The second major championship in men’s professional golf begins this week with the PGA Championship.

The 2026 PGA Championship will be held at Aronimink Golf Club, 20 miles west of Philadelphia.

Last year, Scotty Scheffler hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy and won by five strokes at Quail Hollow. Now, he’s trying to join Tiger Woods and Brooks Koepka as the only two golfers to hoist the Wanamaker Trophy in consecutive years since 1958.

Here are 10 stories to watch for this year’s 2026 PGA Championship

Scotty Scheffler looks to continue success at PGA Championship

Speaking of Scotty Scheffler, he became the first golfer to win back-to-back PGA Championships since Koepka won in 2018-19. His track record has been almost perfect. He has been runner-up three times in a row in each of his last three starts. Scheffler has also scored six top-five finishes this season, highlighted by winning The American Express in January. At the PGA Championship, he has five top 10s in his last six starts. This also includes being arrested before finishing eighth in 2024.

The injury at the Masters last month was a big deal. Injuries have started to increase ahead of the PGA Championship. Rory McIlroy, who won the Masters four weeks ago, cut his Tuesday practice round short. Three holes into his practice round, McIlroy walked to the clubhouse due to a blister on his right pinky toe. Last week, McIlroy played at the Truist Championship limping due to a blister problem.

RELATED: Masters 2026: Winners and losers, including Rory McIlroy

Who’s headed to Aronimink?

Cameron Young, who is looking for his first major win, has two wins and two third-place finishes in his last six starts. Wins at The Players Championship and the Cadillac Championship. Matt Fitzpatrick has three wins and a runner-up finish in his last six starts. Despite being one stroke behind Young in the Players, Fitzpatrick won the Valspar. He also went back-to-back at the RBC Heritage and teamed up with his brother Alex to win the Zurich Classic.

Will someone from outside the US win?

History says no, as each of the last 10 winners has been American. With the way Scheffler and Young are playing, as mentioned earlier, it looks like that trend will continue. From an American perspective, don’t forget Collin Morikawa, who has two top 10s in his last three starts since withdrawing from the Players due to a back injury.

Xander Schauffele, who will win the PGA Championship in 2024, recorded three consecutive top 10s, including a tie for third at The Players. Another player is Jordan Spieth. Although he hasn’t won a title in four years, Spieth is one Wanamaker Trophy away from becoming the seventh player to complete the career Grand Slam.

Non-Americans must watch

In addition to Fitzpatrick and McIlroy, there are some players from outside the United States to watch. Si Woo Kim is tied with Scheffler and Young with six top 10s this season. Fitzpatrick and Tommy Fleetwood are right behind that trio with Ludwig Aberg with five. Fleetwood, who won the FedEx Cup last year, is coming off a top-five finish at last week’s Truist Championship.

Also Read: President upset over LIV Golf Faces collapse, urges PGA Tour reunion

pga professional

One of the things that makes the PGA Championship different is the competition from the PGA professionals. The PGA Championship is operated by the PGA of America. They give PGA professionals, who teach golf across the country, the opportunity to compete in major championships. The top 20 and ties from their qualifying events make their way to that year’s PGA Championship.

This year, 20 PGA professionals are competing, including Michael Block from Mission Viejo, Calif. Block has competed in seven PGA Championships, including finishing in 15th.^th In 2023, highlighted by his hole-in-one while pairing with McIlroy in the final round.

notable groups

Here’s a look at when the notable groups competed in the first two rounds of the PGA Championship. All times ET. You can watch select groups exclusively on ESPN+.

• 8:18 am (Thu) | 1:43 pm (Friday): Ludwig Aberg, Rickie Fowler, Bryson DeChambeau
• 8:29 am 1:54 pm: Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, Tyrell Hatton
• 8:40 am 2:05 pm: Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm
• 1:32 pm 8:07 am: Victor Hovland, Collin Morikawa, Shane Lowry
• 1:43 pm 8:18 am: Tommy Fleetwood, Chris Gotterup, Robert McIntyre
• 1:54 pm 8:29 am: Cameron Young, Keegan Bradley, Justin Thomas
• 2:05 pm | 8:40 am: Scotty Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose

How to watch the 2026 PGA Championship

Here’s broadcast information to watch the PGA Championship. (all times ET)

• Thursday: noon-7 p.m. (ESPN), 7-8 p.m. (ESPN2)
• Friday: noon-8 p.m. (ESPN)
• Saturday and Sunday: 10am-1pm (ESPN), 1-7pm (CBS)

hoisting the wanamaker trophy is my choice

It sounds chalky, but it’s Scotty Scheffler. He has come one step away from victory in each of his last three matches. Scheffler doesn’t seem to be fazed by anything, which leads to success in this game. Being so close to victory means that even on Sunday, the time to hoist another trophy is just around the corner.

When is the next PGA Championship?

Next year’s PGA Championship will be held in Frisco, Texas. The tournament will be held at Fields Ranch East as it marks the 100th anniversary of the 1927 PGA Championship and the first men’s major at the area since 1963.

Also Read: DeChambeau drops bombshell after LIV collapse – is this the end of competitive golf for him?

