PGA Championship 2022: Rory McIlroy's missteps, Bones' impact among final takeaways from Southern Hills

Do we need to shift our perspectives on how we evaluate potential major champions?

TULSA, Okla. -- The major championship season is halfway over, which is both stunning and also sad. After a terrific Masters in April, the PGA Championship ended in a thrill with an instant-classic playoff between Justin Thomas and Will Zalatoris. The Southern Hills redesign stood up to its first major championship, and it's likely to get another one in the future given its history of winners and the weight of its most recent champion.

As is true at every major, we learned a lot about the landscape of the sport. Thomas made a historical leap, which was the primary takeaway, but there's plenty more to digest as well. With the U.S. Open just three weeks away, I jotted down a few notes on the primary players in this PGA Championship and how we should think about them going forward.

At one point on Sunday afternoon, as the hamburger smoke, Oklahoma wind, anxiety and thrill closed in on the leaders, I looked down the chute and up the hill at the crowd on No. 18. It was about to erupt for J.T.'s second major win, and just behind him, the marshals would lose contain on a crowd desperate for something special trying to get as close as it feasibly could.