CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The leaderboard remains a bit unusual at the season’s second major.
Jhonattan Vegas still leads heading to the weekend, with Matthieu Pavon, Matt Fitzpatrick and Si Woo Kim two shots back. Of the top 26 players, all within five shots on the leaderboard, only three have major championships: Fitzpatrick, Bryson DeChambeau and, oh yeah, Scottie Scheffler.
The two-time Masters champion shot his second sub-70 round and, admittedly without his very best game, lurks at three shots back. Given this leaderboard, that begs one statement for the SI Golf staff to ponder in this PGA Championship Round 2 edition of Fact or Fiction:
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was the pre-tournament favorite and is still the favorite to win this PGA Championship.
Bob Harig, SI Golf Senior Writer: FACT. How do you not like Scheffler at this point? He’s not played particularly well, he’s just three shots off the lead and there is not a whole lot of firepower around him. Only he, Matt Fitzpatrick and Bryson DeChambeau are major winners among the top 25 in the tournament. Fitzpatrick, the 2022 U.S. Open champion, has endured myriad struggles with his game over the past year. DeChambeau is a force who has contended in four of the last five majors but is two shots back of Scheffler, who again seems inevitable.
John Pluym, SI.com Managing Editor: FACT. It’s hard to bet against Scheffler, who still hasn’t put his best round together in this tournament. And Friday’s round could have been a 5-under or 6-under-par round if Scheffler hadn’t missed two putts under 4 feet on Nos. 10 and 17. If Scheffler can do more with his putter and dial in his driver, he will be tough to beat. The tournament is there for the taking, and Scheffler is in a position to win another major.
Jeff Ritter, SI Golf Managing Director: FACT. Scheffler is three back, and who on this leaderboard should scare him? Reigning 3M Open champion Jhonny Vegas? Matt Fitzpatrick, who three months ago was too broken to swing a club at TGL? Ryan Gerard, who we Googled two days ago? Scheffler will need a couple of rounds in the 60s because low scores are out there, but as we stand now it’s his Wanamaker to lose.
Max Schreiber, SI Golf Contributor: FACT. If there’s one knock on Scheffler at this point in his career, it would be that he hasn't won a major besides the Masters. With the names currently surrounding him on the leaderboard, this is a golden opportunity to put that criticism to bed.
John Schwarb, SI Golf Senior Editor: FACT. The bookies often know best and DraftKings has him at +210 to win—better odds than he had before the tournament when he wasn’t trailing by three! I don’t know exactly how this script will play out the next two days but I know how it will end.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Fact or Fiction: Scottie Scheffer Is Still the PGA Championship Favorite.
