On Tuesday night of tournament week, the PGA Championship features a tradition that is like one other: the PGA Champions dinner.
As with its more famous predecessor, the Masters Champions dinner, the PGA Champions dinner features a guest list of past PGA Championship winners, and the previous year’s champion chooses the menu.
At the 2026 PGA Championship, that man is World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. And thanks to a sneak peek from the chef crafting the meal via a CBS News interview, we know the foundational elements of the meal the champs dined on Tuesday night, and both are Italian-American staples.
Scottie Scheffler’s PGA Champions meal features Italian-American favorites
Though he’s better known as a Texan, Scheffler was born and initially raised in New Jersey. His mother, Diane, is of Italian descent. Given both of those facts, you can assume Italian-American food was a staple of Scheffler’s childhood.
That personal background seems to have influenced his PGA Champions dinner choices at Aronimink, which were anchored by two Italian-American staples: chicken parm and gelato.
The man responsible for cooking up Scheffler’s menu, Aronimink Golf Club Executive Chef John Ferguson, leaked the items in an interview with CBS News this week.
“He wants chicken parm. So we’re going to use locally raised chicken, the highest quality chicken,” Ferguson told CBS News. “And he wanted three flavors of gelato.”
According to CBS News, the three gelato flavors Scheffler requested were “lemon, strawberry and raspberry.”
The food choices differ from what Scheffler chose for his most recent Masters Champions dinner in 2025. That year, the World No. 1 stayed away from Italian-American cuisine, and instead picked items with a Texas theme.
Scheffler’s choices at Augusta included Texas-style chili for a first course, and wood-fired cowboy ribeye or blackened redfish for the main course. Despite the differences, he still chose some comfort food, with cheeseburger sliders making the menu as an appetizer.
Xander Schauffele ‘can’t even remember’ his PGA Champions dinner menu (we do)
We only know a couple of items on Scheffler’s menu this year, but last year we got a much more extensive look at the dinner chosen by 2024 PGA champion Xander Schauffele.
Just don’t ask him to recall the meal course-by-course.
On Tuesday in his pre-tournament press conference at Aronimink, Schauffele admitted he “can’t even remember” the menu items he chose for last year’s meal.
“I can’t even remember what I had on mine. I’m sure Scottie will do a nice job. This is only my second one I’m going to attend. Still very new to this whole Champions Dinner thing, and it’s cool to kind of get to know some of the guys a little bit better. All the older boys always have all the good stories. So definitely looking forward to that bit,” Schauffele said on Tuesday.
Among the items Schauffele chose (and forgot about) were smoked goat cheese dates, pickled watermelon, clams casino shooters and steak and bleu cheese crostini. For the main courses, Schauffele selected Wagyu NY strip steak, served with blackened jumbo shrimp, whipped sweet potatoes and a bourbon bone marrow reduction.
While the PGA Champions Dinner doesn’t date as far back as the Masters Champions dinner (1965 for the PGA, 1952 for the Masters), and it doesn’t hold the same prestige, it does offer one pro for the winners choosing the meals.
The PGA of America pays for the entire PGA Champions dinner each year. Alternatively, at the Masters Champions Dinner, the previous year’s winner picks the meal and foots the bill.
So the PGA can thank Scheffler for not going all out with his meal as McIlroy did at the Masters in April.
