
The season’s second major golf championship gets underway this week with the 106th edition of the PGA Championship.
Contested at historic Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, the always-underrated major promises to be a table setter for the final three months of the season.
The 156-player field features most of the world’s top players but will not include several marquee LIV names, such as Sergio Garcia and Louis Oosthuizen.
One LIV Golf star who will be teeing it up this week is defending champion Brooks Koepka. The five-time major winner will be joined by 15 of his LIV Golf league cohorts, including Jon Rahm, Cam Smith, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Joaquin Niemann.
Other storylines include: Can anyone beat world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler who returns after a three-week layoff? Jordan Spieth will attempt to complete the career Grand Slam for the eighth straight year. The now 30-year-old Texan enters in questionable condition, again. Can former world No.1 Rahm end his year-long winless drought and claim his third career major?

Or what about Rory McIlroy – can he finally win a fifth major, and a third Wanamaker trophy? Can Justin Thomas bust out of his two-year winless streak with a third PGA? Will Patrick Cantlay or Xander Schauffele finally close the deal and win a major?
Additional storylines are many and overflowing. Will the winner be one who’s historic, or a one-time supernova who was part of history?
Since 2000, the list of players to hoist golf’s biggest trophy include longshots and journeymen such as Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel, Y.E. Yang, Keegan Bradley, Jason Dufner and Jimmy Walker. But it’s also included top-ranked stars like Tiger Woods and Koepka three times; McIlroy, Thomas and Mickelson twice; as well as Jason Day, and Collin Morikawa once each.
Here’s more on what to expect this week in Kentucky for the 106th PGA Championship.
PGA Championship At-a-Glance

2024 PGA Championship
Dates: May 16-19, 2024
Where: Louisville, KY
Course: Valhalla GC
Distance: Par 71, 7609 yards
Architect: Jack Nicklaus (1986)
Field: 156 players
Format: 72/36 stroke-play
Purse: $20,000,000
Winning Share: $3,600,000
Trophy: Wanamaker Trophy
2023 Champion: Brooks Koepka
How to Follow the PGA Championship

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PGA Championship History

Today’s PGA Championship can be credited to the work of business mogul Rodman Wanamaker 107 years ago in New York City, who gathered a collection of golf professionals, which led to the formation of the PGA.
The first winner of the iconic tournament was Englishman Jim Barnes, who beat the great Scotsman Jock Hutchison, 1 up, in 1916 at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, New York. Barnes walked away with the Wanamaker trophy, a check for $500 and a diamond-studded gold medal donated by Wanamaker.
The next two editions were canceled due to the first world war, but Barnes returned n 1919 to successfully defend his PGA title.
Barnes, who has been called the ‘Great Forgotten Champion,’ would go on to win the 1921 U.S. Open and 1925 British Open. (The Masters was not founded until 1934.)
The PGA Championship was a match play event for its first 39 editions, but by the late 50s due to the advent of TV and many of the big names (Snead, Hogan) no longer dominating, the PGA was pressured by network television broadcasters to switch to stroke play.

For most of the modern stroke-play era, the championship was played in mid-August on the third weekend before Labor Day, serving as the fourth and final major of the golf season, using a tagline of “Glory’s Last Shot.”
In 2013, the tagline had been dropped in favor of “The Season’s Final Major”, as suggested by PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem who felt the slogan weakened the stature of its season-ending money grab: the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Beginning in 2019, the tournament was moved to May to provide a better flow to the golf season – with the PGA Tour’s two flagship events: The Players Championship (Mar.) and The Tour Championship (Aug.) bookending four consecutive months of majors (April: Masters, May: PGA, June: U.S. Open, July: British Open).
The Wanamaker Trophy stands nearly 2.5 feet tall and weighs 27 pounds. The trophy was lost, briefly, for a few years until it showed up in 1930 in the cellar of L.A. Young and Company. Ironically, this cellar was in the factory which made the clubs for the man responsible for losing it, Walter Hagen.
Hagen claimed to have trusted a taxi driver with the precious cargo, but it never returned to his hotel. There is a smaller replica trophy that the champion gets to keep permanently, but the original must be returned for the following years tournament.

