The PGA of America released the tee times for the first and second rounds of the 2022 PGA Championship and we found a few key groups to watch on Thursday and Friday at Southern Hills Country Club.
Hideki Matsuyama, Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau
Tee Times: 7:38 a.m. Thursday off the 10th tee; 1:03 p.m. Friday off the 1st tee
Hideki Matsuyama came close to winning his first major championship when the PGA Championship was held at Baltusrol Golf Club in 2016. He finished T4 that week for his best finish in the PGA Championship. The 2021 Masters Champion, who makes his 10th start this week, has never missed a cut at the PGA Championship.
Xander Schauffele at No. 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking is one of four players inside the top 10 in the world who has not yet won one of golf’s major championships. He’s making his sixth start in the PGA Championship in which his best finish came in 2020 at TPC Harding Park where he was T10.
He’s coming into Southern Hills on form with a win at the Zurich Classic and a T5 at the AT&T Byron Nelson in his last two starts on the PGA Tour. Tony Finau, like Schauffele, is also in search of his first major title. He’ll look to continue what has been an impressive record in the PGA Championship where he’s made 6 of 7 cuts and finished T4 in 2020 at TPC Harding Park.
Shane Lowry, Brooks Koepka, Adam Scott
Tee Times: 1:03 p.m. Thursday off the 1st tee; 7:38 a.m. Friday off the 10th tee
Three major champions in Shane Lowry, Brooks Koepka and Adam Scott will be grouped together for Thursday and Fridays rounds at Southern Hills Country Club.
Lowry, winner of the 2019 Open Championship, has been on a run of good form with top 3 finishes in his last three starts including the Masters Tournament.
Koepka, a two-time PGA Champion, is making his first start since missing the cut in Augusta where he had been coping with a hip injury.
LIVE from Southern Hills: @BKoepka Press Conference https://t.co/qhuMgueJAr
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 17, 2022
Koepka was forced to withdraw from last week’s AT&T Byron Nelson. Scott, winner of the 2013 Masters Tournament, is one of a handful of players who also competed in the PGA Championship when it was last held at Southern Hills back in 2007. He finished T27 that week.
Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas
Tee Times:
1:14 p.m. Thursday off the 1st tee
7:49 a.m. Friday off the 10th tee
Three members of the victorious 2020 U.S. Ryder Cup team will reunite for the opening rounds of the PGA Championship with Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay and Justin Thomas grouped together over the first two days. Johnson, winner of the 2016 U.S. Open and 2020 Masters Tournament, will look to pick up the third leg of the Career Grand Slam with a victory at Southern Hills Country Club.
He finished runner-up in 2019 at Bethpage Black. Cantlay comes into the PGA Championship on form off a runner-up finish at the RBC Heritage where he lost in a playoff to Jordan Spieth, followed by a victory in his last start at the Zurich Classic alongside his teammate, Xander Schauffele.
Cantlay’s best finish came in a T3 at the 2019 PGA Championship. Thomas, winner of the PGA Championship in 2017, is one of 16 former champions in the field at Southern Hills Country Club.
Jason Day, Rickie Fowler, Harold Varner III
Tee Times: 1:25 p.m. Thursday off the 1st tee; 8:00 a.m. Friday off the 10th tee
Jason Day, winner of the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, has four additional top 10s in his 12 previous appearances at the PGA Championship. Day has been trending towards another win with two top 10s this season as he looks to return to the winner’s circle for the first time since 2018.
Fowler is also looking to find a spark this week at Southern Hills Country Club as he prepares to compete in his 13th PGA Championship. Fowler has one top 10 in 2022 on the PGA Tour and recorded his best finish in the PGA Championship in 2014 at Valhalla Golf Club.
Compared to the two veterans he’ll play with on Thursday and Friday, Harold Varner III is making just his fifth start in the PGA Championship. Since competing in his first Masters Tournament in April, Varner III hasn’t finished outside the top 3 on Tour and arrives in Oklahoma on track for his breakthrough win.
Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler
Tee Times: 1:36 p.m. Thursday off the 1st Tee; 8:11 a.m. Friday off the 10th tee
The past three major champions on the PGA Tour - Jon Rahm, winner of the 2021 U.S. Open, Collin Morikawa, winner of the 2021 Open Championship, and Scottie Scheffler, winner of the 2022 Masters Tournament - will play together on Thursday and Friday at Southern Hills Country Club.
Rahm’s best finish at the PGA Championship came in a T4 in 2018 at Bellerive Country Club. Morikawa earned his breakthrough major championship at the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park and added his second major title last season at Royal St. George’s Golf Course.
Scheffler, the top-ranked player in the world, is coming into the PGA Championship on form with not only the win at Augusta National Golf Club but also three more victories in his last eight starts. He’s looking to do what hasn’t been done since 2015 when Jordan Spieth won the first two majors of the season. The order of golf’s major championships has since changed with the PGA Championship moving into the No. 2 spot on the major schedule.
"Don't miss long on the first.." - @AndyTFE
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 16, 2022
The first hole at Southern Hills presents great views and a greater challenge. pic.twitter.com/hW00DhuB43
