PGA Championship: Inside The Wanamaker Trophy Hunt At Quail Hollow

Quail Hollow is all set to host the PGA Tour’s best with first round action of the PGA Championship teeing off Thursday in Charlotte. The perennial tour host, that also staged the Presidents Cup in 2022 and this very major five years before that, is never a walk in the park.

Known for the ‘Green Mile’, a three-hole gauntlet that can chew up a lead in a heartbeat, pros will have to be dialed in to the max to even make the cut. Contenders will certainly need to keep their wits about them as the pressure mounts down the stretch while attempting to climb a leaderboard that can be more volatile than a crypto IPO.

The Heater: Justin Thomas

Justin Thomas is cooking with gas into the second major of the year. The Alabama alum snapped a 1,064-day victory drought when he holed a 20-foot putt to clinch a playoff victory against Andrew Novak and slip into that tartan jacket at Harbour Town. The 16-time tour winner followed it up with a T2 at the Truist Championship. His heater has helped him earn $8.6 million inside the ropes this season—a 65% bump from last year’s $5.2 million haul and he’s got months to pad it.

JT’s already got a pair of take-home Wanamakers on the shelf (2017, 2022), the first coming at Quail Hollow and he hopes that peace of mind will pay dividends.

“I’ve hit the shots. I’ve made the putts. I’ve handled all of that mentally on this exact golf course in this exact tournament. So I think it’s something that can be helpful, to fall back on if I need it,” Justin Thomas said when asked about the benefit of returning to the site of his first major victory.

A third win would put him in rare air: only five players in history have pulled that off. Tiger’s got four (1999, 2000, 2006, 2007), while Jack and Walter Hagen lead the pack with five apiece. The only other player this century to three-peat? Brooks Koepka.

And here’s a deep cut to close on: excluding Augusta National, only three players—Willie Anderson, Jack, and Tiger—have won multiple majors at the same venue. JT’s already got one at Quail. History says it’s tough to double up, but momentum says don’t count him out. Career PGA Championship Earnings: $5,668,580

Rory: One More Club to Join?

Could Rory McIlroy, fresh off completing the career Grand Slam with his Masters triumph, add another ultra-exclusive feat to his sterling résumé. In the last 70 years on tour, starting a season with back-to-back majors is a rare feat only accomplished by Hogan, Palmer, Nicklaus, Woods, Spieth. Rory has a long history of high wattage performance at Quail Hollow, winning here in 2010, 2015, 2021, and 2024, when the event, now under the Truist Championship banner, was sponsored by Wells Fargo. Even Jon Rahm quipped at his press conference yesterday that if he could borrow one aspect of another players skillset around the greens here this week, it would be Rory’s. With three wins in eight starts this season, a victory this week would bring him to four-for-eight—an eye-popping .500 batting average. Career PGA Championship Earnings: $6,300,038

Super Deep Field

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler cruised to an eight-shot win at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson before skipping the Truist Championship to rest up ahead of this major. Asked whether Rory’s recent surge has lit a fire in him—a persistent question that he also fielded at the CJ Cup—Scheffler admitted that getting beat has been a motivator, before taking a philosophical tack. “Golf is kind of an endless pursuit of getting the best out of yourself,” he said. “I’m looking forward to continuing to do that as the year goes on.”

The trail-foot sliding Texan is the odds-on favorite at +400, and nobody would be the least bit surprised if last year’s champ Xander Schauffele, Rory’s Sunday Masters playing partner Bryson DeChambeau, or two-time major winner Collin Morikawa had themselves a week to remember.

And Rory is far from the only international player that can break the current streak of an American winning the PGA Championship the last nine occasions. Sweden’s Ludvig Åberg, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, Canada’s Corey Conners or Norway’s Viktor Hovland could easily show up and show out in Charlotte.

And definitely don’t sleep on Patrick Cantlay, Russell Henley, or Tommy Fleetwood—all steady performers this season who won’t miss their chance to shine if the bigger stars stumble.

Spieth’s Slam Bid

Then there’s the perennial storyline that’s been bandied about for eight years now: Jordan Spieth needs only the PGA Championship to complete the career Grand Slam.

“It’s always circled on the calendar,” Spieth admitted. “For me, if I could only win one tournament for the rest of my life, I’d pick this one for that reason.” He also called Rory’s recent Masters win to secure his slam “inspiring,” noting how rare and meaningful the feat is: “Something like that has not been done by many people, and there’s a reason why. But I’d love to throw my hat in the ring and give it a chance come the weekend this week.”