Notable winners of the Wanamaker Trophy in the match-play era include Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, and Ben Hogan. Legends who won the PGA in the stroke-play era include Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Gary Player, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who won his second in 2021 at the age of 51, becoming the oldest major winner in history.
Hagen and Nicklaus share the record for most PGA Championships with five apiece. Two surprising names missing from the winner’s list are Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson, who had close calls, but were never able to claim victory and close the door on the career grand slam.

History: Recent Winners
2023: Brooks Koepka (-9)
2022: Justin Thomas (-5)*
2021: Phil Mickelson (-6)
2020: Collin Morikawa (-13)
2019: Brooks Koepka (-8)
2018: Brooks Koepka (-16)
2017: Justin Thomas (-8)
2016: Jimmy Walker (-14)
2015: Jason Day (-20)
2014: Rory McIlroy (-16)
2013: Jason Dufner (-10)
2012: Rory McIlroy (-13)
* Won in playoff
History: Records
Scoring
264 – Brooks Koepka (2018)
To-Par
-20 – Jason Day (2015)
Winning Margin
8 – Rory McIlroy (2012)
Youngest
20 – Gene Sarazen (1922)
Oldest
51 – Phil Mickelson (2021)
Wins
5 – Walter Hagen (1921, 1924-27)
5 – Jack Nicklaus (1963, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1980)
4 – Tiger Woods (1999-00, 2006-07)
3 – Brooks Koepka (2018-19, 2023)
3 – Sam Snead (1942, 1949, 1951)
Runner-Ups
4 – Jack Nicklaus (1964, 1965, 1974, 1983)
The Course: Valhalla Golf Club

Designed by Jack Nicklaus in 1986, Valhalla Golf Club features an exciting and challenging layout that was cleverly laid out over 500 acres of Kentucky’s scenic rolling hills and winding streams. It’s the picture-perfect setting for major championship golf on TV.
Showcasing the rich culture and traditions of the Bluegrass State, Valhalla features horse fencing along Bluegrass Way, along with distinct exposed natural limestone and a stately southern clubhouse. The signature 13th hole is sure to captivate TV viewers with its unique bunkering and stunning island green accented by exposed limestone features.
Some of the changes made since Valhalla last hosted the PGA in 2014, include the replacement of its former bentgrass fairways with Zeon Zoysiagrass which require less water and fewer chemicals. The zoysia also plays much faster and firmer, allowing golf balls to roll until they sometimes roll too far… into a bunker. (The club also removed the strips of the heavy bluegrass rough between the fairways and fairway bunkers, allowing balls to roll unimpeded into the bunkers. That is more in keeping with the links style of golf found in the British Isles, where even slightly misplaced shots often bounce along the ground until they reach some kind of trouble.)
Combined with Valhalla’s copious bluegrass rough, the changes should place a greater emphasis on accuracy.
“Hitting the fairways is way more at a premium here than it is at a lot of places,” said Keith Reese, PGA general manager at Valhalla since 2013.
In terms of excitement, Valhalla boasts an ideal blend of closing holes – some short and some long.
The final six holes feature a short (351 yards) par 4 with an island green, a long (254-yard) par 3, a scoreable par 4 (435 yards), two consecutive lengthy par 4s (475 and 510) and a reachable par 5 (570 yards) to close it all out. There are birdie opportunities, as evidenced by Tiger Woods and Bob May each shooting 5-under 31 on the back nine in their historic 2000 duel that ended with a playoff victory for Woods. Likewise, in 2014, Rory McIlroy blitzed the home nine in 4-under 32 shots to edge Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler and Henrik Stenson.

