanamaker paying the expenses of the competitors and providing the trophy and the prize money. The first PGA Championship was held at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, New York and won by Englishmen Jim Barnes.

COLLIN MORIKAWA TAKES solo lead

It is with his third consecutive birdie and his second successive birdie putt from the edge of the green.

PGA of America statement

"“Our primary concern today remains with the family of John Mills, who lost his life in a tragic accident early this morning while reporting to work. As it relates to the incident involving Scottie Scheffler, we are fully cooperating as local authorities review what took place. While the legal process plays out, questions should be directed to Scheffler’s attorney or local authorities.”

Lovely graphic recently popped up on screen

Scottie Scheffler has spent 87 weeks so far as World No. 1. The earliest he could overtake Tiger Woods' total of number weeks as World No. 1 is....

...October 21, 2035. 

Tiger has spent 683 weeks as top dog. He is currently on the range. He tees off in about half an hour.

The leader in the clubhouse

Is now Harris English. He went round in 67 today and has risen 13 places on the leaderboard to T5 during the course of it. His round contained six birdies and two bogeys, and follows on from his 68 yesterday.

Date Set For Scottie Scheffler Court Hearing After Arrest

An arraignment hearing has been set for Tuesday 21 May at 9am following the incident that led to Scheffler's arrest outside Valhalla. 

Five birdies in a row for Morikawa

The last one was via a 5ft putt on the 8th hole. He has one more hole to play in his second round. He has not dropped a shot today and is now two shots clear of Hubbard.

We have a new clubhouse leader

It is Thomas Detry, who makes eagle on the 18th after hitting his 225-yard shot into the green to within about eight-and-half feet of the hole. He is round in 67 after his opening round of 66. His clubhouse lead will be short-lived as Morikawa is soon to finish.

Morikawa drops a shot on an unlikely hole

It is on the 9th hole, which he played last. Surprising place to drop his only shot of the round as this hole has seen the least bogeys of any. But he is round in 65, and he is the clubhouse leader two shots under Detry. He is also the leader on and off the course. Xander Schauffele is now out on the course and has made par on his first two holes.

Horrendous start for Tiger

After a par on the 1st hole, he gets a triple bogey on the par-4 2nd. His travails on the hole included chipping from one greenside bunker across the green into another bunker. He has now moved from +1 to +4 for the tournament. Unlikely that he will make it through to the weekend.

Scheffler finishes with a 66

He is two shots off leader Morikawa. It has been an eventful day one way and another for the World No, 1. It started with him being arrested on the way to the golf course and taken away in handcuffs and made to change into an orange jumpsuit – why? – for his mug shot.

It has been a difficult day for him, but not nearly as difficult as that for the family and friends of the poor soul who lost his life earlier when knocked down by a bus when on his way to work at the tournament.

Worth underlining that Scheffler was not involved in that at all. He was arrested for failing to follow, it seems, police traffic instructions and what may have happened the aftermath of that. 

Scheffler had earlier issued a statement: “This morning, I was proceeding as directed by police officers. It was a very chaotic situation, understandably so considering the tragic accident that had occurred earlier, and there was a big misunderstanding of what I thought I was being asked to do. I never intended to disregard any of the instructions. I’m hopeful to put this to the side and focus on golf today. Of course, all of us involved in the tournament express our deepest sympathies to the family of the man who passed away in the earlier accident this morning. It truly puts everything in perspective.”

Scheffler has been doing a press conference

He spoke well, with compassion for the bereaved and of his respect for the police and praised those police who dealt with him. He said he could not say much about the incident, but it was just a big misunderstanding. He detailed his fear and confusion. He also said he did his warm-up routine whilst in the prison cell. Said there was never any question of him not playing so long as he could get back to the course in time, something he was unsure would happen.

There will be more about his press conference, and direct quotes from it, on this site later.

Hubbard is in the house

He finishes with a 68. It threatened to slip away from him with back-to-back bogeys coming down his finishing stretch, but he pulled it back together. He is tied third on nine under par.

Steady start for Schauffele to round two

He has the completed a third of the round with five pars and a birdie. His birdie came at the first par 3. 

Wells still doing well

Yesterday Jeremy Wells became the second club pro in the past 20 years to break 70 in the first round of the PGA Championship. The other was Bob Sowards, who opened with a 69 at Atlanta Athletic Club in 2011 and finished the first round T13 before he missed the cut by one shot after carding a 76 in the second round.

Wells was T31 after the first round. He has started his second round birdie-birdie. He is now T19.

What score should the winner be looking for after 36 holes?

Well, 20 of the last 21 Majors have been won by someone who was within three shots of the lead after 36 holes. 

Will Rahm make the cut?

Jon Rahm has made the cut in his last 18 Major appearances but his 72 today added to his opening 70 means he is level par for the tournament. The cut line is currently -1. The top 70 and ties go through to the weekend. T56 is on -1; T74 on even par.

This is his second Major appearance since joining LIV. He finished T45 at the Masters.

How are the LIV Golfers faring?

This is how those who qualified are doing:Brooks Koepka – T12
Bryson DeChambeau - T12
Cameron Smith - T32
Martin Kaymer - T42
Joaquin Niemann – T54
Jon Rahm - T74
Tyrrell Hatton - T74
Dustin Johnson - T98
Andy Ogletree - T118
Phil Mickelson - T118

This is how those who received a special invitation are faring:
Lucas Herbert - T12
Patrick Reed - T32
Dean Burmester - T40
Talor Gooch - T56
Adrian Meronk - T88
David Puig - T108

More from Scottie Scheffler's post-round press conference

My colleague Mike Hall has written about Scottie Scheffler's post-round press conference. 

Schauffele takes solo lead

He drains a birdie putt of a fairly hefty distance on the par-4 9th hole and goes to -12. It is his third birdie of the round following ones on the par-3 3rd and par-5 7th.

Collin Morikawa has been speaking to the media

My colleague Matt Cradock has reported on Collin Morikawa's post-round press conference 

Scot free

This is the 106th PGA Championship. No Scotsman has ever won the PGA Championship. The first two PGA Championships – these were the days when it was a matchplay tournament – had Scots in the final. But both times they lost to Englishman Jim Barnes; Jock Hutchison in 1916 and Fred McLeod in 1919 being the vanquished Scots. Jim Barnes is the only Englishman to have won the PGA Championship.

The Masters has only had one Scottish winner, and two English ones. But nine different Englishmen and eight Scots have won the US Open, and the only nationality to have done better in this event is the US, with 61 winners. Twenty-two Scots and 13 Englishmen have won the Open, placing these nationalities second and third on that list behind America, with 31 different winners.

If Scotland are to break their duck at this PGA Championship it will have to be Robert MacIntyre who does it as he is the only Scot in the 156-man field. He is T9 at present, and has just finished his first nine holes, which is the back nine.

There are eight Englishmen competing: Luke Donald, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Aaron Rai, Justin Rose, Jordan Smith and Matt Wallace.

Harris English is American. And why not: Zane Scotland is English.

Club pros at the weekend

In five of the last seven editions of the PGA Championship, a club pro has made the cut. Last year Michael Block did so, and gained headlines when he made a hole in one when playing with Rory McIlroy in the final round. Block ended up finishing tied 15th and won $288,333 in prize money for so doing. This also got Block an invitation for this year. He has six holes to go and is T141.

Jeremy Wells has slithered down to +1 after two bogeys and a double bogey in his most recent three holes. Wells has played five holes today and is yet to make a par, as he started with two birdies.

Where will the cut fall?

The most likely number is at a score of 141, which is one under par. Currently there are 75 golfers on one under-par or better and it is the top 70 and ties who go through to the third round.

Not really happening for Rory 

He has played 11 holes today with two birdies and a bogey and has slipped down nine places and is six shots off the lead. It is not calamitous, but neither does it feel like he is putting together a 36-hole springboard from which to win his first Major for a decade.

Theegala has gone a wandering

He has played a ball off a cart path onto a tree and into a cafe. Koepka has it his ball out of bounds. Now this is golf I can relate to.

Hovland hoving into view

The picture shows Viktor Hovland  throwing his ball to fans after holing out for eagle on the par-4 4th hole. He is putting together a charge up the leaderboard. He made bogey on the 5th, but has made four birdies in the following six holes and now lies T10.

Matchless

The PGA Championship is the only Major which has been run as a matchplay tournament. From its inception in 1916 up until 1957 it was thus. But this made the tournament a long one and the 1957 lost money. Television companies, too, prefer strokeplay tournaments as there is more action going on, more big names involved. So from 1958 the PGA Championship has been contested as 72-hole strokeplay event, exactly the same as the other Majors.

Brooks Koepka shows bouncebackability 

Not all the golfers were expecting, or keen, to play today

The fatality outside the entrance gates, coupled with Scottie Scheffler being in jail, caused many golfers to discuss if they would, or should, be playing today, as Matt Cradock reports.

That eagle by Viktor Hovland on the 4th hole

Record cut line to be set?

We should have a record low cut line in terms of relation to par. It’s projected at -1 (and it is hard to see now how it will be anything other than that figure). The lowest in PGA Championship history is par, at Bellerive Country Club in 2018. In 2001 and 2020 the cut line was +1.

Schauffele could have pulled away, but hasn’t

He played his first 10 holes today in four under. His last eight holes he has played in one over – a bogey on 11 and then seven pars. His putting held him back. But he has still tied the PGA Championship record  in relation to par after 36 holes.

