18 Parting Thoughts from the 2026 PGA Championship

1. Aaron Rai doesn’t give a damn what it looks like.

There’s a lesson in that: find who you are as a golfer, what makes you play your best and lean into it—even if it doesn’t look cool. You know what’s cool? Winning major championships.

Iron covers are meme-fodder, and he’s the only tour pro that I know of that has them. But like Harry Hall’s hat, there’s a neat story behind it. When Rai was a young boy growing up in a working-class family in Wolverhampton, his father splurged money they couldn’t really afford to get his son a sweet set of Titleists. Rai guarded those things like they were diamonds, and he keeps the covers on to this day to remind himself of his humble upbringings.

It doesn’t stop there. He plays with two black gloves. Games a driver from pre-COVID. Uses a tee you’d see on a late-night Golf Channel infomercial. Doesn’t have a single active social media account.

“I think my dad played a really big role in that,” says Rai. “For the most part, it was just the two of us who used to go onto the golf course and practice together, probably until I was 13 or 14. So I think he was very much an advocate to really just stay in your lane, focus on the things that you can do.

“And I didn’t really mix with a lot of other junior golfers, which didn’t give me a perspective of what was normal. So I think he kind of sheltered me to be able to develop in a way that made sense for me, in a way that I guess was a little bit unique with two gloves, iron covers, etc.

“I think by the time he probably allowed me to play more kind of club golf, play professional golf, I felt like I was strong enough in why I did certain things to be able to continue to move that forward. I know the reasons why I do them. I believe in the reasons why I do them. So I had no reason to really shift from that as I got older.”

Golf is the ultimate meritocracy. The ball doesn’t care who or what hit it. He is a kind soul, he’s soft-spoken, he didn’t Mega Fist Pump when he hooped the 70-footer on 17 to seal the deal. He understands who he is and who he’s not, and he’s now a major champion. That shit’s forever.

It was a super popular victory in the locker rooms. There are few tour pros who no one has a negative thing to say about. Aaron Rai is one of them.

“He’s such a nice guy,” is how Xander Schauffele put it. “All-world gentleman, no doubt.”

2. Ultimately, JT could have had a few small beers.

Justin Thomas polished off his 65 on Sunday to post 5-under total around 3:05 local time, while the leaders were on the third or fourth hole. With the wind picking up in the afternoon there was a chance—not a huge one, but absolutely a chance—that he’d find himself in a playoff by day’s end. He then told a cautionary tale as to why he wouldn’t throw a few back and switch off.

“One time in Hartford, Connecticut, one year. It was actually the same day that Furyk shot 58, I think it was. I shot like 61 or 62, and I finished pretty similar, like the leaders were on the middle of the front nine.

“I had a buddy that was out there watching me, and we went in the clubhouse and probably had like four or five beers at lunch. Next thing you know, it's 2 1/2 hours later, and I'm still the leader in the clubhouse. The wind picked up 15, 20 miles an hour, and the leaders were on like 15.

“Jimmy (Johnson) was caddying for me at the time. He's at a Subway

like an hour and a half away. He's like what do we do? I've never not wanted to be in a playoff before, but I kind of didn't want to be in a playoff then. That wouldn't have been a good situation. So I'm not going to do that, I promise you that.”

My takeaway: imagine not being able to remember if you shot 61 or 62. You’ve just done that so many times that it’s wholly unremarkable. Jusitn Thomas has shot 64 or lower 38 times in his PGA TOUR career. On the PGA TOUR! He’s shot 63 or lower 20 times. It’s just another day at the office for him.

3. I wear my Pro-Tree mark with pride.

I will not tire and I will not cease in this crusade. I do not like the trend of chopping down trees on golf courses that host big-time tournaments.

The playbook is a predictable one: 1. Bring in an architect 2. Dig up old photos 3. Fire up the chainsaws. It greatly simplifies strategy for the best players in the world.

“I think in this day and age I'm not sure if it's going to test all aspects of your bag,” Rory McIlroy said before the tournament began “There's going to be a lot of—again, as I said, strategy off the tee is pretty nonexistent. It's, basically, bash driver down there and then figure it out from there. I think about Oak Hill in 2023. When these traditional golf courses take a lot of trees out, it makes strategy not as much of a concern off the tee.”

Gil Hanse, the most en vogue architect in world golf and the overseer of clearing-out projects at Winged Foot, Oakmont, LACC and Aronimink, made the media rounds this week and pushed back on that notion. He said trees are secondary in a player’s mind because the “strategy is still to hit the fairway.”