Valhalla Golf Club’s rich major championship history is undeniable as it will be hosting its fourth PGA Championship in less than 30 years. It also hosted the 2008 Ryder Cup matches.
From Mark Brooks‘ unsung performance to Tiger Woods‘ iconic putt (and point!) to Rory McIlroy‘s unforgettable win in the dark, Valhalla has had more than its fair share of memorable major moments, and that should continue at the 2024 PGA Championship.
Interesting Nugget: Course designer and five-time PGA champion Jack Nicklaus missed the cut by a single stroke at age 56 in the 1996 edition and then missed the cut again by one shot in 2000 at age 60 – his final start in the PGA Championship.
Interesting Nugget II: Valhalla played to 7,458 yards in 2014, and about 130 yards have been added in preparation for the 2024 edition. The par-4 opening hole has been stretched by 50 yards with a new tee box; the par-4 12th was added 20 yards; the par-3 14th has a new tee 30 yards farther back and now plays 250 yards; and to cap it all off, the par-5 18th was given an extra 30 yards – now checking in at 570 yards.
Course Data
Name: Valhalla Golf Club
Locale: Louisville, KY, USA
Type: Private
Owners: Valhalla Golf Partners, LLC
Stats: 18 Holes, Par 71, 7609 yards
Elevation: 620 ft
Architect: Jack Nicklaus (1986)
Established: 1901
Course Record: 63 (Jose Maria Olazabal, 2000)
Website: Valhalla.Golf
Vault: 2023 PGA Championship

Brooks Koepka – the then 33-year-old big-game wizard, notched his fifth career major championship title, and third Wanamaker trophy, at the PGA Championship, successfully transmuting a one-shot 54-hole advantage into a two-stroke victory at a raucous Oak Hill Country Club.
Seemingly impervious to pressure, Koepka was his vintage self for much of Sunday, particularly early on when he exploded for three birdies out of the gate (Nos. 2, 3 and 4) to pull ahead of Viktor Hovland (68) by three shots.
Back-to-back bogeys on 6 and 7, though, slowed down Koepka’s coronation. The lead pair were separated by just a shot at the turn. It remained a one-shot game until the 16th hole when Hovland drove his tee ball into a fairway bunker and tragically proceeded to hit his second into the bunker’s face, resulting in a double bogey. Smelling blood, Koepka made birdie, extending his lead to four.

A somewhat meaningless bogey on 17 dropped Koepka back to 9 under, and with Scottie Scheffler (65) in the clubhouse on 7-under and Hovland at -6, a bogey or better was the goal. He played it one better, tapping in for par to finish 9 under.
“To look back to where we were two years ago, I’m so happy right now,” Koepka said. “This is just the coolest thing.”
With the historic major victory, the Florida State product became the 20th player in the history of golf to record five or more major wins. In fact, there are just 14 golfers who’ve won more majors. Koepka also became just the third player in the stroke-play era of the PGA (starting in 1958) to win three or more Wanamaker Trophies, joining Jack Nicklaus (5) and Tiger Woods (4). Walter Hagen (5), Sam Snead (3) and Gene Sarazen (3) won their PGAs during the match play era.
Top-10 Finishers
Pos-Player-Score (Final Rd)
1. Brooks Koepka -9 (-3)
2. Scottie Scheffler -7 (-5)
2. Viktor Hovland -7 (-2)
4. Bryson DeChambeau -3 (E)
4. Kurt Kitayama -3 (-5)
4. Cam Davis -3 (-5)
7. Rory McIlroy -2 (-1)
7. Sepp Straka -2 (-5)
9. Justin Rose -1 (+1)
9. Patrick Cantlay -1 (-4)
9. Cam Smith -1 (-5)
The PGA Championship Field