Tiger's PGA Championship is over

He finishes with his third birdie of the round, a round of 77 though, marred deeply by two triple bogeys in his first four holes. He ends his tournament on seven over par. He is T138.

One shot too many over the 36 holes

With the cut poised to slice through at -1, those golfers who have finished their 36 holes on even par will miss out by a shot. They include Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg and Matt Fiztpatrick.

Dustin Johnson squeaks in

He makes the cut line at -1 by carding four birdies in this last seven holes.

Woods' unwelcome personal record

Today was the first time he has carded two triple bogeys in the same round on tour.

Score's the same; lead isn't

Xander Schauffele's -12 has tied the best score to par after 36 holes in a PGA Championship. It tied with Brooks Koepka's tally in 2019. Koepka lead by seven shots; Schauffele leads by one.

A jolly handy ace

Sebastian Soderberg made a hole in one on the 8th. Or to put it another way, he played the hole in two under par. He has finished the first two rounds on -2, so makes the cut by a couple of shots.

The lights are on in the clubhouse

It's getting darker and darker. There cannot be much more useable daylight left today. Some players are going to have to finish their rounds tomorrow. It was always going to be thus after the one-hour-and-twenty-minute delay starting today's rounds due to the fatal accident outside the club.

Macintyre drops shots on each of his last two holes

He drops out of the top 10 as a result.

Play has been suspended

It has got just too dark.  The second round will be resumed tomorrow. 

Welcome to our day three coverage

Welcome to our live blogging of the third day’s play from Valhalla. As a result of the delays to the start of today, which was due to fog, and yesterday, the third round will be played in three-balls with a two-tee start. But first they have to finish the second round, which they are doing now.

Round two tailenders

Must have been an odd feeling for those golfers who knew they were no longer able to make the cut, but who had to return to play two or three holes to finish off round two and then had to hang around to complete them due to the fog delaying the restart. Nerve wracking, too, for some others, one would imagine, especially for Zac Blair and Ben Polland, who were both on the cut line overnight but with the 8th and 9th holes still to play today.

Polland does not make the cut

He had a par putt on the final hole which he had to make and he did not. One of the club pros, Polland has played in three previous PGA Championships (in 2015, 2016 and 2021) when he also did not make the cut. Oh, poor chap – one shot and his plans for the rest of today have now changed.

Club pros who have made the cut

Two have qualified for the third and fourth rounds. Braden Shattuck knew last night that he had qualified, as he had finished his second round and was on -1. He played in last year's PGA Championship where he missed the cut.

Jeremy Wells, who also played last year at Oak Hill and missed the cut, has come through after finishing his second round this morning. But 33-year-old Ben Polland who won the 2024 PGA Professional Championship, did not when he dropped a shot on his final hole today.

ADRIAN OTAEGUI does the hokey cokey

The Spaniard was not within the cut when he resumed his second round. Then a birdie on the 15th means he was. He made par on 16 but has now bogeyed 17, so he is back to level par for the tournament. He needs a birdie on 18 to go through. The good news from his point of view is that the 18th hole has played the easiest of all the holes this tournament.

OTAEGUI misses cut

His third shot on the par-5 18th went beyond the flag but spins back off the green. A chip and tap-in putt later and he walks off with par on this hole and for his tournament overall. It is the fifth cut he has missed in his last six Majors. 

The second round has been completed

Seventy-eight golfers have got through to, er, the weekend. Could be some slow play and hold ups this afternoon. That is 26 groups of three-balls to fit onto an 18-hole course at the same time in the third round. They are going to be bunched up.

Happiest man who has played today?

If it is not those who were on or around the cut line who have gone on to make the cut, then it is Dean Burmester, who eagled the 18th hole and went to T8 and minus 8.

How many LIV Golfers will have made it through to round four?

Well the headline news yesterday was that Jon Rahm had not. He finished on level par and so misses the cut by a stroke. He has been consistently quite good in the LIV Golf League this season – he hasn’t won anything, but his finishes have all been between third and 10th position. But his Major record since joining LIV is now T45 and a missed cut.

Hey, it can happen to anyone, and US Open Champions Wyndham Clark has not joined LIV and he has missed both the cuts in the Majors this season. But the money men of the LIV Golf tour would have been hoping for a better showing from their most expensive acquisition.

Another they paid big bucks to court was Phil Mickelson. He would have had the outright record of most cuts made in the PGA Championship had he made the cut. But he missed it by five shots, after rounds of 74 and 72.

Talor Gooch, he of the notorious comment of how the winner of this year’s Masters would have to have an asterisk beside his name as... well this was taken to mean that basically it was because the winner of the previous season’s LIV Golf League was not invited who, quite coincidentally was Talor Gooch. Well Gooch has sneaked into the weekend, on the cut line.

He did so in an 11-way tie for 68th place. Can he improve on his Major record in which his best finish in 11 Majors is never making the top 10? Indeed he has only made the top 30 twice, so can he make this thrice?

Eleven LIV Golfers qualified for the PGA Championship and eight of them have made the cut: Brooks Koepka (-9) Bryson DeChambeau (-9), Cameron Smith (-4) Martin Kaymer (-2), Tyrrell Hatton (-2), Joaquin Niemann (-1) and Dustin Johnson (-1). The three who did not are Jon Rahm (par), Phil Mickelson (+4) and Andy Ogletree (+6).

Four of the six LIV golfers who accepted a special invitation are also here for the weekend: Dean Burmester (-8), Lucas Herbert (-6), Patrick Reed (-3) and Talor Gooch (-1). Adrian Meronk (+1) and David Puig (+3) are the two who do not have to re-adjust to playing a four-round tournament this week.

Shameless plug

While you are waiting for the third round to start in a few minutes, why not order a copy of the comic golf novel Summer at Tangents which was published last week to some lovely press reviews here in the UK. It is published by Brindle Books and, in case you haven’t already guessed, the author is... well, me. But nevertheless I do, in a totally dispassionate and objective way you understand, thoroughly recommend that you buy a copy. Or, ideally, several copies – buy it for your friends, or your enemies, or even just those people you are utterly indifferent towards.

I have yet to receive a copy myself – one is due to be delivered in the next hour or so. Part of the reason for this delay in receiving any copies is that I have been away on a press trip for Golf Monthly to Bridgend for an On Tour feature. Mag wanted a picture of me at a 19th hole, to fit the format of these piece. Royal Porthcawl, with its terrific backdrop of beach, sea, crashing waves and starter’s hut was the obvious venue. Had to ask one of the other journalists on the trip to take the picture...

Round three tee times and groups

11:28 a.m. — Cameron Smith, Max Homa, Jordan Spieth
11:33 a.m. — Kurt Kitayama, Will Zalatoris, Tom Hoge (off 10th tee)
11:39 a.m. — Maverick McNealy, Byeong Hun An, Alexander Bjork
11:44 a.m. — Brice Garnett, Jesper Svensson, Patrick Reed (off 10th tee)
11:50 a.m. — Min Woo Lee, Patrick Cantlay, Billy Horschel
11:55 a.m. — Luke Donald, Lucas Glover, Russell Henley (off 10th tee)
12:01 p.m. — Justin Rose, Jason Day, Shane Lowry
12:06 p.m. — Adam Svensson, Ryo Hisatsune, Zac Blair (off 10th tee)
12:12 p.m. — Alejandro Tosti, Doug Ghim, Rory McIlroy
12:17 p.m. — Sebastian Soderberg, Andrew Putnam, Gary Woodland (off 10th tee)
12:23 p.m. — Lee Hodges, Alex Noren, Tom Kim
12:28 p.m. — Rasmus Hojgaard, Cameron Young, Brian Harman (off 10th tee)
12:34 p.m. — Lucas Herbert, Justin Thomas, Keegan Bradley
12:39 p.m. — Thorbjorn Olesen, Brendon Todd, Ben Kohles (off 10th tee)
12:45 p.m. — Brooks Koepka, Taylor Moore, Aaron Rai
12:50 p.m. — Grayson Murray, Ryan Fox, Adam Hadwin (off 10th tee)
12:56 p.m. — Matt Wallace, Hideki Matsuyama, Robert MacIntyre
1:01 p.m. — Martin Kaymer, Tyrrell Hatton, Jeremy Wells (off 10th tee)
1:07 p.m. — Tony Finau, Dean Burmester, Harris English
1:12 p.m. — Erik van Rooyen, Jordan Smith, Talor Gooch (off 10th tee)
1:18 p.m. — Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovland, Austin Eckroat
1:23 p.m. — Nicolai Hojgaard, Joaquin Niemann, Rickie Fowler (off 10th tee)
1:29 p.m. — Scottie Scheffler, Thomas Detry, Mark Hubbard
1:34 p.m. — Braden Shattuck, S.H. Kim, Stephan Jaeger (off 10th tee)
1:40 p.m. — Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Sahith Theegala
1:45 p.m. — Dustin Johnson, Corey Conners, Tommy Fleetwood (off 10th tee)

The course that Jack built

It is perhaps appropriate that the PGA Championship is being held over a course designed by Jack Nicklaus, who shares the record for the most PGA Championship wins, with five.

Nicklaus was presented with a 486-acre plot of land 20 miles east of downtown Louisville. He described the landscape at the time as a “golf designer’s dream because there is a variety of terrain, vegetation and water to work with. Everything necessary for an excellent golf course is here: room for wide, tree-lined fairways and spectacular golf holes.”