Braven Honda graduated from San Diego State with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism in May 2021. During his time at SDSU, … More about Braven Honda

Formula 1 descends on Montreal for the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix this weekend with a championship picture that seemed impossible to imagine three months ago. The 19-year-old Italian player is on top with 20 points. The four-time defending champion is in seventh place. McLaren is retreating. And somewhere in the middle of all this, a frustrated Scuderia Ferrari is trying to figure out how a major upgrade package produced a 10-point weekend.

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has a way of breaking everything. It rewards braking confidence, punishes over-aggressiveness and serves safety cars on cue. This is the kind of place where the championship story can turn in 70 laps.

Can Kimi Antonelli win the Canadian Grand Prix? Here are five stories that will shape the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix.

1. Kimi Antonelli moves into Wall of Champions conversation

With three Grand Prix wins, three poles and 100 points, Kimi Antonelli arrives in Montreal as the first driver in F1 history to win his first three races from pole position, and based on the evidence so far, the Mercedes is the fastest car in the field.

But the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a long memory for young drivers who think they have the game figured out. The Wall of Champions did not get its name by chance. Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve all left paint on it in 1999. Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button and Pastor Maldonado have all kissed it since then.

Antonelli has been close to being blameless. Their starts have been terrible, their comebacks have been brutal. Montreal will test whether the rookie can manage a low-downforce circuit with a 20-point lead in his pocket and teammates breathing down his neck.

This is where the championship story either rests or breaks.

2. George Russell’s time is running out

Antonelli’s teammate, George Russell, is 20 points behind in the Drivers’ Championship standings and has really shown no inclination to fight for the lead despite having the same car. He will be looking for a spark at the track where he won in 2025 after holding off a fired-up Verstappen.

Russell has finished on the podium in two of the last three rounds, while his rookie teammate is on his way to victory. Britain has not complained publicly, but the math is starting to look ugly. If Antonelli wins again in Montreal, Russell will blow away the Canadian in just five rounds and be meaningfully out of a championship fight he should have won.

Montreal favors him. He won the pole and race there in 2025. They like the layout, if the weight comes in they are good at it and it is late.

If Russell doesn’t perform this weekend, Toto Wolff will have a tougher conversation than anyone expected.

RELATED: F1’s Mr Saturday, Meet Sunday: Is 2026 finally George Russell’s year?

3. Max Verstappen finally has something to work with

The 2026 season has been a public, ugly humiliation for four-time champion Max Verstappen. He is seventh in the championship with 26 points. Verstappen has openly questioned whether he wants to continue racing under the new rules, calling the cars a “joke”. Red Bull principal Laurent Mackies admitted that the team had “significant shortcomings” after the Chinese Grand Prix.

Then the Miami Grand Prix happened.

Verstappen kept Red Bull on the front row with Antonelli and fought hard for the podium, before a first lap spin compromised his race. He nevertheless recovered and raced towards P5. Makeys has since been careful with his words, but the message from Milton Keynes is clear: the corner has been turned.

Montreal is proof point for Red Bull and Verstappen. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a more traditional layout than Miami’s street circuit and will tell us whether Red Bull’s Miami Speed ​​was a one-off or the start of something real. If Verstappen is on the podium on Sunday, the rest of the grid has a problem. If he returns to midfield, discussion of his release clause and his October decision window becomes very intense.

4. McLaren is back in the conversation

Reigning world champion Lando Norris finished second in Miami and his teammate Oscar Piastri third, indicating a real resurgence for McLaren in 2026. The Papaya Cars looked like a team that had finally sorted out the package issues that had ruined their first three rounds.

Norris now sits fourth in the championship with 51 points and still looks to be alive in this title fight and Miami suggests he is starting to climb back into it.

The Canadian Grand Prix has historically been favorable to McLaren. Both cars needed to be on the podium to confirm that Miami is not a one-track outlier. Andrea Stella’s team has talent and resources. What they didn’t have in 2026 was a clean weekend with both cars in the top three.

Get it in Montreal and the championship picture will change.

5. Ferrari needed an answer and it still needs it

Ferrari entered the 2026 Miami Grand Prix with 11 upgrades on the SF-26, including floor changes, suspension geometry and changes to the rear wing. After a five-week break Fred Vasseur’s Scuderia had the most aggressive development effort of any team on the grid.

They walked away with 10 marks and more questions than answers.

Charles Leclerc led the opening lap, slid to the rear during the race, then reached the podium on the final lap with a spin at Turn 3. A subsequent 20-second penalty dropped him to eighth behind the Alpines of teammate Lewis Hamilton and Franco Colapinto. “It’s all on me,” Leclerc told Sky Sports F1. he was right. He was also calling for an internal investigation into the drop in car speed on the medium compound by the end of the weekend.

Hamilton remained a few tenths behind his teammate throughout the weekend and finished outside the top five in every session. Nico Rosberg called the Scuderia’s weekend on Sky “clumsy”. He was polite.

This is the big problem. Mercedes withheld its major upgrade package for Canada. McLaren brought him to Miami and dominated the sprint. Ferrari spent its development plans in Florida and got nothing back. If the SF-26 cannot find race pace in Montreal with a fresh package already on the car, the Scuderia is no longer fighting for the championship. It is struggling to hold on to third place in the constructors’ list.

Leclerc has won in Montreal before. Hamilton has won there seven times. The history is there. The car, right now, is not there.

Scott Gulbransen, a quintessential expert in the field of sports journalism, serves as an editor, nfl , mlb , Formula 1 … More about Scott Gulbransen

Formula 1 is back. After a five-week break after Japan – the longest mid-season break in recent memory – the circuit returns to Hard Rock Stadium this weekend for the 2026 Miami Grand Prix. It’s also sprint weekend. The rules have changed. The situation is wild. And the title picture of the most dramatic early season in years is about to get its first real test on American soil.

Here’s what to see Sunday at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.

Follow all the Miami Grand Prix action: Watch the race live on Apple TV+

1. Does Antonelli stay in the brightest light of the calendar?

Kimi Antonelli has won two races, led the championship, and broken Lewis Hamilton’s record as the youngest driver to top the standings. He’s done it all in Australia, China and Japan – circuits with serious racing pedigrees and relatively controlled environments.

Miami is different.

This is not a technical driver circuit with a respectable crowd. It draws 100,000 people, celebrity sightings, boat activations and a paddock that runs at full volume from Thursday morning. It is the loudest, most produced, most deliberate American event on the F1 calendar. Antonelli never finished a race weekend as the points leader. She’s never had to manage what this attention looks like in a city specifically designed to amplify it.

Antonelli, 19, has created a remarkable career so far. Miami will tell us something new about who she is.

2.McLaren comes out with a new car

Reigning constructor champion McLaren has had a nightmare start. Oscar Piastri could not start the first two races. Reigning driver champion Lando Norris is not on the podium. The MCL40 has been the third fastest car on the grid this weekend, 89 points behind Mercedes.

The Papaya team has spent five weeks fixing the car. Will it make a difference?

McLaren is expected to debut a significant upgrade package in Miami – described by multiple reports as close to an all-new car – featuring modifications to the floor, aerodynamics and rear suspension, designed to close the gap to the Mercedes and widen the car’s working window. Piastri almost achieved victory in Japan. With a full race weekend of upgrades and data, McLaren could be really dangerous here. Whether the package delivers or whether it’s another step in the right direction that still falls short of them, it sets the tone for the entire second leg of the season.

3. New rules hit Miami: Will racing really look different?

The FIA’s mid-season regulation package comes into effect at the end of this week. Following data from three races, F1 called an emergency meeting in which four unanimous changes were made: lowered super clipping limits to cut lift-and-coast times, limiting power deployment into corners to address dangerous closing speeds, a new race start detection system to improve safety, and updated wet weather protocols.

The goal is more flat-out driving and fewer moments where drivers are managing energy rather than racing. In theory, this should generate more wheel-to-wheel action. In practice, Miami will be the first real test of whether any of this works. The sprint format adds a complication – teams will have to adapt their strategies to the new parameters in both the Saturday sprint and Sunday’s main event.

Look carefully at the first few corners. If the startup process changes, you will know immediately.

4. George Russell needs to make a statement

George Russell wins the 2026 Australian Grand Prix. He is second in the championship, nine points behind, in the same car as the leader. On paper, it’s fine. In reality, Martin Brundle said it out loud in the quiet section: Russell needs to treat his 19-year-old team-mate like peak Lewis Hamilton or risk seeing the season slip away from him.

The five-week break was publicly framed as a reset. Personally, the pressure on Russell to go to Miami is real. Russell has so much F1 experience that no one on the grid would have expected Antonelli to compete with him any time soon. he has a car. He has a track record. Miami is an opportunity for him to re-establish himself as the championship favorite he was considered before the season started. A win here completely changes the story.

The result of finishing second behind Antonelli is the opposite.

5. Can anyone from outside Mercedes win this race?

Mercedes has won all Grands Prix in 2026. Russell and Antonelli have secured front row positions in qualifying in all three rounds. Ferrari has been competitive – Charles Leclerc is third in the championship, but has yet to score a win. The McLaren, as mentioned, comes with upgrades but with unproven pace.

Miami’s circuit characteristics may matter here. The 19-turn layout and Florida’s hot weekend tendency for tire degradation has historically rewarded teams that can manage tires late in the race. The new power unit rules have altered performance in ways that are not yet fully understood, and mid-season rule changes introduce variables for which no one has real-world data.

If any circuit on the calendar is going to produce F1’s first non-Mercedes winner in 2026, it’s it. Leclerc has the pace to challenge. The timing of McLaren’s upgrade is deliberate. And Verstappen – winless and frustrated – knows Miami. He has won here before also.

This trend will end at the end of this week, otherwise it will be very difficult to stop.

Watch all the action from the 2026 Miami Grand Prix: Watch Race Week on Apple TV+

Scott Gulbransen, a quintessential expert in the field of sports journalism, serves as an editor, nfl , mlb , Formula 1…More about Scott Gulbransen