Closing Time
Scottie Scheffler shifted into higher gear when he needed to at the PGA
On a pretty North Carolina Sunday afternoon, at a golf course groomed to the nines, Scottie Scheffler showed the world—again—that he is one gritty athlete when a tournament hangs in the balance.
Things had turned interesting during the final round of the 107th PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. Scheffler bogeyed the sixth and ninth holes. By the time he was teeing off on No. 10, Spain’s Jon Rahm, with a birdie on the 11th, had pulled into a tie with the World No. 1 after trailing by five strokes after 54 holes.
The game was on—a pair of two-time major winners at the top, each trying to add the Wanamaker to their trophy cases. The stars have been shining in the majors (and The Players) the last couple of seasons, and now it was happening again.
Golf’s best have tended to shift to a higher gear when it was necessary.
That could mean producing 20 yards more than usual on a tee shot when that extra pop made a hole play easier. Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus are two examples of stars who exploited a power reserve at key junctures in the days when small-headed drivers could produce a large miss.
Focus and determination? Nicklaus and Tiger Woods displayed those traits plenty of times under pressure, delivering when others would wilt, whether it was finding the fairway hen essential, hitting an iron the appropriate distance, or sinking a crucial putt.
Now, as Scheffler reiterated at Quail Hollow, he is the player of his generation doing it the best.
In the third round of the PGA, Scheffler played the last five holes in five under par to go from two shots behind to three shots ahead. On Sunday, he went from being tied with Rahm to leading by five. According to a social media post by longtime golf journalist Jason Sobel, who was working the PGA Championship radio broadcast, each of those dramatic scoring shifts took 82 minutes.
The exact timing certainly is coincidence, but what Scheffler accomplished sure isn’t happenstance. The first run bolted him into the lead. The second, with an assist from a suddenly faltering Rahm, salted away victory.
Once Rahm had caught him, Scheffler got up and down from the sand, sinking a nine-footer, for birdie at the par-five 10th hole to regain the solo lead that he never relinquished. On the 11th through 13 holes, his premier iron play set up low-stress pars.
Up ahead, Rahm was unable to birdie the 330-yard 14th hole and the par-five No. 15. Scheffler, by contrast, birdied both. As Rahm finished bogey, double bogey, double bogey, on Quail Hollow’s difficult finish, “The Green Mile,” Scheffler parred the 16th and 17th. All his bogey on the 18th did was change his winning margin from six strokes to five.
Stubble on his cheeks, neatness on his scorecard.
Scheffler has converted 54-hole leads in winning the Masters in 2022 and 2024 and now in the PGA. He has won the last eight times on the PGA Tour when leading with a round to play. No golfer is a lock, but Scheffler knows how to set a deadbolt.
The drama that had momentarily presented itself—thanks to Scheffler’s bogeys late on the front nine and Rahm’s birdies on the eighth, ninth and 11th holes—dissipated like moisture from the SubAir-equipped Quail Hollow greens.
The way Scheffler righted himself as he made the turn, then stayed steady and his competition faltered made me think of a quote I saw a few days ago in the wake of the death on May 11 of Larry Miller, a North Carolina basketball god during the 1960s.
“When the lights came on, he was incredible,” said Eddie Fogler, a Tar Heel teammate of Miller’s. “I’ve never been around an athlete that can push himself harder to get the most out of his ability when the game was on the line.”
Scheffler got the most out of his ability when the PGA Championship was on the line, securing a big trophy and making a big statement. Rory McIlroy had been the story of 2025, winning the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam as well as The Players, but Scheffler hadn’t gone anywhere. His game is complete, and he knows how to close. That’s how you get to be No. 1 in the world—and how you stay there.
Well said Bill and hats off to Davis Riley for grinding out a par 4 on the 18th to stay at -6 and T3. Didn’t see many pars on 18 today during broadcast.