2025 PGA Championship Cleanup

Last Notes on the PGA

By Adam Woodard

At this point, not much more can be said about Scottie Scheffler, but there’s still plenty to talk about in the wake of the 2025 PGA Championship.

Not Tinkering, Optimizing

Bryson DeChambeau has been heavily in the mix at five of the last six majors and had a real shot at both this year’s Masters and PGA Championship before trailing off to finishes of T-5 and T-2, respectively. He didn’t fare well in the wind last week but said, “I've got some tricks up my sleeve that I'm going to be working on and hopefully bring for the U.S. Open, but I've got to get some equipment here soon.”

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When I asked Bryson if he thought constantly tinkering with his equipment might hurt his game, he said he’s not tinkering, he’s optimizing. “Optimization is the goal for me, and that's what I'm going to continue to do. We've got some cool stuff coming,” he said. “We're months away from being able to have something you're gonna look at and go, ‘What the heck is that?’”

Bryson mentioned needing “a golf ball that flies a little straighter” and that he is “looking at ways of how to rectify that so that my wedges can be even tighter.” Is he developing a new ball to fit his insanely high swing speed? Time will tell.

Let’s Talk Ratings

Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter reported that CBS drew 4.763 million viewers for the final round of the PGA, which was down four percent from last year. The 2025 numbers were up five percent from Brooks Koepka’s victory two years prior at Oak Hill.

Before that, he went deeper in the weeds and tracked the CBS commercial load for the final round. The 2025 commercial time (46 minutes and 55 seconds) was down two minutes from 2024 (48 minutes, 40 seconds). In the final hour, CBS went to just two breaks for a total of 4 minutes and 15 seconds. He also logged how many shots were shown per player (look away, Taylor Pendrith fans).

Media and fans have been complaining about commercials for years now, so it’s important to give credit where it's due. Two minutes may not seem like a lot, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.

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Can I Follow Up Just a Little Bit?

I still don’t think it’s been addressed enough how Don Rea, the President of the PGA of America, said they were the “first responders of golf.” Rea immediately became a star of the week, especially on our Shotgun Start Podcast, but wasn’t heard from much as the championship went on. Fingers crossed he makes another appearance this week at the Senior PGA.

A Fine Test

I don’t love when majors are held at courses that host PGA Tour events, so I wasn’t thrilled that the PGA Championship was returning to Quail Hollow for a second time in eight years (in addition to the 2022 Presidents Cup). I did love what my colleague Garrett Morrison had to say about Quail Hollow in this month’s Design Notebook. Garrett pointed to the greens as the “something” missing. For me, it’s the front nine. Pretty boring! No holes really stand out from the others compared to the back nine. The early stretch of Nos. 10-13 isn’t much to write home about, but the drivable par-4 14th is fun, and the Green Mile – Nos. 16-18 – decided the championship.

Ryder Cup Check-In

The top six for the U.S. team slightly shuffled but remained the same: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, and Russell Henley. Harris English moved up five spots to seventh with his T-2 finish at the PGA. Conversations on Keegan Bradley being a playing captain are heating up after his T-8 finish that moved him to 17th on the list, and there’s a case to be made. Would you take Lucas Glover (16th), Tom Hoge (15th), Tony Finau (14th), Daniel Berger (13th), J.J. Spaun (11th), Brian Harman (10th), or Andrew Novak (ninth) over Bradley?

As for the Euros, the top six stayed in tact and looks pretty damn good: Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Rasmus Hojgaard, Tyrrell Hatton, Sepp Straka, and Justin Rose. Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Aberg are just outside of automatic qualification with some separation from Thomas Detry, Matt Wallace, Niklas Norgaard, Viktor Hovland, and Thorbjorn Olesen. Jon Rahm moved up five spaces to 24th but should be a captain’s pick given his form.

Praising Team Match Play

By Meg Adkins

When you pack NCAA Championship quarterfinal and semifinal matches into one jumbo day of golf, the outcome is almost always loads of entertainment. That's exactly what happened on Tuesday as some of the biggest names in women's amateur golf went head to head trying to help their teams survive the day and advance to Wednesday’s final. Stanford and Northwestern came out on top, but that barely begins to tell the story of a thrilling day at Omni La Costa.

The premier matchups were aplenty with morning quarterfinals seeing Florida State junior and WAGR No. 1 Lottie Woad face off against seventh-ranked Jasmine Koo of Southern California. Woad took care of Koo, 4 and 3, to help book her team a date with Stanford in the semis. She would be the main event once again in the afternoon as she and her opponent, Stanford junior Megha Ganne, exchanged blows down the back nine. Ending their match tied, it would take a birdie on the 20th hole by Ganne to send Woad and Florida State home and set up what could be the cherry on top of a historic year for the Stanford women.

Match play strategy was on display as Florida State and Stanford both top-loaded their matches, looking to take the early lead and momentum. Oregon took a different approach to their semifinal lineup, putting their best player, sophomore Kiara Romero, the third-ranked amateur in the world, in the anchor match against Northwestern’s Dianna Lee. The two teams exchanged points in the first four matches, but Romero couldn't mount a late comeback against Lee. Needing a birdie on the 18th to extend the match, a greenside bunker got the best of her and ended Oregon’s season.

A full day of emotional, lose and go home, high-stakes match play brings out the best of competitive golf. Tears of joy and disappointment. Celebratory and conciliatory hugs and pats on the back. The full spectrum is on display, often within just a few feet of each other. That's what the fabric of the NCAA Championship has become. It can be random and unpredictable. Blowout matches happen. Favorites no show. But when it all comes together on a day like Tuesday, there's nothing in golf quite like team match play.

‍This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.