He drew up 40 potential routings for the course. When one was settled upon, construction began in Spring 1984 and the course was opened for play in June 1986. In its relatively short life it has attracted some big tournaments. This is the fourth time it has hosted the PGA Championship, the first time being in 1986. It has also hosted the Senior PGA Championship twice, and the Ryder Cup of 2008.

Quick question: do you know who Nicklaus shares the record number of PGA Championship titles with? Answer in about eight minutes.

Quiz answer

Walter Hagen also has five PGA Championship wins. I bet many of you said Tiger Woods, didn’t you? He only has four. Er ‘only’.

How the third round tee times were worked out

Traditionally players go out in leaderboard order for rounds three and four, and in pairs. But because of the delays, the third round is being played with a two-tee start and in three-man groups. But leaderboard order is stil being followed. 

The top half of the leaderboard are playing off the 1st tee, the bottom half off the 10th. The first out on both the 1st and 10th tees were those in the middle of the leaderboard. Then on the first tee the groups work through the second-round leaderboard order to the leader; on the 10th tee the groups work through the leaderboard towards those who were in last position. 

Rahm has spoken of his 'surprise' at missing cut

He has said he was  “Surprised because of how I felt like I was hitting it in Australia and Singapore and in the week off before coming here, especially off the tee, hitting great drives – and that's what's been my downfall. I just couldn't find a fairway off the tee. You can make birdies off the fairway, but off the rough, it's a tough golf course to score on and that's kind of what happened to me." 

Matt Cradock has more on what Jon Rahm said about his early exit from Valhalla.

Rory has teed off

He needs a really low round today if he is going to challenge for the title. He starts the round seven shots off the lead and in T23and with a booming drive down the centre of the fairway.

It has just arrived!

Scottie Scheffler has also arrived

He was looking relaxed and he was smiling as he was having a joke with Tommy Fleetwood.

Rory makes bogey on the 1st hole

This is not going to be the tournament that breaks his decade-long Major drought is it? He came into it well with his five-shot win last week at Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club in in the Wells Fargo Championship. But it just hasn't happened for him in Louisville. He looks to the heavens as his par putt slides past.

The runner up at Quail Hollow has been doing okay though - Xander Schauffele.

Scheffler set to turn to a man of God

There was doubt as to whether Scottie Scheffler would play all of the first Major of the season, the Masters, as his wife Meredith was pregnant with their first child and Scheffler had said if his wife went into labour, he would leave the tournament to be with her. Meredith has now given birth, to their son Bennett.

There was doubt as to whether Scheffler would play all the second Major as he was banged up in a prison cell 45 minutes from the course with time ticking down to his second-round tee time. But he will be playing all four rounds of the year's second Major.

However Scheffler’s caddie of the past few years, Ted Scott, will not be with him for all four rounds. He will miss today's round as it is the day of his daughter’s graduation.

“Something we talked about from the beginning of our relationship was family always comes first, and it's the same thing for me as it is for my caddie,” explained Scheffler. “It was a pretty easy decision.”

“He told me at the beginning of this year that that was the date that it was, so I got a backup caddie lined up. One of my buddies is going to carry the bag on Saturday, and then Ted will be back for Sunday's round.”

Scheffler is a committed Christian and the buddy who will carry his bag today is due to be Brad Payne, the PGA Tour chaplain and a former collegiate golfer.

Early risers and fallers 

With those in the middle of the leaderboard being the first ones out on the course in round three, it offers more scope for these players to either climb up or plummet down the standings. The biggest riser so far is Justin Rose who has climbed 11 spots to T12 after birdies on the 2nd and 3rd holes. Jason Day has started bogey-bogey and has fallen 22 places to T51.

FANS PREPARING FOR SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER'S TEE TIME 

Scottie Scheffler's arrest yesterday was a remarkable turn of events but fans are making light of the world No.1's detainment. Perhaps Scheffler will be able to smile about it one day too. 

ROSE FOUR UNDER THROUGH FIVE HOLES TO CLIMB TO -9

What a start from Justin Rose who has birdied four of the opening five holes. Sensational stuff from Rose, 43,  whose 2013 US Open win at Merion remains his sole Major. 

EAGLE FOR JORDAN SPIETH TO GET TO -5

He couldn't could he?! Jordan Spieth just needs this Major to complete a Grand Slam and he has given his fading prospects a big boost on the par 5 seventh today with a stunning eagle to get to -5. And he has followed it up with a birdie at the next to get to -6.

PUNDITS EXPECTING A BIRDIE FEST TODAY

Today's course measures 7,500 yards but it is playing soft after rain and a lot of birdies are predicted today. It has helped Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland spin their approaches in close at the first with the American making his.

BIRDIE LOOK FOR SCHEFFLER AT THE FIRST

He made his tee time with no drama today and Scheffler looks to mean business once again as he fires his approach in close at the first after drilling a drive down the fairway. He has to settle for a par in the end.

FINAL GROUP UNDERWAY 

Xander Schauffele,  Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala are underway in the final group but only one of them - Theegala - has hit the first green in regulation. Schauffele scrambles a par after mis-hitting his chip. 

IS RORY McILROY'S THIRD ROUND ABOUT TO CATCH ALIGHT

McIlroy showed what he could do last weekend at the Wells Fargo , where he stormed to victory. He needs to make a move today. He is -1 for the day and -6 in total after a birdie at the sixth.

SCHEFFLER IS IN BIG TROUBLE ON THE SECOND

After finding the sand off the tee on the second, Scheffler took an aggressive line and left his approach in thick rough to the left of the par 4 green where he took two attempts to find the putting surface where he eventually finishes with a double bogey to drop to -7.

SCHEFFLER WITH A NEW MAN ON THE BAG THIS WEEKEND

Scottie Scheffler could be forgiven for feeling slightly out of sorts today as he is +3 for 3 holes today. Firstly all the adrenaline of his arrest will have subsided after his impressive 66 yesterday and he also has a new bag man today with Brad Payne as his regular caddie Ted Scott is at a family college graduation. 

BACK TO BACK BIRDIES FOR McILROY

Rory got off to a slow start with a bogey on the first but is now up to -7 and -2 for the day after successive birdies on the seventh and eighth.

MORE TROUBLE FOR SCHEFFLER AT THE FOURTH

Scheffler has gone par, double bogey, bogey and is now taking a penalty drop on the fourth after pulling his approach into the hazard. He has taken a drop but has duffed his chip. He has another putt for a bogey, which he makes, but he is in freefall. It won't have been helped by not having his regular caddie Ted Scott , who is at a family graduation.

SCHEFFLER AND McILROY GOING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS

Scheffler is +4 today after 4 holes and has slipped back to -5 but Rory is up to -8 after a third successive birdie. He is -3 for nine holes. Meanwhile, leader Xander Schauffele is level par and calmly plotting his way around.

LOWRY ON FIRE WITH -6 AFTER NINE HOLES 

What a front nine from Shane Lowry who has made six birdies to go out in 29 and get to -10 in total. 

HOTTING UP AT THE TOP OF THE LEADERBOARD

Schauffele has opened with four straight pars but he may have noticed there are now 23 players within five shots of him. Including world No.1 Scheffler who has steadied the ship with a birdie at the fifth to get to +3 for the day and -6 in total. While Rory McIlroy is -9 in total and -4 for the day after fourth successive birdie. 

MORIKAWA MOVES LEVEL AT TOP WITH SCHAUFFELE 

While leader Schauffele continues to reel off the pars, Collin Morikawa has picked up birdies on the third and fifth to get to -1 and -12 in total , level with his American compatriot after Morikawa started badly with a bogey on the second.

McILROY IMPRESSING TODAY 

McIlroy stormed to victory last weekend with a lot of birdies and huge momentum and there are echoes of that performance today with the Northern Irishman -4 for 11 holes and -9 in total. He was unlucky not to get another birdie on the par 3 11th after putting his tee shot close. 

LOWRY CONTINUES HIS ROLL AND IS ONE OFF LEAD

That win as a pairing for Lowry and McIlroy at the Zurich Classic appears to have done wonders not just for McIlroy but Lowry too. Lowry is -7 for the day after 13 holes after just draining a lengthy downhill putt on the 13th. He is now -11 in total.

SCHEFFLER +2 FOR THE DAY BUT IS STARTING TO SETTLE DOWN

Scheffler was +4 for four holes today after a disastrous start to slip down the leaderboard but is starting to repair the damage. Birdies on the fifth and seventh have got him back to +2 and -7 in total. If Morikawa and Schauffele continue to tread water, he could still have a chance tomorrow. 

WHAT A ROUND THIS IS FROM LOWRY

Shane Lowry has got to -12 , just one shot off the lead after getting to -8 for 14 holes with successive birdies with monster putts. He has now holed a combined total of 152 foot of putts today. Playing partner Justin Rose has also provided plenty of fireworks with a -6 round with two holes left.

SCHEFFLER STILL STRUGGLING IN THE THIRD ROUND AT TURN

Perhaps it was inevitable that after the drama of yesterday and his astonishing arrest, that the ordeal would eventually catch up with Scheffler. That is the way it is looking in the third round with the world No.1 +3 for the round at the turn and -6 in total. 

