PGA Championship 2026: A car accident ended his playing career. He's now playing in a major in his backyard

“I had some mental health problems during that time that were significant and sidelined me pretty hard,” Shattuck says. “In and out of the hospital quite a bit and working with psychologists and psychiatrists and you name, it I've worked with them. Having panic attacks almost daily, having chest pain daily, dealing with anxiety was by far the hardest part of that, and I dealt with that for years.

“Had to go to work and put a smiling face on for everybody and that was quite a challenge … It was a grind, physically and mentally, that I wanted to give up on at times.”

The accident forced his hand. He took a club pro job to pay the bills, eventually landing the director of instruction role at nearby Rolling Green. The tour dream went into a drawer.

But the competitive fire never quit. Shattuck began playing at the club pro level, grinding to get his body right while rebuilding a swing that could work within his limits. It took, and then some. He's claimed multiple PGA Player of the Year honors in the Philadelphia section and won the 2023 Pro Club Championship.

However, this PGA was the one he'd always been chasing. It nearly stayed out of reach. A third-round 80 at the club pro championship at Bandon Dunes this spring dropped him to 43rd in the standings, well outside the top 20 that earn a PGA Championship invitation. That's when Shattuck got going. After a pedestrian front nine on the final round, he caught fire on the back — six birdies, including three straight to close — and signed for a 68, the second-best score of the day. He jumped 35 spots and punched his ticket to Aronimink.

“That was a wild finish. I kept getting myself inside the cut line and I kept trying to mess it up,” Shattuck says. “There was a lot of emotions from pretty much pure rage to the most satisfaction you could probably have tapping in on 18. It was incredible.” He's now in the field with the world's best this week. Even if he had to convince the security gate first. “Yeah, they gave me a hard time trying to get in here with my pickup truck and I didn't have the right tag and all that stuff,” Shattuck says. “I'm going to take the courtesy car for the rest of the week just to avoid any problems.”

Michael Block's scene-stealing run in 2023 reset expectations for what a club pro can do at this championship. But Shattuck will be fortunate to make the cut, and he carries no hometown edge; until he earned his invitation, he'd played Aronimink only a couple of times. Then again, measuring this week by score alone would be missing the point entirely.

“It's been a roller coaster ride physically, mentally, emotionally, just navigating all the challenges that kind of arose from back problems to having to go to the doctor constantly and not being able to play for a couple years and changing up my swing and my technique and my equipment,” Shattuck says. “So it's been quite the adventure to now be sitting here talking to you guys.”

He'll have friends and family following him this week, some of whom know nothing about golf. But they don't need to understand the game to understand what's at stake. They know what he’s been through to get here. When Shattuck tees it up Thursday, he will be standing inside a dream he never fully let go of, even when life insisted he should. That will be enough.