Our intro here pertains to Aaron Rai’s iron covers and his two gloves and his other unique characteristics, so I can understand if you want to click away, as the subject, while charming, has been talked about a bit excessively at this point. But there’s been something else going on with his quirks. I think it tells the bigger story.

It’s the thought of why he never changed. 

After all, we’re a society of mostly conformists. There’s comfort in that — and the absence of discomfort. Golf and life can be hard enough, but sticking out adds another element.

Unless, of course, you don’t give a you-know-what.  

Like Rai. And he just won a PGA Championship. 

“I think my dad played a really big role in that,” Rai said Sunday night. “For the most part, it was just the two of us who used to go onto the golf course and practice together, probably up 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, with iron covers, et cetera.

“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 knew 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. So, yeah, that’s probably the main reason behind it.”

That all said, I think it’s OK to emulate this thought. 

As we look back at the PGA Championship week that was at Aronimink Golf Club, let’s make that observation No. 1 then. We’ll try for 49 more, and, to help the mood, we’ll mix in some Philly music.

2. My grandpa had iron covers. Red ones even. 

3. Let’s talk more about Rai. I liked this answer when he was asked about his wife, Gaurika, who’s also a pro golfer:

“She’s been incredible. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I wouldn’t be here without her. Both as a companion, as a friend, as someone I’m sharing my life with, but also as a real support system for my game. She’s a professional golfer herself. So her mindset, her advice, her thoughts, whether it’s technique or the way I’m holding myself is absolutely invaluable. She encompasses so many different sides in her opinions.

“We even had a conversation yesterday for probably 30 minutes in the car just before we got back to the hotel, just speaking a little bit about today. Again, some of the things that she mentioned in the conversations were really with me today.

“Yeah, I really wouldn’t be here without her.”

4. What was that conversation in the car about? The Athletic’s Gabby Herzig wrote about that, and you can read her story here. 

5. Who wins in a match between husband and wife?

“We practice quite a lot together. Honestly she beats me more times than I beat her,” Rai said. “When we have putting contests, chipping contests, we do some wedge games on TrackMan, I do well to keep up with her. She really is that good.

“We play a little bit on the course, but I’ve played Sawgrass — that’s where we live — a little bit more than her, and I think that little bit of experience helps. But it’s still very close with us even on the course.”

6. How did the Rais meet? Golfweek’s Adam Schupak wrote about that, and you can read his story here. 

7. Where was Rai planning to celebrate after his win? As he said he wasn’t sure, Gaurika shouted at his press conference, “He’ll probably have Chipotle.”

“I do love Chipotle on the road,” Rai said. “So we’ll probably go to Chipotle.”

8. I also thought Rai’s story on how he played courses growing up was interesting. 

“Up until the age of around 12 years old, I used to play off basically a customized course length, which gradually got longer and longer every year from the age of kind of 7 to 12,” he said. “… I was playing off the fairways and trying to make the course short enough for me to score par or better even as an 8-, 9-, 10-year-old.

“I thought it was a great idea. My dad thought it was a great idea.”

As he aged, Rai farther and farther moved back. 

“My dad really thought that idea was great in terms of just installing the abilities and the skills to be able to score and the distance would just follow with age and with growth.”

9. Of course, if you’re going to read just one Rai story today, please make it be this one here. It’s about the time Rai and I hunted for ghosts. Seriously. 

10. You can learn a lot about a person through the thoughts of others, and I liked this one here, from pro Paul Waring. 

11. And below is a young Rai. Enjoy. 

13. So why were there so many players at or around the lead throughout the tournament? Certainly, there’s always the possibility of that happening — who’s to say that the best in the world can’t all go out and shoot the same score? 

But Aronimink seemed to dictate play — there weren’t many ways to approach holes, other than the safe route, so most everyone did that. Find the fairway, find the safe pocket on the green, hit a couple of putts and move on. 

The question is, how much of that is the course’s fault, and how much of that is the players’?  

14. Let’s talk more about Aronimink — and two of the big questions of the week: Was it a good course for the PGA? And was it set up properly?

Hmm, how much time do you have?

But maybe the answer is easier than you think, if you ask yourself this:

Did you like watching? 

I think that’s mostly what matters in this. Golf is entertainment.  

15. I did laugh when I heard Brandel Chamblee say on Golf Channel’s “Live From” show that a course manager knows they’ve set up a course right when the players start to [expletive]. 