SPIETH FINISHES WITH THREE BIRDIES IN HIS LAST FOUR HOLES

Jordan Spieth has just putted out for a -4 round to get to -8 in total. As long as the leaders continue to tread water at the top , he could still have a shot at the Grand Slam tomorrow as this is the only Major to elude him. 

LOWRY BIRDIES THE 17TH TO HAVE A SHOT AT A 61

Lowry's ninth birdie of the round at the 17th has left him level at the top with Xander Schauffele , who remains -1 at the turn, and the Irishman needs a birdie at the par 5 last for a record 61. 

LOWRY FORCED TO CHOP HIS SECOND OUT OF ROUGH AT LAST

Lowry could still make a birdie at the par 5 last but he will have to play his third from out of the rough. Lowry has now wedged in to leave about an eight-foot putt for a 61 and the lowest round in Major history. But he misses left and it will be a record-equalling 62  , which has happened five times now including this week by Xander Schauffele.

WHAT ENTERTAINMENT LOWRY AND ROSE HAVE GIVEN FANS

Lowry and Rose were in the same group today and went out and shot -9 and -7 respectively in a stunning display which puts them both in the frame for the title tomorrow.  

McILROY FINISHES WITH A BIRDIE TO GET TO -8

McIlroy's final round threatened to catch alight around the turn with four successive birdies but his putter ultimately cold and his birdie at the 18th was his only one in the final eight holes. He finished -3 for the round and he will now be at least five shots back of the leaders and probably more tomorrow.

LOWRY REFLECTS ON HIS RECORD EQUALLING 62 PLAYING ALONGSIDE ROSE, WHO SHOT 64

Former Open Major winner Lowry, who made over 160 feet of putts today, reflected: "I went out there with the hope of getting towards double digits. I got off to a great start and was rolling putts in and was really enjoying every minute of it. It is pretty cool to do something like this but obviously there is a lot more to do tomorrow. Justin and I both birdied four of the first five holes and I couldn't get the honour off him. I need to go out there and fight until the very end tomorrow." 

SCHEFFLER'S WOES CONTINUE IN TOUGH THIRD ROUND

This round really is most unlike the world No.1 and it has to be traced back to yesterday's police incident which must have taken a lot out of Scheffler. He is +3 for the day after 14 holes and has slipped back to -6 in total after five bogeys and a double today. This includes bogeying all four of the par 3s. 

SCHAUFFELE DRAINS BIG BIRDIE PUTT ON THE PAR 3 14TH

Schauffele, searching for his first win in two years, has been plotting his way around the course and staying calm while his rivals gain ground. But his patience has been rewarded on the 14th with a long birdie putt for a two to get to -15 and -3 for the day.

TROUBLE FOR SCHAUFFELE AT THE PAR 4 15TH

After extending his lead to two shots with a birdie at the 14th, Schauffele has run into big trouble at the 15th from the middle of the fairway. He pulled his approach with a 9 iron long and left and duffed his first chip from thick rough. He has since chipped up to about 10 feet and misses the putt to record a double bogey after seeing Theegala chip in for birdie as Morikawa makes a birdie too to take the lead.

NEW LEADER HITS THE FRONT 

Collin Morikawa dropped a shot on the second but has since reeled off four birdies to get to -3 for the round and -14 in total. He has followed it up with a tee shot at the long par 4 15th to the semi-rough which he has blasted through the green but manages to save par.

SCHEFFLER HEADS UP THE LAST +3 FOR THE DAY AND -6 IN TOTAL

Scheffler is heading up the last and he needs something special at the par 5 to keep him in with a chance of the title after a disastrous day in which he has lost huge ground on the leaders. He makes a birdie from the sand to finish +2 for the day and -7 in total as his run of 41 successive rounds of par or better comes to an end.

BOX OFFICE FINISH FROM DECHAMBEAU

Bryson DeChambeau has just chipped in for eagle at the par 5 18th to get to -13 in total as the American punches the air after recording a third round 67. Viktor Hovland also finishes on -13 in total after a birdie at the last. DeChambeau ,30, said: "I couldn't putt it as there was a sprinkler head in the way and I was happy to finish off and give myself a good shot for tomorrow. I am excited for tomorrow."

LEADERS FINISH UP ON PAR 5 18TH WITH TRIO OF BIRDIES

The trio of Theegala, Schauffele and Morikawa all have birdie chances at the last. Morikawa drains his with a clutch up and down after driving into the rough, while Theegala has a two-putt birdie after finding the green and Schauffele chipped up fairly dead for his 4.

This has the potential to be a cracking day’s golf viewing

There was some chuntering early on in this tournament that conditions were too benign, scores too low, how players were not being properly tested. But isn’t this type of golf, where someone can go low, where someone can make an unforeseen bolt from the pack to the uppers reaches of the leaderboard, as Shane Lowry did yesterday, preferable to some of the grim, penal set ups the US Open has dabbled in?

Some US Open courses have been so brutally unforgiving of error it has been a defensive game that has been principally examined, a case of hanging on, making the fewest mistakes, of not sliding down the leaderboard. It is hard in those circumstances for players to make charges up the leaderboard. They instead have to hope that other slide down past them.

A set up such as at Valhalla these past few days – and I know some of it has been accidental, the rain softening the greens to high receptiveness an act of God rather than of the PGA of America – does make for more rewarding, exciting viewing. What we have in prospect this afternoon is potentially a cracker of a climax. We know that even if someone bolts out ahead of the pack early on, there is still a decent chance that someone can still chase and catch them.

In the next few hours we will now whether it has lived up to its potential, but at this stage it is hard to call a winner, or even narrow down the winner to a small cast list. So many have a chance to seize the crown. We know there are potentials 62s out there; we also know that the golfing gods, or maybe golfing devils, provide the chance for final round to collapse a la Greg Norman’s at Augusta all those years ago.

There are a surprising number of golfers still left in this with a chance of victory, rare for this stage of a Major. That the final hole has been the scene of 16 eagles and 23 bogeys or worse over the first three days, adds an intriguing twist to any title challenge coming down the stretch.

How to watch the action live

I appreciate that you may well be intending to curl up with that wonderful golf novel Summer at Tangents  instead – and frankly who could blame you? – or just stay here with us on this blog – and, again, who could blame you? – but, if not, you may like to know that wherever you may be in the world, there is the potential to watch a live stream of the final day of the PGA Championship.

Best in class

Over the first three rounds, this who has done best in aggregate on the different length of holes:

Par 3s: 4 under par by Collin Morikawa, Sahith Theegala, Matt Wallace and Brice Garnett
Par 4s: 7 under par by Shane Lowry
Par 5s: 7 under par by Tom Hoge, Viktor Hovland, Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Jason Day, SH Kim, Cameron Smith, Cameron Young and Byeong Hun An.

Byeong Hun An quickly out of the blocks

Birdies on the 2nd and 3rd holes have taken him 16 places up the leaderboard, albeit only to T38. Sebastian Söderberg, who is playing the 12th, has made four birdies in his last six holes and has risen 19 places from the lowest reaches of the leaderboard overnight to T56.

Why are range finders being allowed at this tournament?

It is because the tournament is run by the PGA of America which allows them, unlike the PGA Tour, which does not. Our competition, our rules.

ALEJANDRO TOSTI: the long and the short of it

The Argentinian has just driven the island green on the 349-yard 13th hole en route to an eagle 2. He then misses the green by a long chalk on the next hole, a par 3. Odd game, golf, sometimes. 

Jordan Smith has just eagled the 13th, too, but by holing his chip. His arms go aloft in triumph, to huge cheers from the spectators. That is the way to rebound from a bogey on 12. He is having a good round as that eagle is added to four birdies.

PGA of America vs PGA Tour vs PGA: what is the difference?

The PGA of America, which represents club golf professionals, was founded in 1916 to promote golf and look after the interests and standing of the professional golfer in America. These were the days when even the best tournament players normally still worked as club pros. The pro golfer in those days did not have a high standing in society, although his status was improving. This is still the era when the pro would often be forbidden for entering the clubhouse, and no-one wishing to be considered himself a ‘gentleman’ would consider entering the professional ranks and instead would play in tournaments as amateurs and not therefore be eligible for the prize money.

The idea of a Professional Golfers Association was not knew, as one had been founded in England in 1901 as a result of the leading players of the day. JH Taylor, James Braid and Harry Vardon galvanising their fellow pros to band together to form an organisation. On September 9, 1901 the London and Counties Golf Professionals' Association was formed. But at the first AGM, held on December 2, 1901, it was voted to change the name to 'The Professional Golfers' Association'.

The PGA Tour is distinct from the PGA of America, after the tour split off in the late 1960s. Once upon a time professional golfers made their money working at a club – there simply was not the prize money in the golf for a pro to earn his living simply from tournament play. But that changed over time and the tournament golfers became a different breed from the club pro, and felt that the PGA of America was no longer geared up to serve their interests as they would wish. So they formed a separate entity, the PGA Tour. So now the PGA of America is the organisation for club professionals and the PGA Tour membership is the elite tournament players.

The PGA of America’s membership focus is reflected in the entries to the PGA Championship. Places are awarded to club pros, with the top 20 finishers in the PGA Professional National Championship gaining entry to the PGA Championship.

