The PGA of America returns to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, this week for the 106th PGA Championship. Before Global Golf Post traveled to the land of bluegrass, bourbon and thoroughbreds, we questioned Ron Green Jr., John Hopkins, Scott Michaux and John Steinbreder about the season’s second men’s major championship:
Scottie Scheffler has won four of his past five starts since the tour landed in Florida two months ago, including the Players and the Masters, with his only non-victory in the streak being a runner-up finish in Houston. How much of a favorite will he be this week?
Green: Put it this way: Some Vegas books have Scheffler at 40-1 to win the Grand Slam, which are lower odds than Dustin Johnson’s chances of winning just the PGA Championship. The great unknown, obviously, is what the three-week layoff will mean for Scheffler’s game. Odds say, not much.
Hopkins: Considerable, even though his run of success has to end sometime. He seems to have the hex over his rivals, which Tiger Woods had over his opponents in 1999 and 2000, his mere presence being enough to unsettle them.
Michaux: As long as they schedule an inducement for the baby to arrive ahead of PGA week, he’ll remain the odds-on favorite until someone proves they can beat him. Scheffler’s game at the moment seems immune to going off the rails even after a three-week paternity break.
Steinbreder: Scottie Scheffler is the favorite. He has to be, given how well he has played this year.
Talor Gooch and Patrick Reed were among seven LIV golfers – Dean Burmester, Lucas Herbert, Adrian Meronk, Joaquín Niemann and David Puig being the others – to receive special invitations to compete at Valhalla. Did the PGA of America do the right thing?
Green: Yes, the PGA of America is justified in giving those special exemptions because it prides itself on having the deepest field in golf, a claim that’s easier to make now that the LIV guys are out of the Players Championship. Let it be about the PGA Championship, not the game’s ugly war.
Hopkins: Not sure of the thinking here. I can see Talor Gooch being invited as last year’s LIV Golf champion even though he is 644th in the world ranking. But the others? Why?
Michaux: Yes. Reed, Niemann, Meronk and Herbert were pretty automatic as top-100 players are traditionally invited by the PGA. Burmester (DP World) and Puig (Asian) – and Louis Oosthuizen, who declined an invite, citing a previous commitment – each won twice recently on accredited tours. Gooch was the lone outlier, but denying the three-time LIV winner last year would have drawn unnecessary howls of grievance. The PGA’s invitation leeway made it easy to be magnanimous.
Steinbreder: The PGA of America already had a very strong field for its 2024 championship, and as best as I can tell, only Talor Gooch from this septet really adds anything from a competitive standpoint. Assuming, of course, he is not worn out after 54 holes. Maybe the association wanted to be able to say that it had the entire top 100 in the world playing at Valhalla.
Do the 16 LIV entrants, led by defending champion Brooks Koepka, have anything to prove this week after being shut out of the top five in the recent Masters?
Green: They are playing for themselves at Valhalla. It’s as simple as that.
Hopkins: Of course. They always have something to prove, and that is that by crumbling before the siren calls of LIV Golf their golf has not lost a little of its edge. Or in the case of Dustin Johnson or Ian Poulter, a lot of its edge.
Michaux: Everybody is trying to prove something in a major, but it’s about themselves and not about where they play. The best player next week will win, and what league they play in is irrelevant. Arguably, however, Gooch has the most at stake since he’s unwilling to prove himself outside the LIV bubble.
Steinbreder: I think the folks from LIV always feel that they have something to prove in a major championship, no matter how that group has fared in previous ones. The competitive tension between LIV and the PGA Tour is as strong as ever.
Since 2019, when the PGA Championship moved up on the PGA Tour’s schedule from August into May, golf fans face a nine-month gap between major championships. Did that move help or hurt the season’s flow?
Green: Moving the PGA Championship earlier was a masterstroke because it feels more important as the second major and gives the season a strong run of huge events from May through July. It was an eight-month gap between majors before. One more month is worth the tradeoff.
Hopkins: It may not have helped and course conditions are certainly different, but it certainly hasn’t hurt. There is a pleasing symmetry to the season now, starting with the Players in March and one major championship a month thereafter until August. That is fine with me. And the nine-month-gap argument? That doesn’t wash. There was an eight-month gap before the PGA moved from August to May.
Michaux: It actually made the monthly cadence of meaningful events from the Players in March to the Open in July more uniform. And this year there’s an Olympics in August. It may feel relentless at times, but the extra offseason month builds more anticipation and is less cumbersome than the old two-month lull after the Masters.
Steinbreder: It has hurt the flow. For one thing, the major championship season now seems to fly by. And I find that the nine-month wait between the British Open in July to the Masters the following April feels interminably long. To be sure, some very good tournaments are staged during that stretch. Like Riviera and the Players. Bay Hill, too. But none of those is a major.
The PGA of America will have 21 of its club and teaching professionals in the field, including Michael Block, the darling of the 2023 PGA who earned an exemption this year with a tie for 15th place. Do the club pros have too big of a presence in this major championship?
Green: It’s the PGA of America’s event, so it can do what it wants. Are there too many club pros? Yes, if you’re basing it on legitimate contenders, but it’s not entirely about that. And once in a while, a Michael Block comes along.
Hopkins: Probably. Ten club pros might be better, but the association to which they belong can surely have a number of its members in the field of its own tournament. It is a distinctive wrinkle that I rather like. Often, one or more of those pros constructs an interesting story. Look at Michael Block last year. When he came out of the clubhouse to begin his final round last year, he was accorded a rock star's welcome.
Michaux: Considering they had enough room to invite world No. 644 Gooch, there’s plenty of room to give the club pros their due in one major a year. The PGA typically has the most top-100 players of any major field, so it’s top-heavy enough.
Steinbreder: No. It’s the PGA’s party and understandable that the association would want to feature – and reward – its best playing members. And those 21 golfers do not dilute the field in any significant way. Their inclusion also gives us a good Cinderella story every now and then, such as Michael Block, whose performance last year warmed even the hardest golf heart.
What are your expectations for Tiger Woods, who will be making only his third start of the year and his first since limping to 60th place at the Masters?
Green: Here’s how this answer has changed: The expectation has gone from winning to making the cut. I expect he will play the weekend at Valhalla, with the hope that it goes better than his weekend at Augusta.
Hopkins: I expect him to do better on the less physically demanding Valhalla course than Augusta National, but anything better than 30th would be a triumph.
Michaux: Making the cut is his bar until he shows he’s strong enough actually to contend again over four grueling days. It would be nice if Tiger would give us all a meaningful update on golf’s reunification negotiations.
Steinbreder: Tiger is a true warrior, but I would be shocked if he were to make the cut. His body is just too beat up to practice and prepare properly for a major championship, and then to come out on top of the leaderboard after 72 holes.
Other than Scheffler, whom do you like to win it, and why?
Green: Let’s go full Hollywood and say Justin Thomas wins in his hometown. He insists he’s a better player than when he won his two previous PGA titles, but the results don’t show it. Maybe the game owes him one.
Hopkins: Any European. Any non-American. I am not being anti-American here, but I can’t understand the continuing dominance of American professionals in this event. Step forward, Ludvig Åberg or Viktor Hovland or Tommy Fleetwood. Please.
Michaux: Wyndham Clark or Rory McIlroy. One of those two is best positioned in the OWGR top three to create a genuine rivalry with Scheffler until Ludvig Åberg reaches his full potential.
Steinbreder: Wyndham Clark. With one win this year (at Pebble Beach) and three top-3s in his past five events, he stands a good chance. And having taken a U.S. Open, he’s shown that he knows how to win the big ones.