16. Here are a couple player thoughts on Aronimink and the setup that I thought were interesting:

Said Rory McIlroy on Saturday: “Look, when you have a set of greens like this, you can start to frustrate people pretty easily, I think. You heard it in me last night. You heard it in Scottie [Scheffler]. I saw some of his comments. Shane [Lowry]. I think there was a lot of guys that were frustrated yesterday coming off the course.

“Again, it’s frustrating to us, but at the same time, it creates a helluva entering championship. If I wasn’t playing this tournament, I’d love what’s going on this week, but watching and playing are two different things.”

17. Said Patrick Reed on Saturday: “It’s just different. I mean, I think that’s the easiest way. It’s a different challenge, and that’s the cool thing about it is it’s on its own.

“But the great thing about all the golf courses we play, no matter where it is, whatever major championship we’re playing, if you’re hitting the ball well and you’re putting well, you’re going to be able to handle anything. We’re the best players in the world, so when they throw a really hard challenge at us, that’s when the top players are going to show up.”

18. Music break! The Roots’ “The Seed (2.0)” was heavily played during ESPN’s and CBS’ coverage, so let’s use it here. It’s a favorite. 

19. What would I, the 15-or-so handicap, shoot, with the wind, the rough and the pin locations, along with just the course itself? 

How much time do I have?

20. But man, a lot of folks were wrong about how the course would play. The predictions of low numbers had Jon Rahm feeling strange. 

“I would like to know who came up with that, by the way,” he said on Saturday. “Honestly, when I heard people talking about 20-under par, it made me question my ability to read a golf course, because I was looking at the greens and where they could put pin locations, and possible wind, I just — my mind was never — I actually got worried. I’m like if somebody shoots 20-under, the amount of records they’re going to break this week would be unheard of.

“You know why I think that can happen is also the fairways up here by the numbers are probably wide. They don’t play as wide as they really are. Holes like 7, 10, 15, with how much slope you have to the fairway, you have to hit a very accurate golf shot to be in it. Like that, you can add 2, too, 4 — maybe not on 6, but like I said, 10, 12, 15, 16, right?

“You need to hit — with the slope of the fairway and the wind going with the slope of the fairway, it plays a lot more difficult than I think a lot of people would have foreseen at first with how much they’re rolling out.”

21. Let’s talk about some players. 

In the first major since LIV Golf learned that it was losing its funding from the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, Rahm, one of LIV’s biggest stars, tied for second. I thought one of the more interesting quotes of the week came during his pre-tournament press conference, where he was asked what he learned from a strong showing at last year’s PGA. 

“It was really fun to be out there in the landscape nowadays in which as players in LIV we hear a lot of things from articles, from social media, from comments,” Rahm said. “While I understand why things are being said, it’s something you have to deal with.

“To go on that Sunday playing against Scottie, that has the lead, and to feel the support and love from the crowd is what made it really enjoyable. To realize that sometimes the truth is very different from what this makes or made up to be. When I made that birdie putt on 11 and I hit those good shots on 12 and 13 and almost made the putt on 13, the support from the crowd and the cheering from the crowd was what made it so much fun.

“It was a realization of having such support from the crowd and playing good golf that made me realize in a way how I’m truly perceived from the public, as opposed to what I read sometimes.”

22. Bryson DeChambeau, another LIV star, shot seven-over over two rounds and missed the cut, after missing the cut at the Masters. 

What are your expectations for him at the U.S. Open, where he’s won twice?

23. Cam Smith had missed four straight cuts in the majors, then tied for seventh at the PGA. He recently started working with swing coach Claude Harmon III, after moving on from Grant Field, whom Smith had been guided by since he was 9. 

“Probably one of the most difficult phone calls I’ve ever had to make,” Smith said Sunday.

“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 and seeing some different shots. It’s been nice.”

24. Patrick Reed played the Masters in April, didn’t play for four weeks, then tied for 10th at the PGA. Interestingly, he’ll have the same schedule heading into the U.S. Open — no tournaments for four weeks — as he’s been mostly playing a DP World Tour schedule while serving a PGA Tour suspension due to his time with LIV Golf. 

“Yeah, this year’s a little different,” he said. “Honestly, I enjoyed my time at home. I enjoyed actually getting to grind, to prepare, and work on things and get ready for this week. … Who knows, it might be a new thing.”

25. My favorite exchange of the week? This one:

Moderator to McIlroy, after he shot a four-over 74 in the first round: “How would you describe your opening round?”

McIlroy to moderator: “Sh*t.”

26. My favorite story this week? This one, from Justin Thomas, who was asked on Sunday if there was an “art” to sitting on a clubhouse lead. 