That’s just a fundamental misunderstanding of how modern tour pros attack golf courses. An average golfer telling professionals about elite-level strategy. If there are no trees or hazards, they’re going to hit driver every single time. Pros know that golf shots are a scatterplot, not a straight line. They consider misses and how penal they might be. Less trees means less penalty.

By the time the pros come around, these treeless golf courses grow insanely thick rough. They rely on green complexes that roll at 12.5 on the stimp meter, but the greens were designed in an era when 8 was fast. There’s no benefit in laying up, because pros know they can still miss fairways when they do. Being far from the hole in ankle-high rough hitting into roller-coaster greens is a death sentence. I don’t enjoy watching the best players in the world hit driver after driver after driver and then play a glorified game of billiards from there. A great golf course should test your entire bag—not primarily your lag putting. It’s no coincidence the miniature golf world championships don’t draw big TV audiences. It’s not that enjoyable to watch guys miss a bunch of long putts.

And this notion of trees somehow removing the opportunity for recovery shots? Are we forgetting about punch shots? The gamble of trying to hoist one over the trees? Augusta’s rough is minimal and there are trees. It’s a formula that produced Rory on 7 in 2025 and Bubba in the playoff in 2012. Riviera has the same dynamic and it’s part of why it’s my favorite golf course on the planet.

These are just my preferences. But for a big-time golf tournament, give me a course with minimal rough and trees over one with cabbage and no trees. It’s not just about difficulty. The eye test matters. It just wasn’t that compelling of a watch those first two days. There were precious few high-leverage moments like the ones you get at the aforementioned courses (or TPC Sawgrass). Very few get-out-of-your-seat great moments and cover-your-eyes horrible moments. A bit of a slog.

There are plenty who don’t agree with me. Rory McIlroy does, however.

“I think a bunched leaderboard like this, I think it's a sign of not a great setup,” McIlroy said Friday evening after a 67. “I think when it's as bunched as it is, because it hasn't really enabled anyone to separate themselves. It's like, you know, it's easy to make a ton of pars, hard to make birdies, and not that it's hard to make bogey, but it feels like bogey's the worst score you're going to shoot on any one hole.”

If you’re looking for the type of coverage that celebrates everything and appreciates guys hitting shots for the sake of it, you’re in the wrong place. The enduring memory of this championship, for me, will be lag putts. We’re all entitled to our opinions. This is mine.

4. News Flash: Pro Golfer Utilizes Range

Rory McIlroy went to the driving range on Thursday after limping in with four consecutive bogeys for a 76. He stayed for a little while. Hit 60ish golf balls.

The way it was treated by media, you’d have thought he flew into Ukraine to administer life-saving treatment to geriatric women.

Because we all play this game and love this game, and we all maximize the amount of time we spend on golf courses before we (unfortunately) have to return to our lives. I think we often forget it’s their jobs. It’s how they earn money. This is their life. It’s great fucking work if you can get it. If your bank account was directly related to your score, and you shot a poor score, wouldn’t you go practice, too? If there was no job to return to, wouldn’t you spend every waking moment trying to get better?

“Yeah, there were some things in my game, especially in the driver, I didn't like on Thursday,” McIlroy said of the Herculean effort. “So I went and I worked on it, tried to get a feeling that I was comfortable with.”

Wow. What an effort.

5. The Quintessential PGA Championship Experience

For the first time in my decade-ish of doing this I had a connection to one of the club pros in the PGA Championship. Chris Gabriele, now the head pro at Old Westbury on Long Island, was the assistant at Quaker Ridge in Scarsdale, N.Y. when I was a member. His experience in his first major was as relatable as it gets.

“I necked the tee shot, somehow found the fairway,” Gabriele told me in his courtesy car leaving the parking lot on Thursday, all smiles despite a 77. “Legitimately couldn’t feel my hands. Then I just about topped my hybrid straight into the water.”

A triple bogey. He fought hard to keep it under 80 from there. Two 77s for my guy in the end. Wasn’t close to making the cut but wasn’t dead last and managed to keep it in the 70s both days.

6. They aren’t playing a different game, they’re just better at it.

We always like to highlight a ‘Pros—They’re Just Like Us!’ moment at major championships. You’ll often hear they play a different game. I disagree with that. It’s fundamentally the same endeavor. They’re just better at it.

Kristoffer Reitan had the best day of his golfing life on Sunday, May 10th. As the contenders around him surged then tumbled he held steady, dissecting Quail Hollow’s Green Mile with three big-boy pars to win a signature event.

