CHARLOTTE, NC. Golf’s second major championship is set to start Thursday morning at Quail Hollow. The PGA Championship returns to the Charlotte area for the second time and is well known to elite professional players as the venue served as the annual site for the Wells Fargo event on the PGA Tour.
The club also served as the venue for the 2022 Presidents Cup matches won by team USA and the 2017 PGA Championship claimed by Justin Thomas.
A number of notable storylines are front and center. At the conclusion of play one individual will proudly hoist the famed Wannamaker Trophy.
Will Rory have continued glory in claiming back-to-back majors?
Quail Hollow can simply be called Rory McIlroy’s home away from home. The current Masters champion has won four times at the venue and his first win on the PGA Tour came there in 2010 when setting the then course record with a final round score of 62 just a few days short of his 21st birthday. In 2015, he bettered that mark with a 61 in winning his second title there.
Other wins happened there in 2021 and 2024.
McIlroy’s scoring average at Quail Hollow is 69.48—nearly a full shot better than anyone else. He’s 55 strokes further under par than any other player, and of the fourteen times he’s played the course in professional competition, he has an incredible ten top-10 finishes, with just a single missed cut.
In short – his dominance at Quail Hollow is on par with the dominance Tiger Woods showed with eight wins each at Bay Hill, Firestone and Torrey Pines along with five wins separately at Augusta National and Muirfield Village and four at Doral.
Rory’s win at Augusta ended 10+ years of major-less victories. Supporters of McIlroy have long believed that should the 35-year-old break that slump it will be the springboard for future major wins to happen. How fitting for McIlroy that Quail Hollow is the first test in that premise?
The pressure point for Rory was in constantly addressing questions on when a 5th major would happen. That situation is now in his rear-view mirror.
McIlroy’s past record at Quail Hollow certainly places him as the clear favorite this week. The last golfer to have won the first two majors in a calendar year came in 2015 when Jordan Spieth won at Augusta and the U.S. Open. McIlroy aims to add his name to that storied accomplishment and all signs indicate he will be in the running for a third PGA Championship title.
Is Scheffler’s recent rise a reckoning roar?
After a sensational 2024 season in which the Texan won nine times globally and cemented his position as the top ranked player on the planet, the fanfare for a follow-up in 2025 was clearly in place.
Unfortunately, for the 28-year-old he suffered a minor mishap when preparing Christmas dinner for his family and needed surgery to remove glass fragments from his hand.
The start of his PGA Tour season was delayed and he needed to reacclimate himself to the rigors of competition.
Scheffler had off-and-on moments at this year’s Masters — ultimately finishing 4th.
But matters changed noticeably when Scheffler played in The CJ CUP Byron Nelson in his hometown of Dallas just two weeks ago. Scheffler started with a first round 61 and then proceeded to coast to an eight-shot victory margin — his first win since last year’s Tour Championship and his 14th triumph on the PGA Tour.
At last year’s PGA Championship at Valhalla, Scheffler was distracted when arrested for disobeying the instructions of a police officer when attempting to enter the club. All charges were subsequently dropped but the resulting fanfare attached to it caused an unneeded distraction.
None exists for Scheffler as he comes to Quail Hollow this year and the mission is a simple one – reassert his dominance as the sport’s premier player. A third major championship in Charlotte would certainly do that.
Jordan Spieth’s Grand Slam quest at Quail Hollow?
Only six golfers have won the career Grand Slam and McIlroy became the most recent member of the sport’s most elite club when winning at Augusta this past April.
Another golfer is on the cusp in adding his name to that grouping of distinguished golfers — Jordan Spieth. The 31-year-old got matters going early in his professional career when winning at Augusta and becoming the second youngest winner to don the famous green jacket.
Spieth’s 72-hole total tied the then tournament record and he followed-up with a win at the U.S. Open just two months later. Spieth would narrowly miss a playoff for The Open Championship and was runner-up in the PGA Championship. The sum total of the 2015 season was a golfer ready to assert his hold on the sport.
The Texan would later claim the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale but in the years that followed he has won just twice on the PGA Tour.
Spieth ended 2024 as the 69th ranked player in the world – he’s now 48th. Questions abound if the best of Spieth’s golf is mired in the past. A win at Quail Hollow would end that speculation in grand fashion. No pun intended.
Is stardom for Joaquin Niemann about to happen?