“I don’t know if there’s an art,” he said. “I can tell you how there isn’t because it happened to me one time in Hartford, Conn., one year. It was actually the same day that [Jim] 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 two-and-a-half hours later, and I’m still the leader in the clubhouse. The wind picked up 15, 20 mph, and the leaders were on like 15. Jimmy [Johnson] was caddieing 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.”

27. It’s strange not seeing Scottie Scheffler in the top three or so, right? That’s Tiger-like.  

28. Alex Smalley will win a major. Maybe this year still. 

29. I think Xander Schauffele will win another major. Maybe this year still.

30. I think Ludvig Aberg will win multiple majors. Maybe this year still. 

31. I think Garrick Higgo will never miss another major tee time again. Notably, Golfweek’s Schupak reported here that Higgo has also parted ways with his caddie. 

32. Music break! Let’s go with “You Make My Dreams (Come True)” by Hall & Oates. 

33. I want to see Michael Block at next year’s PGA. Golf needs personalities, and he is one.

34. Next year’s PGA is in Texas, Jordan Spieth’s home state. The grand slam happens there, right?  

35. The Spieth shot below is one of the best of the week. Maybe the best. 

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Bear with me because I’m about to say something not everyone will understand … but do you remember that TikTok trend from 2021, with the booming voice, called Choose Your Character? 

It became popular for the TikTok generation to create videos about societal characters with whom they identified, using sound pulled from the Character Selection page of the video game “Super Smash Bros.” If that all sounds insane, stick with us — we’re almost there. 

The reason this relates to the PGA Championship is because the 54-hole leaderboard is so jumbled with characters and possesses so many different storylines — so many permutations could take place, as Aaron Rai said Saturday — that it’s time for everyone at home to work through the options and [booming voice] CHOOSE … YOUR … CHARACTER.

We’ll lay out the options from least likely to lift the Wanamaker to most likely. It’s on you to make a selection.

CHOOSE YOUR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHTER

11. If you want chaos that no one knows what to do with …  

You’re choosing Bud Cauley (-2), Brian Harman (-2), Ben Griffin (-2) or any of the other players who have somehow persisted at this wicked setup and yet have been on few consciences all week. They’ve finished the same number of holes as everyone else, and have made only a few more strokes in the process, but have we been aware of them? Maybe Sunday they play the best golf of their lives? If so, we’ll be scrambling to catch up with where they’ve been all week. 

10. If you look back at your younger self wistfully …

You’re going all-in on Joaquin Niemann (-2) or Cam Smith (-2). Both LIV golfers held plenty of promise in past years, but have faded in ways that have to leave them wondering about life in 2022. Niemann has played his best golf on LIV, just before the league earned World Ranking points; Smith played his best golf just before he left for LIV, period. We’ve wanted them to splash in majors, but it just hasn’t happened, and somehow both have resurfaced this week.  

[the ranking continues below the graphic]

9. If Statistics was your favorite class in high school … 

You’re inclined to get down with Nick Taylor (-4), Aaron Rai (-4) or Kristoffer Reitan (-4). Why those boys? Because you believe in the predictive results of the bell curve. How the most expected results happen often but not always. How there have been many majors won by Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, but also some others by Jimmy Walker, Shaun Micheel, Ben Curtis, etc. 

It may sound dismissive to pre-label those gents as could-be-one-time-major-winners, but it feels fair, too. In the next 10 years, there will be a one-time major-winner who steals one. Could it happen Sunday? 

8. If you think elder abuse is serious…

Then you’re praying Justin Rose (-2) gets it done. The 45-year-old has been so good at majors for much of the last two years, carving out top-6 finishes in half of them, that it feels wrong he keeps coming up just short. Rose finished T6, improbably, at the 2024 PGA, then T2 a few months later at the Open, lost in a playoff at the Masters in 2025 and then held the Masters lead last month before losing his grip on a green jacket yet again. It feels like it has to happen before it may never happen again.

7. What do you know about Leicester City? 

The 2015 English Premier League champions were plucky. They didn’t have all the money to buy all the players with all the tools. But they fought hard and felt that people did not take them seriously … right until they had to take them seriously. Then Leicester won, in glorious fashion, and a decade later they’ve been relegated a handful of times. But damnit, they won the league when no one expected it.

Alex Smalley (-6) has somehow led this tournament after each round, and now holds a two-shot lead entering the final stretch. He is not a fan favorite by any stretch of the term, but his game is way more respectable than most fans would recognize. He’s been hanging around Tour leaderboards for the last two months. It’s time to take him seriously. 

