PGA Championship storylines: Scheffler, McIlroy or Koepka? Can Tiger’s physique maintain up?

The second main championship of the 12 months is upon us, and with it comes a troublesome check at Valhalla, the place the lengthy, slim and moist golf course will check the world’s finest this week for the primary time since 2014.

Between the three gamers who arrive in Louisville with the most effective odds to hoist the Wanamaker Trophy, the persevering with storyline of Tiger Woods’ endurance and a few different main winners making an attempt to make historical past (each with LIV and the PGA Tour), Valhalla is once more primed to offer a becoming setting for what could possibly be one other dramatic PGA Championship.

Listed below are six storylines we’re watching.

The three very completely different favorites

There’s little to little question as to who the favorites are this week — not solely by the use of the betting markets however merely from what has gone on on the earth of golf the previous two months.

Scottie Scheffler has received decisively 4 instances, together with his second Masters. Rory McIlroy is coming off back-to-back PGA Tour wins, and Brooks Koepka’s kind is as soon as once more peaking on the proper time after he received a LIV occasion in Singapore, the lead-up to his protection of the PGA Championship.

Koepka’s declare to his place as a favourite comes from a mix of his propensity for profitable PGA Championships (three and counting) in addition to his skill to at all times rise to the event when the programs and competitors get more durable. Valhalla will play extraordinarily lengthy (7,609 yards, par 71) and slim this week, making it prime for Koepka’s abilities to shine. Come Sunday, it could not be a shock to see him atop the leaderboard once more.

“While you take a look at a course like final 12 months and also you see who received, Brooks wins and you are like, yeah, that makes tons of sense,” Max Homa stated, likening the kind of course Valhalla is to final 12 months’s Oak Hill. “He hits the ball actually far; he hits it very straight, and he is a very, actually nice iron participant.”

Nobody is a greater iron participant proper now than Scheffler, nonetheless. There’s not a lot you’ll be able to say about Scheffler and his seeming dominance that hasn’t already been stated.

He is placing the ball higher than any participant has since prime Tiger Woods — his brief sport may be the most effective within the sport as properly, and his placing continues to enhance. Golf’s fickle nature and the game’s depth of expertise are maybe the one causes to not decide Scheffler to win each single week he tees it up. Though he is a brand new father and life has already modified a lot, a Scheffler victory on Sunday can be thought-about the least shocking final result.

“If he putts terrible, then he finishes in prime 10,” Woods stated of Scheffler. “If he putts respectable, he wins. He putts nice, he runs away. So, he is simply that good a ball striker and that good an all-around participant.”

Even Woods could not comprise himself from evaluating and contrasting Scheffler with McIlroy. He described them as “two completely completely different gamers.”

“I feel clearly Scottie’s not so long as Rory and might’t in all probability separate himself on a golf course like that with pure size, however his ball placing, the quantity of greens he hits, he simply wears you out that approach,” Woods stated. “Rory, simply the way in which he is in a position to take over a golf course and simply overpower it, I form of keep in mind that again after I was youthful, nevertheless it’s been some time.”

McIlroy arrives in Louisville with two PGA Tour wins in his two most up-to-date appearances, albeit one among them being in a staff format with Shane Lowry. However past the profitable outcomes, it’s the approach wherein McIlroy has received — with a sport that’s clearly exuding confidence — that bodes properly for his week on the PGA.

McIlroy leads the tour in whole driving and is persistently hitting it greater than 320 yards today. Extra importantly, his strategy sport appears to be sharper than ever — at Wells Fargo, McIlroy gained greater than 6 pictures on the sector together with his strategy pictures.

Because it stands now, even with a area this measurement and this deep, you would be hard-pressed to search out anybody who is not choosing one among these three so as to add to their main tally come this week. — Paolo Uggetti

Can Tiger’s physique maintain up?

In what might be his first aggressive look since making the minimize on the Masters and ending 16-over, Woods might be confronted with a troublesome job on a well-known course. Valhalla Nation Membership is the positioning of the dramatic playoff victory Woods secured in 2000 over Bob Might; it is also not the best of walks, particularly given the added size through the years.

Woods, who arrived Sunday, described the stroll Tuesday as being extra lengthy than tough and as a substitute targeted on what might be arguably crucial ability on show — not only for him, however for the eventual winner — this week: preserving the ball within the fairway.

“Greater than something, simply keep out of the tough,” Woods stated. “This can be a huge golf course, and when you get within the tough right here, yeah, issues might get a little bit bit sore, but when I drive it properly and do the issues I must do and what I did 24 years in the past, hopefully it really works.”

Regardless of his poor efficiency at Augusta, Woods’ stroll regarded improved and he was in a position to end all 4 rounds, in contrast to the 12 months prior when he withdrew on Sunday. Homa, who performed with Woods throughout the first two rounds on the Masters, raved concerning the state of Woods’ sport and stated he wasn’t “limping too unhealthy.”

“His golf sport was unimaginable. Two days I performed with him, he hit it nice,” Homa stated Tuesday. “I very a lot thought he might win one other golf match. So I do not know tank-wise, however he works his ass off and he is actually, actually good at golf, so I might put nothing previous him at this level.”

Very similar to he is stated up to now, Woods’ really feel for the pictures he must hit continues to be there, particularly across the greens and with a putter in hand. Nevertheless, whether or not his physique won’t solely maintain up however execute stays to be seen.

