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<\/p>\nPHILADELPHIA \u2014 This was the major we all got wrong.<\/p>\n
The one that had Jon Rahm deep in his worries that something was wrong with him Monday and Tuesday, puzzled by the fact that everybody from players to pundits projected a 15-to-20-under winner at Aronimink, while he saw the challenge.<\/p>\n
The one we all just assumed would be won by a superstar, the way the previous seven PGA Championships were. It would be dominated by a bomb and gouge strategy, right? Four of golf\u2019s biggest talents hovered near the top of the leaderboard with nine holes to go. None could grab it, or even really get a hand on it.<\/p>\n
No, this was the PGA Championship won by a short-driving, putter-struggling Englishman in Aaron Rai, who had never contended deep into a major.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s talk it out. What do y\u2019all wanna know?<\/p>\n
I had a disagreement with a buddy. He said the PGA stunk, that it was nothing but a putting contest. I got a kick out of the chaos and said the problem wasn\u2019t putting, exactly, it was driving. Drive it in the rough and you could get it on the green, sure, but you couldn\u2019t leave a makeable putt. Whose right? Or are we both wrong? \u2014 Anonymous<\/p>\n
You were both completely right at different times in the tournament. This was, for no better way to put it, a really weird week. And the discourse changed at least four times from Monday to Sunday.<\/p>\n
Thursday and Friday ruled, perhaps in part because we were all so worried Aronimink would get destroyed by bombers shooting 64. Instead, that dense, sticky rough caused players fits. Those seemingly wide fairway targets that Rory McIlroy said required zero strategy off the tee actually played so much tighter, with slopes carrying solid drives off into the thick stuff. You\u2019re right, Anonymous, a 30-yard wide fairway played more like 10 yards wide. And those severely undulated greens mixed with evil pin positions meant tiny targets like Augusta National, where anything short of a precise approach could roll 15 feet away for a difficult two-putt.<\/p>\n
We loved watching that Thursday and Friday, but I think the frustrations surfaced on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n
To your buddy\u2019s point, it evolved into two-putt golf. And the best players never seemed to figure out those greens. It meant very little variance down the stretch Sunday because there were no \u201cattacking\u201d opportunities with the difficult pins, with contenders like McIlroy and Xander Schauffele stuck in complete neutral. For three hours on Sunday, it honestly felt dull. I still haven\u2019t put my finger on whether that was due to the course, the setup, or players just not getting it done.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Rory McIlroy couldn\u2019t get out of neutral in the final round of the PGA Championship on Sunday. (Emilee Chinn \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
My counter to the putting contest idea, though, is that Rai won it with ball striking. Yes, he made the long eagle putt on 9, but only after an excellent approach into the par-5 left him with an easy birdie at minimum. His iron shot into 11 was perhaps the best of the final round. The bunker shot on 13 was excellent, the type his peers failed to hit on 13 all afternoon. And his second shot into 16 was arguably the best I saw all week.<\/p>\n
He hit the huge putts that cut the deficit to three while Rahm couldn\u2019t get a single 50-50 putt to fall. But Rai took the lead because of his smart, accurate play.<\/p>\n
All the \u201cstar\u201d names thought the way to play was bomb and gouge. I felt Rai played it differently, valuing fairways and greens. From the opening rounds, it seemed to me that the rough was punishing, as the only way to control approaches to hard pins was from the fairway. Yet the bombers kept on gripping and ripping. Even in the final round, Rahm looked like he was trying to lash his ball into submission. Did they get it wrong? \u2014 Pete W.<\/p>\n
Seemed to be the perfect course set up, difficult but fair, and not 8,000 yards. Is this the way to settle the distance debate? Rai, being one of the shortest hitters, suggests it gave everybody a chance. \u2014 Paul G.<\/p>\n
The best defense of Aronimink is that there wasn\u2019t just one way to play it well. Cameron Smith hit just three of 14 fairways Sunday and lost 1.23 strokes off the tee, but was an absolute artist with his recovery game, shooting 68 and nearly making a title run if not for some tough misses on the greens.<\/p>\n
As a whole, the bombers played best. Rahm, McIlroy, Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Ludvig \u00c5berg, and even Matti Schmid represented most of the contenders who are all long off the tee. It\u2019s revisionist to see Rai win and think that it showed accuracy was the most important thing. It wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
But it showed something beautiful about the game, that there\u2019s no right way to do it. Rai pulled a three wood on the 527-yard par-4 15th to find the fairway and take the bunkers out of play. It left him 234 yards out, but he understood his game and still hit an excellent draw into the front of the green. Rai is the only truly \u201caccurate\u201d driver who finished in the top 10. My takeaway from the week might be that distance was the best way to play well, but the only way to hunt a pin was from the fairway.<\/p>\n
I personally don\u2019t enjoy the rough-focused course setup strategy. I\u2019m with Scottie Scheffler, who bemoans the removal of trees and using brutal rough as the only defense. It means players can send it deep knowing that if they miss by 20 yards, they\u2019re probably in the crowd where the lie will be on stomped-down grass. Aronimink and the PGA of America did a really great job with what they had. No notes. But I prefer tests like Riviera, Sawgrass or Pinehurst, which use angles and terrifying tight runoffs to combat distance. Not rough.<\/p>\n
