Stiles: NC’s PGA features numerous storylines among golf’s stars

CHARLOTTE — Every one of golf’s major championships features a plethora of storylines. But as the 107th PGA Championship is set to begin Thursday at Charlotte’s Quail Hollow Club, the volume of stars who enter the championship in solid form, and the narratives that surround them, matches or even exceeds other majors in recent memory.

The result is an excitement that can’t be dampened by the soggy weather over the first two days of practice rounds in the Queen City, and will only continue to build as the sun emerges for four spectacular days of competition later this week.

The man among the headliners perhaps grabbing the most attention is Rory McIlroy, making his third competitive start since completing the career Grand Slam with his dramatic and emotional Masters win five weeks ago. In addition to adding the final leg of the Slam, McIlroy ended an 11-year drought without a major championship victory, winning a playoff over Justin Rose at Augusta after numerous near misses in recent years.

Saying the win will “free him up” has already become cliche — but there is also some potential for that statement to become truth as McIlroy plays the rest of the season’s majors, looking to match Phil Mickelson with six majors, the second most since the turn of the century behind only Tiger Woods. If the burden that was on him before Masters Sunday wasn’t already clear, it became even more apparent by the nervous energy within the topsy-turvy final round he played at Augusta — and in the release on the 18th green when he sank the winning putt and fell to the ground in tears.

Beyond the historic Masters victory, McIlroy is playing the best golf of anyone this season, with wins at the Players Championship and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am — and how’s Augusta, TPC Sawgrass and Pebble Beach for a trio of venues at which to win.

Now he’ll try to add Quail Hollow to that list as the jewel of the Queen City hosts its second PGA Championship. If you’re unfamiliar with his record at Quail Hollow in the regular PGA Tour stop there, Jordan Spieth recently referred to the course as “Rory McIlroy Country Club” — and no one will argue that point, given his four wins there, including last year.

With McIlroy playing so consisently well, no longer carrying the weight of the Grand Slam or the major-championship drought and at a venue that seems tailor-made for his game, it’s hard to imagine him not contending this week.

And yet, McIlroy is not the odds-on favorite, coming in slightly behind Scottie Scheffler, who remains the world No. 1 despite McIlroy’s stellar 2025 season. Scheffler won his most recent start in a wire-to-wire domination at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, running away from the field to win by eight strokes in a tournament that was all but over even on Saturday.

After a 2024 season that included seven PGA Tour wins plus Olympic gold, Scheffler had still played well through the early months of 2025 but hadn’t found the winner’s circle. Having now done so at the Nelson brings back the positive momentum he felt through so much of last season, and the 31-under-par winning total shows just how well he was playing in his most recent start.

Like McIlroy, it’s almost hard to imagine Scheffler not contending this week, not only because of his recent form but also his consistency throughout the last couple of years that’s put him on the front page of the leaderboard nearly anytime he plays.

Justin Thomas hasn’t had that consistency through much of the period since winning the 2022 PGA Championship, but is in better form this spring, including a win four weeks ago at the RBC Heritage, a signature event on Tour. He’s also a two-time winner of the PGA Championship, and now returns to Quail Hollow, the site of his maiden major win in 2017.

While it’s worth pointing out that the Masters was the exception, Thomas has finished in the top two in three of his last four starts, and has now returned to No. 5 in the world rankings after falling to as low as 33rd last year. No one would be surprised if he’s on the leaderboard again this week as he looks to join a list of Walter Hagen, Jack Nicklaus, Woods, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead and Brooks Koepka as three-time PGA champions.

When Thomas won in 2017, in came in the first attempt at the career Grand Slam for his buddy Jordan Spieth, who was fresh off the third leg at the Open Championship earlier that year. Eight years later, Spieth still needs the PGA to cap off the career slam.

After McIlroy’s Slam was the first completed in a quarter-century, could golf have Grand Slam winners in back-to-back majors? Spieth isn’t considered one of the favorites — he’s listed at 55/1 odds as of Tuesday — but he’s never lacked the talent to reappear in contention in any event he plays in. And, while he was 12 strokes behind Scheffler’s runaway performance at the Byron Nelson, a final-round 62 was his best score of the season and resulted in a fourth-place finish, suggesting an upward trend as the season continues. He has also said in interviews he found McIlroy’s Masters win “inspiring,” given his similar position of also being one win away from the Grand Slam.

It’s unusual for a column on major-championship contenders to get this far without mentioning Xander Schauffele, who defends this week after winning both the PGA and the Open Championship last year. In his return from a rib injury, he’s been quietly working his way back, including top-20 finishes in his last four starts and a tie for eighth at the Masters.

Schauffele does have this strike against him, at least from a standpoint of winning the tournament: of all the major champions since World War II, only four have won in their first major-championship title defense (Peter Thomson, Curtis Strange, Padraig Harrington, Koepka).

But Schauffele finished second in each of the last two years at the PGA Tour event at Quail Hollow, and has become more and more comfortable with major-championship pressure throughout his career, culminating with last year’s pair of titles.

Schauffele birdied the 72nd hole last year to win by one stroke over Bryson DeChambeau, who went on to win the U.S. Open a month later in another North Carolina major, at Pinehurst No. 2. DeChambeau has contended in four of the last five majors, and led early in the final round of the Masters before fading to a tie for fifth.

DeChambeau also won in his most recent start on the LIV Golf League in South Korea, suggesting the Masters disappointment hasn’t followed him in successive events, and he had two top-10s at Quail Hollow in his days on the PGA Tour.

It’s unrealistic to think that all six players mentioned thus far will all contend this week; that’s just not how golf tends to work. But if three or four of these players can find their way into the final few pairings on the weekend — alongside whoever else emerges from golf’s deepest championship field — this PGA Championship could quickly become an entertaining and competitive tournament.

And that’s not to even mention the likes of Sepp Straka, who is second in FedExCup points after two PGA Tour wins this season including last week’s Truist Championship, or Jon Rahm, who will look to translate a streak of top-10 finishes on LIV into once again making noise in a major. Ryan Fox, a world-class New Zealander, is also coming off a win in Myrtle Beach, his first in the U.S., while Ryan Gerard, Ben Griffin and J.T. Poston play a major championship in their home state.

Some of these storylines will only deepen as players give themselves a chance, and one will end with that man hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy beneath a Sunday Carolina sunset.