What they are playing for: part one

The Wanamaker Trophy is named after its donor, Rodman Wanamaker, a businessman who, in January 1916, invited invited leading figures in professional golf to a dinner in New York to discuss his idea of forming a body to improve the standing of professional golfers. The upshot was the formation of the Professional Golfers' Association of America. Wanamaker believed this body should hold it own prestigious annual competition, and he put up $2,500 in prize money and commissioned a trophy for the winner. Seven months later, the first PGA Championship was held, at Siwanoy Country Club in New York. The club’s head pro, Thomas Kerrigan, hit the first shot.

The trophy the players compete for now is a replica of the original. Walter Hagen had won it in 1924, and 1925. When he was asked why he had not brought the trophy back in 1926, he replied that it seemed simplest not to, as he was going to win it again. He did. He also won in 1927, But in 1928 when Leo Diegel won it, the truth cane out; Hagen has lost the trophy back in 1925 when out partying after his win. Although details remain vague, what is clear that when he left his taxi (to go nightclubbing), the trophy did not, Some believe he simply forgot it; but he said he had paid the taxi driver to take the trophy to his hotel.

The PGA of America had a replica made. But in 1930 the original was found in an unmarked case in the basement of L.A. Young & Company, the firm that made Hagen's golf clubs. The original trophy is now at the PGA Historical Center in Florida. The champions’ names are still added annually to the original, but is the replica that the winners are presented with.

What they are playing for: part two

The purse is a $1m more than last year and is now $18.5 million. The winner will receive $3.33 million, as the winner gets 18% of the total purse. The prize money has been going up markedly recently. These are the figures by year for purse and winner’s share:

2021: $12m; $2.16m
2022: $15m $2.7m
2023: $17.5, $3.15m
2024: $18.5m; $3.33m

What use is a 62?

I was reflecting last night that one of the field, at least, will have shot a 62 and yet not won. How odd. Then it occurred to me that actually that none of the golfers who had previously shot 62 in a Major won that Major.

Shows how the golfing landscape has changed that a round of 62 can be ultimately fruitless in terms of winning a tournament. If Xander Schauffele does not win today, he may wonder what else he has to do to win a Major. He shot 62 last year in the first round of the US Open at Los Angeles Country Club, as did Rickie Fowler. Schauffele finished T10; Fowler T5.

Brandon Grace carded a 62 in the third round at Royal Birkdale in 2017. Grace had shot 70 and 74 to make the cut, and this 62 took him to T5. He finished with a 70 and was T6.

But as Grace reflected afterwards: “I saw Gary Player on the Sunday evening and he came and gave me a big hug and said congrats. He said it doesn’t matter if somebody else shoots a 62, you’ll always be the first.”

Adam Hadwin eagles 13 

That is the third eagle on that hole today. It is the 61st hole out of the tournament. 

What if there is a tie for the lead after 72 holes?

There will be a three-hole playoff over holes 13, 17 and 18. If that still does not bring a winner, then it goes into sudden-death. This will start at the 18th hole and then, if necessary to 13 (pictured) and then, if still needed 17. It will continue in this rotation until there is a clear winner.

How a LIV player can ensure his PGA Championship qualification for next year regardless of his world ranking

Much noise has been made, especially from the LIV side, about how LIV players are at a disadvantage in qualifying for Majors as LIV events do not qualify for Official World Golf Ranking points. But there are other ways to qualify, and a LIV golfer can qualify for next year’s PGA Championship by his performance today. 

The most obvious way is by winning, as past champions are given a lifetime exemption to the tournament. But anyone who finishes in the top 15 receives an invitation to the following year’s tournament.

The Low Pro battle

Two of the 21 club pros in this event made the cut. One of them, Jeremy Wells, has finished his fourth round. Wells is the PGA Director of Player Development at Cypress Lake Golf Club in Fort Myers, Florida and he went round in 75 today after carding an 8 on the final hole following a wayward tee shot which required a drop. He finishes on 6 over par for the tournament.

Braden Shattuck is therefore poised to become this year’s Low Pro, as he is five under par for the tournament, and is about to play the back nine.

Shattuck is the PGA Director of Instruction at Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield, Pennsylvania. He won the 2023 PGA Professional Championship last year; This year he finished T16. He played collegiate golf at the University of Delaware but after a car accident in 2019 that left him with multiple herniated discs he had to rebuild his swing.

Jordan Smith cards 64

The highlight of his round was that eagle on 13. It wasn't a flawless round as he had dropped a shot on the previous hole. But the Englishman made birdies on the 4th, 5th, 10th, 11th and 18th holes and finishes on seven under for the tournament. He has climbed 47 places from where he started the morning and is currently T26. But expect his position to drop down a few rungs by the end of today as lot of players are making a lot of birdies today.

All shall get prizes: how this year's prize money will be doled out:

Winner: $3,300,000
2nd: $1,998,000
3rd: $1,258,000
4th: $888,000
5th: $740,000
6th: $660,580
7th: $618,300
8th: $577,790
9th: $539,030
10th: $502,040

The chap coming 78th wins $22,100. All those who missed the cut but played all 36 holes get $4,000, as does any player who made the cut but who does not then submit a 72-hole score.

Scheffler starts his final round with a bogey

I think he might be looking forward to getting away from this place. His week hasn't exactly gone as he, or anyone, would have expected. But there are rumours swirling that the police charges against him may be dropped.

Future venues

Rory McIlroy came into this tournament on the back of a five-shot victory at Quail Hollow Club in North Carolina in the Wells Fargo Championship. Perhaps some consolation for him is that next year’s PGA Championship will be held there, a place that must have happy memories for him. However he won the actual PGA Championship at Valhalla and that has not ushered him towards the winner enclosure this time, so maybe this theory is complete bunkum.

The 2026 edition will be held at Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania and in 2027 it is PGA Frisco in Texas that plays host to the PGA Championship.

This season’s remaining two Majors are at Pinehurst No. 2 and Royal Troon (pictured).

Want to see next year’s PGA Championship in person?

Next year’s tournament is from May 12 to 18. We explain everything you need to know about securing tickets for at the 2025 edition of the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. 

So, just who is going to win?

I don’t know. But I do know that 40 of the last 41 Major winners have been within four shots of the lead entering the final round. So, er, one of Morikawa, Schauffele, Theegala, Lowry, DeChambeau, Hovland, Rose, MacIntyre or Burmester?

I now pass this blog over to James Nursey who will take you through to the end.

KOEPKA BELATEDLY CLIMBING THE LEADERBOARD

Defending champion Brooks Koepka would have hoped to have figured more prominently on the leaderboard before now but he finishing well with a -4 final round which has got him to -8 after 14 holes today.

CEO OF PGA OF AMERICA HOPES THE MAJOR CAN HELP UNIFY GAME

Seth Waugh, the CEO of the PGA of America, has been talking to Sky about the tournament which has provided a superb packed leaderboard including LIV pros Bryson DeChambeau and Dean Burmester. Waugh said: "I am a big believer the game needs to come back together. It is an extraordinary leaderboard and a great example of what the game can be at the highest level."

SPIETH UNDERWAY CHASING A GRAND SLAM

Jordan Spieth, who just needs this Major to complete the career Grand Slam, is underway at -8 looking to make a charge up the leaderboard. He made par on the first and fired in a decent approach at the second to give himself a birdie chance which just slid by for another par. He appears dialled in after putting his tee shot close on the par 3 third.

FLEETWOOD BIRDIES THE LAST FOR A -6 FINAL ROUND 

Tommy Fleetwood finishes the tournament on -9 after a fine -6 final round including a birdie on the last. His round included an eagle on the par 5 7th.

McILROY MAKES SLOW START IN FINAL ROUND

Rory McIlroy is on the fourth and is already +1 for the day after a bogey on the first. Last week's winner from the Wells Fargo tournament on the PGA Tour has shown flashes of quality but never been able to sustain much momentum here at Valhalla this week. 

LOWRY STILL ALL SMILES AFTER HIS RECORD-EQUALLING 62

Shane Lowry is in the mix on -13 after his stunning third round 62 yesterday, which was the joint lowest round in Major history. The affable Irishman is giving off good vibes ahead of his tee time in about 35 minutes.

ANY PLAYERS WILL DO WELL TO BETTER THIS SHOT BY TOSTI

Alejandro Tosti is in the clubhouse on even par after a -3 final round which included this incredible tee shot on the par 4 13th to set up eagle.

DEFENDING CHAMPION KOEPKA FINISHES ON -9

Koepka won't be picking up the trophy this year but he has carded a very creditable -5 round to get to -9

HUGE CHEERS FOR KENTUCKY NATIVE JUSTIN THOMAS

Thomas is -1 under for the day after holing out from the sand on the par 3 third to get to -11. The two-time PGA Championship winner ,31, is from Louisville and is a firm crowd favourite.

POSITIVE START FROM BRYSON DECHAMBEAU

DeChambeau is still searching for his second Major despite admitting after winning the US Open in 2020 that he expected to win more. He has made a promising start today though with a huge drive at the first and a short iron in to tee up a birdie chance. His birdie effort slides by but it is an easy par.

LOWRY UNDERWAY AFTER STRIPING GOOD DRIVE

Lowry appears relaxed and calm as he chases his second Major. He is underway now  and has fired in a glorious 7 iron very close to the hole at the first. Playing partner Sahith Theegala makes his from longer for a share of the lead and then Lowry misses.

McILROY MOVES TO -9 WITH BIRDIE AT EIGHTH

Rory is now -1 for the day and -9 in total as he gets going and he has another birdie look at the 9th after this stunning approach.

