Scheffler's PGA Championship win leaves the rest of the golf world playing catch-up

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Jon Rahm walked down the sloping 16th fairway at Quail Hollow Country Club with his head bowed. The stern facial expression he hid underneath his bright pink hat gave nothing away as the sounds that came from the nearby 14th green across the water, where Scottie Scheffler had just made birdie to go up by two shots, all but spelled out his major championship fate.

"Even if you don't want to look at leaderboards," Rahm said, "the crowd lets you know."

For a brief moment, Rahm had appeared capable of doing the unthinkable: tracking down the No. 1 player in the world, who began the day five shots ahead of Rahm, on a major championship Sunday. After tying the lead on the 11th hole thanks to Scheffler's uncharacteristic 2-over front nine, it seemed like Rahm had hoovered up the momentum and was ready to run downhill on his way to the Wanamaker Trophy.

But beating Scheffler requires more than just a single stretch of good golf. The now three-time major winner's trademark is not flash but steadiness and an uncanny ability to be unflappable in the face of mistakes. The pressure he puts on his opponents happens organically; his game is so sound and bulletproof that those trying to beat him know the effort required to outlast the best player in the world will be herculean.

Scheffler's inevitability hung in the humid Charlotte air all of Sunday. It's why by the time Rahm walked off the 16th green with a bogey and Scheffler had played 14 and 15 in 2 under, the Spaniard couldn't help but go for broke. His tee shot on the par-3 17th hole found the water. Game over.

"This back nine will be one that I remember for a long time," Scheffler said. "To step up when I needed to the most, I'll remember that for a while."

Nineteen years ago during the 2006 PGA Championship, Luke Donald watched a similar kind of movie unfold. Donald -- then the 10th-ranked player in the world -- held a share of the lead after 36 holes and shot a 66 at Medinah Country Club on Saturday to get to 14 under. There was only one problem: Tiger Woods shot a course-record 65 that day to head into Sunday in a tie for the lead with Donald. To that point, Woods had been 11-0 in majors where he held at least a share of the 54-hole lead.

"Tiger had this sort of aura that you just feel like you need to do more than you need to really elevate your game to beat him," Donald said Sunday after finishing his final round at Quail Hollow. "And I think he understood that."

That Sunday, Woods and Donald played in the final pairing together, and Woods shot 68 on his way to securing his 12th major victory by five shots over second place. On Sunday in Charlotte, Scheffler, who is now 3-0 with a 54-hole lead at a major, finished with the same margin of victory: five strokes.

"He just sort of played his game, didn't make too many mistakes and wore you down, and I certainly experienced that in 2006," Donald said of Woods. "I think Scottie is a similar kind of player when he gets the lead."

Since Scheffler won the 2024 Masters and positioned himself firmly on top of the sport, a lot has happened. Xander Schauffele has won two majors, Bryson DeChambeau reached two majors himself, and Rory McIlroy finally secured his green jacket and the Grand Slam.

Scheffler has been far from forgotten in that time period -- he has won six times on tour and had three more top-10 finishes at majors -- but a small narrative was starting to sprout: When will Scheffler win a major that isn't the Masters?

That Rahm was Scheffler's foil on Sunday was fitting. They have placed green jackets on each other's shoulders, and they entered the tournament with two majors apiece. Now, Scheffler slides above not just Rahm but DeChambeau, Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas, too. He is the player of his generation, and everyone else is simply trying to play catch-up.

"There were times where I feel like I pressed," DeChambeau, who finished tied for second place, said. "I've got to be more precise and fix what I can fix to make myself more consistent and get up there, the likes of what Scottie is doing right now."

Over the past 24 months, no one has received more praise from his peers than Scheffler, as they have all tried to explain his greatness while simultaneously marveling at it, too.

"I've played a lot of golf with him, and it seems like every shot has a magnitude of force and just finds its way up there," Sam Burns said.

With Scheffler, none of it ever feels off the rails. Even after making three bogeys on the front nine and fighting a miss to the left with his swing, he didn't appear flustered. All week he had been working with his coach, Randy Smith, on moving his hips toward the target more efficiently, and for a moment, it appeared the bad habits were making their way into his swing again. But then, Scheffler stepped up on the 10th tee, aimed more right at the suggestion of his caddie Ted Scott, made sure he made a full body turn and striped it. Something clicked. After three more birdies through 15 holes, Scheffler's victory felt inevitable once again.

"I felt like this was as hard as I battled for a tournament in my career," said Scheffler, whose driver was also deemed nonconforming before the tournament, forcing him to play with a new one this week. "Finishing off a major championship is always difficult. I didn't have my best stuff, but I kept myself in it. I was battling my swing the first couple days."

Scheffler has already attracted plenty of comparisons to Woods over his past two seasons due to his elite ballstriking. But that he can win without his best and then win by a lot when he does tap into it, is also akin to what Woods did in his prime.

"He just doesn't get too high or low, but his game speaks for himself," Donald said. "And he hates to lose."

As Scheffler has won more and become a fixture in the sport's spotlight, he's allowed himself to show and tell just exactly how much he wants it. At the 2024 Masters, he shared how nervous he had been and that he wished he didn't want to win as badly as he did. On Sunday, Scheffler wiped off tears on his way up Quail Hollow's 18th fairway before throwing his hat on the green in ecstasy and yelling moments after the final putt dropped. He is no longer just a two-time Masters winner but now, a three-time major champion at age 27, halfway to the Grand Slam.

"Sometimes I wish I didn't care as much as I did -- or as I do," Scheffler said again after his final round. "It would be a lot easier if I could show up and be like, eh, win or lose, I'm still going to go home and do whatever. Sometimes I feel that way. But at the end of the day, this means a lot to me."

"He wants to win every time he goes out here, regardless if it's golf, pickleball, whatever it is, he wants to win," Smith said. "I keep equating it to other sports. You got the basketball guy, you always know who it is on a team, who wants the ball with one second left, and that's the way he is."

If McIlroy's emotional win at the Masters this year was the end of one storyline, then Scheffler's victory at Quail Hollow was a timely reminder of the one that only grows stronger. McIlroy might be having the best year in the sport, but the title of best player in the world still belongs to Scheffler.