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Scottie Scheffler, the world’s top-ranked golfer, seemed to turn some heads at the PGA championship on Thursday.
The normally smooth and quiet golfer avoided because of America’s decision not to play lift, clean, place for the first round of the PGA championship at The Soggy Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte.
America’s PGA is the governing body of the tournament, which is the second major this season.
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Scottie Scheffler Tees out on the third hole during the first round of the PGA championship at Quail Hollow. (Aaron Doster/Imag images)
Wednesday released the organization a statement that it would “play the ball down as it lies.” The message came after the course was released by several centimeters of rain before the first round.
Several players were effectively forced to fight with what is often called “mud balls”, making the pitch for hit balls less manageable.
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Scheffler hit a tee shot to the middle of the fairway on hole # 16, and the shot hooked to the left and went into the water for a double bogey.
Scottie Scheffler hits a tee shot on the 11th hole before the PGA championship at the Quail Hollow Country Club 14 May 2025, in Charlotte, NC (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
“This will be the last answer that I give by playing it up or down,” Scheffler said. “I mean, I’m not making the rules. I think when you look at the purest forms of golf that if you are going to play Links Golf, there is absolutely no reason on a link’s golf course, you have to play the ball up. It doesn’t matter how much rain they get.
“In American golf it is significantly different. When you have overshadowed fairways that are not sand -caped, there will be a lot of mud on the ball, and that is just part of it. When you think of the purest test of golf, I do not personally think that hitting the ball in the middle of the fairway should be punished for.”
The first green during the single game of the Presidents Cup Golf Tournament at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, NC, September 25, 2022. (Peter Casey/USA Today Sports)
Scheffler acknowledged that the position “A Golf Purist” would probably take, but the two-time Masters winner suggested that the rule decision created unforeseen conditions for competitors.
“On a golf course that is as good at state like this, this is probably a situation where it would be the least probable difference in playing it up because most of the lies you come out here everyone is really good.
“I understand how a golf purist would be, ‘oh, play it as it lies.’ But I don’t think they understand how it literally works your whole life to learn how to hit a golf ball and control it and hit shots and control distance, and suddenly because of a rules decision that is completely taken away from us by chance.
“In golf, there is probably luck throughout a 72-hole tournament, which I don’t think the story should be, whether the ball is played up or not down. When I look at golf tournaments, I want the cleanest, most fair test of golf, and in my opinion maybe the ball today should have been played up.
Scheffler stood from the hard break on the 16th hole and ended on Thursday 2-under couple. Ryan Gerard was at the top of the leaderboard on Thursday night. PGA championship continues Friday.
