Who could be the best (and worst) winners at PGA Championship this week

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Everybody loves a great winner’s story and that’s what we’re after this week at Quail Hollow for the PGA Championship.

With that in mind, we are going to try to figure out who would be the best (and worst winners) this week at the season’s second major.

Of course, any player who wins a major deserves massive respect (shout out to Jimmy Walker and Shaun Micheel) but golf has been on a run of great champions over the past couple of years, so let’s keep that train rolling.

Here is our list of this week’s ultimate winners:

1. Rory McIlroy

He finally did it at Augusta National. And he finally won the career grand slam. And as the lovely Irish office manager Anne from my Dentist said recently, “He could do nothing else for the rest of his life, he’s a legend and our hero.”

But what’s the fun in that?

McIlroy’s win at the Masters has the chance to unlock a magical next level in the 36-year-old’s career. And with wins this year at Pebble Beach, the Players Championship and the Masters, the chance exists for the greatest season in history.

“I’m scared a little of what it could do for him moving forward,” Canadian Adam Hadwin said on Tuesday. “I wouldn’t be shocked to see him roll off two, three more Masters in the next five years. I also wouldn’t be shocked to see him go for a grand slam in one year.”

There it is. The single-season grand slam. Golf’s holiest of holy grails.

Jordan Spieth recently referred to Quail Hollow as the “Country Club of Rory McIlroy.”

McIlroy has won here four times in his PGA Tour career, including his first win 15 years ago this month.

With a win this week, the golf world would be in a frenzy heading to next month’s U.S. Open at Oakmont. And it’s hard to even imagine what the scene would be in July if he ends up at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, an hour from his hometown, with a chance for the single-season slam.

We can only dream.

2. Jordan Spieth

Speaking of Mr. Spieth, golf’s former golden child from a decade ago has a chance this week to redo last month’s Rory Heroics and jump into the career grand slam club along with McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, and Gene Sarazen.

It was exactly 10 years ago when Spieth picked off the Masters and PGA Championship back-to-back and had golf fans dreaming of a single-season slam. He even was in contention over the final holes at the Open Championship at the Old Course to potentially make it three in a row, before Zach Johnson beat Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen in a playoff.

In recent years, Spieth has battled some injuries and a lot of his own penchant for dramatics on the golf course. His major total remains stalled at three since winning the Open at Royal Birkdale in 2017.

The former World No. 1 is presently 48th in the rankings, but is playing well, with a fourth-place finish at the Byron Nelson two weeks ago and 14th at the Masters last month.

A return to the top for Spieth would be the best non-Rory storyline this week.

3. Nick Taylor

O Canada! We are obligated to include a Canadian on this list and, with five Canucks in the field, let’s go with Nick Taylor.

There are other compelling Canadian storylines, such as local resident and Quail Hollow member Mackenzie Hughes winning at his adopted home course. Or World No. 21 Corey Conners breaking through and jumping even higher into golf’s upper echelon.

But we are going with Taylor, who already has separated himself from his contemporaries with five PGA Tour wins compared to two for Conners and Hughes. And, unlike his pals, Taylor’s wins have come at some of the tour’s bigger events, including the 2020 Pebble Beach Pro-am, 2024 Waste Management Phoenix Open, and the 2025 Sony Open in Hawaii.

And no Canadian will ever forget the 2023 RBC Canadian Open.

If Taylor were to add a major championship to his resume, his name would be in the debate with Mike Weir and George Knudson for best Canadian male golfer ever. Taylor might not have the consistency of Weir (or Conners for that matter), but he has a knack for coming through in the clutch, which is a nice thing to have going for you.

“I get more clarity in those high-pressure situations,” he told Postmedia on Tuesday. “Maybe that’s just a gift that I’ve been given.”

4. Tom Kim

Golf loves a great young star and there are very few more fun to watch gallop around a golf course than the 22-year-old Kim.

There is plenty of lightning in the area this week (including some that just missed the media centre a minute ago), but Kim has the most electric personality on tour when he’s in the hunt.

Two years ago when this tournament was at Oak Hill, you might remember Kim waist deep in the mud after wandering into a creek in search of his golf ball. He has not been in any great form this year outside of a T7 at Pebble Beach, but anything is possible with this guy.

If not Kim, we would be quite happy if the young gun era was ignited by any of 23-year-old Akshay Bhatia, 25-year-old Ludvig Aberg or 26-year-old Min Woo Lee.

Honourable mentions

Xander Schauffele: A win this week would give Schauffele three wins in the past five major championships.

Bryson DeChambeau: The Greatest Show in Golf always is a threat and is the only LIV golfer to improve and grow his image since leaving the PGA Tour. Granted, he is doing most of it on YouTube, but the game is better when he’s at his best.

Joaquin Niemann: The 26-year-old has three wins in seven LIV Golf events this year. A win this week would remind everyone that we really need to have golf come back together to fully understand who the best players in the world actually are.

The other side of things

Now it’s time for the worst potential winners this week. This is a bit of a strange category — and keep in mind that to make it on this list, you have to have a legitimate chance to win this PGA Championship, so they’ve got that going for them. Nothing against these guys, as you’ll see, but for one reason or another, I think it’s best if they just stay out of the winner’s circle for now.

1. Brooks Koepka

The most Brooks Koepka thing to do would be to read this list, win by eight shots, and then stuff me in his locker at the end of the week.

But hear me out.

Koepka is a great champion and I hope he wins plenty more majors and accomplishes his stated goal of double-digit major wins — and he just might do it. But let’s not start on that now.

Why?

Because although the details aren’t known, Koepka’s LIV contract likely is expiring after next season and he seems the most likely player interested in making a return to the PGA Tour. And that domino (if all the complicated details were to be worked out) could be the beginning of an organic reunion of the game of golf.

If the long-awaited and long-stalled deal never materializes between the two sides, all eyes would be on what LIV’s top players decide to do when their contracts are done.

A win this week and suddenly big, bad Brooks is back and LIV Golf seems like a good place to stay fresh and ready for majors rather than a competitive wasteland where he’s out of spotlight watching time go by.

2. Keegan Bradley

What could be better than a Ryder Cup captain winning a major and qualifying for the American Ryder Cup team? That sounds absolutely great. The only problem is that if he qualifies for the team, I’m not sure he wouldn’t step down as captain and hand over duties to one of his vice captains.

If that were to happen, we would be denied the opportunity to see the most fiery Ryder Cup captain in history flying around Bethpage on a golf cart like the Yosemite Sam. Even if he maintained his captaincy as a playing-captain I can’t help but feel we wouldn’t get the full Captain Keegan experience.

And that’s something we all need to see.

Honourable mention

Brian Harman: Apologies to Brian Harman, but I’ve got nothing great for this one other than the fact that I covered his Open Championship win at Royal Liverpool in 2023 and saw how many of you read (or rather didn’t read) that story.