“My physique’s OK; it’s what it’s. I want my sport was a little bit bit sharper,” Woods stated. “Once more, I haven’t got a whole lot of aggressive reps, so I’m having to depend on my follow periods and getting stuff carried out both at house or right here on-site. However on the finish of the day, I should be prepared mentally and bodily come Thursday.” — Uggetti

Spieth going for profession Grand Slam

McIlroy is not the one golfer making an attempt to finish a protracted drought in majors. Jordan Spieth final received one at The Open at Royal Birkdale Golf Membership in Southport, England, in July 2017. This might be his eighth try at turning into the sixth golfer to finish the profession Grand Slam within the Masters period by profitable a Wanamaker Trophy.

Will probably be Spieth’s first try since turning 30 in July. Each Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan accomplished the profession Grand Slam after turning 30 (Gary Participant, Jack Nicklaus and Woods have been the others to perform the feat).

“I imply, I am conscious,” Spieth stated. “It’s totally cool, however I might take any and all and as many majors as doable no matter the place they arrive. It is simply form of a cool factor when you’re in a position to maintain all 4. There’s simply not many individuals within the sport which have carried out that, and you’ve got a possibility to do issues which can be very distinctive within the sport of golf. That is what sort of stands out, stands the check of time afterwards.” — Mark Schlabach

Climate forecast does not look nice

There was a brief climate delay throughout Tuesday’s follow, and golfers have been pulled off the course for lower than an hour. It may not be the final one this week.

The forecast requires a 67% likelihood of thunderstorms once more Wednesday, adopted by partly cloudy skies for Thursday’s opening spherical with temperature highs within the low 80s. There is a good likelihood for thunderstorms once more Friday, with highs within the low 70s.

The weekend appears fairly good. There is a 35% likelihood of rain Saturday with highs within the low 80s. It is going to heat up for Sunday’s last spherical, with highs round 86 levels and a 20% likelihood of rain. Winds are anticipated to blow 7-9 mph all through the week.

If Valhalla is moist this week and its greens are receptive, longer hitters from the tee determine to have a bonus.

“Properly, pay attention, hitting it additional is at all times a bonus, proper?” LIV Golf League captain Jon Rahm stated. “There is a cause why nearly generationally the longest or one of many longest gamers has been the most effective. Jack [Nicklaus] was the longest, Tiger was the longest, Greg Norman was the longest. Rory, Dustin [Johnson], they’ve been the longest, proper? So, it is no shock there.

“It is so simple as that,” Rahm continued. “It requires perhaps a little bit bit much less precision in sure moments and simply the flexibility to have a shorter membership in [from] anyplace. I imply, it is at all times going to make it a little bit simpler. I do not suppose there’s any sport wherein extra energy is detrimental.” — Schlabach

Valhalla is longer

The golf course is about 150 yards longer than it was in 2014, when McIlroy received his fourth main championship victory in close to darkness on the PGA Championship.

Essentially the most vital modifications got here on the par-4 opening gap, which was lengthened by 50 yards to 484, and the par-5 18th gap, which went from 542 yards to 570. On No. 18, golfers must navigate their approach round water on the appropriate and a bunker on the left off the tee, in addition to bunkers on the back and front of its large inexperienced. The outlet is aptly named “Picture End” close to the house of the Kentucky Derby.

The par-71 course will play 7,609 yards this week, which is a 2% improve from a decade in the past.

“It is gotten larger,” Woods stated. “Gotten a little bit bit longer. I feel they prolonged six tees since we performed in 2014. Opened up a few of the areas so there’s extra circulate, much less bushes. Undoubtedly completely different than once we performed in 2000. I am wanting ahead to sooner or later they are saying we shortened this gap up, as a result of it looks like each time we come again and play, it is at all times getting longer.” — Schlabach

Checking in on LIV golfers

In the midst of persevering with negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia, 16 LIV golfers might be teeing it up this week. That listing options previous PGA champions like Koepka, Martin Kaymer and Phil Mickelson in addition to Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Cameron Smith and none apart from Talor Gooch.

Gooch, who’s ranked 668th on the earth, didn’t qualify to play within the Masters this 12 months and famously stated {that a} McIlroy win at Augusta would require an asterisk provided that Gooch, the LIV particular person champion in 2023, wasn’t within the area.

Apart from the ridicule that his remarks acquired, Gooch has missed the minimize at three of his previous seven main appearances. Though he is seen his fellow LIV golfers undergo native qualifying for each the U.S. Open and the Open Championship, Gooch has refused to do the identical with a view to play in these occasions.

This week, Gooch is one among seven LIV gamers who acquired a particular invitation from the PGA to play within the match, and loads of eyes might be on him — and the remainder of the LIV cohort — to see how they’re going to fare when the world’s finest gamers come collectively.

Rahm, for instance, has remained adamant that his sport has not suffered since his departure for LIV and the completely different schedule that he is had. Regardless of a disappointing T-45 end at Augusta Nationwide this 12 months, Rahm has routinely positioned within the prime 10 at LIV occasions and stated Tuesday he feels good about his sport.

“I do know it is smaller fields, however I have been taking part in good golf. It is simply the one main that I performed clearly wasn’t nice,” Rahm stated. “Have I performed my finest golf? No … after I say I am not taking part in my finest, simply hadn’t had my A-game for every week but, however I nonetheless, I have been near my A-game and B-plus a number of instances, so yeah, I am comfy [with] how I performed this 12 months.”

Though he’s nonetheless one of many 5 finest gamers on the earth, it looks like there might be much less stress on Rahm this week than a participant reminiscent of Gooch, who has chosen to place himself as a contrarian with a few of his quotes on the matter. There might be no asterisks, but when Gooch as soon as once more misses the minimize at a significant, his feedback will proceed to look ill-advised. — Uggetti