NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — The 108th edition of the PGA Championship has officially begun its early-week procession of media obligations as the world’s top players prepare to take on Aronimink Golf Club in the second major championship of the year.

Marquee names including Rory McIlroy, Cameron Young, Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth, defending champion Scottie Scheffler and more will speak before the opening round begins at Aronimink. The last time the Donald Ross design hosted the PGA TOUR’s best was the 2018 BMW Championship, giving many players a point of reference as they pursue the Wanamaker Trophy.

Check back throughout the week as our krikya168.com writers on-site at the PGA Championship sift through player interviews and surface the top comments and biggest storylines from Aronimink.

Rory McIlroy

Two-time PGA Championship winner Rory McIlroy kicked off the second day of pressers at Aronimink Golf Club.

Paul Hodowanic broke down the stark difference in McIlroy's tone this year compared to just one year prior when he faced the media at the year's second major.

Collin Morikawa

Now two months since the initial injury, Collin Morikawa remains inhibited by a back injury.

“I wish I was 100 percent healthy,” he said Tuesday. “The body doesn't feel bad, just it's uncomfortable, and there's a trust factor I'm kind of having to deal with.”

Morikawa sustained the injury while taking a practice swing on the 11th tee box at TPC Sawgrass during the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship. He was forced to withdraw, then missed the next month rehabbing the issue. He returned at the Masters, clearly hobbled by the injury, but fought through it. And while the pain has largely subsided, Morikawa has not yet been able to overcome the mental block, fearing he could injure it again with any swing.

“I've never had to deal with it,” Morikawa said. “I can't imagine wanting anyone to deal with it because it's just a very weird feeling of not trusting the body and yet knowing that things are going to be okay. So it's just taking it day by day, doing what I need to do.”

Morikawa still managed to finish tied for seventh at the Masters and tied for fourth the next week at RBC Heritage. After a week off, he struggled in Miami, finishing T62 at the Cadillac Championship. He was initially in the Truist Championship, but withdrew before the tournament started.

Morikawa gave no indication he was worried about teeing it up this week, meaning a less-than-100% Morikawa will give it another go.

— Paul Hodowanic

Xander Schauffele

It was a rare omission from a professional athlete, but Xander Schauffele is nothing if not blunt. Asked if he feels a similar level of confidence now compared to when he won the PGA Championship in 2024, Schauffele said, “It's significantly lower, obviously. I finished close to last place last week.”

Indeed, Schauffele finished in a tie for 60th at Quail Hollow Club, a course he’s historically played very well. It was his first poor result in months, though. Prior to last week, Schauffele had five top 10s in his last six starts.

“Confidence is a tricky thing,” Schauffele said. “I didn't have a whole lot last week, was a little bit in my head on what I was capable of doing. I actually did a few things pretty decent last week, surprisingly. Hopefully I can kind of drag a little bit of that into this week.”

— Paul Hodowanic

Scottie Scheffler

Scheffler has become a fascinating listen when you throw him good questions about golf courses. That was true again on Tuesday. Asked about the test of Aronimink Golf Club, Scheffler said it could go one of two ways.

“If you look at this golf course specifically, between it being soft and firm, I think it's two totally different tests,” Scheffler said.

If the golf course is soft, as it was for the 2018 BMW Championship won by Keegan Bradley, Scheffler said, “There's a lot of stuff you can kind of get away with in terms of like you can hit it pretty far offline.” Scheffler’s rationale is that without trees, which Aronimink is nearly devoid of, misses off the tee won’t be punished as severely because players can recover and hit into soft greens. That’s what leads to the “bomb-and-gouge-type strategy,” he said.

“But if you look at this golf course when it's firm, the fairways are hard to hit,” Scheffler added. “Then if you want to get the ball close to a lot of these pins, you have to control your spin and control your distance really well, which is not that easy to do out of the rough. It's easy to take off spin, but it's not easy to control the spin, if that makes sense. There's certain spots on this golf course where I think it can get really challenging if it's firm and fast. A lot of it depends on conditions and golf course setup. If they decide to water the greens, it's going to be a completely different setup than it is if the greens are quite firm.”

There’s some rain in the forecast for Wednesday night, but as of Tuesday afternoon, it had cleared up considerably from the initial forecast. If that remains the case, the firm and fast conditions that many crave might still be achievable.

— Paul Hodowanic

Justin Rose

Justin Rose said Tuesday he has full confidence that he can win in just his third start with new McLaren Golf irons in the bag.

Rose spent the last 18 months working with the Formula One powerhouse to create the company’s first set of clubs in its new golf equipment venture. Though the swap, and the midseason timing, has left Rose facing some criticism, particularly with how well Rose was playing prior to the change.

“I've played so many different sets of irons in the last five years that I just don't think that it's a big deal,” he said. “I've been working hard on this project for 18 months now, and it's kind of like it's a full wish list of all of the things I would like to see in a set of irons. So from that point of view I'm really enjoying -- I've enjoyed the process of getting to this point. Yeah, I would love to play great this week with them. I can play great this week with them.

