Watching the top athletes in a respective sport achieve greatness always makes for a thrilling experience.
This week at the PGA Championship there’s a hearty chance to see some heavyweight fireworks between the Nos. 1 and 2-ranked golfers in the world, as both Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler are in form, in flight, and keen to add to their major championship collection.
Appropriately enough, we start with No.1. Rahm, who won the Masters for his second major title (becoming the first European in history to win both the U.S. Open and the Masters) in April and has already captured four PGA TOUR titles this season. It was nearly five wins, after finishing runner up to Tony Finau at the Mexico Open, his last PGA Tour start.
Rahm has done everything right so far this season, seemingly, with his strokes gained stats all near the top. He’s locked in, mentally, and Oak Hill – a bruising venue that demands long drives and short-game prowess – should fit his game well enough.
“I'm confident. I feel good. It's been a great year. It's been an amazing year. I'm just hoping to keep adding more to it,” Rahm said. “It's been a lot of fun, and hopefully I can keep riding that wave.”
Rahm is trying to become the first golfer since Brooks Koepka in 2019 to win two majors in a season, and the first since Jordan Spieth in 2015 to win the first two of the calendar year. He said he doesn’t feel like he has a green jacket hangover, however, and is ready to go again this week in Rochester.
“Obviously it's a big deal when you get to win one. Try to enjoy it as much as possible, I would say, because it's very easy nowadays, especially with how much golf we've had this season. So, once you finish you kind of put your thoughts on pause to keep performing, right?,” Rahm said. “But at the end of the day this is our job. You're here to perform, so trying to focus on that, as well.
“I guess it could be a feeling of content after you win the Masters, but you can't let that become the main thing because you have three more majors during the year and The Players and FedExCup and many other things to accomplish afterwards.”
Someone who is plenty familiar with adding results on top of results is Scheffler, who, like Rahm, won four times last year by May 1, including the Masters. The tall Texan has won twice already this season, including the top-tier WM Phoenix Open and The Players Championship.
Scheffler hasn’t missed a cut this season and has only one result, in 13 events, worse than a tie for 12th. He’s been solid, spectacular, and yet, is still ranked No. 2 in the world.
“I definitely want to play well, and there's various things that can motivate me. I wouldn't say Jon doesn't motivate me. I think any time you see guys playing really good golf, you want to be doing the same thing,” Scheffler said.
“So, whether it's Jason Day beating me last week [at the AT&T Byron Nelson, where Scheffler tied for fifth] down the stretch or Jon just beating the crap out of me at a couple different tournaments this year, it's always motivating when you don't do what you want to do, and that's usually trying to win the tournament.”
There’s a hearty handful of mathematical equations that could result in Scheffler getting back to No. 1 this week, but for now, he’s focused on the task at hand.
“I feel like my game is in a good spot. My swing feels like it normally does, which is good. Just hoping to clean up just a few little things here and there and looking forward to trying to tackle this golf course this week,” Scheffler said.
And while beating the golf course will need to be the top priority in order to win the Wanamaker Trophy this week, the way things are trending either Scheffler or Rahm will absolutely have to beat one another in order to be victorious, too.
