It seemed inevitable.
Scottie Scheffler, holding a three-stroke lead at the PGA Championship after 54 holes, was going to run away with his third and first non-Masters major championship title. And those feelings intensified early in the final round when Scheffler extended his lead to five.
“He’s in a spot where it would be shocking if (Scheffler) didn’t win today,” Xander Schauffele said after his early round Sunday.
It was a little more turbulent than many initially thought, but Scheffler finished the job.
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The world No. 1 finished at 11 under for a five-stroke victory over Bryson DeChambeau, Davis Riley and Harris English. The margin of victory, however, isn’t indicative of how the final round at Quail Hollow Golf Club played out.
The 28-year-old Texan didn’t have his “A” game Sunday, but that wasn’t an excuse to crater. Heck, Tiger Woods has admitted that he “didn’t really have it” most weeks, and won 15 majors.
“I just kept hitting it left,” Scheffler said with a laugh on the 18th green, moments after securing the win. “I knew it was going to be a challenging day.
“Finishing off a major championship is always difficult, and I did a good job of staying patient on the front nine. I didn’t have my best stuff, but I kept myself in it, and I stepped up on the back nine and had a really good nine holes.”
Scheffler played the front nine at 2 over with three bogeys, but found his groove after making the turn with a birdie on No. 10.
"Scottie Scheffler wins in a runaway in the showdown at Charlotte." pic.twitter.com/M7caAZFeBi
— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) May 18, 2025
By that point, Jon Rahm snatching the victory seemed like a real possibility.
The 30-year-old Spaniard, who started the day five back, played the front nine at 1 under, and then started the back with consecutive birdies, briefly catching Scheffler at 9 under. Rahm had a chance to stay atop the leaderboard on No. 13, but his birdie putt brushed the edge of the cup without dropping. Then, he failed to get up and down from off the green on the par-5 15th. And his victory hopes were essentially dashed with a bogey on the par-4 16th and a water ball on the par-3 17th.
Splashing his tee shot on the par-4 18th, Rahm carded a second straight double en route to a final-round 73. That yielded an eighth-place finish and cost him a sizable amount of cash.
“The last three holes,” Rahm said, “it’s a tough pill to swallow right now.”
However, Rahm feels he regained his swagger after several lackluster results in major championships since joining LIV Golf in December 2023.
“God, it’s been a while since I had that much fun on a golf course ... 15 holes,” the two-time major champion said.
Rahm’s late-round stumbles meant Scheffler was again in the driver’s seat—and he didn’t veer off. After birdies on Nos. 14 and 15, the 28-year-old Texan had a three-stroke lead heading to the Green Mile—Quail Hollow’s daunting final three-hole stretch—and played those holes 1 over, capping a final-round 71.
Of course, the tides have turned drastically from last year’s PGA Championship. Ahead of the second round at Valhalla, the strait-laced Scheffler was arrested and went on to finish T8 amid a year he won seven times, the most in a single season since Woods in 2007.
Scheffler’s competitors have said he’s the closest thing golf has had to Woods since the Big Cat in his heyday. Yet, it took Scheffler a bit to find his footing this season after needing hand surgery from an injury he sustained while making Christmas dinner, which sidelined him for several weeks.
Two weeks ago, Scheffler reaffirmed his dominance, tying the PGA Tour’s scoring record in his victory at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, where he made his Tour debut as a 17-year-old.
He carried the momentum to his third major win and 15th on Tour. Now, he’s the first player since Seve Ballesteros over four decades ago to claim his first three majors by more than three strokes.
Despite all that happened in the final 18 holes, Scheffler having his name engraved on the Wanamaker Trophy—today, or in the future—was inevitable.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Scottie Scheffler Wins Third Career Major With Five-Shot Triumph at PGA Championship.
