CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Look, we got a little spoiled. Let’s admit it. Major after major of elite-level champions claiming the game’s best titles, year after year. We began to expect it, that every single major would be the equivalent of the Super Bowl or the World Series, putting the very best at center stage.
Well, golf doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes the very best put their shots in the water, and sometimes the journeymen pick the best week of the year to have the best week of their lives. That’s the beauty of the game — you can work for a lifetime, and if you can string just four outstanding days together, you become immortal. Pretty fantastic opportunity, when you think about it that way,
When you look back on it, we really have had a remarkable run of majors lately. Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy … of the 20 majors held since 2020, only five featured a player who’s still only won one major. And of those five, four (Hideki Matsuyama, 2021 Masters; Cam Smith, 2022 Open Championship; Matt Fitzpatrick, 2022 U.S. Open; Wyndham Clark, 2023 U.S. Open) featured compelling storylines and/or finishes. Only the 2023 Open Championship, where Brian Harman won by six strokes, really counts as a one-timer’s walkover. That’s a pretty good run.
Now? Now what we’ve got, folks, is a damn mess. A glorious mess, but a mess all the same.
Jhonattan Vegas still holds the lead at -8, but the round-ending double-bogey that he carded on the 18th early in the day looms extremely large now. A massive pack of players — more than 20! — sits within five strokes of Vegas.
You may not know the names of many of the players close to Vegas (best major finish: T22). For instance, there's France's Matthieu Pavon (only one top-5 finish in a major) at -6. Max Homa, the fan favorite and would-be Ryder Cup hero, also at -6, only has two top-10 major finishes in his career. Michael Thorbjornsen, at -4, has never even played in a PGA Championship before this week. Ryan Fox of New Zealand, also at -4, has zero top-10 finishes in a major, the same total as Christiaan Bezuidenhout of South Africa, also at -4.
“It's all about getting a good mindset and stick(ing) to a clear game plan,” Pavon said after his round. “That's what's the best for this type of tournament.”
You get the idea. There’s a whole lot of guys fighting to make sure you know their names after this weekend, and considering the chaos that’s to come, they’ll have a fight on their hands.
Now, all this hopeful wish-upon-a-star dreaming might be for nothing, because there are some looming giants stomping their way up the leaderboard. Chief among that group: Scottie Scheffler, who fought his way through a rough — for him — day to finish at -5. Scheffler hasn’t won a major outside of Augusta National, but he’s also won a whole lot of other tournaments. When you say “it’s only a matter of time” before a player wins a given tournament, sometimes that can be more aspirational than realistic, but for Scheffler, it’s a simple statement of fact.
“I think most of me is just glad to be close to the lead. If you're going to play a 72-hole golf tournament, there's going to be days and stretches of golf where you're not swinging it your best,” Scheffler said after his round. “Over the course of a tournament this long and on a major championship setup, there's going to be … some bumps in the road. It's all about how you respond to those.”
Also lurking: Bryson DeChambeau, who’s been stuck in what for him qualifies as neutral. He’s at -3 despite not having anything anywhere near to his best stuff this week. He’ll look to dial in and put himself in position for yet another major … and, true to form, he already has an explanation lined up for how he’s going to do that.
“I've just got to have my putting a little more on and keep playing the way I am,” DeChambeau said. “It easily could be 7-, 8-under right now, or I could be even par. So just keep moving along, and I think a 65, 64 is out there. I almost shot it out there today and I definitely saw it out there, I just didn't accomplish it.”
Probably (though not definitely, there are no "definitely"s this weekend) out of the hunt for a Wanamaker Trophy: Rory McIlroy, who followed up his transcendent Masters week by reverting back to his recent major form, good but not anywhere near good enough to win. If McIlroy (+1) follows tradition, he'll put on a late charge on Saturday and Sunday to backdoor his way into a top 10. But now, given that he's accomplished every goal he ever set for himself, there's much less of a sting.
The second half of the PGA Championship begins on Saturday morning. How it ends is literally anyone’s guess.
“You got to keep the pedal down, keep your head down, and keep working hard. You never know when things are going to turn your way,” Vegas said after his round. “I'm enjoying the process, and just got to keep going.”
Him and another three dozen or so players. This is going to be wild.