Who does Rai replace on the Euro Ryder Cup squad? Yes, I know it\u2019s not this year. Whatever. It\u2019s fun. \u2014 TacoTaco<\/p>\n
It\u2019s super fun! It\u2019s just going to take a lot more than an awesome week for captain Luke Donald to mess with his sound rotation that just won in Rome and New York. We\u2019ve been so spoiled with star major winners that we forget a major championship is no guarantee. Until the last two weeks, Rai has played very poor golf. If he\u2019s back to the 2025 version, steadily ranking top 30 in the world on DataGolf, he\u2019s a no-brainer. But if Rai is still the early 2026 version, with no top 20s in normal events, Donald won\u2019t solely honor his PGA Championship.<\/p>\n
Still, let\u2019s pretend his form returns consistently. Then, we assume the H\u00f8jgaards rotate (again) as now Nicolai H\u00f8jgaard is having an excellent season, while Rasmus has dropped outside the top 80.<\/p>\n
My guess is that one of Sepp Straka or Shane Lowry loses a spot. Lowry has been far more of a stalwart but has no top 20s in eight starts. Straka has been down lately but finished fourth at Doral. Lowry is such an integral part of the team room, it\u2019s too difficult to leave him out unless he\u2019s lost. So I\u2019ll say Straka is out.<\/p>\n
But this all just highlights the strength of Europe\u2019s position these days. Harry Hall rates better than all of these players in 2026. So does Alex Noren. And are you completely sure Kristoffer Reitan isn\u2019t the real deal? And David Puig is an unbelievable 24-year-old talent. Donald has difficult choices to make. My gut says Rai doesn\u2019t make it.<\/p>\n
Does Justin Rose have another major in him? It\u2019s probably tougher than ever to win with all these top-level young guys, but Rose is still consistently good in majors. \u2014 James C.<\/p>\n
Every year that I find myself thinking, \u201cSurely, the decline will come,\u201d I\u2019m proven Rose is an anomaly. Four major top 10s in his last nine tries is iconic stuff, so the answer is absolutely. He\u2019s proven he\u2019s one of the greatest Augusta National players to not win one, so I\u2019ll assume he contends again next year until proven otherwise. And his performance two years ago at Royal Troon was the best golf I watched in 2025. He got the bad side of the draw.<\/p>\n
It would be idiotic for me to say anything other than yes. He can win another. Eventually, something has to break his way.<\/p>\n
Remember when no one knew the PGA Championships\u2019 identity? Congratulations, this week it became the \u201cbest test of golf\u201d for championship play for all golfers \u2026 with a great game. Congratulations Aaron. Did this week help differentiate the PGA Championship from the other majors? It seemed to for me. \u2014 Maggie C.<\/p>\n
In my opinion, the PGA Championship isn\u2019t on par with the other majors because it has no identity. The fan doesn\u2019t really know what it is or should be when they tune in to watch. Do you agree? If so, what do you think its identity should be? \u2014 J. L.<\/p>\n
If the PGA doesn\u2019t go back to August, how does it differentiate itself from the U.S. Open? The Aronimink course setup seemed like another watered-down attempt to be like the U.S. open. Could we get some coordination between the USGA and the PGA to do something different with these tournaments? \u2014 Brian M.<\/p>\n
Three questions. Three different feelings about what the heck the PGA Championship is.<\/p>\n
My gut says we need to remove Valhalla \u2014 a pre-existing deal from when the PGA of America owned the course \u2014 from our calculus and just look at the other five in the last six years. The theme, to me, has been very unsexy, uncaptivating golf, but difficult tests. I don\u2019t think any of us \u201cenjoyed\u201d Quail Hollow, but it was a challenging test. None of these five had winners in the double digits, and outside of Thomas\u2019 surprise comeback, all winners were separated by at least two shots.<\/p>\n
Most of us agree that Aronimink was an awesome test, highlighted by bombers and short fairway finders alike competing for the Wanamaker. Yet there was no juice down the stretch Saturday or Sunday.<\/p>\n
These PGAs rarely feel like they are building toward a crescendo. The Green Mile didn\u2019t decide Quail Hollow. Oak Hill was a good tournament decided on a ho-hum 16th hole as Viktor Hovland blew up in a fairway bunker. Even Kiawah was supposed to be a thrilling Sunday duel that instead played as a brutish par-fest.<\/p>\n
I truly love daunting tests. I love Oakmont. I love Shinnecock. But even amid their brutefests, it tends to build toward a payoff. There\u2019s an understanding of the risk and reward with each shot. PGA Championships, for me, try to toe two worlds and never quite capture either.<\/p>\n
How do the players view the PGA as a major vs. the Players Championship? Would a player rather win the PGA or the Players? \u2014 Matthew P.<\/p>\n
This was actually a hot topic of discussion back in March as the PGA Tour tried to launch its fifth major campaign.<\/p>\n
The condensed answer: They\u2019d rather win a PGA Championship, purely because, of course, they\u2019d rather go down as a major winner. That label of major next to a tournament is invaluable, so yes, I\u2019m quite sure Rory would rather get his seventh major rather than his third Players.<\/p>\n
At the same time, I think if they were given truth serum, they\u2019d say the Players is the better event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 This was the major we all got wrong. The one that had Jon Rahm deep in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-652723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}