The 26-year-old has been cited as the next star player of note, The Chilean born golfer has certainly displayed eye-catching form with three wins on the LIV Golf circuit in 2025.
But those wins have come in a 54-hole format with none providing any world ranking points.
Major championships are where golfers place their fingerprints in the legacy column. In 23 previous appearances Niemann has only placed in the top-20 once – a T16 at the 2023 Masters.
Yes, the talent is present but with each passing year of futility the questions will only mount.
Quail Hollow could be the launching pad for Niemann to finally show that all the expectations are now justified. On the flipside a poor showing will only raise questions leading into the U.S. Open in June.
Anyone see Brooks Koepka lately?
The pro golf career of Brooks Koepka has been one to watch on multiple levels. The 35-year catapulted into the spotlight with four major wins over a span of less than two years from June 2017 to May 2019.
Koepka added a fifth major and became a three-time winner of the Wannamaker Trophy when claiming the PGA Championship title in 2023 at Oak Hill.
Since 2022 he has played in thirteen majors and only at the Masters and PGA Championship in 2023 did he play up to his high-level form with a runner-up and win finish respectively. In the other eleven appearances he has had three missed cuts and no other finishes in the top-15.
Koepka is a key player on the LIV Golf circuit. He was runner-up to Niemann in Singapore this past March. His last pro win came at the LIV Golf event at the Greenbriar in 2024 when outlasting Jon Rahm in a playoff.
The aspect that intrigues many with the Floridian is that when he does get into contention in the biggest of events, he has shown the capacity to play at a very high level. However, his recent form has us now wondering whether the best of Brooks is more past than future.
Can Jon Rahm become Rahmbo?
After winning the 2023 Masters for his second major championship triumph the world of pro golf was expecting the talented Spaniard to continue on the pathway of past fellow countryman Seve Ballesteros – a golfer revered by Rahm.
Rahm left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf on December 7, 2023 — after making various statements dating back to June 2022 and afterwards that he would remain a member of the PGA Tour. The vast sum of money offered – upwards of $400 million – provided too much, a sum to pass up.
There has been much speculation Rahm has had second thoughts on his decision to go with LIV Golf.
The 30-year-old is in the prime of his golf career and since winning at Augusta he has played in seven majors with three top finishes including a tie for the runner-up slot at the 2023 Open Championship.
Rahm relishes the biggest of golf moments and while he no longer has a continued presence on the PGA Tour he is fully aware a return to the winner’s podium at Quail Hollow will demonstrate he remains a key force in professional golf.
Is “Rahmbo” ready to rumble? We shall see.
Can “X” once again mark buried treasure for Schauffele
No tagline is more debilitating to a pro golfer then the one that states – “best golfer never to have a major.” Xander Schauffele knows full well the meaning of that as he heard it on a recurring basis when the 2024 golf season started.
In some ways the phase is a compliment as it speaks to the talent of the player. But in other ways it is a clear slap in a player’s face as being unable to showcase that talent on the stage of golf’s ultimate events.
Schauffele forever ended that connection with not just a win at one major but claiming two in 2024 with triumphs at the PGA Championship at Valhalla and then later in July at The Open Championship at Royal Troon.
The 31-year-old ranks as the third best golfer on the planet — only behind the likes of Scheffler and McIlroy. Schauffele suffered a rib injury in December of 2024 and while he did make a start in The Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii and was in the opener of the TGL League in Florida he opted for much-needed recuperation.
In his last three starts (Masters, RBC Heritage and Truist), Schauffele has finished T8, T18 and T11. While not securing the main headlines that have been the domain of McIlroy and Scheffler, Schauffele is eager to defend his PGA Championship title. One other interesting note – in the last two PGA Tour events played at Quail Hollow, Schauffele has finished in the runner-up position both times. A move to the top spot and a reclaiming of the Wannamaker Trophy is entirely doable.
Is a Michael Block moment possible again?
In 2023 club professional Michael Block electrified the final round audience at Oak Hill in making a hole-in-one on the par-3 15th. The 46-year-old played that day with Rory McIlroy and his performance earned him a top-15 finish.
That finish was the highest by a club professional since Tommy Aycock in 1974 and Lonnie Nielsen in 1986 — both of whom finished 11th.
Club professionals are permitted twenty spots in the PGA Championship field and a constant debate has ensued on whether that many positions remain justified.
Block showed much with his engaging performance two years ago. One can only wonder whether another shining moment is on tap at Quail Hollow.