6. If you want a party to break out … 

You need the closest thing to a local boy, and that’s Chris Gotterup (-2). Philadelphia golf fans haven’t really had their own rooting interest in this championship, at least not a legit one who could win. But a bunch of Chris Gotterup’s family and friends are here at Aronimink after making the quick trek from New Jersey or New York. 

When Gotterup got to five under and in a share of the lead midway Saturday, his supporters were just starting to get rowdy. If he somehow gets into that position again Sunday, expect the Philly locals to join in. 

5. If you think experience should matter…

Xander Schauffele (-3) is just sitting there, waiting, with two major wins under his belt. He’s been there all week. Two under after the first round, five back after 36 holes, now three under and waiting for everyone to crumble around him, much like they all did at Royal Troon in 2024. Schauffele has mastered the art of just hanging around at majors, finishing in the top 18 of 15 of the last 16 majors. So, yeah, he’ll be there, just waiting.

5b. If you think past experience doesn’t matter…

Then you’re on Ludvig Aberg (-4) Watch. Aberg certainly has some serious major experience in contention, but he’s never broken through. In some ways, he’s what Schauffele used to be — working his way through major heartbreak toward major celebration. The golf nerds love his chances.

4. If “The Talented Mr. Ripley” is one of your favorite tales…

Patrick Reed (-3) is your character. Reed is, like Tom Ripley, a shape-shifting chameleon. He is a former LIV member, a current DP World Tour member and both a former and future PGA Tour member. He is wickedly talented, and now that he’s putting decently, he’s a threat to steal this tournament from whoever you might think is more deserving. 

3. If you cheer for LeBron James…

Then Scottie Scheffler (-1) is your man. Watching greatness in sports gets you going. One fan at Aronimink said “C’mon LeBron” at Scheffler while he walked by on the putting green Saturday. Perhaps that’s because cheering for LeBron — and cheering for Scheffler — is to believe in greatness. To root for a human to achieve what he or she seems to be worthy of. 

2. If you believe in the dust settling…

You’re hoping Jon Rahm (-4) can do what he didn’t last year and finish the deal. Rahm is a generationally great golfer who has willingly made controversial moves during his prime. Those decisions have created a murky narrative around some of the most important years of his golfing life, during which he hasn’t added to his major total nor even contended outside of the 2025 PGA, when he went toe-to-toe with Scheffler and faded late. This time Scheffler may not stand in Rahm’s way, but someone else might …

1. If you want to see history…

You need Rory McIlroy (-3) to show up. You may not love how much his opinions lead golf coverage, but you have to acknowledge that once every Masters comes and goes, only one person can win a calendar year Grand Slam, and that’s McIlroy. He’s decried the course setup more than once this week, started his tournament with a 74 he labeled as “s–t” and has somehow rallied to sit just three back. If he were to win, it would give the sport much juice heading into next month’s U.S. Open, and we haven’t had the chance to really talk about a calendar slam since Jordan Spieth 11 years ago.

For better or worse, he’s my fighter. Who’s yours?

The 2026 PGA Championship comes to an end on Sunday, May 17, with the final round at Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania. You can find full PGA Championship tee times for Sunday’s final round at the bottom of this post once they are determined Saturday night.

Round 4 tee times: What we know

We won’t know the official Sunday tee times for the final round of the 2026 PGA Championship until the action comes to an end Saturday night. Until then, there are a few things we do know. First, players will tee off in pairings for Sunday’s final round, with all players beginning on the 1st hole.

Round 4 tee times will be based on leaderboard position, with the leaders occupying the final pairing and teeing off in the afternoon. Those players at the bottom of the leaderboard after Round 3 will start first on Sunday morning.

We can also look to the past for a better idea of what this year’s Sunday tee times will be. On Sunday at last year’s PGA Championship, Scottie Scheffler and Alex Noren teed off in the final pairing at 2:40 p.m. ET. Chris Kirk and Sergio Garcia teed off first at 8:10 a.m. ET.

We can expect Sunday tee times at the 2026 PGA Championship to also fall between 8 a.m. ET and 3 p.m. ET.

Can Rory McIlroy mount a comeback and win his second straight major? You’ll have to watch on Sunday to find out.

You can watch Sunday’s final round of the PGA Championship from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. ET on ESPN and then 1-7 p.m. ET on CBS. You can also stream exclusive online coverage via PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ starting Sunday morning at 8 a.m. ET and stream CBS’s Sunday coverage online via Paramount+.

Check out the complete Round 4 tee times for the 2026 PGA Championship below once they are released.

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2026 PGA Championship tee times for Sunday: Round 4 (ET)

(TBD)