{"id":13610,"date":"2026-06-02T19:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/13610\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T19:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:02:07","slug":"scheffler-looks-to-end-streak-of-runner-up-finishes-with-pga-championship-repeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/13610\/","title":{"rendered":"Scheffler looks to end streak of runner-up finishes with PGA Championship repeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEWTOWN SQAURE, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion at the PGA Championship<\/a> and feeling like a bridesmaid over the last month.<\/p>\n

Runner-up to Rory McIlroy at the Masters<\/a>. Playoff loss to Matt Fitzpatrick at the RBC Heritage<\/a>. Runner-up (by six shots) to Cameron Young at Doral<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week my wife was like, \u2018Hey, Scottie. You\u2019re like the first guy in PGA Tour history to have three solo runner-ups in a row.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Yeah, it\u2019s probably because the guy that was playing that good figured out a way to win one of those,\u2019\u201d Scheffler said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t put much of a dent in his confidence going into the second major of the year<\/a>. Scheffler is fierce when it comes to competition, hates losing even in friendly matches with his caddie and still has come to appreciate that winning isn\u2019t always easy.<\/p>\n

He has a firm hold on the No. 1 world ranking \u2014 he is approaching three straight years at the top of golf<\/a> \u2014 despite not winning since his season debut in the California desert<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know you\u2019re playing good golf, and you\u2019d love to get some wins,\u201d he said. \u201cFinishing second hurts, but I think when you reflect and you\u2019re looking at things to work on, there\u2019s a lot less to clean up when you\u2019re finishing second than there is when you\u2019re finishing 30th.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that he has a lot of experience with the latter \u2014 Scheffler hasn\u2019t finished 30th or worse since August 2024.<\/p>\n

To end that run of silver medal this week at Aronimink would allow him to join Brooks Koepka (2018-19) and Tiger Woods (1999-00 and 2006-07) as the only players to win back-to-back in the PGA Championship in stroke play.<\/p>\n

In his way is a course has plenty of room off the tee and little room for error when it comes to hitting the correct spot on the large, severely contoured greens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He also faces the strongest field of the four majors, with 98 of the top 100 in the world, which includes the last three players to beat him \u2014 McIlroy (No. 2), Young (No. 3) and Fitzpatrick (No. 4).<\/p>\n

McIlroy<\/a> came up to Aronimink<\/a> two weeks ago for a peek at the course he had not played since the BMW Championship in 2018, when it was so soft and mushy from rain that the event couldn\u2019t finish until Monday. The hope this week is for minimal rain and firm, dry conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the most part, it should be a bit drier, which really brings out the character of the greens,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cThe greens seem to be the big defense and the big talking point of the golf course.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy had his practice round cut short on Tuesday with a blister on his right toe that was causing some discomfort last week at the Truist Championship.<\/p>\n

Not since Jordan Spieth<\/a> in 2015 has anyone captured the first two majors of the season, and McIlroy has a chance to do that. The majors have become his focus of late, especially now that he finally has the career Grand Slam<\/a> from winning the Masters a year ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McIlroy and Spieth are in the same group<\/a> when the PGA Championship begins Thursday, along with Jon Rahm of LIV Golf. Spieth lacks only the PGA Championship to complete the career slam.<\/p>\n

For all the talk about bunker complexes that seem to line every landing area \u2014 there are 20 bunkers on the 11th hole alone \u2014 players have been talking about the greens all week, particularly if the rain holds off and the course gets firm.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreens are diabolical. Should be a really good test,\u201d Xander Schauffele said. \u201cYou can make it as easy or difficult on yourself as you\u2019d like. If you get aggressive to certain pins and short-side yourself, you\u2019re going to hit it to 20 or 30 feet at best, just based on how fast and firm it is and how much it runs away from you. But at the same time, there\u2019s certain pockets where … you can hit a really good shot and get rewarded for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greens are definitely the thing to prepare for this tournament. I think it will be fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scheffler and McIlroy have combined to win four of the last five majors \u2014 McIlroy at Augusta National the last two times<\/a>, Scheffler at the PGA Championship<\/a> and British Open<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Scheffler is more about precision, though he certainly has enough length. McIlroy feasts on wider fairways as one of the best drivers of the ball. Aronimink could test a little of each, though McIlroy was more concerned about the second shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in this day and age I\u2019m not sure if it\u2019s going to test all aspects of your bag,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cStrategy off the tee is pretty nonexistent. It\u2019s basically bash driver down there and then figure it out from there. … When these traditional golf courses take a lot of trees out, it makes strategy not as much of a concern off the tee.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the greens are the main focus this week, and I think getting yourself in the right sections of the greens, making sure you leave yourself below the hole for the most part. That\u2019s the key.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWTOWN SQAURE, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion at the PGA Championship and feeling like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[209,685,44,528,355,1399,2115,1112,531,399,208,56,418,1142,1557,1401],"class_list":["post-13610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scottie-scheffler","tag-brooks-koepka","tag-cameron-young","tag-golf","tag-jon-rahm","tag-jordan-spieth","tag-matt-fitzpatrick","tag-pa-state-wire","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pga-championship","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-sports","tag-texas","tag-tiger-woods","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-xander-schauffele"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}