A different month, a different major and the stars are still aligned.
Bryson DeChambeau finally cashed in on a Sunday, losing a five-shot lead before pulling ahead on the final three holes to win in South Korea. This was three weeks after Rory McIlroy picked up a Masters green jacket and the career Grand Slam. It was about 13 hours before Scottie Scheffler destroyed the field in Dallas.
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And as somewhat of a footnote, Jordan Spieth shot a 62 on the final day in Dallas that only stoked conversation about the chances of another career Grand Slam.
The PGA Championship starts in nine days.
“Scottie is on a great run. Joaquin Niemann is on a great run. Jon Rahm has been playing well,” DeChambeau said after his victory at LIV Golf Korea. “There’s a lot of star-studded talent out there right now that’s going to be in the PGA Championship. We’re going to be battling it out.”
Most peculiar was how DeChambeau included Niemann — three wins in LIV Golf this year, but still without a top-10 finish in his 23 starts in the majors — and left out McIlroy, whose three wins this year have come at Pebble Beach, The Players Championship and the Masters.
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DeChambeau played with McIlroy in the final round at Augusta National, where he took the lead after two holes before fading to a 75 to finish four shots behind. He later said when asked about the dynamic in their pairing that McIlroy “wouldn’t talk to me.”
Rahm has yet to finish out of the top 10 at LIV Golf, but he has gone quiet in the majors since joining the Saudi-funded league. He’s still Jon Rahm, however.
It all sets up for high intrigue going into the second major of the year. That hasn’t always been the case for the PGA Championship whether it was held in May or August.
The Masters is forever linked with Augusta National and decades of high drama. The U.S. Open bills itself as the toughest test in golf, sometimes to a fault. The British Open is played on a links course. And how is the PGA Championship best defined?
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“The other one,” Geoff Ogilvy once said.
The Masters, of course, will be hard to top the way it played out. McIlroy, with his best chance at the career slam, fell behind, built a big lead, shockingly lost his big lead, rallied with two magnificent shots and eventually won a playoff over Justin Rose.
McIlroy is still buzzing over finally winning the green jacket, which he wore during appearances last week on NBC’s “Today” and “The Tonight Show,” the latter with host Jimmy Fallon in which McIlroy replicated chipping into a washing machine from when he was a wee lad in Northern Ireland.
The career Grand Slam is in the books. Is the calendar Grand Slam in play? Only four players since the modern slam came to life in 1960 — Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Spieth — have even won the first two legs. The PGA Championship is at Quail Hollow, where McIlroy already has won four times.
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But he is no longer the betting favorite one week out. BetMGM Sportsbook has Scheffler as a slight favorite after a brand of golf from the No. 1 player not seen since last year.
Scheffler missed two months recovering from minor surgery after he punctured his right hand while making ravioli. Something had been missing in his game since his return. But it was all there in Dallas, and it was frightening for those who had to face it.
Scheffler was poised to break the PGA Tour scoring record of 72 holes until a chip rolled back to his feet on the 17th (bogey) and he failed to birdie the 18th (his first time all week not making birdie or better on a par 5). He still tied the mark at 253 and won by eight.
“I feel like my game is trending in a good direction,” Scheffler said. “I’m excited to start the rest of the season.”
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It’s May and he’s talking about a starting point. Three majors are still to come, and the PGA Championship could be a great indicator where this is headed.
BetMGM Sportsbook has Scheffler at +400, with McIlroy at +500. That could change after this week because McIlroy is playing at Philadelphia Cricket Club and Scheffler is not.
DeChambeau was listed at +1200 and always worth noticing. He had a burden lifted in South Korea, not just because it was his first win since the U.S. Open last year, but because it was his fourth straight time in the final group (in LIV Golf with its shotgun start, that means starting on the first hole).
His scoring average the previous three times was 73.7. And then he shot 30 on the back nine in South Korea and won by two.
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Next stop: the PGA Championship, where last year in Kentucky DeChambeau was every bit the entertainer and lost to Xander Schauffele’s birdie putt on the final hole.
As for Spieth, he’s still hard to predict as he returns from wrist surgery last August. But a 62 in the final round suggests his game isn’t too far off. The only scars from Dallas might be spending the first two days with Scheffler. Spieth opened with rounds of 67-69 and was 12 shots behind.
“It wasn’t that long ago I was definitely better than him, and now I’m definitely not right now,” Spieth said. “I hate admitting that about anybody, but I just watched it those first two rounds, and I’ve got to get better. It’s very inspiring.”
Gary Player (1965) and Nicklaus (1966) completed the career Grand Slam one year apart. Is it possible for that to happen one month apart?
As is often said about the Masters, the PGA Championship can’t start soon enough.
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On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
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