The field this week in the Bluegrass State will include most of the world’s marquee players, headlined by world No.1 Scottie Scheffler, who enters in tip-top form but hasn’t teed it up since late April. In his last five starts, the red-hot Texan owns four wins and a runner up, including a second Masters title.
The top-ranked Scheffler will be joined a bevy of superstars such as five-time major winner, and defending PGA champion, Brooks Koepka; three-time major winner Jordan Spieth, who needs only the PGA to complete the career grand slam; two-time major winners Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa; recent major winners Cam Smith, Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman and Matt Fitzpatrick; along with four-time major title holder Rory McIlroy, who won here in 2014 and enters off back-to-back wins on the PGA Tour.
The betting favorites this week are Scottie Scheffler (+400) and Rory McIlroy (+700). Defending champ Brooks Koepka was next at +1200, alongside Xander Schauffele, who remains winless since 2022 but enters in good form. Young Swede Ludvig Aberg was +1600, alongside Jon Rahm.

Bryson DeChambeau and Max Homa (+2500) round out the top tier of players with odds below +3000. Next was a pair of young stars in Collin Morikawa and Joaquin Niemann, who close out the top-10 betting favs – each offered at +2800.
Wyndham Clark, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland and Patrick Cantlay followed at +3500 with two big names next at +4000 including Cam Smith and Justin Thomas, the home hero and 2022 PGA champion, who is in the midst of a lengthy slump.
Cameron Young was +4500, slightly ahead of a trio of stars at +5000, who are all dealing with various injuries: Hideki Matsuyama, Will Zalatoris and Sam Burns.
A pair of LIV players in Dustin Johnson and Tyrell Hatton join Jason Day at +5500. A half dozen players are next at +6000 including Jordan Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick, Byeong Hun An, Sungjae Im, Si Woo Kim and Sahith Theegala.
Finally, Min Woo Lee and Tony Finau round out the top-30 betting favorites at +6500.
Top-35 Betting Favorites
Odds Rank-Player (Odds)
1. Scottie Scheffler (4-1)
2. Rory McIlroy (7-1)
3. Brooks Koepka (12-1)
3. Xander Schauffele (12-1)
5. Jon Rahm (16-1)
5. Ludvig Aberg (16-1)
7. Bryson DeChambeau (25-1)
7. Max Homa (25-1)
9. Collin Morikawa (28-1)
9. Joaquin Niemann (28-1)
11. Patrick Cantlay (35-1)
11. Tommy Fleetwood (35-1)
11. Viktor Hovland (35-1)
11. Wyndham Clark (35-1)
15. Cameron Smith (40-1)
15. Justin Thomas (40-1)
17. Cameron Young (45-1)
18. Hideki Matsuyama (50-1)
18. Sam Burns (50-1)
18. Will Zalatoris (50-1)
21. Tyrrell Hatton (55-1)
21. Dustin Johnson (55-1)
21. Jason Day (55-1)
24. Sung-Jae Im (60-1)
24. Byeong Hun An (60-1)
24. Jordan Spieth (60-1)
24. Matt Fitzpatrick (60-1)
24. Sahith Theegala (60-1)
24. Si Woo Kim (60-1)
30. Min Woo Lee (65-1)
30. Tony Finau (65-1)
32. Shane Lowry (80-1)
33. Talor Gooch (90-1)
34. Akshay Bhatia (100-1)
34. Corey Conners (100-1)
34. Russell Henley (100-1)
34. Sepp Straka (100-1)
Field Analysis: Key Players
Scottie Scheffler – In terms of who’s playing the best among the best, it’s hands-down Scheffler, who’s won four times (and a runner-up) in his five most recent starts, highlighted by a second victory at the Masters. Scheffler owns three top-10 finishes (T2, T4, T8) in four career PGA Championship starts.

Rory McIlroy – The world No. 2 also enters in top form – off a win in Charlotte at the Wells Fargo. Before that, he’d won the Zurich Classic alongside Shane Lowry. McIlroy has posted back-to-back top-10s at the PGA (2022-23). He won his second PGA at Valhalla in 2014.
Cameron Smith – The 30-year-old Aussie, and greatest putter on the planet, enters in solid form, having led his Ripper GC to back-to-back team wins in the LIV Golf League. Smith finished T6 at last month’s Masters. It was his third top-10 finish in his last four major starts.

