Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler rule golf right now. Can anyone challenge them at the PGA Championship?

TL;DR

The 108th PGA Championship begins Thursday, featuring Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler as the top favorites. Both players are currently dominating the sport, raising questions about who can challenge them.

Key points

The 108th PGA Championship starts Thursday.
Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are the favorites.
McIlroy won the Masters last month.
Scheffler is the defending PGA champion.
McIlroy's recent performance shows improvement.

Rory McIlroyScottie SchefflerPGA Championship

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — The second major of 2026 is upon us. The 108th PGA Championship at Aronimink begins Thursday, the year’s second opportunity for someone, anyone to put up a fight against the Scottie Scheffler/Rory McIlroy domination of the sport right now. Scheffler is the defending PGA champion, McIlroy won last month’s Masters, and the two of them are the favorites heading into this week.

But they’re not the only stories. Here are a few we’re watching as the golf world descends on Philadelphia.

Rory McIlroy

Last year, McIlroy was strangely off-kilter after his epochal Masters victory, finishing T47 at the PGA at Quail Hollow and remaining silent for most of the week. This time around, he’s been more at ease, more willing to talk about his game and the larger issues of golf. Will it translate to a stronger performance in the PGA, where he’s won twice? He’s played just twice in the last two months: the Masters and last week’s Truist Championship, where he finished at -5, well off the lead.

Scottie Scheffler

The defending PGA champion after a bravura performance at Quail Hollow last year, all Scheffler has done in his last three starts is: 2, 2 (playoff loss), 2. An “off” year by Scheffler standards is a career one for anyone else. With four majors in hand, another victory would tie him with Brooks Koepka, second among active PGA Tour players to McIlroy’s six. Scheffler’s been a bit crankier behind the mic of late, but strong scorecards have a way of softening moods.

Oh, and heads up: he was in Philly before the week even began, getting in reps:

Bryson DeChambeau

Currently the most important figure in golf, if not necessarily the winningest. DeChambeau holds the fate of LIV Golf in his hands — more on that in a minute — and also stands poised to level up as a YouTube/social media player. (DeChambeau: 2 majors. All the other YouTube golfers on earth combined: 0 majors.) There’s still considerable question about whether his iron game is at championship-winning level, but he’s got the talent in every other phase of his game to keep him in contention. The question looming over every round DeChambeau plays from here til December: Where he’ll play next season. Which, of course, leads us to …