2026 PGA Championship: Scottie vs. Rory and Spieth's Grand Slam Bid

Mark Schlabach joins "The Pat McAfee Show" and evaluates Scottie Scheffler ahead of the PGA Championship. (1:01)

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. -- The largest field in major championship golf tees off in the 108th PGA Championship starting Thursday at Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia.

While 156 golfers are competing , there are only a handful who figure to have a chance to lift a Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday.

They're the familiar names who have dominated golf the past few seasons -- Scottie Scheffler , Rory McIlroy , Bryson DeChambeau , Jon Rahm and Cameron Young .

Of course, they'll not be the only golfers with a chance to win. Three-time major champion Jordan Spieth will try to complete the career Grand Slam . Matt Fitzpatrick will attempt to win for the fourth time on tour this season and grab the second major of his career.

There will be 11 LIV Golf players in the field, including Tyrrell Hatton and Joaquín Niemann .

The Donald Ross-designed course figures to be part of the storyline this week. It's the first time that Aronimink Golf Club has hosted a PGA Championship since Gary Player won in 1962. The nine-time major champion is now 90 years old.

"What makes this place difficult are the greens," said Keegan Bradley , who won the 2018 BMW Championship at Aronimink Golf Club. "So you really need to be able to control your distances, hit the ball in the fairway. Off the tee it's not extremely challenging, but the greens get really crazy and they are really mounded and hilly and just like a lot of northeast courses are like. So to put the ball in the right spot is really important."

Here are some of the biggest questions heading into the PGA Championship:

Mark Schlabach: Aronimink has wide fairways, fewer trees and 174 bunkers, which you'd expect at a Donald Ross course. The rough doesn't seem to be as thick or penalizing as it might have been, which leads me to believe that a big hitter like Rory or Scottie is probably going to lift the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday.

McIlroy and Scheffler have combined to win five of the past nine majors, so chances are probably high that one of them is going to finish first. Another Rory victory would spark talk about him completing the Grand Slam this summer. Another Scottie win would erase any doubts about him still being the No. 1 golfer in the world.

More than anything, it will be good to see both of them in the same field again. One of the issues PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp and the Future Competition Committee is going to need to address as it reshapes the future of the tour is how to get the best golfers playing against each other more frequently.

Not only are the best golfers in the world from both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf not competing against each other enough, but Rory and Scottie haven't played in the same tournament since McIlroy won a green jacket in the Masters for the second straight time.

Scottie played in the RBC Heritage and Cadillac Championship, while Rory skipped both signature events. Last week, McIlroy played in the Truist Championship, while Scheffler stayed home. That's not healthy for the tour.

A Sunday pairing with Rory and Scottie would be fun to watch. I'll go with McIlroy to win this week. He leads the tour in strokes gained: off the tee (.854) and tee to green (1.703). He'll need to clean up his short game, which wasn't as sharp at Quail Hollow Club last week.

Paolo Uggetti: I think the real fun this week will be if the answer to this question is both. Between the two, they have accounted for four of the past five major championships, including the last two. If it feels like we're overdue for a duel, you're not wrong.

The two haven't really had their best stuff at the same time, and while it's evident that they are the top two players in the game, aside from the Ryder Cup last year (when Scheffler edged out McIlroy one up in Sunday singles) we haven't been able to watch them go toe-to-toe at the biggest stages.

Scheffler has had a strange season, where he hasn't played up to his standards but is still playing like one of the best players in the world. He just hasn't been able to get over the edge for a win since the Amex in January. Defending his title this week feels like a bet worth making, especially given that if he simply gets off to a better start in any of his last three tournaments, he probably has multiple wins this season.

McIlroy, meanwhile, seems to be taking a slight step back from PGA Tour golf in order to prioritize -- even more so -- the majors. It creates the expectation that he will be in form this week too.

The PGA may be the also-ran of the four majors at the moment, but if both McIlroy and Scheffler come down the stretch with real chances to add to their major total, we could be in store for a blockbuster.

Schlabach: Even though Spieth doesn't have a top-10 finish in 12 starts on tour this season, he feels like he's close to winning again. That wasn't the case the past few seasons, especially when he was dealing with a painful wrist injury.

Parts of Spieth's game have been good in tournaments, while others have lagged behind and led to big numbers. He's looking for consistency and feels like he's close to contending in majors again.

"My game has been getting better and better," Spieth said Monday. "It's plenty good to have a chance to win. It's about working my way into contention. I was able to do that a couple weeks ago. Being in the last couple groups this weekend [for] the first time this season. Glad I was there and hopefully I can do that week and do better."

This will be Spieth's 10th attempt at trying to complete the career Grand Slam. He last won a major at the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in England. He hasn't finished in the top 25 in each of his past six starts in the PGA Championship and missed the cut last year.