Joaquin Niemann – The 25-year-old Chilean star is the leading man on the LIV Golf circuit with two wins and four other top-10s. In his five most recent non-LIV starts, Niemann has gone: 5th, 1st (Australian Open), T4, 3rd and 22nd (Masters). The uber-talented Niemann is still in search of his first top-10 finish in a major.
Patrick Cantlay – The world No. 8 has not been particularly stellar in majors, with just four top-10s in 25 starts… On the season, the 32-year-old UCLA product has not been his usual steady self, posting just two top-10s in ten tour starts. Cantlay finished T9 at last year’s PGA.

Xander Schauffele – Despite not winning on the Tour in almost two years, Schauffele enters the PGA as the world No. 3 – thanks to a bunch of top-10 finishes. In eleven starts on the 2024 season, the former Olympic gold medalist owns seven top-10s highlighted by five top-5s. He enters off a runner-up to Rory McIlroy at the Wells Fargo.
Brooks Koepka – The Florida State product does not need help getting himself hyped for majors, as he has consistently excelled on the biggest stages. In a three-season blitzkrieg (2017-2019), Koepka won four times while finishing runner-up twice more. Starting in 2020, though, the three-time PGA winner battled through a multitude of injuries which limited his play and hampered his once-dominant style. An injury-free Koepka returned to the major stage in 2023, first with a T2 at the Masters, followed by a win at the PGA – his fifth major. Koepka enters off a win (Singapore) on the LIV tour.

Dustin Johnson – DJ, who is ranked No. 392 in the world, started the season with a T5 and a win (LIV Las Vegas) but then went into a four-start slump where he failed to post even a top-20 result. He finally broke through in Singapore and enters off a T7. The longtime world No.1 and fan fav could become just the 13th player in history to win three of the four legs of the grand slam.
Bryson DeChambeau – The 2020 U.S. Open champ appears close to prime form, ala 2018-2020. The now 30-year-old has transformed his body while maintaining his crazy swing speed. DeChambeau posted an impressive performance at the Masters but then chased it with a pair of shaky results on the LIV tour during its international swing (Australia and Singapore): two straight finishes outside the top 25. The California native finished T4 at last year’s PGA and owns three top-20s in his last four major starts, including a T6 at last month’s Masters.

Jon Rahm – The former world No. 1 and two-time major winner enters Kentucky in solid form. The Spaniard has yet to win on the LIV tour but has finished in the top 10 in all seven of his starts this season and ranks No. 2 on the season-long points list. Like DJ, Rahm is looking to become just the 13th player in history to win three of the four legs of the grand slam. His best finish at the PGA was a T4 in 2018.
Tony Finau – The Utah native arrives at the season’s second major in suspect form. Finau – a former top-10 machine – owns just two top-10s on the season and has fallen to No. 30 in a watered-down OWGR. Beginning in 2018, over a span of 13 major starts, Finau recorded an incredible nine top-10 finishes. Since then, though, he’s gone eleven straight majors without a single top-10 result.

Justin Thomas – The 15-time Tour winner has not landed in the winner’s circle since claiming his second PGA in May 2022 (24 months ago) and does not look close to being his old self. The former top-result machine enters the 2024 PGA amid a season with just three top-10s in ten starts. Even more mind boggling: in his last six major starts, spanning 2022-24 – in what should be his prime years, Thomas has failed to produce a single top-50 finish: T53 (2022 Open), CUT (2023 Masters), T65 (2023 PGA), CUT (2023 USO), CUT (2023 Open), and CUT (2024 Masters).
Max Homa – The 33-year-old L.A. native, and world No. 9, continues to play elite golf and enters off two top-10s in his last three starts, including a T8 this past weekend at the Wells Fargo and a T3 at last month’s Masters. As phenomenal as he’s been over the past few years on tour, he’d struggled just as badly on the major stage. But Homa broke through with a T10 at last year’s final major (The 2023 Open), and then chased it with a T3 at the last month’s Masters. Thus, he enters the PGA off two straight top-10 results in majors.

