PGA takeaways: Precision over power, Europe's on fire

Aaron Rai may not have been the biggest name on the packed leaderboard at the PGA Championship, but the Englishman's play down the stretch Sunday left no doubt that he was the most deserving champion at Aronimink.

Rai's victory capped an incredible week at the season's second major, with endless debate on course setup, star-studded chasers falling just short, and one of the weirdest penalty situations in recent memory making for a highly entertaining event.

Here are nine takeaways from Rai's win from just outside of Philadelphia.

Precision over power for Rai

Apparently Rai didn't get the memo that Aronimink would be a bomber's delight off the tee this week. Although Rai ranks 160th out of 166 players on the PGA TOUR this season in driving distance, he does sit fifth in driving accuracy. Precision over power turned out to be the recipe for success, as Rai avoided the thick rough around the course to finish fourth in the field in fairways hit.

Being able to hit irons from the short grass was an enormous advantage, something that allowed Rai to get dialed and finish second in strokes gained: approach. The statistic that perhaps best speaks to distance not being a huge benefit this week is par-5 scoring. That category is usually dominated by some of the longest hitters on TOUR, but Rai finished fifth in the field in that area. That proved to be a major key Sunday, as he eagled No. 9 and birdied No. 16 to play the two par-5s in 3-under.

Europe's on fire, USA is terrified

Rai's victory ended a 10-year run of American winners at the PGA Championship and added more fuel to an incredible run for European golf. Sunday's triumph, along with Rory McIlroy's Masters victory, means that Europeans have claimed the first two majors of the season for the first time since 1934. Plus, Aronimink featured more than just Rai's performance, as Jon Rahm, Matti Schmid, Ludvig Aberg, and McIlroy all finished T-7th or better.

The major victories of 2026 follow Europe's incredible Ryder Cup showing last September, when the visitors stormed into a hostile Bethpage and claimed the first road win in the event since 2012. "Europe's on fire, USA is terrified" is a familiar Ryder Cup victory song for the Europeans, and that cry certainly holds true with half of this season's now majors in the books.

Aronimink delivered

The narrative entering the opening round was that Aronimink would struggle to challenge today's players and modern technology. The opposite couldn't have been more true. Not only did the Philadelphia-area course stand tall, it punched the world's best in the mouth like a stiff jab from the city's most famous boxer, Rocky. The massive slopes on the greens throughout the course allowed the setup committee to implement devilish pin placements over the first two days, with almost every player noting the significant challenge.

With dangerous pins forcing players to fire toward the middle of greens, lag putting became perhaps the most important skill. Anytime you see that in a tournament, creating separation from the field proves difficult, and that was certainly the case this week. A PGA Championship-record 22 players entered the final round within four shots of the lead, setting the table for an incredible final day of drama.

Of course, you wouldn't want to watch the challenge of Aronimink each week, but major championships are supposed to ask different questions of players than the average stop on the schedule. This week did that, and then some.

Rory makes valiant charge, but his driver needs work

Last year at the Masters, McIlroy made two double-bogeys over his final four holes of the opening round to sit seven shots off the pace. He ended up erasing that deficit to finally complete the career grand slam. On Thursday at Aronimink, McIlroy bogeyed his final four holes of the opening round to sit seven shots off the pace, sending him to 105th place. Yet, once again, there he was in the mix down the stretch, falling just shy of the winning total. The Northern Irishman has a remarkable ability to be able to spot the best players in the world a number of shots and still make up that ground by late Sunday.

However, McIlroy's not here to place in Wikipedia top 10s, he's playing for legacy during every major. The thing keeping him from adding to his incredible resume this week was, oddly enough, the part of the game that's hailed as his superpower: the driver. He hit just four fairways Sunday - zero on the back nine - often finding himself hacking out of Aronimink's thick rough. A man with McIlroy's prodigious length should dominate the par 5s at any course. With only two being featured across the 18-hole setup at Aronimink, it was crucial to take advantage, and he couldn't do so, finishing the week even par over that eight-hole stretch. As mentioned above, Rai going 3-under on the par 5s during Sunday's round alone made for a major difference in the outcome.

Rahm's demise was greatly exaggerated

If you watch - and follow - LIV Golf and the media around that circuit, you likely have been led to believe that Jon Rahm is the greatest player in the history of golf. If you lean more toward PGA TOUR coverage, then you've heard plenty of chatter suggesting that Rahm is done as a world-class player. This week showed that not only does Rahm still have plenty of juice but also that a major win might be just around the corner.

