Five Players Who Need a Solid Performance at the 2025 PGA Championship

Since LIV Golf’s debut in June 2022, the importance of major championship golf has heightened with each passing tournament. While performance in golf’s biggest events has always been the primary lens through which we assess the world’s best players, it's never been this magnified. We now have only four tournaments a year to truly evaluate how the top players in the game, regardless of tour, stack up against each other. Might this lead to some overreactions and misguided judgments about some players? Sure. But, like many things in the world of professional golf these days, that’s just how it is. Winning, or at least seriously contending in a major, has never been more crucial.

Here are five players who need a strong performance the most at this week’s 2025 PGA Championship.

Joaquin Niemann

Through 23 career major championship starts, Joaquin Niemann’s Wikipedia major page is still exclusively gray. Niemann has yet to register a top 10 in his relatively young major championship career. For most 26-year-olds, this wouldn’t be that alarming a stat. But, Niemann’s LIV Golf success (five wins in the past 15 months), breakout win at the 2022 Genesis Invitational, and other victories like the 2023 Australian Open, have placed realistic expectations on him to at least contend in a major championship. 

Unfortunately for Niemann, there doesn’t seem to be one obvious flaw that has continuously reared its head in these major championship letdowns. His game feels and looks like it should travel well and produce results regardless of setup or conditions. Generally, his ball striking has been good enough to hang around the top few pages of a leaderboard, and his short game, while fairly inconsistent, hasn’t been that troublesome. It’s obvious he has the talent to contend at golf’s biggest events, but he’s yet to put it all together for four days. Niemann will roll into Quail Hollow on the back of a T-20 finish at LIV Golf Korea, and a three-shot win just a week prior at LIV Golf Mexico City. He’s playing some of the best golf of his career, and it’s time for him to show up when it matters most. 

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Jordan Spieth

Perhaps it’s foolish to have real expectations for someone who, aside from the odd backdoor top-five finish, hasn’t been a true factor at a major championship for over five years, but that’s the allure of Jordan Spieth. Since his last major win in 2017, Spieth has collected five top-five finishes in majors, but was only a real threat to win at the 2021 Open Championship. 

He’s largely spent the last eight years trying to rekindle the magic he once possessed to little avail. However, for the first time in a while, Spieth seems to have some real momentum. He finished T-28 or better in five straight events, including a fourth-place showing at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, before a mediocre T-34 last week at the Truist Championship. You can certainly argue that a string of solid finishes, most notably at TPC Craig Ranch, doesn’t suggest that Spieth is ready to contend in majors again, but I’m more optimistic than most. He’s been driving the ball extremely well this spring and seems to be making some real strides with the putter. He’s gained strokes in both of those categories for five straight events, giving me some real confidence in the overall stability of his current game. Spieth’s biggest battle at Quail will be trying to get the most out of his wildly inconsistent iron play, where a good week could certainly swing the pendulum towards contention. 

It’s unreasonable to hold Spieth to the same standards as the best players in the world at this point in his career, but, considering his pedigree and recent form, I find it totally fair to expect him to insert himself back into the major championship conversation at some point this season, if not this week. 

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‍Patrick Cantlay

It’s been tough sledding for the overwhelming majority of Cantlay’s major championship career thus far. While he hasn’t missed a cut at a major since the 2022 PGA Championship, he’s only been able to muster two top-five finishes, with just one coming since 2019 (2024 U.S. Open). Even outside of the majors, Cantlay has been stuck in neutral for the better part of two years now. He hasn’t picked up a win since August of 2022, and has had a relatively uninspiring start to the 2025 season.

It’s strange to see a player with such a well-rounded game struggle to find serious major championship success like Cantlay has over the past five years. He’s one of the most consistent ball-strikers on Tour, and has always been an above-average putter. By no means has he played poorly in the biggest events; he’s just failed to put his foot on the gas and truly vault himself into contention enough. The next few months will serve as a good litmus test for Cantlay and the unclear state of his game. I can’t imagine a world where he doesn’t tee it up for the United States at the Ryder Cup in September, but he’s not exactly a lock at this point. Another season of underwhelming major performances is just not acceptable for a player of Cantlay’s caliber. 

Wyndham Clark

Since his maiden major victory at the 2023 U.S. Open, Wyndham Clark has been one of the most polarizing players in today’s game. He followed up his victory at Los Angeles Country Club with a nine-month stretch of golf that seemed to validate his sudden emergence as a top player in the world. But, ever since his cruel lip-out on the 18th hole at the 2024 Players Championship, Clark’s game has slowly evaporated, especially in major championships. Since his win at the U.S. Open, his major record includes three missed cuts, a T-56, T-46, and T-33. His game has been all over the place, with no main culprit for his inferior play. Majors aside, he’s cobbled together some respectable finishes against decent fields, suggesting his game isn’t necessarily as far off as it may seem. With spots 7-12 on the U.S. Ryder Cup team so unclear, a strong summer from Clark could easily punch his ticket to Bethpage Black. 

Given his win at the Truist Championship in 2023 and the presumptive course fit, Quail Hollow seems like one of the better places for Clark to get his game back on schedule. 

Brooks Koepka

It’s probably unfair to say that the greatest major champion of his generation “needs” a strong showing soon, but I’ll go ahead and do so. Koepka, a five-time major winner, has seemingly hit a wall in his play, and not only in major championships. He’s failed to record a top 15 in a major since his win at the 2023 PGA Championship, and has just one top 25. His play on LIV hasn’t been much better either, with just one top five in his last eight starts. Like many of the LIV guys, it’s tough to get a clear read on Koepka’s game at the moment. The stats indicate a subpar short game has been the main contributor to his recent slide, but nothing has been up to the level we’ve come to expect from Brooks.

It’s hard to gauge whether Koepka’s self-created “major or bust” mentality has applied more pressure in these tournaments than his five wins have relieved, but it’s still completely valid to expect more out of him. And, like the other Americans on this list, Koepka isn’t a surefire Ryder Cup player at this point in the season. I’m expecting a return from major championship Brooks Koepka sooner rather than later.