This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports’ daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what’s happening in sports by subscribing here.
It may be the least prestigious of the four men’s golf majors, but there are plenty of good storylines to follow when the 107th PGA Championship tees off Thursday at pretty Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C. Such as:
The pressure is off Rory McIlroy.
The world’s second-ranked player ended his decade-long major title drought in dramatic fashion last month, recovering from another late meltdown to win the Masters in a playoff against Justin Rose. McIlroy’s first green jacket made him just the sixth player in history to complete the career Grand Slam.
With his place among the greatest of the all-time greats finally secure, the Northern Irishman can stop worrying about his legacy and just focus on winning tournaments. He’s been very good at that this year, racking up a PGA Tour-best three victories — all in premium events. Along with the Masters, McIlroy won the big-money Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Players Championship, the Tour’s richest non-playoff event.
WATCH | CBC Sports recaps 2025 Masters, McIlroy’s historic win:
Rory McIlroy made history by becoming the 6th player to ever complete the career grand slam in golf, and it only took him 11 tries to do so. Brittany MacLean is joined by Myles Dichter of the Basement Golf newsletter to recap his historic win.
This week, McIlroy has a good chance to nab his sixth career major. His big-hitting game is well-suited to Quail Hollow, where he’s won four Tour events and shot a course-record 61 during his victory in the 2015 Wells Fargo Championship. However, McIlroy is not the sole favourite this week because…
The old Scottie Scheffler is back.
The world No. 1 joins McIlroy as the co-favourites in the betting markets after Scheffler won his last tournament by eight shots to capture his first title of the year. A nine-time winner in 2024, Scheffler missed the first month of this season after gashing his right palm while trying to make ravioli for Christmas. The big Texan was slow out of the gates by his standards, but he placed fourth at the Masters and has now finished in the top eight at four straight tournaments.
Considering he’s won three consecutive PGA Tour Player of the Year awards, it’s a bit weird that Scheffler is still looking for his first major title outside of the Masters, which he won in 2022 and ’24. But he did win Olympic gold last year in Paris and has been a runner-up at the U.S. and the PGA Championship.
At last year’s PGA, Scheffler shot an incredible 5-under 66 in the second round after being released from jail following his arrest by a traffic cop at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., but he faded to a tie for eighth place as Xander Schauffele captured his first major.
Can Jordan Spieth complete the career Slam?
This seemed almost inevitable back in 2015 when Spieth, only 21 years old at the start of the season, won the Masters and the U.S. Open, tied for fourth at the British Open and placed second at the PGA Championship. Spieth added the Claret Jug two years later, but the Wanamaker Trophy seems further from his grasp than ever. He hasn’t finished better than 29th in the PGA Championship over the past five years, and he’s won only two Tour events since 2017. As a result, the American is down to 48th in the world rankings.
Spieth’s buddy Justin Thomas is the opposite — his only two major titles have come at the PGA Championship, which he won in 2017 (at Quail Hollow) and 2022. After a couple of years in the wilderness, Thomas looks like a strong contender again after winning the RBC Heritage and placing second at last week’s Truist Championship (two big-money events) to rise to fifth in the world rankings.
Other players to watch this week include world No. 4 Collin Morikawa of the United States, whose two major titles include the 2020 PGA, and big-hitting LIV Golf star Bryson DeChambeau, who’s rated No. 3 by Data Golf behind Scheffler and McIlroy. DeChambeau won the U.S. Open in 2024 and has been in the hunt in the last four American-based majors, including a second-place finish at last year’s PGA (just a shot behind Schauffele) and a tie for fifth at last month’s Masters.
Five Canadians are in the field.
Corey Conners, ranked 21st in the world, is Canada’s top contender after tying for eighth at the Masters and 11th at the Truist last week. His best finish at the PGA Championship was a tie for 12th two years ago at Oak Hill.
Conners is joined by Nick Taylor (ranked 36th), Mackenzie Hughes (44th), Taylor Pendrith (49th) and Adam Hadwin (92nd). All of them are trying to become the first Canadian to win a men’s major since Mike Weir’s Masters victory in 2003.