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The second major of the year, and the 2023 PGA Championship might wind up being the most compelling of them all. From a historical perspective, perhaps it will not hold that title once the Wanamaker Trophy is awarded; however, when your last six winners are Justin Thomas (twice), Brooks Koepka (twice), Collin Morikawa and Phil Mickelson, you know things are going pretty well for your major championship.

This week at Oak Hill will be about the golf and the golf course -- far more than any issue outside parties are spending time arguing over. And when it comes to the golf (and the golf course), there are plenty of fascinating storylines to take into Oak Hill as the second major of 2023 gets underway.

Let's take a look at a few of the most prominent topics as the practice rounds begin. CBS Sports will be live on site at the PGA Championship all week, so keep it locked here early in the week for predictions and late in the week for analysis throughout all four rounds of play at Oak Hill.

2023 PGA Championship storylines

1. Jon Rahm's slam: I'm not necessarily predicting Rahm is going to win the grand slam this year, but this is the most interesting look we've had at such an occurence since Jordan Spieth swept Augusta National and Chambers Bay back in 2015. When the No. 1 player in the world (and PGA Championship favorite) already has a jacket in his closet, it does raise some eyebrows going to the second major of the year.

Will he make the impossible feat dance a bit before somebody ends the dream? It's tough to say, but Oak Hill does seem to set up nicely for a big bopper with outrageous hands like Rahm. He has been -- along with Scottie Scheffler -- so easily the best of even the very best players in the world that's it's difficult to imagine him not at least being in contention late into the weekend.

2. Phil Mickelson's return: Lefty skipped last year's PGA Championship even though he was the defending champion, and all of it was somehow crazier than the fact that he actually won the 2021 PGA at age 50. He's back now, and he brings his Twitter account with him, constantly firing off missives about legal battles and league wars.

Incredibly, his actual game -- at times this year -- has been better than his Twitter one. He finished T2 at the Masters in April and beat or tied every golfer in the world except for the best one (Rahm). That's remarkable, and while it would be easy to count out a 52-year-old who just finished nearly last in an event called LIV Golf Tulsa, the combination of that Masters and the 2021 PGA does give one pause. Regardless of how he plays, there should be fireworks this week around Mickelson, which is both an evergreen statement and one that could bring a bit of early week drama to the major that perhaps needs it most.

3. Justin Thomas defends: Since winning last year's PGA Championship at Southern Hills, J.T. has just two top-five finishes at full-field events (Canadian Open, Phoenix Open). He doesn't come in with momentum, even though he's playing OK, and he doesn't come in feeling like the defending champion, even though he holds that title.

This is more or less how things felt going into last year's PGA Championship, though. He hadn't won since the 2021 Players Championship, and though he'd had some nice finishes, he wasn't finishing second or winning. He wasn't living where he wants to live. And then? Thomas went out and did it on Sunday at Southern Hills. The lesson is two-fold: (1) J.T. is constantly and consistently underrated. He's been the 14th-best player in the world over the last six months, according to Data Golf, and can win at any time. (2) This golf tournament has produced a lot of historically meaningful champions of late. 

4. Rory McIlroy's bounceback: Following a disappointing Masters performance and staring a 10-year major drought in the face, Rory returns to a place of meaning for him. His wife's family is from the area where Oak Hill is located, and he has spend significant time in this part of that country. That obviously has zero bearing on how he will play on the actual golf course, but it does present its own set of emotional and mental hurdles that may have to be overcome this week. 

Throw in the fact that McIlroy is obviously not playing at the same clip he was a year ago -- when he contended for all four major championships -- and it's difficult to see a clear path to victory for him. However, like Thomas, McIlroy can pop off at any time, and this golf course seemingly plays to his strengths. His forever chase of major win No. 5 is always interesting no matter the venue or the major, and this year -- especially if he does what he did last year by leading after Round 1 -- will be no different than before. The question is a bit different for me in 2023 than it was a year ago, though: It's not a matter of whether he can close out No. 5 but rather whether he can get himself in the mix at all.

5. Unflappable Scottie Scheffler: Rahm is the favorite, but you could make a pretty good case for Scottie given how he's played over the last few months. Look at these numbers.

There's no course at which he can't assert himself, and truly the only question about this week is whether the putter complies because his ball-striking, at least in 2023, is nearly automatic (every tournament through the RBC Heritage listed below).

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Data Golf

6. Oak Hill restoration: The Oak Hill you remember from 2003 and 2013 when Shaun Micheel and Jason Dufner respectively won ... that's gone. In its place is an Oak Hill that is far more open with a lot fewer trees and completely revamped green complexes. It seems like at the outset that this is going to benefit bombers and play at least a bit like Winged Foot did in 2020 when Bryson DeChambeau bombed and chunked it up through the openings of some of those greens. It remains to be seen, though, whether that will be true. This will be a completely new-look Oak Hill than what we saw 10 and 20 years ago; for my money, it appears to be a better version of a classic Donald Ross golf course hosting its seventh major championship.

7. The last several PGA Championships have been absolute bangers: Since Jimmy Walker won at Baltusrol in 2016, you could argue that the worst winner (the worst!) is Collin Morikawa at Harding Park in 2020. That's astonishing because, on the other side of one of the game's best young players, you will find two Thomas wins, two Koepka wins and a crazy Mickelson victory. Those are three guys who will likely end up among the 50 best of all time (heck, Morikawa might, too). 

The PGA Championship doesn't carry the weighty history of the U.S. Open or Open Championship, and it doesn't tote around the prestige of the Masters. But its actual tournament -- the 72 holes from Thursday to Sunday -- has likely been the actual best golf and most compelling major championship golf that's been played over the last half decade.

8. A second title: Jason Day's win at the Nelson last week got me thinking (once again) about the list of players who hold only one major championship. That list includes Day, of course, who previously won the PGA. It also includes Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia and younger players with a bit more runway like Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Reed, Cameron Smith and Matt Fitzpatrick.

We discuss zero-major club (Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland, Tony Finau and so on) ad nauseam, but the one-major club is just as interesting. You could argue players like Day and Scott have careers that are more commensurate with winning two or more majors than just one. Day probably has the best chance of the slightly older players to get to two this weekend.

9. Which Koepka are we getting, the angsty "couldn't finish inside the top 50 of a major" Brooks from 2022, or the badass "yeah, that's right, none of you guys won four of your first 22 majors, I'm back" Brooks we saw at the Masters this year? Undoubtedly, he will be complicated. Undoubtedly, he will be surly. But if he's undoubtedly great, then none of the rest of it matters. And if we get a Koepka who contends at all four major championships once again this year, then that is a hell of a thing for golf and everyone who follows it. There are so few characters in golf and even fewer historically relevant players. To get one player who somehow encapsulates both sides of that is a treasure trove of content and intrigue that we hopefully get to receive once again at this event.

10. Where is Jordan? Normally, that sentence means "which body of water did Spieth hit it in?" but this time around it means "where is the three-time major winner with his wrist injury?" It's an injury that knocked him out of the Nelson last week and reportedly could keep him from vying for what would be his career grand slam. He's playing well enough to win it with two top fives in his last three starts, including one at the Masters, but whether he's healthy enough to do so is a different question.