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Converting his sixth straight 54-hole lead -- third in a row at a major tournament -- Scottie Scheffler on Sunday captured the second leg of the career grand slam in dominant fashion, winning the 2025 PGA Championship by five strokes over Bryson DeChambeau, Davis Riley and Harris English. Scheffler posted an even-par 71 in Sunday's final round but increased his lead dramatically over the course of the day as other contenders fell by the wayside.
Scheffler will hoist his first Wanamaker Trophy, adding it to his collection of two green jackets from winning the Masters in 2022 and 2024. He joins elite company in the process becoming just the third player since World War II to capture three major championships and 15 PGA Tour wins before the age of 29, per Justin Ray. The other two are the greatest to ever do it: Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Any debate about Scheffler's status as the world's No. 1 golfer was put to rest this week. He stayed in the mix without his A-game across the first 36 holes and found answers to every question presented by Quail Hollow through the weekend. What stood out most was his impeccable sense of timing and killer instinct; he recognized every opportunity to seize control of the tournament and executed the necessary shots to do so.
There were multiple occasions over the weekend when the tournament felt up for grabs for any of the top stars who had surged up the leaderboard, but where DeChambeau and particularly Jon Rahm faltered in those moments, Scheffler found his best. His ability to separate and take control has been a common thread in his major wins, as he became on Sunday the first player since Seve Ballesteros in 1983 (and sixth golfer in history) to win each of his first three majors by 3+ strokes.
Despite his runaway win, Scheffler's stroll around Quail Hollow was far from perfect or comfortable Sunday. He opened with a bogey and fought a left miss with the driver throughout the front nine, struggling to find fairways and made two more bogeys on his way out to shoot a 2-over 37, bringing hope to the rest of the field.
"I just kept hitting it left," Scheffler said with a laugh while being interviewed by CBS during the trophy ceremony. "I knew it was going to be a challenging day. Finishing off a major championship is always difficult. I did a good job of staying patient on the front nine. I didn't have my best stuff, but I kept myself in it, and I stepped up on the back nine, had a good nine holes."
Rahm was the man who capitalized on Scheffler's slide, surging through the middle of his round with birdies on Nos. 8, 10 and 11 to get to 9 under and tie Scheffler as he made the turn.
However, Rahm's stint as the co-leader was brief; he spent just 13 minutes alongside Scheffler in the top spot. Whatever pep talk Scheffler gave himself at the turn worked wonders as he flushed just about every shot on the next six holes and straightened out his wayward driver. A birdie on No. 10 moved him back in front, and he stayed solid on Nos. 11 to 13 with three straight pars.
The 14th and 15th holes proved to be decisive Sunday as Rahm failed to birdie either the drivable par 4 or the final par 5 on the back nine. That opened the door for Scheffler to put two hands firmly on the Wanamaker Trophy, and he got the job done from almost the exact same places from which Rahm failed.
Scheffler and Rahm both drove it in the right greenside bunker on No. 14, but Scottie got it up-and-down for birdie. On the 15th, they both hit drives in the dead center and fired approaches into the green that rolled off just long and right, but where Scheffler was able to coax his putt from off the green to within two feet, Rahm smashed his 12 feet by and couldn't make the comeback effort.
While Scheffler was doing that, Rahm was busy imploding on the Green Mile in nearly identical fashion to DeChambeau on Saturday. Rahm made a bogey on No. 16 and then rinsed his tee shot on No. 17, leading to a double bogey from the drop zone to fully bow out of the competition. A closing double bogey on No. 18 pushed him out of second place.
By the time Scheffler arrived at the 16th, he was five shots clear of J.T. Poston, who suddenly found himself alone in second despite an even-par round. That meant Scheffler didn't need the same heroics from Saturday when he went 2 under through the Green Mile. Instead, he simply plotted his way along the tough closing stretch to a comfortable five-shot victory.
All week commentators remarked about how Scheffler seemed off his A-game, but kept managing to scratch out solid scores and keep himself in the hunt. While he seemed to find his groove on Saturday with his flurry to the finish, the struggles returned on Sunday as he fought his driver early. His ability to adjust and adapt during a round to get his swing back where it needs to be for the key moments was once again on display, and afterwards he pointed to his focus and grind throughout the week without his best as what made him particularly proud of this win.
"I'm just really proud of the way we fought this week," Scheffler said. "I was battling my swing the first couple days. I didn't have as good of a prep week as I hoped to. It was a battle out there for four days. … It was a real team effort this week."
It was a perfectly Scheffler performance as he dominated by making the right decisions and hitting the right shots over and again. He took advantage of the holes that present opportunities for birdies, making solid pars on those that bring disaster into play. That was what DeChambeau and Rahm failed to do over the weekend, and the result is Scheffler becoming a three-time major champion while they continue to seek their next.
With the win, Scheffler cements himself not just as one of the very best of this generation, he keeps himself on an all-time track. Joining any list where your only two peers are Nicklaus and Woods is quite the accomplishment, and now that Scheffler has broken the seal on major wins outside of Augusta, Georgia, he can start to eye that next exclusive group: those with the career grand slam.
