PGA Championship: Three Groups You Can’t Miss In The Opening Rounds

The PGA TOUR announced groupings and starting times for the first and second rounds of the PGA Championship at the Southern Hills Country Club this weekend.

The PGA Championship will begin Thursday morning at the renovated Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the first time in over a decade. Being the second major championship of the 2022 season, fans will be excited to watch most of golf’s biggest stars compete for the PGA Championship

Among the biggest stories of the week regarding the field is the always heralded entry of Tiger Woods, the noticeable absence of defending champion Phil Mickelson, and what would have been a surprise return from injury for the big-hitting Bryson DeChambeau who ended up having to withdraw at the last moment.

Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka have each won two PGA Championship titles and four major championships between them. They are looking to join Jack Nicklaus (5), Walter Hagen (5), Tiger Woods (4), Sam Snead (3) and Gene Sarazen (3) to have won the PGA Championship three times or more.

FedExCup leader and the number one golfer in the world, Scottie Scheffler, has won four times in his last eight starts. Scheffler earned his first major championship title at the Masters Tournament and looks to capture his second this weekend in Southern Hills.

With so much talent and so many storylines playing out within this action-packed field, let’s explore three groupings that you aren’t going to want to miss through the first two rounds of the tournament.

PGA Championship: The Young Guns

Viktor Hovland, Will Zalatoris, Cameron Smith

(Thursday: 9:00 am CT, Friday: 2:25 pm)

If you’re a fan of professional golf, it’s hard not to get excited about the recent rise of some very talented, young golfers on the PGA TOUR. That includes the first group on this list to watch through the first two rounds of the PGA Championship, Viktor Hovland, Will Zalatoris, and Cameron Smith. They tee off from the tenth tee starting at 9:00 a.m. CT on Thursday and from the first tee at 2:25 p.m. CT on Friday.

Currently ranked sixth in the world, Viktor Hovland started out the 2021-2022 PGA TOUR season pretty well. He secured an early win at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba and finished inside the top-nine at The Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, and THE PLAYERS Championship. However, he didn’t finish higher than 18th in his next four starts.

What makes Hovland an interesting part of this group is that he gets to golf in familiar conditions. Hovland currently resides in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where he has called home since his collegiate golf days at Oklahoma State University.

Despite being dead last on the PGA TOUR in strokes gained around the green, losing eight-tenths of a stroke per round to the field, he is excellent off-the-tee and top three in approach this season – two statistical areas that could be important with Oklahoma wind and firm conditions in-play.

Will Zalatoris is getting a lot of buzz this week as his game fits in nicely at the Southern Hills Country Club. He is currently sitting in first place in approach and second place in tee-to-green, making him a really nice addition to this group.

Zalatoris has to be one of my favorite golfers to watch on the PGA TOUR right now. His performance seems to thrive at major tournaments. He’s finished second and sixth in the 2021 and 2022 Masters, respectively. Additionally, he has a sixth-place finish at the 2020 U.S. Open and tied for eighth at the 2021 PGA Championship.

The reigning PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year is currently sitting 30th in the Official World Golf Rankings. His only professional win came on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020 and he has yet to find a victory on the PGA TOUR. He’s definitely had some growing pains in terms of tournament finishes, where he has missed the cut three times and posted three top-ten finishes in starts this season.

If Scottie Scheffler wasn’t playing at such an elite level right now, Cameron Smith would be my favorite to win PGA TOUR Player of the Year. Even though Smith is the highest-ranked player in the world without a major victory, the young Australian has been battled-tested this season. His ability to compete should be more than enough to draw in fans of the game of golf.

He shot 36-under to hold off Jon Rahm for the win at the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua Resort in Hawaii. He won a tight one at THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Florida. He kept pace with Scottie Scheffler at the Masters before falling short on the final day and finishing tied for third.

Smith did miss the cut at the RBC Heritage and then took a presumably much-needed break over the last 30 days or so. Refreshed, Smith will look to bring his seventh-ranked approach and fourth-ranked putting game to Southern Hills, where the wind could certainly play a factor in turning this tournament into a short-game competition.