What makes the 2025 PGA Championship so exciting is that so many top players are in excellent form.
Rory McIlroy won the most recent major championship, The Masters, and finally completed the career Grand Slam.
World number one Scottie Scheffler had seven PGA Tour victories last season and recently won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson by eight shots.
Bryson DeChambeau won the last LIV Golf event in Korea and is arguably driving the ball better than anyone in golfing history.
But major championship golf can throw up surprises, and one PGA Tour player has every chance to win at Quail Hollow despite being out of sorts lately.
Smylie Kaufman picks PGA Tour player over Bryson DeChambeau at the PGA Championship
Xander Schauffele is the world number three and won two majors last season (PGA Championship and Open Championship), so he’s hardly an outsider this week.
However, he suffered a rib injury early in the 2025 season, which kept him out for several weeks, and he’s not been quite the same since.
Former PGA Tour player Smylie Kaufman is not concerned by Schauffele’s recent form, saying that he’s more likely to win at Quail Hollow than DeChambeau.
“It is just going to be all about can Xander put it together,” Kaufman explained on his podcast. “He has had enough reps and starts at this point. You would like to see maybe that one week where it really felt like he was in the mix and in contention, to feel like he can close it out.
“But this guy has enough experience, has played in enough big events, has closed out two majors this past year. Give this guy a chance on the back nine on Sunday, and he is steady enough to get this thing done.
“All the metrics say that outside of Scottie and Rory, he is [the next best]. I would put him ahead of Bryson just because of his iron game. I think Xander’s speed off the tee and Bryson’s is comfortably a close comparison. I would probably say that you would put Xander and Bryson neck and neck there as the third-best guy to potentially get this thing done this week.
Xander Schauffele opens up on defending PGA Championship title this week
This time last year, Schauffele was asked several questions about why he had not yet been able to win a major championship.
Having won the PGA Championship at Valhalla and the Open Championship at Royal Troon, the 31-year-old fortunately no longer has to deal with that.
“I don’t get asked that question anymore, for starters,” Schauffele told the media on Tuesday. “It was going to be that conversation until… if I didn’t win one ever, it would have been that conversation that would have haunted me until I was done playing, probably. That’s just how the game goes.
“Luckily I was able to rattle that one off, my first one at Valhalla, the PGA, which was awesome. Yeah, I feel similar. I feel like I’ve done it before, but at the same time, I feel I’m still trying to prove myself as well. I don’t look at it too differently or feel too different as a whole.”
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