Courtesy WRX

On Saturday, May 16, he ditched his putter looking for a spark. We’ve all been there. Sometimes your gamer needs a spell on the bench—a reminder that a spot in the bag is earned, not given. Then you get the honeymoon phase where you look down, see something different and swear you’ll never miss another putt inside 20 feet.

“I mean, I've had that putter for 2 1/2 years. Then I changed before last week and putted well with it, but I don't know, just something about the feel of it that, yeah, just didn't really work. It could have been my fault too easily, but it was an easy choice to give the old putter a new go today, and I'm happy that I did. It's a little bit different and it feels like I can be a little bit more positive with it because the insert is really, really soft.”

Sure. Yep. Whatever you need to tell yourself.

7. A Shoutout to Harry Hall and Dan Brown

The more I learn about the two big, new-ish Englishmen on tour, the more I like them.

The first time I ever really spoke to Harry Hall was at the Cadillac Championship a few weeks ago and I found his disposition delightful. I asked him about not making the Ryder Cup team.

“They’re team of champions,” he said. “I wasn’t a champion yet.”

He also told me the origin story of his signature hat. “Long” Jim Barnes played out of West Cornwall Golf Club—the same spot where Hall honed his craft— at the turn of the century and won four majors wearing the Peaky Blinders-style lid. It’s a thing at West Cornwall, and Hall wears it to remind him of where he came from. I complimented his hat on the range this week and, without hesitation, he offered to bring me one the following day. I chased him around the course on Wednesday only for him to tell me that he’d forgotten. It happens. He brought it on Thursday but we couldn’t connect before he left the course. The casualty of a 6:45 a.m. tee time. I will get the hat, and I will wear it with pride. Great lad.

Then there’s big Dan Brown, who shares his name with the famous author whose latest book had absolutely no business being 700 pages. Brown’s a capital-C character just like Harry is. They’re both well worth a follow on Instagram. He begins every day and every warm up with a cigarette. He trudged through some dark years on the European mini tours and once thought he’d end up working at a supermarket. He likes where he’s at a lot, lot more. That includes ripping one with some fans mid-tournament.

Our sport has room for the country-club SEC kids and the working class Brits (like Rai) and everything in between. We need more characters, not less.

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8. Is it time for Jordan Spieth to change coaches?

He’s a fiercely loyal guy, and it would go against his nature, but how long can you middle as a shadow of your former self before pressing the reset button?

Consider recent happenings involving Cameron Smith of Australia. Smith had been struggling worse than Spieth has, granted, but he finally reached a breaking point after his sixth consecutive missed cut in a major championship. He made the brutal decision to split from his longtime swing coach, Grant Field, and seek the guidance of Claude Harmon III. It’s not the sole reason Smith played solidly this week but it’s not unrelated.

“I don’t think it was from a lack of hard work,” Smith said of his struggles. “I just think you lose a little bit of confidence in your swing and maybe in your brain, and it can all happen so quickly. That’s why I needed a fresh voice in the head and kind of almost a restart. And like I said, It’s felt good so far….It was a hard call to make to my coach. I had been seeing Grant since I was 9 years old….probably one of the most difficult phone calls I’ve ever had to make. And yeah, it’s still kind of lingering, but I feel like I’ve made the right call, and I can see it in my golf and just my strike of the ball.”

Spieth entered this week with a chance at completing the career Grand Slam in name only. He has done nothing this year to suggest a return to past glory is around the corner. We all want to see him back at his rip-roaring best. Something’s gotta give.

9. Ben Kern was representing more than club pros out there.

You don’t often see tour pros with a full sleeve of tattoos. Now that I think of it, I’m not sure there’s a single PGA TOUR pro who has one. As a tattooed golfer I loved seeing some representation from Kern this week. He also finished as low club pro in 2018 at Bellerive, but it was so damn hot that week—the August PGAs went out with a bang with 100+ degree heat indexes in St. Louis—that he rocked sun sleeves. They were out in their full glory on Sunday at Aronomink.

10. Your index will only take you so far.

Handicaps mean absolutely nothing when it comes to competitive golf because they only count your best scores. It’s why the “what would Scottie’s handicap be?” question rings rather meaningless.

I’ll often have someone tell me about a junior golfer and cite his handicap as evidence that he’s destined for stardom. It’s your bad rounds that tell me more about what kind of player you are than your best. Ben Kern, the lone club pro to make the cut this week, fired a three-under 67 on Friday. For GHIN purposes, his Thursday 74, Saturday 77 and Sunday 72 would get thrown out and he’d have a lower handicap for the week than Jordan Spieth, who shot 69-72-70-68 to finish -1 for the week to Kern’s +10.

