10 Golfers to Watch at the PGA Championship (For Different Reasons)

Newton Square, Pa. – It’s the Wednesday of the PGA Championship and everyone has gone home.

Almost everyone, that is.

There is one golfer left on the range. He is often the last golfer in the driving contest at these events, hitting balls into the dusk, steering the roulette wheel of human emotion as he goes. That would be it Bryson DeChambeauwhose range habits seem exhausting and counterintuitive when you consider how much energy he’ll have to expend on the actual tournament over the next four days — until you remember that “exhausting” and “counterintuitive” and thousands of late-night range balls is exactly how he cruised to two major championship wins plus another set.

There is one golfer left on the course. He has been in the news a lot of late, for his defiance of age win in Torrey Pines and his heartbreak near-miss at the Masters and its dramatic, breathtaking golf club CHANGES. That would be it Justin Rosethe papaya-orange golf bag is visible against the Aronimink fairways from two holes away. He has won on this golf course before. He previously earned a degree in this metropolitan area. He has finished in the top three in three of his last six majors. He’s also 45, reminding us that age is just a number, but in this case, an impressive number.

Of the 156 players in this week’s PGA field, these are two worth watching. You could argue that there are 154 more worth checking out, and you’d be right – what a cool thing, in the grand scheme of golf, to have come so far as to qualify for a major championship! — but life is about choices, so we’ve made some tough ones. Here are the rest of our 10 players worth watching Aronimink.

3. Jordan Spieth it’s worth watching every week, but this week even more so; he’s one PGA Championship away from a career Grand Slam which means, as he said Monday, “If I can win one more tournament in my life, it would definitely be this one.”

Which Spieth will show up? We have no idea! That’s why he’s so high on this list.

4. Rory McIlroy is a quarter of the way to the calendar Grand Slam. That’s true of every Masters winner every year, of course, but McIlroy has enough firepower and his game is so well-crafted for this golf course that it’s worth letting your mind wander and wonder. Good news? McIlroy and Spieth are in the same group on Thursday and Friday, which means you can monitor their situations together.

5. Cameron Young tops the list of top high-profile zero-time winners we expect to be on the lookout for this week; Young won the Players, he ran away (left?) in the Cadillac and is up to No. 3 in the world.

“I’ve done a really good job of taking advantage of the opportunities I’ve had to finish high in the tournament and I’ve been lucky to win a few times,” he said Wednesday, understated as usual. “Lucky” plus very, very good at golf.

We’ll throw in Ludvig Aberg and Tommy Fleetwood as other esteemed members of this club; it’s time to see if this is their time. (Or Viktor Hovland, or Patrick Cantlay, or Sam Burns, or Chris Gotterup, or…)

6. Rickie Fowler is part of that team as well, but it’s worth noting just because it seems to be slipping under the radar, despite the orange color. I brought this up pre-Masters when he was, in my estimation, the most talented player not on the court. Since then, he has played three tournaments and finished T8 at the RBC Heritage, T9 at the Cadillac Championship and T2 at Truist. This is a strong form.

7. Adam Scott has played well this year and boasts an enticing combination of driving distance plus accurate iron play; he is one hot week away from another trip to compete in a major.

8. Jon RahmMajor league fall feels a bit overrated. Still, in a world where Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy have won four of the last five championships, Rahm’s lack of serious opportunities in the past three years stands out. His continued success at LIV – where he has finished first or second in seven of his last 10 events – only adds to that pressure these big weeks. Let’s see how this goes.

(He leads a group of LIV players whose performances will come under extra scrutiny as the league looks to raise funds; their contingent includes young talents like David Puig and Tom McKibbin, veterans like Joaquin Niemann and Thomas Detry plus their top Masters winner, Tyrrell Hatton.)

9. Patrick Reedin an interesting twist, hasn’t played a competitive round since his T12 finish at the Masters. That means there’s an air of mystery surrounding the man who made headlines for leaving LIV and went above and beyond to win the DP World Tour soon after. But he’s been home, he said Today’s playerwatching his kids play sports and getting ready for the rest of the big championship season. Good news for Reed supporters: he visited Aronimink last week and played for three days in varying conditions. If that sounds familiar, McIlroy used a similar light schedule approach heading into last month’s Masters. We’ll see if Reed can channel similar form.

10. Scottie Scheffler always worth watching. He is the best golfer in the world looking to add to the success of generations in recent years. If he needed any extra motivation (he didn’t), McIlroy’s two leads are back in front of him, six to four.

We’ll see how that ratio holds up on Sunday night.

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