2024 PGA Championship Parting Thoughts: No More Xander Slander, Bryson The Beloved, And Valhalla Critiques
We're officially halfway through the 2024 major championship season, and it's fair to say both the Masters and PGA Championship lived up to every ounce of hype imaginable.
Xander Schauffele throwing the major monkey off of his back with a record-setting score of 21-under par only to be overshadowed by Scottie Scheffler for nothing that happened on the course. The No. 1 player in the world stole the show at Valhalla by getting arrested on Friday morning and being charged with second-degree assault.
As per usual, however, there are plenty of other takeaways from the week that was.
No More Xander Slander
Could there have been a more perfect setup for Xander Schauffele to win his first major championship than what we saw at a sopping-wet Valhalla Golf Club that doesn't really punish bad golf shots? No, absolutely not. This doesn't mean that Schauffele's win should have any sort of asterisk next to it, however.
At the end of the day, Schauffele executed a gameplan better than anyone else in the field and became the first player to ever post a major championship score of 21-under par. Did birdies feel cheap during all four days at Valhalla? You betcha, but Schauffele hit the golf shots and made the crucial putts when he needed to.
Schauffele finally securing his first major victory exactly seven days after being embarrassed by Rory McIlroy at the Wells Fargo Championship takes his win from being somewhat meh, to straight-up impressive. For a player who has had this narrative about not being able to get the job done when being asked to trade shot for shot with other contenders, Schauffele besting the likes of Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland and firing a final round 65 was special stuff.
Scottie, A Cop, And Two Things Being True At Once
The 2024 PGA Championship will be known as ‘The One Where Scottie Scheffler Got Arrested’ until the end of time.
While we've all been buried with a number of different takes about the situation, the only fair way to look at it is that everyone involved royally screwed up on Friday morning.
Scheffler should have stopped his car when the officer allegedly asked him to do so, but there isn't a reality in which the officer jumping on his vehicle was warranted. It was, unfortunately, a unique situation given the tragedy that took place about an hour beforehand, but every aspect of the Scheffler situation was completely overblown.
The fact that it got to a point where Scheffler was put in an orange jumpsuit for driving around a cop to enter the gates of Valhalla is insanity.
Bryson DeChambeau Becomes More Likable Every Week
It's difficult to point to one specific reason as to why this is the case, but somehow, Bryson DeChambeau has defied all logic and become an incredibly likable guy since joining LIV Golf. He is, quite literally, the only player who jumped to the Saudi-backed circuit and won over more hearts and minds of golf fans than he's lost.
Maybe it's the fact that his entire personality is no longer turning himself into a human boulder chasing the fastest swing speed in golf. Or maybe it's just that he's simply grown up over the past couple of years and has very much become just a normal guy who happens to hit the golf ball a mile in the air.
DeChambeau still wears his emotions on his sleeve, but now the emotions are genuine, and not some uninteresting persona that split golf fans into two categories of either loving him or hating him. Now, most of the golf world seems to enjoy him, which is the perfect spot to be in.
Viktor Hovland Realizes Change Is No Good
In true golf sicko fashion, Viktor Hovland parted ways with coach Joe Mayo earlier this year after Mayo transformed Hovland's short game and helped him win last year's FedEx Cup. After their split, Hovland quickly became the second-worst player on the PGA Tour in strokes gained: around the green.
Well, after hitting a new low less than a year after looking like one of the best players walking the planet, he linked back up with Mayo ahead of this week's PGA and looked like his old self again, finishing solo third for his first Top 10 finish of the season.
Sometimes, change is no good.
Collin Morikawa The Lurker
Sunday's final round of the PGA Championship may very well be the most frustrating round of golf Collin Morikawa has ever played. Whenever you make 14 straight pars when everyone else on the property is filling the cup up with birdies it's never easy. He broke the par streak with a bogey on the 15th hole before closing out his round on 18 with his lone birdie of the day.
Even though he absolutely faded on Sunday and turned into a non-factor after about three holes, his T-4 finish paired with his T-3 finish at the Masters is worth paying attention to. It feels like Morikawa hasn't done much of anything since winning the ZOZO Championship in October of last year, but he's sneakily been right there on the game's biggest stages so far in 2024.
Billy Horschel Was In The Field?
Billy Horschel deserves some serious props. I think the only shot of his that the broadcast showed all week was his eagle on the 72nd hole of the tournament, but he put together one of the sneakiest T-8 finishes in major championship history.
A 64 on Sunday at a major deserves some love, and we're happy to give it to him.
A Wyndham Clark Situation Is Developing
After winning last year's U.S. Open and then winning at Pebble Beach earlier this season, Wyndham Clark has earned a bit of time before he should have to answer to any criticisms, but after missing the cut at this year's Masters and the PGA Championship, we're entering a situation that needs to be paid attention to.
Both Augusta National and Valhalla require players to work the golf ball both ways. Given that Clark struggles to move it right to left, we've now seen him miss back-to-back major championship cuts as a result.
Every player has certain courses that fit their games better, but no-showing at the first two majors of the season is less than ideal for the No. 4 player in the world.
The Obvious Critique For Valhalla
The golf course architect savants are not a fan of Valhalla Golf Club, but even the casual golf fan seemed to have complaints about the course this week. The amount of rain the course got early in the week turned things into a dart-throwing contest as evident as 21-under par being the winning score.
While a completely dry week would have resulted in a higher winning score, a course being that dependent on the weather as a major championship venue doesn't feel right.
Outside of the gimmicky 13th hole, bizarre waterfall features, and albeit a good closing hole, there just isn't much to love about Valhalla. It's also a course that doesn't penalize a player, and certainly not the best players in the world, unless they miss their targets by 20+ yards on consecutive swings.
Valhalla lacked juice, which is not great when we're talking about a course we haven't seen host a major championship in a decade.