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Good, Bad and Ugly PGA Round 4: Scottie Scheffler’s Putter Betrays Him; Aaron Rai Catches Fire

Rai pulled away to win the PGA Championship, while the world’s top-ranked player looked mortal on the greens.
Jeff Ritter, John Schwarb|
Scottie Scheffler finished 61st in the field in putting on Sunday, and still shot a 1-under 69.
Scottie Scheffler finished 61st in the field in putting on Sunday, and still shot a 1-under 69. | James Lang-Imagn Images

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Welcome to Good, Bad and Ugly, where we’re happy for Aaron Rai even as we wonder what would’ve happened if that bunched leaderboard at the start of the day had led to a 15-way playoff.

But Rai was simply the best player on Sunday afternoon, making an eagle on the 9th hole and four more birdies on the back nine, including a 68-footer for the highlight reel, to slam the door on this 108th PGA Championship. Rai also snapped a 107-year drought for England at the PGA, after Jim Barnes win the first PGA in 1916 and another in 1919. There were plenty of good, bad and ugly moments along the way. Here’s what caught our attention:

GOOD: Aaron Rai storms to his first major

This was the most wide-open PGA Championship final round in the history of the event, but Rai, a 31-year-old Englishman, made a charge that no one else could match, firing a major-championship career-best 65 to claim the Wanamaker and make the last hour of the TV broadcast a formality. —Jeff Ritter

BAD: Only one man made a Sunday charge

Not taking anything away from Aaron Rai’s amazing back-nine 4-under 31, but great major Sunday afternoons have more than one player making a run and no one else charged from the final five groups. Alex Smalley had the second-best back nine with an eagle-bogey-finish that was window dressing. —John Schwarb

UGLY: Woe, Canada

While there weren’t many charges up the board on Sunday, Canada’s Nick Taylor got a whiff of contention and then essentially ejected with a back-nine 40. Ouch. —Jeff Ritter

GOOD: Justin Thomas posts a number

The two-time PGA Championship winner channeled his Saturday anger after a 72, and an angry JT can fire a number—in Sunday’s case a 65 that got him in the clubhouse at 5 under, where he was in the lead for hours. He also shared a great story about a beer-filled Sunday clubhouse lead in his younger years, which he wasn’t about to repeat at a major. —John Schwarb

BAD: The McIlroy-Schauffele pairing comes up empty

This tandem of experienced major champions figured to be a big part of the show on Sunday, and while both hung in to shoot 1-under 69, there are no moral victories here. They each bogeyed the 13th hole to essentially extinguish their chances. —Jeff Ritter

UGLY: Rickie Fowler goes backward

Rickie Fowler was trending coming into Aronimink, having been in the hunt until the very end last week in Charlotte, and a Saturday 68 positioned him in the massive pack looking to charge Sunday. But instead he went backwards, making four bogeys in a five-hole stretch and six total in a round of 75 that dropped him to T60. Will the fan favorite ever get that elusive major? —John Schwarb

GOOD: A piece of history for Kurt Kitayama

A Saturday 75 doomed Kurt Kitayama to an early Sunday tee time and no shot at the Wanamaker, but the 33-year-old Californian made a pile of money by lunchtime with a scintillating 63 that tied the record for a final round in a major. “It was pretty crazy. Tough course,” he said. Perhaps a little less so when you hit 17 of 18 greens and make seven birdies and zero bogeys. He finished T10 after starting the day T64. —John Schwarb

BAD: Scottie Scheffler’s putter takes the week off

Only premium ball-strikers needed apply this week at Aronimink and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was himself in that department, finishing fifth in the field in strokes-gained tee to green. But on the green, Scheffler was 72nd in strokes-gained putting, seemingly every time he was shown he struggled with short and mid-length putts. The good news? He will still be the favorite at Shinnecock Hills next month, another hitters’ park where just average putting might carry him to the career Grand Slam. —John Schwarb 

UGLY: The 2027 Ryder Cup just got that much harder for the U.S.

An already stacked European Ryder Cup team—which hasn’t lost at home in over 30 years (as if we need reminding)—is going to add a new major champion in Aaron Rai and Jon Rahm looked like himself again this week, with a top gear rivaled perhaps only by Scottie and Rory. Good luck, Captain Furyk. —John Schwarb

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Jeff Ritter
JEFF RITTER

Jeff Ritter is the managing director of SI Golf. He has more than 20 years of sports media experience, and previously was the general manager at the Morning Read, where he led that business’s growth and joined SI as part of an acquisition in 2022. Earlier in his career he spent more than a decade at SI and Golf Magazine, and his journalism awards include a MIN Magazine Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award for sports reporting. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a master’s from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

John Schwarb
JOHN SCHWARB

John Schwarb is a senior editor for Sports Illustrated covering golf. Prior to joining SI in March 2022, he worked for ESPN.com, PGATour.com, Tampa Bay Times and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He is the author of The Little 500: The Story of the World’s Greatest College Weekend. A member of the Golf Writers Association of America, Schwarb has a bachelor’s in journalism from Indiana University.

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