FINE START FOR XANDER SCHAUFFELE

What a start for Schauffele who gets to -16 on his own with a birdie at the first after rolling in a lengthy putt at the par 4.

FINAL PAIR BOTH UNABLE TO HIT SECOND GREEN IN REGULATION

Schauffele and Morikawa may give a shot back to the field on the second where they have both failed to hit the green after finding the left hand rough off the tee. Morikawa has hacked out short to a wedge range and Schauffele is in the sand over the back. Morikawa then spins in a wedge from 81 yards to two foot and Schauffele gets up and down too. 

BRILLIANT BIRDIE ON THE THIRD FOR LOWRY

Lowry cut a sensational tee shot into the 186 yard par 3 third and has holed the putt to dial up some pressure on the leaders. But Schauffele in the final group behind has then fired one in close too but his putt lips out while Morikawa also settles for par. A missed opportunity for Schauffele who also got tight with his putter last weekend to lose out to Rory.

LOWRY NEARLY HOLES OUT FOR EAGLE BUT SETTLES FOR BIRDIE

Lowry's second to the par four fourth hits the flag and stops dead for a tap-in birdie to get to -15, one behind.

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU LOOKING DANGEROUS

The fifth is 461 yards and Bryson has just reduced the par four to a drive and a wedge to make his second birdie of the day and get to one shot behind Schauffele. There is a pack emerging and they are hungry for birdies. Schauffele is going to need make plenty of his own - like his opening 3 on the first below - I feel to clinch this as he feathers an approach in close at the fourth which he makes. 

LEADERS HIT THE FAIRWAY ON THE FIFTH 

Schauffele is looking calm and composed and has hit some brilliant shots already to be -2 for four holes today to lead by two. He could get tight though as he chases his maiden Major and I like how DeChambeau and Lowry are swinging.

BRYSON HAS JUST PUTTED IN FROM OFF THE GREEN

DeChambeau has just got to -3 for the day and -16 in total with a brilliant putt from off the green on the sixth as he responds with glee. He is pushing Schauffele the hardest. 

SCHAUFFELE MAKES VITAL UP AND DOWN AT THE SIXTH

Schauffele has rolled in a superb putt from about 18 foot to save par on the sixth just when it looked like he could relinquish the lead with Hovland joining DeChambeau on -16. 

SCHAUFFELE WITH A CHANCE TO STRETCH LEAD AT PAR 5 SEVENTH

Schauffele and Morikawa have both hit the fairway at the par 5 seventh to give themselves a chance of reaching the green in two but the leader finds the green side trap where he is joined by Morikawa before the pair splash out to have birdie putts, which the leader makes.

SCHEFFLER BACK IN THE OLD ROUTINE

What a week for world No.1 Scottie Scheffler who was arrested on Friday and carded a 73 for his first over par in 42 rounds on Saturday. But he was back in the old routine and back with his regular caddie Ted Scott today - who missed Saturday due to a family graduation - as he finished -6 under and -13 in total , which could earn him a top 10 spot. 

WHILE MORIKAWA POTTERS ALONG, DECHAMBEAU IS ATTACKING

Morikawa has made a par at every hole so far , albeit after missing several birdie putts. But Bryson is going for it big time at -3 for the day. He is two off the lead and has just drilled a 6 iron into the 10th green from 243 yards to set up a birdie chance. 

HOVLAND ONE OFF THE LEAD DESPITE NEARLY PULLING OUT

Viktor Hovland was so unsure of his form he admitted he nearly pulled out of the tournament. But fresh from linking up with his old coach Joe Mayo, Hovland is -4 for the final round after 10 holes and -17 in total alongside playing partner Bryson DeChambeau. 

SCHAUFFELE GIVES HIMSELF ANOTHER BIRDIE LOOK AT 9TH

Fine approach on the 9th from Schauffele to a pin cut tight on the right side. He now looks to have an eight-foot putt for a three to restore his two-shot lead which he converts in impressive style to get to -4 at the turn and -19 in total. 

McILROY PUTTS OUT FOR A -12 TOTAL AFTER A -4 FINAL ROUND

Rory's Major wait continues despite returning to his old happy hunting ground. He closed with a birdie on the 18th and is currently tied 11th. 

UNFORCED ERROR FROM SCHAUFFELE ON 10TH OPENS DOOR

Schauffele has bogeyed the easiest hole on the course on the 10th after driving into the sand and coming up short in the rough with an optimistic fairway wood. He then failed to get up and down from the fringe after his approach ran on and he has dropped a shot. Meanwhile Morikawa remains level par after missing his latest birdie putt as he recorded his 10th straight par.

SCHAUFFELE BOUNCES BACK ON PAR 3 11TH WITH A FINE TWO 

We have a thrilling battle at the top of the leaderboard with Schauffele bouncing back from his first dropped shot with a birdie at the 11th after losing top spot to Hovland. They are now tied at the top with Hovland who is -6 for his round.

SCHAUFFELE'S IRON PLAY IS QUITE BRILLIANT TODAY

Schauffele has executed his irons brilliantly and he has just fired a 7iron in from 200 yards to about six feet on the par 4 12th. He has a birdie look which he converts leaving Hovland on the par 4 15th with a birdie putt to go back level which he cannot take.

SCHAUFFELE LEADS BY ONE AND IS ON THE 13TH IN REGULATION

Schauffele is on the par 4 13th green in two and will have a lengthy downhill putt for birdie which trails off on the left side leaving a tap-in 4. Meanwhile DeChambeau has caught a big break on the 16th after pulling his tee shot left into the trees only for it to ricochet back on to the fairway from where he has stiffed an approach setting up another birdie at the 520-yard hole to get to -6 for the round and -19 in total.

SCHAUFFELE FIRES ANOTHER SUPERB IRON INTO THE PAR 3 14TH

It is going to take something special to beat Schauffele at this rate as the leader keeps firing irons in close to the flag. He has played another fine tee shot on the par 3 14th, which is 235 yards. He doesn't make birdie but gets an easy par.

HOVLAND HAS HIT AN APPROACH IN CLOSE AT THE 17TH

Hovland and DeChambeau, who are both -6, will have a chance to go level on the 17th with Schauffele at the top of the leaderboard on -20. Hovland is the closer of the pair as Bryson leaves his attempt short from distance and Hovland's curls just wide. Schauffele remains one ahead after making par on the 15th. As for Morikawa, after 14 straight pars, he dropped a shot on 15.

DECHAMBEAU AND HOVLAND ARE ON THE PAR 5 18TH AND NEED SOME MAGIC

Dechambeau and Hovland have a chance at the par 5 18th to put pressure on Schauffele. DeChambeau has driven into the sand. Meanwhile back on the 16th, Schauffele is on the par 4 green in regulation. Both DeChambeau and Hovland chip up and have birdie putts to match Schauffele's -20 total as DeChambeau makes his for a -7 round of 64 and Hovland misses.

SCHAUFFELE NOW KNOWS A PAR AND A BIRDIE AT THE LAST WILL WIN

Schauffele, who is -20 level with DeChambeau, is -5 for the day and needs a par on the 17th and a birdie on 18 to win. The pressure is really on now after DeChambeau set the clubhouse total.

SCHAUFFELE DISPLAYS NERVES OF STEEL ON THE 17TH

After his drive on the par 4 17th caught a sand trap, Schauffele makes his par after a fine chip from the fringe of the green. That leaves Schauffele needing a birdie at the par 5 18th to win his maiden Major.

SCHAUFFELE NEEDS A BIRDIE AT THE PAR 5 LAST TO WIN

Schauffele has caught a bad break on the 18th where his tee shot has run off the fairway on to the edge of the bunker to leave him a difficult stance with the ball above his feet on the grass. He has 248 yards to the green and will be standing in the sand. He has executed it excellently and left his ball pin high and left of the green from where he has an up and down to win.

SCHAUFFELE WILL WIN IF HE GETS UP AND DOWN FROM ABOUT 40 YARDS

Schauffele , who got up and down on the 17th, must now do the same from further away on the 18th to win as DeChambeau watches the big screen at the range while he prepares for a potential Play-Off. Schauffele once again shows a lovely touch to chip in close and give him around four to five feet for the title.

SCHAUFFELE HAS FIVE-FOOT BIRDIE PUTT FOR THE TITLE

Schauffele, who has led the tournament from the start, has been brilliant today and now has a five-foot birdie putt for a -6 round and a -21 total and the title.....

YES! SCHAUFFELE MAKES IT AND IS THE CHAMPION

A well-deserved wire to wire win

Xander Schauffele sent records tumbling after firing a superb nine-under-par 62 during the first round of the PGA Championship at Valhalla.

Schauffele, still chasing his first Major triumph, finished runner-up to Rory McIlroy at last week's Wells Fargo Championship but buried those demons with a remarkable display in benign Lousiville conditions.

The bogey-free round featured nine birdies and saw the World No.3 become the first person to shoot a 62 in the PGA Championship. 

In addition, Schauffele's exploits saw him break Valhalla's course record - previously set by Jose Maria Olazabal in 2000 - and become the first player to shoot multiples scores of 62 in men's Major championship history.

"It's a great start to a big tournament. One I'm obviously always going to take. [But] it's just Thursday," he reflected after the round.

"I feel there's spurts, moments in time where you feel like you can control the ball really well; you're seeing the greens really well; you're chipping really well. I'd say it's very close to it if not it [the best golf of my career].