Rose has not played particularly well since making the change, though he said, “the fact I haven't played great the last two weeks has got nothing to do with the irons either.”

In Rose’s eyes, if you aren’t constantly on the edge of reinvention in this game, then you are falling behind.

“It's about always pushing myself to be better. …That's why I'm here at 45. … Because I'm always doing something different, I'm always pushing myself, I'm always finding one percents,” Rose said. “That's what makes it exciting. That's the only reason I'm sitting here talking to you is because I've done a good job of grinding and finding improvement. Because obviously everyone out here is getting better. These young guys, the level on TOUR has just I think really gone so much stronger in the last 10 years. So if you're staying the same, you are going backwards.”

Rose should be one of the favorites this week. He is one of a few players with extensive experience at Aronimink. He has played in all three of the modern men’s professional events at the course, one of only two people to do so (Rickie Fowler is the other). In those three starts, Rose has won, lost in a playoff and finished in a tie for 15th.

“It's just a beautiful old school track. It's clearly been modernized a bit in the recent years, but still has great character and it's going to be a lot of fun to play this week,” Rose said.

Keegan Bradley

The last man to win at Aronimink was fittingly the first to the podium this week.

Bradley, who captured the 2018 BMW Championship at Aronimink, reflected Monday on the significance of that victory in the arc of his career, admitting the win proved even more meaningful to his journey than his rookie-season PGA Championship triumph in 2011.

“I was in a really, really dark place with my putter, and this was the first glimmer of hope that I had,” Bradley said Monday. “…I remember coming down the stretch and thinking in my head, I can’t believe how calm you are in this moment. And you know, that’s not something I say to myself very often.”

The victory was Keegan Bradley’s first in six years and helped spark a resurgence that would unfold over the next decade, leading to four additional PGA TOUR wins.

Bradley also offered a thought-provoking perspective on what distinguishes the PGA Championship from golf’s other majors.

“I think what separates the PGA to other majors is they have no agenda at this tournament. Kerry Haigh (Chief championship officer at the PGA) does an unbelievable job setting up major championship golf courses. You go to the U.S. Open, you know their agenda is they are going to make this ridiculously hard … at the PGA Championship, 3-under could win, could be 15-under. They just want to host a great tournament, and I think they do an incredible job of that.”

Bradley will look to capitalize on what he believes is another strong championship setup as he works to redirect his season. After missing three of his first five cuts, he has posted three top-25 finishes in his last four starts, including a T19 at last week’s Truist Championship.

— Jimmy Reinman

Jordan Spieth

As has become near-tradition the week of the PGA Championship, Jordan Spieth was immediately pelted with questions regarding his bid for the career Grand Slam upon taking to the podium at Aronimink.

“If I can win one more tournament in my life, it would obviously be this one for that reason,” Spieth said. “But the easiest way to do that is to not try to, in a weird way, you know. Just go out and get ready for the first hole, get a good game plan in and attack it the way it needs to be attacked.”

It’s almost knee-jerk for frequent flyers of the Speith Experience to recoil at the 32-year-old commenting how “close” he is with his game to climbing back into the winner’s circle. However, Spieth did lead the field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee last week at the Truist Championship, giving him all the confidence he needs to be, in his own feelings, near that level he reached at the peak of his powers.

“I went on a run of feeling like I was contending or having a good chance of contending at every major for a number of years and then it was periodic, and I feel like I'm close to being able to go back to doing that again. So I just want to give myself a chance.”

Despite not cracking the top 10 this year, Speith has finished in the top 25 in six of his 12 starts on his campaign.

— Jimmy Reinman

Matt Fitzpatrick

Matt Fitzpatrick enters the PGA Championship on a heater few would have predicted at the start of the year. After failing to win since 2023 and coming off an uninspiring 34th-place finish in the FedExCup, Fitzpatrick has flipped the script, rattling off three wins in four starts, including one that earned his younger brother a TOUR card.

Few players are as data-driven and analytical as Fitzpatrick, but the Englishman said he has also apparently learned to lean into the emotional side of success, citing World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler as an unlikely sherpa in appreciating success.

“I’m trying to cherish it as much as possible,” Fitzpatrick said Monday. “It’s all happening very quickly. There’s a few things that’s kind of stuck with me over the years that other players have said. One that I got last year was Scottie talking about how we work so hard and we win a golf tournament and we have 10, 15 minutes of enjoyment and then you’re like, right, okay, back to the next one.”

Scheffler famously went on an existential tangent ahead of last year’s The Open Championship before going on to win the major by a comfy four shots.

“That really stuck with me because I was very intent on saying, well, okay, if I’m lucky enough to win again, that I take it in. I enjoy it. I really think about it and enjoy it with the people that it means something to, as well as myself.”

It is fair to wonder whether Fitzpatrick’s embrace of Scheffler’s mindset could yield a similar result. He enters the week with the eighth-shortest odds to win the PGA Championship at +2300.

— Jimmy Reinman