When people were talking about the 2025 PGA Championship and who could win at Quail Hollow, there was shockingly little oxygen used to discuss the No. 1 golfer in the world, Scottie Scheffler. Despite his dominance lasting nearly two years at this point, he had only won past the first week of May three times in his career, all of which came last season. More importantly, his pair of major victories were both at The Masters, raising questions about his ability to win majors outside of Augusta. That's not a question anymore, however.
Scheffler started Sunday at the 2025 PGA Championship in prime position to run away with the third major championship victory of his career, leading by three strokes. Then, thanks to a wayward driver and a surging chase pack led by Jon Rahm, the result at Quail Hollow was very much in doubt. But by the time Scheffler had reached The Green Mile finishing stretch, they had comfortably already started engraving the Wanamaker Trophy.
With Rahm imploding on The Green Mile as he tried to aggressively catch Scheffler, the steady World No. 1 went about his business like a methodical killer and built a six-shot lead going into his final hole of the tournament. Not shockingly, he did nothing to squander that advantage and became a three-time major winner and a first-time victor at the PGA Championship.
Scottie Scheffler answers biggest criticism with PGA Championship win
Even if it was often said tongue-in-cheek, no one is going to call Scheffler and caddie Ted Scott "Augusta merchants" anymore. While there has been plenty of criticism of Quail Hollow throughout the week at the PGA Championship, when other players couldn't find an ounce of consistency or even a sustained burst of dominance over four rounds, Scheffler pieced it all together for a dominant win.
In reality, we all knew this was coming at some point too. Scheffler's so-called lack of success outside of Augusta in majors was widely overblown. Even prior to 2025 at Quail Hollow, Scheffler had four Top 8 finishes in five starts at the PGA Championship. He's also registered three Top 10s at the US Open in the last four years and was T7 at The Open Championship just last year. Another major that doesn't come with a Green Jacket was something he was on the doorstep of for some time.
Now that he's officially done it, though, we're going to start having big, historic conversations — even more so than we already were — about Scheffler. Can he win the career grand slam, just as Rory McIlroy finally finished off in April among the azaleas? How many majors can he collect before turning 30 years old in June 2026? Let's also not forget that Oakmont, the host of this year's US Open, also feels like a perfect spot for a ball-striking savant like Scheffler.
After an inauspicious start to his 2025 season, at least by his lofty standards, Scheffler has returned to dominance in a big way. He blew away the field at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and has now done the same at the PGA Championship. As scary as it might sound for the rest of the PGA Tour and the pro golf world, he might've officially just opened the floodgates at Quail Hollow.