The Spaniard showed plenty of game over the weekend, ranking fourth in the field in strokes gained: tee-to-green. That suggests his ball-striking and short game are right where they need to be, while a cold putter was the only thing keeping him from applying more pressure to Rai. Given the heater that the champion finished on, nobody was likely to catch him, but Rahm's second-place showing - his first major top-five result since moving to LIV - should give him plenty of confidence heading into the U.S. Open.

Now, back to questions about where he's playing golf next year.

JT is Mr. PGA

He's won the PGA Championship twice. Both his grandfather and father were PGA teaching professionals. Half of his eight career top-10 finishes in a major have been at the event. Can you even have a PGA Championship if Justin Thomas isn't heavily involved? Four years after storming back from a seven-shot deficit to win his second PGA Championship, Thomas made another Sunday run with a sizzling 65 at Aronimink.

While Thomas would eventually fall just short and settle for third place, the result marks his first top-five finish in a major since ... you guessed it, the 2022 PGA Championship. Given that it's just his second major since returning from major back surgery in the offseason, Thomas has to be thrilled with his showing.

Putter kept Scottie from contending

There was a time in the world of golf when the only thing keeping Scottie Scheffler from the winner's circle was his putting. He addressed that issue by switching to a mallet before promptly winning just about every tournament in sight, including four majors, and becoming the unquestioned World No. 1. Scheffler's been extremely solid in 2026, but it's probably fair to again point to that putter as the main reason for him not having a fifth, or even sixth, major title.

The greens at Aronimink drove everybody nuts this week, with Scheffler even calling some of the pin locations "absurd" after Friday's round. Those tricky surfaces resulted in one of the worst major putting performances of his career (125 putts needed).

In the middle portion of the tournament, Scheffler went a stretch of 45 holes without making a putt over 10 feet, and he finished the week losing 0.4 shots on the greens. That comes off the back of a Masters performance in which he lost 2.41 stokes putting through two rounds to sit 12 shots off the pace. At Augusta, he found his putter on the weekend and made an epic charge to finish second, but the damage had already been done. That was again the problem at the PGA Championship.

'If you're one second late, you're late'

Garrick Higgo entered the week as a largely unknown TOUR player from South Africa. He leaves as the newest example that parents will use to show the importance of being on time. Higgo was the story of the opening day, thanks to a stunning two-shot penalty he incurred after arriving late to his tee time. He proceeded to shake it off and fire an impressive 1-under 69, but his post-round comments explaining the incident are what made him a national story.

"I was there on time, but the rule is, if you're one second late, you're late," Higgo said. "So, if you think about it, I was there on time, if you know what I mean."

That was something, but he wasn't done, offering another explanation later.

"I don't really think it's my job to be 10 minutes early," Higgo told PGA Championship Radio.

It may not his job to show up 10 minutes early, but a fairly major requirement to having success as a pro golfer is to avoid penalties for being late. Thankfully he was still able to shoot a solid round and turn a negative into a positive, right? Well, Higgo struggled the next day to a 6-over 76, which left him at 5-over for the tournament, one back of the cut. The last-place finisher who made the weekend pocketed $23,900, so Higgo's tardiness Thursday ended up costing him at least that much.

On the bright side, all publicity is good publicity, yeah? And you can be sure everyone knows who Garrick Higgo is now.

Bryson is lost at majors

If you're hoping to watch Bryson DeChambeau play on the weekend during major championships this season, you'll need an internet connection and access to YouTube. DeChambeau missed the cut this week for the second major in a row, leaving his legion of fans to settle for an episode of "Break 50" on his personal channel to get their Bryson fix.

We aren't far removed from an eight-major stretch in which DeChambeau finished inside the top 10 of six events. However, that feels like an eternity ago if you've been watching him navigate the challenging layouts this season. He's shot a first-round 76 in both majors this year, essentially ending his chances before they even began.

The main issues stem from his dismal approach and around-the-green play. The courses he sees on the LIV circuit - or the local municipal facilities he plays on YouTube - might not punish poor iron shots, but the major championship tests certainly do. DeChambeau finished his two rounds ranked 155th of 156 players in strokes gained: around the green and 115th in approach.

Most golfers go through slumps, and you would be foolish to write DeChambeau off in advance of the U.S. Open given that he already has two victories at the event. However, it's clear that he's not on the same level as the likes of McIlroy, Scheffler, and Rahm. That trio has never missed three cuts in a four-major span during their careers, something DeChambeau just did with his performance at Aronimink.