"I think not winning makes you want to win more, as weird as that is. For me, at least, I react to it, and I want it more and more and more, and it makes me want to work harder and harder and harder. The top feels far away, and I feel like I have a lot of work to do. But just slowly chipping away at it."

Beginning his round on the back nine, Schauffele got up and running with a tap-in birdie at the par-3 11th before finding another on the 13th. The American, though, kept his foot on the pedal and made three further birdies in his next five holes to cover his first nine in just 31 strokes and take the lead on -5.

With rain falling heavily on the course prior to the tournament, fairways were soft and greens receptive. And Schauffele, who also carded a 62 at last year's US Open, continued to take Valhalla apart as he made the turn, notching up birdies on 2, 4 and 5 to tie Olzabal's course record.

But the 30-year-old went one better than the Spaniard, taking care of the par-5 7th to register his ninth birdie of the day before finishing par-par on his final two holes to secure a record-breaking 61 and put himself in pole position heading into the final three rounds.

Closest behind Schauffele from Thursday's early wave are fellow countrymen Tony Finau and Sahith Theegala, while Rory McIlroy and Scotland's Bob MacIntyre are also in hot pursuit. 

After turning professional in 2015, Xander Schauffele has enjoyed many successes, picking up multiple PGA Tour titles and even an Olympic gold medal.

Since becoming a professional, the American had been donning adidas apparel and footwear since 2018 but, in January 2024, Schauffele signed a multi-year deal with Descente to wear the Japanese brand's golf apparel. However, despite moving away from adidas, the 30-year-old has carried on using the German brand's footwear...

The shoe in question is the adidas Tour360 Boost 24, a spiked model that has been with us since 2005! During that time, we have seen various updates and redesigns but, for 2024, we have, arguably, seen the best ever version, with it securing five stars out of five in our review.

Throughout various tournaments in 2024, Schauffele has been seen wearing the Core Black/Cloud White version, as well as the Cloud White/Core Black/Green Spark. Along with those two colorways, there are also two other looks, which include Cloud White/Silver Metallic and Cloud White/Collegiate Navy.

For 2024, the Tour360 Boost has benefitted from a complete redesign from the inside out, introducing new technology into the familiar, well-loved silhouette. Ranked as one of the best golf shoes money can buy, we particularly loved the soft, premium leather upper, the exceptional grip in all conditions and the comfortable new heel design and all-round fit.

Previously, Schauffele has worn the adidas ZG21 golf shoes, another model we rated five stars and, along with Descente and adidas, Schauffele uses a full bag of Callaway golf clubs, as well as an Odyssey Toulon Design Las Vegas Prototype 7CH putter in red. 

For much of this year, the PGA Tour and worldwide broadcasters have been concerned with declining viewership figures on TV in relation to professional golf.

With the odd exception, usually because of a tight finish, many regular PGA Tour events have averaged fewer than two million people tuning in to watch the Sunday climax - whether it be Peter Malnati's heart-warming victory at the Valspar Championship or Matthieu Pavon's stunning success at the Farmers Insurance Open.

Even in the big-ticket tournaments like The Players or The Masters, Scottie Scheffler's victory in both wasn't enough to prevent a significant drop-off in people watching the finish at home.

However, it certainly hasn't all been bad news for golf broadcasters and the PGA Tour, and Rory McIlroy's walk-off win at last week's Wells Fargo Championship proved that the end doesn't even have to be that competitive to lure fans in front of their screens.

The Northern Irishman - who just a day later filed for divorce from wife, Erica - began last Sunday with a one-shot deficit to Xander Schauffele at the top but quickly turned the tables, going on to claim his fourth Wells Fargo Championship by five shots thanks to a six-under final round.

The golf was fascinating from McIlroy, even if the contest fizzled out quite quickly around the turn. But nevertheless, figures from Sports Business Journal's Josh Carpenter showed that the interest of fans at home was still piqued by what went down at Quail Hollow.

In a post on social media, Carpenter said: "CBS has a big increase Sunday for Rory McIlroy's win at Quail Hollow, with the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship drawing 2.778 million viewers. That's up 34% from 2.073 million last year for Wyndham Clark's win. Sunday peaked at 3.830 million."

The peak number was around 300,000 more than the average figure for Scheffler's triumph at The Players and an astounding 1.5 million more than the average for the American's Arnold Palmer Invitational score - another of the PGA Tour's Signature Events.

Speaking about the subject of fans' interest in men's pro golf right now ahead of this week's PGA Championship, Max Homa believes "the internet probably makes it seem worse than it really is" but admitted it is tough to love watching the sport right now.

He said: "Yeah, it's been a bit tricky. I do feel like the internet probably makes it seem worse than it really is. It's a very small community and they're incredibly loud. So I think if you spend a lot of time on the internet, it does feel like professional golf is crumbling.

"It's tough to decipher, because when we're on the grounds of events, it's amazing. Last week at Quail Hollow was awesome. Felt no different at Bay Hill. Felt no different -- The Players felt no different. So it's odd, it doesn't feel like it's dying, yet you hear a lot of very valid complaints on the internet.

"So I think it's been, it's very troubling. I don't like where it's going. It's got to be exhausting to be a casual golf fan at this point in time. I don't know why you would want to hear about the business side of this game."

Meanwhile, McIlroy shared his thoughts on the subject before last month's Masters tournament. Asked where he thinks the fans' levels of interest are right now, the World No.2 pointed to TV viewing figures as a measure of the declining support for men's pro golf.

He said: “I know this isn’t a be-all, end-all, but if you look at the TV ratings of the PGA Tour this year, they’re down 20 percent across the board. That’s a fifth. That’s big.

“That’s where I said like things need a correction and things are unsustainable because I’m close with NBC and the people that really care about these things and the people that tune in to watch golf. You know, 20% is a pretty jarring number this year.

"I would say the numbers on LIV aren’t great either in terms of the people tuning in. I just think with the fighting and everything that’s went on over the past couple years, people are just getting really fatigued of it and it’s turning people off men’s professional golf, and that’s not a good thing for anyone.”

Xander Schauffele admits that he was in awe of Rory McIlroy on Sunday, as the Northern Irishman hit the accelerator on the back nine to win the Wells Fargo Championship, his fourth title at Quail Hollow, by five shots.

The American held a one-shot lead overnight and the tournament looked set for a tight finish, before “unbelievable” McIlroy found a different gear to race clear and claim his 26th PGA Tour title.

“When you take a step back, yeah,” Schauffele said, when asked whether he found himself admiring his opponent. “He’s Rory McIlroy, you know?

McIlroy made eagles at the 10th and 15th as Schauffele struggled to keep pace, and he also made a couple of costly unforced errors. 

“He hits it 350 yards in the air downwind and he has shorter clubs into firm greens than anyone else,” added Schauffele.

“When he's on, he's on. Hats off to him for winning. Yeah, he played unbelievably well.

“Overall I felt like I was doing pretty well for most of the day and then had that costly stretch and he capitalized like no other. Big reversal there.”

This was Schauffele’s 14th runner-up finish on the PGA Tour and despite having seven victories to his name, many will feel that the 30-year-old should be in double figures by now – and have a Major Championship title to his name.

The Californian, whose last win came at the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open, has recorded top 10s in all four Major Championships, including tied second at the Masters (2019) and The Open (2018).

At the US Open, Schauffele also boasts four top-5 finishes since 2017, and he hasn’t been outside the world’s top 10 since July 2022.

Schauffele’s consistency might be applauded in some corners, but there are those who might question whether he's lacking something when the winning line is in sight.

Schauffele, however, who has already wracked up eight top-10 finishes this year, feels it’s just a matter of cleaning up his short game.

“I feel like I controlled the ball off the tee pretty well,” he said.

“Hit some incredible iron shots that I haven't been able to do in quite some time – right to left and left to right.

“Overall, I just need to clean up my short game. It's always been a deciding factor whether I win a tournament or not, sort of a trigger stat for me, and it definitely hurt me today.”

Schauffele is one of those players in the group of 'Best players not to have won a Major Championship'.

He'll be heading to this week's second Major Championship of the season at Valhalla where, once again, he will start as one of the favorites, and he'll be hoping to get that monkey off his back.  

Xander Schauffele holds a three-shot lead over the likes of Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa after round one of the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship, but his opening venture onto the Quail Hollow course was not without incident.

Schauffele made six birdies, an eagle, and a solitary bogey in his superb Thursday 64, but it could have been a far more tightly-bunched leaderboard if a rules incident on his penultimate hole had played out differently.

Standing on the par-4 8th at Quail Hollow - Schauffele's penultimate hole - the American sprayed his drive out to the right and watched it fly towards some trees and bushes near a penalty area.

After almost three minutes of his entire group searching, Wyndham Clark located what he thought could be Schauffele's ball near a fence but - crucially - just past the penalty area.

As the golf ball was right next to the property fence line, Schauffele consulted a PGA Tour rules official who agreed he was eligible for a free drop. The relief for Schauffele occurred because a ShotLink tower (Temporary Immovable Object) was between player and green just past a tiny one-foot window underneath the foliage.

Despite the unlikelihood of the 30-year-old Californian being able to actually shift his golf ball through the gap, Schauffele didn't have to worry about it - instead, he dropped his ball onto some pine straw adjacent to the fairway. The new ball position allowed Schauffele a much clearer look at the green and ultimately helped him make a par which seemed extremely unlikely mere minutes before.