Talor Gooch – The Oklahoma State product claimed three LIV Golf titles in 2023 en route to winning the circuit’s season-long points title. In 2024, he holds down the No. 8 spot on the breakaway tour’s points standings with four top-10s. Despite attacks from the media, and mocking from PGA Tour players, the bookmakers have the world No. 668 Gooch ranked as one of the top-35 betting favorites in a field of 156.
Jordan Spieth – The Texan is entering in very questionable form. After starting the season with a top-3 (Kapalua) and T6 (Phoenix), Spieth has claimed just a single top-25 result (T10) in his last nine starts, including four missed-cuts. Now 30, the one-time “Golden Child” has won just twice since that magical summer of 2017. He can still become an historical player if he were to win the PGA Championship and complete the career grand slam, joining only five others in the exclusive club.

Jason Day – The 36-year-old Aussie enters off a T4 at the Wells Fargo, his fourth top-10 finish in 2024 but first since Febraury. Now ranked inside the top 20 (No. 19), the former world No.1 seems to be in decent form after several years of physical and emotional setbacks. He finished T15 at the 2014 PGA at Valhalla, before winning it in 2015 at Whistling Straits.
Collin Morikawa – The two-time major winner appears to be heading in the right direction, and enters off three straight top-16 finishes, including two top-10s. Before this three-start streak, though, the Cal native had posted just a single top-10 all season. Yet, on the major stage, the 27-year-old seems unflappable, with two wins, four other top-5s and two more top-10s in just 17 career starts. He finished T3 at the 2024 Masters.

Viktor Hovland – After ending the 2023 year as the world’s hottest golfer, Hovland incredibly enters the PGA looking for his first top-10 finish of 2024 – proving how quick things can change in golf. The Norwegian star finished T2 at the 2023 PGA. Before missing the cut at the Masters, Hovland had posted five straight top-15s in the majors, including three top-10s.
Cameron Young – The 27-year-old bomber from New York enters off a pair of poor finishes (T34, T62) but before that he’d reeled off three top-10s in a five-start span, including a T9 at the Masters and runner-up at the Valspar. Finished T3 at the 2022 PGA and missed the cut in 2023. At world No. 16, he is so due for his first tour win.

Ludvig Aberg – The 24-year-old Swede, and former world No.1 amateur, enters in top form with eight straight top-25 finishes including five top-10s. Aberg made his major championship debut at the 2024 Masters, finishing solo second to world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. Two weeks later, he moved to a career-best No. 6 in the OWGR, after starting 2023 outside 3000th. He appears to be the next great superstar.
Wyndham Clark – The reigning U.S. Open champion is enjoying a solid season, albeit a bit up and down. In eleven starts on the season, Clark owns a win and three other top-3s, including two second-place finishes. In his seven other starts, though, the Colorado native has not posted a single top-25. He missed the cut at last season’s PGA and also missed the cut at the season’s first major, the Masters.

Sam Burns – The LSU product started the 2024 season on a heater, reeling off four straight top-10 finishes on the West Coast swing, highlighted by a T3 in Phoenix. But Burns has struggled since the tour moved to the southeast, failing to post a top-10 in six straight starts. He is entering off a T13 last week at the Wells Fargo – his best result since leaving the west coast. The 27-year-old is still seeking his first top-10 in a major.
Hideki Matsuyama – The world No. 15 has enjoyed a solid 2024 but has been hampered by injuries as of late, pulling out of last week’s Wells Fargo with a sore back. On the season, Matsuyama won at Riviera and then posted T12, T6 and T7 before a T38 at the Masters. Even after his win at the Genesis Invitational, Matsuyama noted that he also had some neck issues.
Full Field & Odds
Joel Cook contributed to this report. Credits: PGA Tour Media, Getty Images, PGA of America Communications, Wikipedia