Scottie Scheffler holds up the Wanamaker Trophy after winning the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club.
Scottie Scheffler holds the Wanamaker Trophy after winning the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – One year ago, Scottie Scheffler was stuffed in the back of a squad car, charged with multiples crimes and stretched for his second-round tee time at the PGA Championship in a jail cell. Along with a mug shot in an orange jumpsuit that became a popular Halloween costume, Scheffler has two Green Jackets and a Wanamaker Trophy after owning the Green Mile at Quail Hollow Club.

IOn Sunday, Scheffler took no prisoners in closing in even-par 71 to win the 107th PGA Championship by five strokes over Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English and Davis Riley on Sunday and collect his third major championship. But the final result on the scoreboard belies how the 32-pound silver trophy almost slipped out of his hands – the top actually fell off when he hoisted it above his head during the trophy ceremony.

“I felt like this was as hard as I battled for a tournament in my career,” said Scheffler. “I can tell you it's very sweet sitting here with the trophy this year.”

From jail to winning at Quail, the world No. 1 went from locked up to locked in, finishing with a 72-hole total of 11-under 273, and at the tender age of 28 he joined Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus as just the third player to win three career majors and 15 PGA Tour titles before age 29.

During a year in which he dominated like Woods in his heyday, Scheffler won nine times around the world in 2024 and only his arrest in Louisville – the charges were subsequently dropped – seemed to slow him down but in retrospect it only served to reveal his true character. "Nobody could've handled that better," Scheffler's college coach at University of Texas, John Fields, said. "Maybe Jesus Christ."

This season, Scheffler was sidelined in January after undergoing hand surgery after a Christmas Day accident making raviolis and it took longer than he intended to work the rust off. World No. 2 Rory McIlroy took advantage and claimed a signature event, the Players and the Masters before Scheffler returned to the winner's circle in an 8-shot romp in his hometown of Dallas.

This week, Scheffler overcame everything from mud balls to the USGA taking away his gamer driver, which was deemed non-conforming after it failed a pre-championship test on Tuesday. Next, the PGA officials threw him a curveball when they announced on Wednesday evening that there would be no preferred lies and stuck to its guns despite more than 4 inches of rain during the week. On Thursday, Scheffler hit the fairway at 16 in the first round and got a mud ball. His second shot veered left and splashed into the water. Scheffler made double bogey and was none too happy and said as much afterwards.

"I understand how a golf purist would be, 'Oh, play it as it lies.’ But I don't think they understand what it's like literally working your entire life to learn how to hit a golf ball and control it and hit shots and control distance, and all of a sudden due to a rules decision that is completely taken away from us by chance,” he said.

Scheffler may have wondered if pestilence and locusts were next but his real challenge was fighting swirling winds, firm greens and his own swing. "It's like he's got a time machine and he goes forward in time and knows exactly what the wind is doing and lands the ball just right," mused Brian Harman.

Scheffler eked out rounds of 69 and 68 and was lurking three strokes back at the halfway point. He found his rhythm late on Saturday, playing the last five holes in 5 under to shoot 65 and build a three-stroke lead heading into the final round. “He's in a spot where it would be shocking if he didn't win today,” the 2024 PGA champion Xander Schauffele said.

Jon Rahm made things interesting after tying for the lead

What seemed to be an inevitable coronation ceremony in the Queen City as Scheffler stretched his lead to five strokes after five holes on the front nine flipped into a tie ball game as Rahm birdied three holes in a five-hole stretch. With Scheffler missing left off several tees, he made bogeys at Nos. 6 and 9 and all of a sudden he found himself in a dogfight with Rahm. Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee compared Scheffler’s position at the turn to somebody sliding down the side of a mountain. “And you’re saying, ‘Where’s my crampon? How do I stop this slide down the mountain?’ You have to go back to work,” he said.

Scheffler did just that, nibbling on a power bar behind the ninth green and began making adjustments on the fly. He could’ve been deflated but he was not. He expected someone to make a charge and when Rahm caught him with a birdie at 11, Scheffler didn’t back down; rather, he seized the moment. His longtime coach Randy Smith described Scheffler as the type of athlete that wants the ball with one second left in a game.

“He has a lot of this,” Smith said, pointing a finger at his heart. “He has a brain to drive it. He has the heart but he also has the brain and it keeps the heart inside the athlete in shape.”

Or as Scheffler put it, “I always try to lean as much as I can on my mind. I think that's probably my greatest strength.”

Scheffler’s sidekick Ted Scott showed why he gets paid the big bucks. Noticing that Scheffler’s errant shots headed left, he advised his boss to aim more to the right. Scheffler’s drive split the 10th fairway. “I said, ‘There he is.’ That’s the only thing I said to him,” Scott said. “It was back to Scottie Scheffler golf. I said, ‘There we go, baby.’ ”

After straightening out his driver, Scheffler cashed in with a 10-foot birdie at No. 10. At the same moment, Rahm hit his birdie putt at 12 and missed and heard a cheer. “I was fully aware that was a Scottie birdie,” he said. “I just could tell; you're there enough times.”

For Rahm, it was the first time he was truly in contention at a major since joining LIV Golf in late 2023. “It's been a while since I had that much fun on a golf course, 15 holes,” Rahm said.

Ah, but the last three holes were anything but fun for Rahm. The Spaniard never made another birdie after 11 and the wheels came off. Rahm showed why the Green Mile, the nickname for Quail Hollow’s bruising three finishing holes, is so feared. The two-time major winner made bogey at 16 and then rinsed his tee shot at 17. He finished with consecutive double bogeys, signing for 2-over 73. Scheffler birdied Nos. 14 and 15, which he played to a clip of 9 under for the week, best in the field and four better than DeChambeau and six better than Rahm. Suddenly Scheffler’s lead had grown to five and he had withstood his final challenge.

Scottie Scheffler is in full command.

A 4-shot lead as he faces the Green Mile.#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/cWu3KaNP18

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 18, 2025

DeChambeau put up a valiant fight but his iron play let him down for the second straight major and he closed with a bogey when he needed a birdie to apply some pressure. “Green Mile did it to me yesterday and kind of did it to me again today, and that's golf, man,” said DeChambeau who tied with English, who shot 65, the low score of the final round, and Riley. “It's just burning a bigger fire in my belly.”

Consider that since 1970, only one player ever won consecutive Tour starts by at least five strokes. Tiger Woods did that twice – at the 2000 Memorial Tournament (won by 5) and U.S. Open (won by 15) and the 2007 Tour Championship (won by 8) and 2008 Buick Invitational (won by 8).

“Sometimes he makes the competition look like he’s just playing around with us, you know what I mean, which isn’t easy to do,” said Jason Day, a former world No. 1.

Ahead of the tournament, Scheffler, the reigning world No. 1 got philosophical about what he loved about the game. “Golf is kind of an endless pursuit of getting the best out of yourself,” he said. Scheffler proved the point, making birdie or eagle after a bogey or worse six out of 10 times this week, the best rate in the field, and that as much as anything is why his name now is etched on the Wanamaker Trophy.

"To step up when I needed to the most," Scheffler said, "I'll remember that for a while."

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Scottie Scheffler pulls away late, wins 2025 PGA Championship for third career major

Reporting by Adam Schupak, Golfweek / Golfweek

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