The reaction from fans and journalists online was not favourable to the player, but Schauffele explained in his post-round press conference that while he "got really lucky" a few times, his ruling was perfectly legitimate.

Schauffele said: "Got really lucky multiple times, on 1 with Wyndham finding it, 2, being able to move the rocks, and 3, the ShotLink tower being in like my only shot line possible. To walk out there with sort of a no breeze 4 with what I thought was almost out was a really good break."

Going on to explain the exact ruling from his point of view, the seven-time PGA Tour winner said: "Yeah, I hit it in the trees. My ball was probably like a foot, two feet from the fence. If I -- ball was here, fence was kind of here, hitting back this direction.

"If I went towards the green, the fence kind of worked this way so I had what I could hit, a 4-iron or something low and just kind of run it through. If it gets stuck, I'll just kind of hit my next one out. But I brought the rules official in there with me because I was like, you've got to be OK with this because this is literally the only shot I can hit.

"So Austin [Kaiser - caddie] and I moved two massive rocks that weren't embedded and then I got relief out of the junk and then hit a pretty good shot on the green from there. What was a very stressful moment turned into a pretty stressless par."

One journalist followed up with: "But you were not in the penalty area, or were you?" to which Schauffele replied: "No, I was beyond it actually."

Schauffele's good fortune was only allowed to happen because one of his playing partners, Clark, decided to move a little further on past where the ball was thought to have landed in order to search for it.

And even then, the Wells Fargo first-round leader admitted he was almost forced to play his provisional ball as the time window to find golf ball no.1 was close to expiring.

Asked how close to the three minutes they were, Schauffele said: "Probably pretty close. The volunteer was by the ShotLink tower and he said he heard it land in the hazard, so everyone's kind of looking in the hazard.

"Then Wyndham and Austin kind of went further up and then they found the ball. Wyndham's like, I think that's your ball, so kind of walked up, identified it and went from there."

Schauffele will begin his second round alongside Clark and Shane Lowry from the first tee at 12.17pm ET (5.17pm BST) on Friday.

World No.4 and defending gold medallist Xander Schauffele really wants to go to Paris as a member of Team USA's male Olympic golf quartet later this summer but knows he will have to maintain his best form if that dream is to become a reality.

The 30-year-old stood on the top step at the Tokyo Games three years ago after beating Slovakia's Rory Sabbatini by one as Chine Taipei's C.T Pan triumphed in a seven-nation playoff for bronze over four holes.

Qualifying for the upcoming iteration has been underway for almost two full years now, and the cut-off date is shortly after the US Open at Pinehurst No.2 Course next month.

Team USA will take four male players to France for the men's Olympic golf tournament at Le Golf National between August 1-4. Currently, Schauffele is one of them. The other three as things stand are World No.1 Scottie Scheffler, World No.3 Wyndham Clark, and Schauffele's great friend and World No.8 Patrick Cantlay.

Meanwhile, there are several other huge names well capable of bringing a medal home with them - including Open Champion Brian Harman, Ryder Cupper Max Homa, and two-time Major winner Collin Morikawa. See also Sahith Theegala, Cameron Young, and Russell Henley.

Given the make-up of men's pro golf, making the American Olympic team is thought to be the hardest task to carry out - not made any easier by the expanded squad size compared to many other nations.

Discussing his hopes for later in the summer prior to this week's PGA Tour Signature Event - the Wells Fargo Championship - Schauffele said: "Yeah, it's hard, you kind of have some plans in place.

"The US team, I'm sure there's other teams, but the US team just feels like it's a really hard one to qualify for even though they're taking four guys. Imagine if they were taking two like most countries, it would be pretty brutal.

"But yeah, just trying to position myself. I haven't really thought too far ahead. I've sort of planned if I were to qualify of sort of staying overseas, either popping in or hanging around versus coming back and doing the whole back and forth thing. Other than that, that's sort of the extent of my brain traveling that far."

One man who will almost certainly have to plan for Paris is Scheffler, who will miss the Wells Fargo Championship this week due to the impending birth of his first child.

Schauffele also discussed the positive effect that Scheffler has had on him in terms of driving him to find "any edge" over the pair's rivals. The World No.4 admitted he has added a few more miles per hour into his swing speed in recent months which, in turn, has added greater distance.

Asked how he gained the extra speed, Schauffele said: "I can't really pin it on one thing. I started working with a new trainer, he's definitely helped me feel a lot stronger, just my baseline strength is probably better. Then working with Chris as well, moving the club a little bit differently, that's been very helpful. I think a combination of the two.

"I don't know how to weigh the situation between them, what's more or less, but those two things have definitely helped me pick up some speed. It was [intentional], yeah, so it's nice to be able to accomplish that goal."

Then pushed on what it was that caused him to go searching for increased distance, Schauffele pointed to Scheffler.

Schauffele said: "If you just kind of look up, I mean, Scottie is an outlier in many ways currently. He's actually dropped speed, which is just mind blowing. No one hits their irons or gets up and down around the greens better than him. So his iron play's elite, so he can afford to sort of drop some distance off the tee.

"I mean, I think he's hitting more fairways. I haven't really done too deep of a dive, I just saw that his average ball speed was down. I played with him a couple years ago and he was sending it past me, so at that time I feel like I needed to pick up some pace. And now that he's dropped back, he's just doing Scottie things.

"But, in general, if you look at the sort of top 10, 15, 20 players in the world, there's sort of a threshold that you need to hit if you're not sort of a crazy-elite iron player or crazy 3 scrambler or things of that nature.

"So I figured any edge I can get on the field, if it's flying the ball 15 yards further and being able to take out a bunker on a hole that other guys can't, that will help me over the span of a season."

A unique event on the PGA Tour, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, takes place at TPC Louisiana.

The event sees 160 players form 80 teams of two with rounds alternating between fourball and foursomes and a 36-hole cut that sees the top 33 teams and ties progress.

Last year, Davis Riley and Nick Hardy beat the Canadian pairing of Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin for their maiden PGA Tour titles. That also handed them a first prize of $1,242,700 each from the overall purse of $8.6m.

This year, there’s even more on offer, with an overall prize money payout of $8.9m, meaning each of the winners will receive $1,286,050.

Among the other incentives are 400 FedEx Cup points for each of the winners and a two-year PGA Tour exemption. They will also claim spots at the PGA Championship and signature events, as well as next year’s Sentry and Players Championship. However, unlike most other PGA Tour events, winners won’t receive either a Masters invite or world ranking points.

Below is the prize money payout for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Zurich Classic Of New Orleans Prize Money Payout

Who Are The Star Names In The Zurich Classic Of New Orleans?

Some of the biggest names in the game are in the field, including four-time Major winner Rory McIlroy, who has teamed up with Shane Lowry for his first appearance at the tournament.

The defending champions are Davis Riley and Nick Hardy, who beat Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor in 2023, and all four also return as part of the same teams.

The pair who won in 2022, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, team up again too. Last year, 2022 US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick joined forces with his brother Alex after a text exchange, and they also return.

Elsewhere, two-time Major winner Collin Morikawa plays alongside 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational winner Kurt Kitayama, while World No.17 Sahith Theegala is in a team with Will Zalatoris.

Team Europe Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald also appears, and he teams up with one of his vice-captains from the 2023 edition at Marco Simone, Francesco Molinari, while fresh from his Corales Puntacana Championship win, Billy Horschel, who has two victories at the tournament, plays alongside Alexander Tyson.

Two incredible streaks currently held by Xander Schauffele shows why he is one of the most consistent golfers on the PGA Tour. 

The World No.5 is still searching for his first victory since the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open, but since then, he is still yet to miss a cut.

In fact, he’s made a whopping 41 consecutive cuts on the PGA Tour, with his last missed weekend coming at the 2022 Masters more than 700 days ago. 

The next closest consecutive cut streak currently on tour is held by Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland at 32. Schauffele still has a long way to go to break the all-time record of 142 consecutive cuts made held by Tiger Woods, though.

Schauffele also has the longest streak on tour without a three-putt at 242 holes, a run that spans over 13 rounds, and has only three-putted twice this season. Sahith Theegala comes the closest with 204 holes without a three-putt.

The record for consecutive holes without a three-putt belongs to Freddie Jacobson at a whopping 514 holes.

Despite Schauffele's lack of three-putts, putting is actually his worst category when it comes to his impressive strokes gained stats this season. 

He ranks in the top 15 in five of the six strokes gained categories, including third in SG: total and second in SG: tee to green, but is 80th in SG: putting. 

The 30-year-old’s consistent play was evident in his runners-up finish at the Players Championship last week, where he shot two bogey-free rounds and led the tournament after three days, before falling by one stroke behind Scheffler on Sunday.

It keeps another streak going that he would rather not to continue: 20 months without a victory.

Speaking ahead of this week’s Valspar Championship, Schauffele said he is looking forward to getting back to work after "another close call".

“It's nice to get back into the action. After a close call last week, sometimes it's nice just to get back to work and kind of put your head down and try to figure out a new golf course, so happy to be here.

“I played some really good golf. Overall, I was just there, again, in a good spot to win a golf tournament and didn't get it done. So I've accepted that and I have a couple nights to sleep under my belt now and feeling better than I did a couple days ago. So just excited to try and win again.”