Golf News

Home

Quizzes

Newsletter

Scottie Scheffler. Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

Four fascinating storylines to follow at PGA Championship

By Jack Dougherty | Last updated 5/15/24

Do you smell it?

That's the sweet scent of a major championship week on the golf calendar, as the best players in the world will congregate at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville for the 106th PGA Championship. There are scores of storylines heading into the second major of the 2024 season, but we've done you a favor by condensing them into the top four.

Here's what we're following Thursday-Sunday at Valhalla.

Scottie Scheffler looks to tighten his grip on professional golf

Scheffler is the best player in the world by a wide margin, but how big is the gap between him and No. 2? We're about to find out.

The 27-year-old has won four of his past five starts, and he finished runner-up by one shot in the other. He won the Masters by a comfortable four shots and then flew to Hilton Head a few days later and won the RBC Heritage by three. At the time, his wife was on the brink of going into labor with their first child. The couple recently had a baby boy, so Scheffler can play freely this week without that momentous family event top of mind.

With a win at Valhalla, Scheffler would become the first player since Jordan Spieth in 2015 to win the first two majors of the year. A victory would put him on a trajectory to possibly record the greatest season in golf history.

Will Scheffler continue to dominate, or will someone be able to take him down?

Can Rory McIlroy finally end his major drought?

McIlroy is in a precarious situation heading into the second major championship of the year. The Northern Irishman hasn't won a major since 2014, when he won the PGA Championship at Valhalla for his third straight victory.

This week, he's playing in the PGA Championship...at Valhalla...searching for his third straight victory. It almost feels like destiny for McIlroy, but can he convert this golden opportunity with all the distractions swirling around him?

The last time Rory McIlroy went into the PGA Championship at Valhalla, he had won his previous two events.

He took the Wanamaker trophy home that year. pic.twitter.com/3CuppjPXkA
— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) May 13, 2024

McIlroy normally doesn't fare well when he's the center of attention at majors. That's why he has failed to get over the hump at Augusta National for all these years. He also recently filed for divorce from his wife, Erica Stoll. McIlroy is a poet with a golf club in his hands, but he needs to clear the mental hurdle that always seems to trip him up at majors.

If not now, when?

LIV Golf storming Valhalla with confidence

Valhalla represents "the great hall in Norse mythology where the souls of heroes slain in battle are received." That sure sounds like LIV Golf after getting outdueled and outwitted at the Battle of Augusta.

Five of the 13 LIV golfers in the field missed the cut at the Masters, and none of them finished better than tied for sixth. Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Joaquin Niemann were hardly heard from the entire week. The rival golf league will be back with a vengeance this week.

Koepka is looking to go back-to-back at the PGA Championship, which would give him six career majors and put him in a tie for 12th all time in major wins. He's coming off a victory at the last LIV Golf tournament two weeks ago, and a confident Koepka is tough to beat.

Bryson DeChambeau, Niemann, Rahm, Johnson and red-hot Dean Burmester fit Valhalla well as bombers who can get hot with the putter. Cameron Smith and Tyrrell Hatton can offset their lack of distance with elite short games, and Talor Gooch has a lot to prove after talking a big game for months.

No one on the PGA Tour can hang with Scheffler and McIlroy now, but can a LIV golfer?

Blocky is back!

Remember Michael Block?

Sure you do. He's the PGA professional who made a hole-in-one and finished T15 at Oak Hill last year to punch his ticket to the 2024 PGA Championship. After a yearlong celebrity tour that included golf rounds with Tiger Woods and DJ Khaled, numerous podcast appearances and even an appearance at the ESPYs, "Blocky" is back for his PGA Championship encore. He's in the first group off hole No. 1 on Thursday.

It hasn't gone well for Block since his miraculous finish at Oak Hill last year. Not only did he turn into an overnight villain when he claimed he would be one of the best golfers in the world if he had McIlroy's length off the tee, but the 47-year-old has also missed the cut in all five of his PGA Tour starts over the past year.

Don't expect a repeat performance from 2023.

More must-reads: