Welcome to Playing Through, your weekly guide to the world of professional golf. I’m PGA Professional Brendon Elliott. This week brings us the PNC Championship in Orlando, where major champions team up with family members for one of golf’s most heartwarming events. Meanwhile, Scottie Scheffler adds another Player of the Year award to his collection, and the DP World Tour wraps up its Opening Swing in Mauritius. December golf continues to deliver.

FAMILY MATTERS: THE PNC CHAMPIONSHIP

The PNC Championship returns to the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, providing the unique chance to see 20 professionals team up with a family member and play the game they truly love together. This isn’t about world rankings or FedExCup points. It’s about fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and the shared love of golf that transcends competition.

The Defending Champions

Bernhard Langer and his son Jason successfully defended their title last year in Orlando and will be looking for three straight victories at this end-of-season event. Last year’s victory was Langer’s sixth PNC Championship title (2005, 2006, 2014, 2019, 2023, 2024), passing Raymond Floyd (five) for the most wins at this event all time.

The 67-year-old German shows no signs of slowing down. His ability to compete at the highest level while sharing the experience with his son has become one of golf’s most enduring stories. The Langers have turned this event into their personal playground, and the rest of the field will need something special to dethrone them.

Notable Teams

Gary Woodland will make his PNC Championship debut in 2025, playing with his father Dan. The 2019 U.S. Open champion has been through a difficult health journey in recent years, making this appearance all the more meaningful. World Golf Hall of Fame member Lee Trevino will make his 28th appearance at this event as the only player to play in every edition of the PNC Championship.

Nelly Korda teams up with her father, Petr, bringing one of golf’s most accomplished families to Orlando. The Kordas have golf in their DNA, and watching Nelly compete alongside her father adds another dimension to her already impressive 2025 season.

Annika Sorenstam returns with her son Will McGee, while Tiger Woods was scheduled to play but withdrew. The field includes major champions, Ryder Cup heroes, and legends of the game, all sharing the course with the people who matter most.

The Format

The tournament uses a scramble format, where both players hit tee shots, and the team selects the best ball to play from. It’s designed to be fun, fast-paced and accessible, allowing family members of varying skill levels to contribute. The low 18-hole score stands at 56, shot by Davis Love III in the 2018 second round. The low 36-hole score is 116, achieved twice, most recently by Bernhard Langer and Tiger Woods in 2024.

PGA TOUR: SCHEFFLER’S ERA

Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year

Scottie Scheffler claimed the Jack Nicklaus Award as the PGA TOUR Player of the Year for the fourth consecutive time, while 21-year-old Aldrich Potgieter earned the Arnold Palmer Award as the 2025 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year.

Scheffler is just the second player to win the award four or more consecutive times, joining Tiger Woods (1999-2003). The comparison to Woods has become unavoidable. While Scheffler publicly sidesteps any assertion that he is next, with every passing accomplishment, it becomes harder not to compare the two on the course and how they affected the sport off of it.

Scheffler’s Dominance

With a PGA TOUR-best six victories, Scheffler earned at least six wins for the second consecutive season (seven wins in 2024) and joined Tiger Woods as the only players to record six or more wins in multiple seasons since 1983. His wins included two majors, the PGA Championship and The Open Championship, completing the third leg of the career Grand Slam with his victory at Royal Portrush Golf Club.

At the Memorial Tournament, Scheffler became the first player since Tiger Woods (1999-2001) to successfully defend his title at Muirfield Village Golf Club. His fifth victory of the season came in exciting fashion at the BMW Championship, where he chipped in on the par-3 17th hole to survive a weekend duel with Robert MacIntyre.

Scheffler received the Byron Nelson Award for the lowest scoring average on TOUR (68.131) for the third year in a row. He ranked first in scoring average in Round 1 (67.45), Round 2 (68.00), Round 3 (68.40) and Round 4 (68.10), becoming the first player since Tiger Woods (2000) to lead the TOUR in all four categories in a single season.

Potgieter’s Power

Aldrich Potgieter became the ninth-youngest PGA TOUR winner since the start of the 1983 season and the youngest TOUR winner from South Africa with his win at the Rocket Classic. At 20 years, 9 months, and 16 days, Potgieter survived a three-man playoff against Chris Kirk and Max Greyserman, birdieing the fifth extra hole at Detroit Golf Club.

Potgieter led the PGA TOUR in driving distance (325 yards) for the season. His power comes from an unlikely source: wrestling. Potgieter competed in wrestling from ages 8 to 14, winning a national championship at age 11 in his weight class before focusing on golf full-time.

“In wrestling, you’re sitting in that squatted position, you have to stay in there for three or four minutes while the other guy is grabbing you and trying to get you to the floor,” Potgieter said. “Everything is just core and lower body. You’re in that position all the time, and the same when you’re driving, making a top swing and when you’re hitting the ball, you’re sitting in that position, bending down, using all your muscles, using everything. That built the right things in my body to swing it hard.”

Of the 36 rookies on the PGA TOUR for the 2025 season, Potgieter was the only rookie to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs. He is the third South African to win the Arnold Palmer Award, joining Ernie Els (1994) and Trevor Immelman (2006).

DP WORLD TOUR: ISLAND PARADISE

The AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open

The Opening Swing wraps up this week at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, returning to Heritage La Réserve Golf Links for the second consecutive year. John Parry defends his title after a stunning final-round 64 last year that included an eagle, seven birdies, and just one bogey to set the clubhouse target at 14 under par.

The Englishman started Sunday five shots off the lead but watched as third-round co-leader Dylan Naidoo failed to make the eagle he required to force a playoff at the last. It was Parry’s first DP World Tour victory in more than 14 years, a remarkable comeback story for a player who had been back on the EuroPro Tour just five or six years earlier.

The Course

Heritage La Réserve Golf Links was co-designed by Louis Oosthuizen and Peter Matkovich, opening in 2023. The 6,727-yard layout has matured quickly, and Matkovich believes it’s ready to showcase Mauritius as a recognized golf destination.

“The course has settled and matured so well, and the team at Heritage Golf Club has just been so supportive,” says Matkovich. “The professionals play on great golf courses throughout the yea,r and we’re proud to contribute to that. I think we’ll surprise a lot of people.”

The venue is GEO certified, meaning it reaches the highest sustainability standards in golf course management. There is no generator used on site, with power coming 100% from the grid. La Réserve Golf Links lies adjacent to a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, a globally recognized biodiversity hotspot that spans from rugged mountain ridges down to the coral reef of the lagoon.

Inside the Field

Former champions Dylan Frittelli and George Coetzee join Parry in looking to become the first player to win this event twice. Jayden Schaper comes into the week on the back of his first DP World Tour victory at last week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship, while local favourite Pierre Pellegrin, Mauritius resident Marcel Siem and Julien Sale (who grew up on the nearby island of Réunion) give fans plenty of local interest.

After four events across three weeks in two continents, the Opening Swing on the Race to Dubai reaches a climax. So far, we have seen three first-time winners emerge: David Puig at the BMW Australian PGA Championship, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen at the Crown Australian Open, and Kristoffer Reitan at the Nedbank Golf Challenge. Schaper sits atop the Swing rankings ahead of the year-ending event.

Until Next Week

December golf keeps rolling. While families gather in Orlando for one of the sport’s most heartwarming events, Scottie Scheffler adds another Player of the Year award to his growing collection, and the DP World Tour wraps up its Opening Swing in paradise. The PNC Championship reminds us why we fell in love with golf in the first place, Scheffler continues to redefine excellence, and someone will hoist a trophy in Mauritius before the calendar flips to 2026.

Then we’ll do it all again next week.