11. A modest question about wrist tape.

I’ve noticed a growing number of guys tape their wrist while playing golf. Cameron Young does it. So do Justin Thomas and Jason Day and Sahith Theegala and Michael Block. I don’t know the exact reason. To provide some extra support? To keep their Whoops in place? But don’t they wear those around their biceps?

My apologies for staying with the questions, but am I crazy for thinking this shouldn’t be allowed? Doesn’t artificially adding wrist stability improve your golf swing? Aren’t there training aids that serve his exact function, and they’re not allowed on-course? Maybe I’m just getting old? How many questions can I write in a row?

12. It was a pretty damaging week for Bryson’s negotiating leverage.

Bryson’s magic is that he has one foot in both arenas: content creation, YouTub, /whatever you want to call it, and the first page of major championship leaderboards. They’re both integral parts to his unicorn status. He’s not the same value proposition without the YouTube channel and he’s not the same value proposition if he’s not contending in majors…and especially not if he’s missing cuts.

DeChambeau was +10 through 33 holes at this PGA Championship. He finished with a flurry and deserves credit for not mailing it in—he birdied each of his last 3 holes and signed autographs before heading back to Dallas. He’s now trunk slammed on Friday of both majors this year and three of the last four.

13. And now something nice about Bryson

We said something not-so-nice about Bryson so now we defend Bryson. That’s how we roll on Dan On Golf. Balls and strikes.

He got clowned for wearing a parka jacket to the golf course Thursday morning. It was mid-50s, windy, and apparently he should dress like he’s in Ibiza? He’s a California boy living in Texas. He’s used to warmth. It’s 2026; we should not be in the business of cold shaming.

As I enjoy the maturity middle-age has brought me, I’ve learned first-hand the benefits of a warm back early in the morning. I’ll crank the A/C up to 78 and the seat warmer full-throttle on the way to the golf course no matter the temperature at the time.

It was a normal jacket choice. Find a new slant.

14. A sicko observation about Chris Gotterup

I can’t wrap my head around how far left Chris Gotterup aims his body and his feet. It’s a home-made ass move and the heaviest hit on tour. When he tells you, as he said in an interview recently, that he failed to break 100 twice in a row early in his college days at Rutgers, you believe him. He and his coach Jason Birnbaum have done a remarkable job finding the right match-ups and not changing a winning formula. Find what works for you, and lean into it.

15. Am I crazy, or is Cameron Young’s pause getting longer?

It used to be pretty similar to HIdeki Matsuyama’s but I do feel like he’s added an extra beat at the top. I might be crazy. I’m probably crazy. He’s also extending the pause.

16. CBS continues to elevate its broadcast coverage.

They’re the gold standard and they keep improving.

Tracking technology is continually improving, and CBS has made excellent use of the aerial tracer this year. This week they stepped it up with an aerial tracer that also showed the player’s ball flights from previous rounds. It was a great look into how consistent these guys’ #windows are, to use a Tigerism. Being in control of your ball isn’t just about sideways curve (draw or fade), it’s about how high (or low) your ball flies and how quickly it gets to that height. A phenomenal innovation.

17. Some interesting insights from the range:

TopTracer tracked every shot hit on the range this week, and it provided some enlightening info.

—Aaron Rai hit just 22 shots on the range before his final-round 65 to win the tournament. When it’s hot out and you’ve played three rounds of competitive golf already, you don’t want to expend too much energy.

—Alex Noren hit 156 balls on the range on Friday and 220 on Friday. He is the heir apparent to Padraig Harringon—by that I mean, the guy most often on the range on tour. He has to have done that over-the-top-exaggeration rehearsal more than 1 million time sin his life. His hands have the scars to prove it.

—Daniel Berger hit just 4 balls on the range on Saturday, which struck me as just way too low. So I messaged him. Surely that was a mistake?

Turns how he’s dealing with some more injury stuff and plans to take some time off after this week. It’s a bummer for a player who’s already lost significant time to a back injury and a hand issue last fall. Still gutted out a 69-68 over the weekend.

18. A Good Week for the LIV contingent.

The Masters was an awful week for the LIV contingent and this was a good one. Again, we’re Balls and Strikes guys.

Jon Rahm tied for second. Cameron Smith tied for 7th. Joaquin Niemann and David Puig tied for 18th.

Does it change anything big-picture? Sure doesn’t. But I’ve been very consistent that the they play on LIV, they’re not competitive anymore narrative is BS. LIV Golfers won major championships in 2023 and 2024, Bryson and Rahm and Hatton had chances to do it in ‘25 and Rahm was a few rolls away from doing it this week.