Contenders to watch in the PGA Championship

Majors season on the PGA Tour got off to an exciting start in April with The Masters, and continues on in May with the PGA Championship. The game’s best will congregate once again at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, and we’ll take a look at a few players who have the best chance of topping the leaderboard.

Until The Masters, golf fans were ready to write Mickelson off as a past-his-prime competitor who was content making bundles of money playing on the LIV Tour. However, he had a resurgent performance at Augusta National, finishing third in a tournament that many felt he would miss the cut in. He might parlay that performance into a big weekend at the PGA Championship.

While Mickelson came up a little bit short, Rahm managed to maintain a strong level of play at The Masters to win the green jacket. That victory, along with his stellar play from earlier in the year, has him ranked at the very top of the PGA pecking order. He’ll be looking to win back to back majors, and asset his dominance on the sport.

There was a time where Koepka was viewed as one of golf’s next can’t miss stars. However, he’s had some surprising struggles throughout the past couple of years, but has shown signs of regaining his old form. He may not be able to come out with a victory, but everyone on tour knows how talented Koepka is.

As evidenced by the Netflix special “Full Swing”, Finau is viewed as one of the nicest people in the sport, who cares about his family above all else. There’s a narrative that this split-focus prevents him from becoming the best he can on the course, but Finau won’t stand for it. If he’s able to play well at the PGA Championship, he can prove that nice guys don’t always finish last.

If The Masters was only going to be one or two rounds, Hovland would have come away with the title. However, he wasn’t able to hold on to the scintillating level of play he demonstrated through the first 36 holes, and fell back to the pack. Even still, he showed that he can play as well as anyone in spurts, which is trouble for the field if he can hang around.

Fitzpatrick has been one of the brighter young players on tour, whose shown that despite his relatively youthful appearance, he can withstand some of the toughest moments on the back nine. He’s not viewed as one of the most naturally gifted players, but he works extremely hard, and that effort has paid off in the last couple of years.

He always seems to be in the hunt come Sunday, thanks to his remarkable ability in many areas. Scheffler ranks first in many statistical categories, and will need to make the big shots when they matter most. He has very few weaknesses on the green, so his main concern will be execution on the back nine.