Uggetti: I appreciate the question -- but it's not happening. It's become charming and social media fodder to gawk at Spieth's roller-coaster-like style of golf, but the reality underneath all of that is that he simply doesn't have the consistency to compete, let alone win, at major championships. It also doesn't help that the PGA, by and large, sets up its championships in a way that doesn't particularly suit Spieth's game. He missed the cut at Quail Hollow (2025) and Valhalla (2024) and while Aronimink isn't those courses, it doesn't exactly scream "Spieth."

Schlabach: DeChambeau and Rahm had to answer some uncomfortable questions about LIV Golf's future at last week's tournament in Northern Virginia. It's clear that both golfers were caught off guard when Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund announced April 30 that it wouldn't finance the league beyond this season .

Any LIV golfer winning a major championship would be a much-needed boost for the circuit. DeChambeau and Rahm probably have the best chances given their length off the tee. DeChambeau's iron play wasn't great in the Masters when he posted 76-74 and missed the cut.

Rahm was in the mix in last year's PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, but he fell apart on the last three holes and tied for eighth at 4 under, seven strokes behind Scheffler. Rahm has finished in the top 10 in six of his past 12 starts in majors.

Uggetti: I expect they're going to be asked a lot of questions about LIV's future, as they should be, and I wonder how much that could or would affect their play on the golf course. That being said, there's no reason both DeChambeau and Rahm shouldn't be considered true contenders this week. Aronimink should fit both of their games really well and last year's PGA is the one major that Rahm has contended in since leaving for LIV.

Both have won LIV events this season but failed to show up at the Masters. Rahm finished T-38 while DeChambeau missed the cut. Now, with the future of LIV up in the air given the PIF's funding détente, and future events like the one in New Orleans postponed, it's fair to ask how LIV players' preparation for majors will shift and evolve -- and whether it will be the best avenue for them to be ready to excel at majors if they're not teeing it up as often in whatever the new-look iteration of the league will be next season.

Schlabach: There's only one golfer in the field who has won a Wanamaker Trophy three times. Brooks Koepka has won the PGA Championship in three of his past eight starts and was the runner-up in 2021.

The five-time major champion's game showed some life in last week's Myrtle Beach Classic. He posted a 7-under 64 in the third round, which included a 29 on the back nine and tied for 11th at 12 under.

Koepka has one top-10 since returning to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf this season. He has flashed with a tie for 13th in The Players and for 12th in the Masters. It seems like he's close to putting things together for four rounds.

Koepka says he's driving the ball beautifully and hitting his irons well. His short game is coming around, although he's still not satisfied with his putting.

Koepka's mind and confidence seem to be in a good place heading into the second major.

"It's been a long time since I've had fun playing golf," Koepka said Saturday. "I was very frustrated last year. Just wasn't in a good place, but I think it's like anybody, right? If they're happy off the golf course, they're going to play well on the golf course. I think that's a huge, huge piece of it, and I've found that.

"Refound my happiness, my love for the game. All the pieces are connected. It's just now I've got to go out and go play."

Uggetti: With two wins this season, Chris Gotterup may not qualify as an under-the-radar player anymore, but the heat on him has cooled after a scorching start to the season. At Aronimink, Gotterup (60-to-1) could be a perfect fit. Data Golf has him pegged as the player in the field second best in course fit, just behind McIlroy.

Last week at the Truist, Gotterup finished in a tie for 14th, which was his best finish since a T-6 at the Houston Open. There's something about Gotterup's game -- his ball flight, ability to shape shots and overall gumption -- that feels like it could suit a PGA Championship well. And beyond the data, Gotterup may be one of those players whose experience winning tournaments this season could prove to be valuable come the weekend in Philly.

Uggetti: For the most part, it looks like Aronimink will avoid any serious deluges this week. Rain is expected on Wednesday and Thursday, but not an amount that should really alter the golf course. And while it is expected to get warmer through the weekend, the wind forecast could be what makes this tournament intriguing.

A recent renovation done by Gil Hanse breathed some life back into Aronimink, and while the course's length may not impede the longest players from carrying some of the treacherous bunkers, it appears that the undulating green complexes have already caught players' attention.

"They are very severe in spots. It will be interesting to see where obviously the pins get put," Matt Fitzpatrick said. "The greens are going to be the defense for the week."

"The greens themselves have a lot of pitch. You have to hit it in the right areas and you have to control your distance extremely well," Spieth said.

For players like McIlroy and DeChambeau who can carry most of the bunkers in play off the tee, the advantage is clear. At this level, whoever has a short iron or wedge into a green will be far better suited to hit the right spot, distance or slope than one who has to hit a mid or long iron.

_Originally reported by [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/48711290/scottie-scheffler-rory-mcilroy-jordan-spieth-sleeper-contenders-pga-championship)._